Transcript of Kamikaze Warships Without Crews & State of the Senate EXPLAINED | 7.14.26

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Drones in combat for the first time.

We're just going to hit them very hard, and we're gonna, we're gonna keep the, uh, straight, and we'll probably run it, and we should be reimbursed for that.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, July 14th, and this is Morning Wire.

The temporary replacement in the Senate for Lindsey Graham is announced, but who's likely to win the coveted seat come November?

And Box office buzz and casting controversy surrounds the release this week of the new Christopher Nolan epic film, The Odyssey.

What the audience needs from you is your best, most sincere effort to honor the original by interpreting it, by making it your own. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned with the news you need to know. President Trump announced Monday that the US is reinstating its naval blockade of Iran and will charge a 20% toll on cargo moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Kabbat Phillips, host of of Wired In, is here with the latest. So, Cabot, a lot has happened with Iran over the past few days, but let's start with this first announcement from President Trump. What exactly is he proposing?

Yeah, things no doubt escalating over the last few days. We'll start with that Truth Social post on Monday. President Trump saying two things. First, the U.S. is reinstating the blockade, which involves, quote, stopping Iran's ships or customers from entering or leaving Iranian ports. And second, Trump said, and this is the bigger shift, that all other countries will have, quote, fair and open use of the strait, but now for a price. Here's what the president said, quote, the USA will be from this point forward known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait, but as such, and as a matter of fairness, will be reimbursed at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped. And so far, neither the White House nor the Pentagon has offered any details of how exactly a toll would be collected or enforced. Trump says he's gonna be giving an address to the nation Thursday night, so we'll hope to get more details there.

And how has Iran responded to that?

So an Iranian military spokesman said, quote, we will under no circumstances allow the US to interfere in the management of the Strait of Hormuz. He also threatened that Iranian forces would respond, quote, with force to any American interference with tanker traffic outside of those Iranian-designated routes. And he said that any country in the region that worked with Trump on this front would be considered a participant in the war. Markets did not react favorably to this most recent set of updates. Oil spiked nearly 6%, uh, into the mid-$70 range, although that is still far below the $120 range we saw at the height of the war. But again, it's not looking like this stalemate at the Strait of Hormuz is going to be coming to an end anytime soon. Soon. That's bad news long term for gas prices, right?

And for inflation, of course. Now, we also saw some of the heaviest fighting we've seen throughout the conflict just in the past few days. Uh, what happened on the ground?

Yeah, we've seen some skirmishing between the two sides since the MOU was signed last month, but as you said, nothing like this. It started Saturday when Iran struck a Cyprus-flagged shipping vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, disabling the ship and also leaving at least one crew member missing. The Pentagon responded hours later by striking 140 missile, radar, and drone sites across southern in Iran in what became the biggest flurry of US military activity in weeks. And then by Sunday morning, the Iranians had launched dozens of drones and rockets at American bases in Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain. And then, as you'd expect, that prompted another flurry of American strikes, one hitting an important military stronghold in the Strait of Hormuz itself, and another hitting Bandar Abbas. That is a naval base in the region. And that operation actually marked a really important first for US forces. 3 Corsair Sea drones struck a submarine and a ship maintenance facility at the Iranian naval base. The Pentagon says this is the first time in American history that sea drones have been used in combat. The strikes continued on into Monday and are likely to continue until there is some sort of resolution in the strait.

Now, more broadly, where do things stand with those negotiations? Are they still going on?

They are, but basically President Trump is saying they're saying the right things and doing the wrong things, uh, for lack of a better term. Here he is on Sunday making that point.

They agreed to a deal yesterday, a perfect deal for us. No nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything. And then after that, they left the room. And then within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship. I said, you people are sick. You're sick people.

And more broadly, that pattern of the Iranians seemingly offering concessions in negotiations only to turn around and violate any deal they offer really mirrors what I've heard from current and former Pentagon officials repeatedly over the last month. And it does bear repeating: Iranian negotiators may agree to one thing, but that doesn't mean that they speak for everyone within the regime. To that point, most of the attacks on shipping vessels appear to be coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC has rogue officers at virtually every level, and many view any deal with the US or West more broadly as a betrayal.

Now, speaking of some of those internal divisions, there was a really interesting story just this week about Iran's former president. What happened with him?

Yeah, fascinating stuff here. So according to The New York Times, uh, they cited 4 Iranian officials Iran's former president has now been placed under house arrest by the IRGC's intelligence wing after a failed Israeli effort to install him in place of the current regime. That report says that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been in contact with Israeli intelligence as early as 2023 and actually met with the head of Mossad in 2024. The former president reportedly hid inside a Mossad-run safe house the night of the Israeli strikes that killed Ayatollah Khamenei, and he had not been seen in public since. He reappeared at the ayatollah's funeral last week, where he was flanked by security. Several other outlets have reported that the former president saw himself as a sort of reformer who would normalize relations with Israel in his planned return to power.

Well, and this is the same man who we had thought was dead for several months now since those strikes. So very complicated situation. Cabot, thank you so much for reporting.

Absolutely.

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The U.S. Senate is going through several changes following the untimely death of Senator Lindsey Graham and the absence of Senator Mitch McConnell, and midterms are right around the corner.

Joining us now to discuss the current state of the Senate is Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice. Hey, Tim. So let's start with the announcement of the temporary replacement for Graham. His sister Darlene Graham Nordone. President Trump set this all off yesterday. Was this surprising, or were people expecting her name?

So, John, it seems like inside South Carolina, the people who know these sorts of things and in Governor McMaster's orbit and Lindsey Graham's orbit, it was not a surprise. She would appear at rallies for him. She would speak for, you know, at events that he hosted. She was a frequent presence in his campaign commercials. They were very close. And I think it's safe to assume that she really understood her brother's political positions, sort of where his moral center was. So again, obviously shocking, as any of the sort of follow-on developments of Senator Graham's untimely passing would have been shocking. But I think, no, again, to those who, who were sort of in the know and in the inner circles, this is the logical choice.

We all knew, look, Graham was a major ally of President Trump and there needed to be somebody very friendly to Trump. So not surprising on that front either. What happens next in terms of filling the Senate seat in a more permanent way? Have there been any notable nominations?

Yeah. So South Carolina— every state does this differently, and South Carolina actually has one of the more logical or at least prescribed plans for what happens in the untimely passing or early retirement of a senator. So Darlene will hold the seat between now and January. So starting next week, there will be a week-long period where candidates, Republican candidates, can register to compete in a primary. And then there will be a very, very quick primary campaign, followed by an early August election to decide who is going to take the Republican nomination that Lindsey Graham held and will go up against the Democratic nominee in November. And from there, it's— it's— that's just the general election. As for notable candidates, the two biggest ones that we heard right away were South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace. The other big choice or the other likely contender in people's minds was former, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who, of everyone active in Republican South Carolina politics, is probably the one closest aligned with Lindsey Graham. But she over the weekend said that she has no intention of running for the seat, which is interesting. Joe Wilson, who was also running for the gubernatorial seat against Nancy Mace but has also left that race, made a similar statement.

We're seeing some talk that Governor McMaster himself might want to throw his hat in the ring, which is why he floated the possibility of appointing Graham's sister, who everyone is sort of expecting will not run for the full term, as opposed to someone like former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, whom Senator Tim Scott, also from South Carolina, originally floated to be the replacement. Someone who, in other words, could fill the seat temporarily but then launch their campaign from there.

Yeah, he mentioned his name when he talked to us yesterday, in fact. Now, the internet has also been closely following the absence of Senator Mitch McConnell, another lead Republican, of course, in the Senate.— he's been hospitalized for over a month now. We finally have heard directly from him. What is his status and should we expect to see him active again in the Senate anytime soon?

That's right. He posted a photo and a statement over the weekend. The photo was of him and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. He said that he fell back in June and was hospitalized for the fall. No broken bones, but he's at a certain age where they kept him for monitoring. While he was in the hospital, he developed pneumonia. He's now recovering at home. In his statement, he says that he still has plenty of work to get done in the Senate. Before his term is up. Hopefully we will see Mitch McConnell back here on Capitol Hill soon, but only time will tell.

A final question. You know, big picture, where does this all leave the Senate, particularly Republican control of the Senate? Is it more shaky now than ever, or do you think it's being shored up here?

I don't think it's more shaky because I think that Lindsey Graham had the South Carolina seat sewn up in a large part because of who he was, because he was this titan of South Carolina politics. And I do not mean to, to shortchange change him for that, of that. But I also struggle to imagine South Carolina sending a Democratic senator to replace Lindsey Graham. As for Kentucky and McConnell, like I said, Mitch McConnell was already not running for reelection. He had already, of course, stepped down as majority leader. The only thing that could change, uh, that is if he either passes away or retires before his term would be up in January. So I don't think that it makes the Republican— Republicans' chances in the midterms any worse than they were, but it is certainly a a stark reminder of just how thin the margins are and how important these upcoming midterm elections are going to be for Republicans, for Democrats, of course, as well, for whichever party wants to take or maintain control of the Senate come November.

All right, Tim, well, thanks so much for joining us. We always appreciate you giving us the inside scoop.

Always happy to be here, guys.

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Summer's Box Office has delivered some major surprises already. Big-budget tentpoles like Supergirl and The Odyssey have run into unexpected controversy Meanwhile, smaller independent films are delivering massive returns.

Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, we're going to look at all of these trends, but let's first start with the controversies and flops, uh, the biggest of which was Supergirl. They— that opened late in June. It was supposed to be one of the biggest movies of the summer. It performed poorly right out of the gate and then kind of just went downhill from there. So what happened with Supergirl?

Well, I think the old assumption, Georgia, was that studios can count on a certain level of guaranteed audience just by because we're talking about a superhero movie, or because the intellectual property happens to be familiar. And so, I think Supergirl is kind of serving as a cautionary tale for just how wrong that conventional wisdom can be these days. A little bit like Snow White a couple of years ago, star Millie Alcock proved that unforced errors on the red carpet can really cost these films. So, when she was asked about whether or not she views Supergirl as a queer icon, she leaned into that.

I have many queer friends, so honestly, I'm kind of honored. I think because she doesn't live inside the binary of what we think a woman should be, that, that is what makes her so special and so exciting and so new.

So that created some backlash that led to one of the worst superhero openings of all time. Warner Brothers is projected to lose over $100 million on this movie. And then we've also seen some similar red carpet issues with The Odyssey. The Odyssey. So there's been a controversy over casting, including casting Elliot Page, who is a biological woman, to play a man. Meanwhile, Helen of Troy actress Lupita Nyong'o, who is a Kenyan-Mexican actress, well, she's playing the famous Greek character, and she's also leaning into some feminist themes.

When you read The Iliad and The Odyssey, very little time is in the perspective of the women. But this film takes a lot of— takes time to really consider things from the female perspective.

So as people who have read The Odyssey will remember, female characters actually feature pretty heavily throughout, and they very much play central roles. So all of that has led to some bad press for this film. On X, for example, Universal Pictures had to turn off replies on some of the videos showing cast arriving at the premiere. And as a few people pointed out, If you have to turn the replies off, that's a pretty good sign that you're losing the PR battle. Now, that said, I don't think The Odyssey is going to follow the trajectory of Supergirl because for one thing, critics are heaping praise on this film. And if any director working today has some built-in trust with audiences, it's certainly Christopher Nolan. And he's also coming off of the success of Oppenheimer. But while I do think The Odyssey is going to hold its own, you do have to wonder if maybe Nolan left some money on the table here with some of these casting choices and on some of the commentary that his stars have been offering.

Now, on the flip side though, we have seen some very unexpected successes from Hollywood or Hollywood adjacent. So tell us about some of those.

Yes. And what's really interesting there is that while you tend to see a surprise or two every year, I can't remember the last time we saw so many of these surprises in a row. So the horror films Obsession and Backrooms were both made by very young directors, both still in their 20s. Uh, Obsession was made for only around a million dollars, and it has already already grossed more than $250 million just in domestic sales. And there's a similar story for Backrooms. And then one other angle on this seems to be that, you know, just as that misalignment on values can hurt a film, alignment on values— you know, viewers who want to show support for a particular film— is also proving to be a pretty big boon to some of these movies. So Young Washington from Angel Studios scored a record-breaking success over the Fourth of July, and I think it's in part because a lot of audiences wanted to support that patriotic product messaging. So just one more of those success stories. Young Washington earned back its $20 million budget in just its first weekend in theaters, and Angel Studios already announced a sequel.

Well, it's really exciting to see some of these outsiders not just competitive with Hollywood but really knocking it out of the park at the box office. Megan, thanks for reporting.

Yep, my pleasure.

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