Aaron McIntire covers the sudden death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at age 71, including President Trump's account of what may have been Graham's final phone call. He breaks down the third wave of U.S. strikes on Iran near the Strait of Hormuz after an Iranian attack on a container ship, and what it could mean for the ceasefire going forward. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's deportation of a Laotian man convicted of child sexual abuse, whom Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had pardoned, gets highlighted as an example of the administration's messaging on immigration. Aaron also reacts to a harrowing bison attack video out of Yellowstone National Park and a Brown University cheating scandal involving students using AI to ace a take-home exam. He closes with Aaronalysis, reflecting on Graham's complicated legacy and the reminder that no one knows how much time they have left.

Aaron McIntire breaks down day four of the Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing, including courtroom testimony from Robinson's former roommate Lance Twiggs describing his reaction after the Charlie Kirk assassination. Megyn Kelly's blunt message to lingering conspiracy theorists gets called out for its timing, and Aaron doesn't hold back on her recent shift. Reports out of Iran point to fresh explosions and strikes, with U.S. and Israeli officials denying involvement and the source still unclear. Vice President JD Vance hits Democrats over their priorities on fraud and immigration, and LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt lays out his case for irregularities in the city's vote count. It's Friday, so Aaron closes with AOTMA, answering listener questions on faith, media, the addictive design of social platforms, and how the post World War II consensus shaped today's debates over culture and borders.

A.M. Update, Aaron McIntire, Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk, Lance Twiggs, Megyn Kelly, Tyler Robinson hearing, Judge Tony Graf, Spencer Pratt, Nithya Raman, LA mayor race, election fraud, JD Vance, Iran strikes, AOTMA, Ask Or Tell Me Anything, today's news, morning news, news commentary, current events, daily news podcast

Graham Platner, Iran's Air Force One threat, Tyler Robinson's hearing, and the European customs poll headline today's A.M. Update. Graham Platner suspends his Maine Senate campaign in an 11-minute video still denying Jenny Racicot's rape allegation, and Aaron says the ink did not stick on this one. Iran threatens to shoot missiles toward Turkey in the vicinity of Trump, forcing operational security changes to Air Force One on the way home from the NATO summit, and Trump quips to a reporter "if I go, you go" — Aaron says frustrated as he sometimes gets, the man is genuinely funny. Day three of Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing brings the Kirk family attorney to the stand to ask Judge Tony Graf to keep all evidence in the case public in real time, arguing that transparency is the only antidote to the doubt and disinformation that has been swirling, and Donald Trump Jr. tells Fox News the prosecution's case looks overwhelming and the defense's only real tactic was trying to keep evidence out. Aaron closes with the poll of the week results on which European custom Americans would most like to adopt, with smarmy arrogance winning at 74.7%, and a spirited exchange with listener Robert who tried to take the European customs bit in a theological direction.

Jenny Racicot, Tyler Robinson's hearing, Iran, Marine Le Pen, and Pastor Ezra Jin headline today's A.M. Update. Jenny Racicot tells CNN's Jake Tapper that Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner entered her home uninvited in 2021 while heavily intoxicated and forced himself on her, and when Tapper asks directly if she considers it rape she says "by definition, yes, absolutely" — even Zohran Mamdani says Platner should drop out. Day two of Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing shows surveillance footage of Robinson on the Utah Valley campus four times on the day of the shooting, including footage where his leg does not bend going up stairs in a way that suggests a rifle hidden in his pants leg. Iran strikes tankers in the Strait of Hormuz again and Trump responds by revoking the oil sales license, WTI crude jumps 5%, and Trump heads to Ankara for NATO where he again puts European allies on notice. Toyota announces a $3.6 billion investment to move Tacoma production from Mexico to San Antonio, Marine Le Pen's conviction appeal is upheld but her ban on public office is reduced to time served and she immediately announces she is running for French president anyway, and Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of Beijing's Zion Church arrives in Los Angeles on July 4th after Trump personally raised his case with Xi Jinping. Aaron closes with JD Vance's Nixon rehabilitation speech at the Richard Nixon Foundation and the uncomfortable question it raises about whether our news addiction has simply made Watergate look small by comparison.

Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing, Karoline Leavitt's viral Gen Z gaffe, Trump Accounts, and Aaronalysis headline today's A.M. Update. The preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson kicks off in Utah with surveillance footage showing Robinson on the Utah Valley University campus four times before, during, and after the shooting, while Blake Neff reports that TPUSA's Terrell Farnsworth, who faced months of harassment from the Candace Owens crowd, was actually helping prosecutors all along. Karoline Leavitt tells Jesse Watters that Gen Z has been raised with silver spoons in their mouths, and Aaron says even with the out-of-context caveat that is a let-them-eat-cake moment the White House cannot afford. Trump rings the NYSE and Nasdaq opening bells from the Oval Office to mark the live launch of Trump Accounts, joined by Ted Cruz, Scott Bessent, and Michael and Susan Dell whose $6.25 billion pledge seeds $250 accounts for up to 25 million children under 10, and Aaron calls it a potential test run for eventually replacing Social Security.

Trump's 250th anniversary address, Mitch McConnell's hospitalization, the filibuster fight, and a German World Cup fan named Sebastian headline today's A.M. Update. Trump uses the nation's 250th birthday celebrations to deliver what Aaron calls a fitting reset, taking direct aim at American Marxism at Mount Rushmore and again on the National Mall, saying you cannot be a communist and a patriot and that American liberty has never survived merely because of words on paper. Newly released EMS dispatch audio confirms Mitch McConnell was found unconscious at his DC home on June 14th, CPR was performed for cardiac arrest, and he has been hospitalized ever since, while JD Vance says Republicans who cling to the filibuster are unilaterally surrendering a weapon Democrats have openly promised to use the moment they regain power. AOC corners JD Vance on the Capitol steps and Aaron says she walked away with nothing. A German soccer fan named Sebastian Kraut came to America afraid of shootings and criminals and left moved to tears by the kindness of strangers in Boston of all places, and Aaron uses the story to close with something personal: the background noise you hear is three fans and a dehumidifier running in his flooded basement, another trial in a long string of them, and the lesson he's landing on is not what God is teaching him but simply to keep trusting and not doom.

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Birthright citizenship, Jessica Gorman, gas prices, and the Patreon launch headline today's A.M. Update. The Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship 6-3, overturning Trump's executive order, and Aaron says he spent a day furious about it before landing on a silver lining: it was one or two votes from going the other way, which was unthinkable ten years ago. The same SCOTUS session also upholds state bans on biological males in female athletics, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing in his concurrence that men with gender dysphoria are not women and using language to obscure that reality is lying to the public. Stephen Miller goes on Fox to call out Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts for caving to the left, and Aaron says the urgency right now has to be mass deportations, not waiting for the next ruling. Jessica Gorman, the mother of Sheridan Gorman, the 18-year-old Loyola University freshman shot and killed by a Venezuelan national in Chicago, delivers gut-wrenching testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and Aaron says he got chills. Trump and Scott Bessent both pressure gas stations to stop gouging consumers as WTI crude sits under $70 a barrel, and Aaron says the math on how fast prices go up versus how slowly they come down is pretty damning. Aaron closes with a framework for how to have an honest adult conversation about Israel, announces The A.M. Update's new Patreon at patreon.com/theAMupdate, and teases tomorrow's exclusive subscriber episode: what the A.M. Update would have sounded like on July 4th, 1776.

Trump v. Slaughter, the ballot-counting ruling, Chatrie v. United States, and Paris's heat wave blame game headline today's A.M. Update. The Supreme Court rules 5-4 that Trump can fire FTC commissioners at will, overturning 90 years of precedent protecting independent agencies, and Aaron says law professor Barb McQuade's outraged summary is basically his favorite part of the ruling. In the same session, the Court rules 5-4 that states can count mail-in ballots after election day if procedures are in place, Trump immediately calls it a tremendous loss and redoubles his push for the SAVE America Act, and Aaron says Senate Republicans need to feel more pressure than they currently do. The geofence warrant case Chatrie v. United States results in a 6-3 ruling that location data from Google counts as a Fourth Amendment search, Colorado's Supreme Court unanimously blocks a Democrat redistricting map that would have flipped three House seats, and inmates briefly seize control of a North Carolina jail before law enforcement retakes it. A JetBlue flight reports a drone strike at 3,000 feet over JFK, Aaron does the math on whether any consumer drone can actually reach that altitude, and Paris Deputy Mayor Audrey Pulvar blames American air conditioners for Europe's deadly heat wave — Aaron calls all of Europe losers for letting their politicians get away with it and tells them to demand better. Aaron closes with the Iraq anti-corruption arrests, the US-Israel-Lebanon trilateral framework, and a theory on whether Iranian proxies are quietly being dismantled, before making a full endorsement of an unnamed man in black who shot BB guns at nude cyclists in Los Angeles.

Iran ceasefire violations, JD Vance on Bill Maher, the Venezuela earthquake, and Mike Johnson's DSA warning headline today's A.M. Update. The US strikes Iranian missile sites again after Iran fires on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, JD Vance tells Bill Maher Iran's nuclear program is functionally destroyed even without full inspections, and Aaron says nobody with a working brain is surprised Iran broke the truce. Venezuela's earthquake death toll climbs past 1,450 as rescue crews race against time, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian nationals, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine pushes back on CNN. Pete Buttigieg claims a politically motivated false CPS report targeted his family, and Aaron says the story doesn't add up either way. House Speaker Mike Johnson delivers a pointed warning about a wave of DSA-backed congressional candidates nationwide, reading directly from the Democratic Socialists of America's own platform, and Aaron lays out his theory that the fusion of Marxism and Islamism is functioning as a unifying anti-Christian ideology for the secular left. California State Senator Scott Wiener gets cursed out and driven off the stage at San Francisco's Trans March for not being radical enough, and Aaron uses the moment to revisit Wiener's legislative record, which he argues should disqualify him from being held up as any kind of moral or political role model. Aaron closes by calling out fringe online voices on the right who've descended into antisemitic conspiracy theory, saying that brand of "horseshoe theory" rot is squandering a real political opportunity.

Trump and Senate GOP, NATO's Mark Rutte, Zohran Mamdani's primary sweep, and Grand Theft Auto 6 headline today's A.M. Update. Outgoing Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy reportedly gets into a shouting match with Trump at a Senate GOP lunch just weeks after losing his primary by a historic margin, and Aaron says picking that fight on his way out the door makes no sense. Trump also announces he won't sign the bipartisan housing bill until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, even though it already cleared Congress with supermajorities, and takes a swipe at NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte over gas prices not falling fast enough at the pump. All three of Zohran Mamdani's endorsed candidates sweep their New York primaries, including a Democratic Socialist who knocked off a five-term incumbent, and Aaron lays out his theory for why the combination of Islamism and Marxism is proving so potent with young, secular voters. Grand Theft Auto 6 opens pre-orders for its November launch, and Aaron does the math on its reported $2 billion budget, more than it cost to build the Burj Khalifa, and questions whether that much talent and money going into a video game says something about misplaced priorities. Aaron closes the week with the poll of the week results on who's actually following the World Cup.