Hormuz Strait Standoff & CA’s Medicare Money Heist | 3.12.26

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As bombs continue to hammer Iran, the real pressure point may be in the straight of four moves.

For years, the Iranian regime has threatened commercial shipping and US forces in international waters.

Our mission is to end their ability to project power and harass shipping.

Meanwhile, here at home, the FBI puts the West Coast on high alert.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley.

It's Thursday, March 12, and this is Morning Wire.

A new investigation finds that Van Ayes, California may be ground zero

for the largest hospice fraud scheme in the country.

We've been making noise about this for years. Nobody will listen.

And President Trump threatens a legislative blockade until Congress passes the

SAVAC as the bill faces a tough road in the Senate.

We're going to have the fight on the floor, and we'll give the Democrats the opportunity

to cast their vote on whether or not they think non-citizens ought to vote American elections.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

Well, before we continue, I'm excited to give you some amazing news about an issue that we care

about here at the Daily Wire. Our friends and aligns defending freedom have just announced

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by participating in a lie. They were told they had to agree to promote the state's radical

gender ideology, including by taking kids to pride parades. Following a victory in a similar case

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As the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment of Iran, the regime is desperately fighting

to maintain their blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Wired in live host Cabot Phillips joins us now

with more morning Cabot. So it feels like a really desperate last ditch effort from the

Iranians here to disrupt the energy supply globally. Where do things stand now?

Yeah, in the last week, the Strait of Hormuz has become arguably the most important

place on planet earth. The Iranians have seen their military capabilities rapidly diminish.

They have gone all in on a blockade, hoping to disrupt the energy supply globally,

and more importantly, force the U.S. to end the conflict to avoid an economic crisis.

On Wednesday, the IRGC reportedly struck three vessels attempting to run the blockade

as one Iranian official vowed, quote, not a single leader of oil will pass through the Strait for

the benefit of the U.S. the Zionists or their partners. They went on to say that any ship

making the passage would be deemed a, quote, legitimate target by their military.

And eventually, they said that oil prices would hit $200 a barrel.

Now, for his part, President Trump expressed optimism Wednesday that the conflict

would soon come to a close, because in his words, quote, there's practically nothing left to target.

He also urged oil companies to use the Strait of Hormuz anyway, despite this risk,

and sort of downplayed the potential danger.

It's about all of their mindships and one night.

It's just about all of their navies, God.

Now, more broadly, from a strategic standpoint, there's little doubt that Iran blocking the Strait

is really their best and only hope at this point.

And all of President Trump's options for reopening the Strait have their downsides.

That's important to note that first, he's offered to cover the cost of insurance for the tankers

if they're destroyed, but that's very expensive and takes time to set up.

And obviously, many tanker crews are less concerned about the financial threat here,

and more concerned about being killed.

Second, he could order the American military to escort the tankers through the Strait,

that happened in the late 80s during the Iraq-Ran War.

But the Convoys could only leave once a week and had to move very slowly.

So at that pace, the current backlog of tankers would take over a year to clear out.

And while he works to find a solution there, the international energy agency on Wednesday

said that its 32 member states would help alleviate the backlog caused by this conflict

by releasing 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves.

That is the single largest release in history.

But that will help prices in the short term.

However, it's only going to account for about 20 days worth of oil

that typically comes through the Strait.

So it's not a long-term solution.

Right, now throughout this conflict, one of the big stories was the explosion

at a girl's school in Iran.

And we've learned more tragic details about that.

Tell us what we've learned.

Right, so for context, on the first day of the operation,

an explosion was reported at an elementary school in Iran.

It reportedly killed 175 people.

Most of the victims were young children.

President Trump initially said that Iran was responsible for the incident.

But according to a New York Times report yesterday,

a preliminary investigation from the Pentagon says the explosion

was caused by an American Tomahawk missile.

The school was directly adjacent to a military base that was being targeted

in the building where the school was housed was at one point used by the military.

But when the Defense Intelligence Agency provided the Pentagon

with its target list ahead of the operation,

the school building was mistakenly included.

That led to this alleged mishap and tragedy.

President Trump has continued to express skepticism, though, on that report.

He said Wednesday, quote, I don't know about that.

But there are already Republicans who are starting to express regret for this apparent mistake.

Here's Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, for example.

I think it was a terrible, terrible mistake.

Was it hadn't happened?

I'm sorry it happened.

Yeah, I can assure you it wasn't intentional.

And then when you make a mistake, you ought to admit it.

And one more nugget we learned yesterday,

according to an ABC report, the FBI has warned California police departments

that Iran had aspirations for retaliatory drone strikes along the west coast.

While it did not appear that there was an imminent threat,

the FBI alert warned for the potential of an attack,

quote, using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel

off the coast of the United States homeland.

So one more thing for the Trump administration to balance

is to continue their operation in Iran.

So many aspects to cover on that conflict

and we'll have more from you in Wired and Live later today, correct?

Yep, 4 p.m. Eastern will be live from Daily Wire HQ.

Caput, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

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A sweeping investigation into the hospice care system in Southern California

reveals that it's become a breeding ground for fraud.

Authorities say criminal networks

may be behind the explosion of hospice agencies

that are exploiting vulnerable seniors

and draining billions from Medicare.

Here with the details is daily wire culture reporter Megan Basham.

Some listeners will remember we had Dr. Oz on this show

when he first blew the whistle on this fraud.

The New York Post was very early in reporting on this.

Now finally, we have CBS putting out their own reporting.

What exactly has been uncovered?

Yeah, Georgia. So hospice fraud has been a known issue

for a while across the country.

But investigators started zeroing in on LA County

because of the explosive rate of growth of those programs.

So now about 40% nationwide of all hospice care providers

are located in LA County.

And Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is now the administrator

of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,

told morning wire that the rate of growth

and the number of centers simply does not match the population.

This is an example of what happens

if you don't deal with fraud in a timely fashion.

There was an increase, about a seven-fold increase

in the available hospice in California.

This doesn't make any sense.

So you don't have seven times more people dying.

What's going on?

So you know, that is what initially drew the attention

of federal investigators and journalists.

And what they found is pretty eye-popping.

CBS's analysis found that out of roughly 1800 hospice programs

in LA County, more than 700 showed multiple indicators of fraud.

So think of things like suspicious billing

or shared addresses and no evidence

of actually providing patient care.

The New York Post zeroed in on Vanis Boulevard

calling it Ground Zero for this kind of fraud.

They found nearly 500 hospice agencies

crammed into just that three mile length boulevard.

We don't have a total dollar figure for the fraud here,

but Dr. Oz said that federal investigators

have already found billions.

And he said there is evidence that foreign organized crime

based in Russia could be involved

in the expansion of these fraudulent hospice centers.

So not only is it that 40% of hospice centers

are in one county, but possibly that money

is going to Russian crime rings.

Is that the allegation?

That's the allegation.

Okay, so how does this fraud work?

What are these companies allegedly doing

to take advantage of loopholes?

Well, you know, it often starts

with aggressive recruiting tactics.

Hospice operators will approach elderly people

and they will offer them things like groceries or rides

or even just cash in exchange for signing paperwork

that enrolls them in a hospice program.

But the patients often don't fully understand

what it is that they're signing

and they don't realize that when they sign those documents,

they're being tricked into giving up certain care

that they would be entitled to

if they were not in hospice.

Medicaid then begins paying the hospice provider

a daily rate for that patient.

And Dr. Oz says that's what makes

the hospice care system so ripe for exploitation.

Hospice, which is designed for people at the very end

of their life, it's a very delicate time,

they're very fragile, and you can trick them.

You can get them to do things they probably shouldn't do.

In addition to that, investigators found

that hospice operators continued billing Medicare

even when the patient was not terminally ill

or wasn't in their care anymore.

So what happens to these seniors if they do get an illness

but they've signed away their right to pursue medical care?

Yeah, that's a question that Dr. Oz says is so alarming

because he described meeting individuals

who said that their loved ones were unknowingly placed

in these programs.

And in one case, a man signed paperwork believing

that he was receiving assistance,

but the documents, again, actually enrolled him in hospice.

But the document said was that you're giving up

all your health care to go into hospice.

And lo and behold, he has a health problem.

He doesn't have access to care

because he gave up his insurance and he man died.

Dr. Oz says that these kinds of scenarios are why

his department is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom

to initiate a formal corrective action plan

with a 21-day deadline.

So that plan includes things like aggressive licensing

crackdowns, data sharing, prosecutions,

and actually abiding by a moratorium on new hospice centers

that was issued but has largely been ignored.

Well, I'm glad even the mainstream media

is starting to report on this

because the story needs to get out.

Megan, thanks for reporting.

Yep, my pleasure.

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The battle over the Save America Act,

requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote

has divided Capitol Hill and prompted the president

to threaten not to sign any bills into law

until it's on the books.

Joining us now with more is Daily Wire Political Reporter

Cameron, Arcane Morning Cameron.

So the Save Act has become yet another line

in the sand in DC, Trump really weighing in on this.

Where does it stand now in the Senate?

So this is really getting to a serious boiling point here.

I mean, this bill, you know, to get

documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration

and also to get voter idea at the ballot box

has been pushed by conservatives in Congress

for some time now.

So what makes proof of citizenship different from voter ID

is proof of citizenship at the time of voter registration

would go beyond just checking a box on a form

and it would require a document

like a birth certificate or a passport.

Now Republicans have argued that because some states

have had looser laws in the books regarding immigrants

being able to get driver's licenses

that that would not go far enough to prove citizenship,

which is why they would want other documents included in that.

But what's coming down to a breaking point here

is whether or not to use a talking filibuster

or to get rid of the filibuster altogether

in order to make this happen

because it does not have enough support

to get it through to break a 60 vote threshold

that would obviously require some Democrats

to sign on to this piece of legislation.

Now Thune, the Senate Majority Leader,

he has warned that if they get rid of the filibuster,

one, he doesn't think they have enough support for it.

And two, he thinks that it could open the floodgates

for certain policy proposals that the Democrats

and maybe if there's some policies

where some Democrats support

and maybe a few Republicans do too,

that that could pass the Senate,

it could very much change the way that Chamber operates.

So that's what he's warned.

We're expected to maybe see some action

on this next week,

but we don't really have any details

on what that looks like as of yet.

Now Trump has gotten really involved in recent days.

How important is this issue to him

and what are we hearing from him now on it?

So this is incredibly important to the president.

He's actually said outside of ending the Department

of Homeland Security shutdown,

this is priority number one for the president

in Congress right now,

saying that he's not even gonna sign any other bills

until this gets done.

So the president is aligning himself

with a lot of the more conservative members of Congress here

saying that this is critical

to securing a midterm win

as this is such a huge priority

for the president's base right now.

Now this proposal has also largely factored

into the Texas Senate Republican primary

which you've been tracking for us here on the show

and on the site.

There's similar action going on in some other states too

as well as I understand it.

How is this impacting the campaign drill?

So one of the big headlines this week

was Texas Senator John Cornyn coming out with an op-ed

in the New York Post saying that he would be open

to reforming the filibuster

or even making some more serious rule changes

in order to get this bill passed.

This came after his opponent in that primary

Attorney General Ken Paxton saying that he would even

consider dropping out of the race

if the Senate did pass the Save America Act.

So Trump wants to play Kingmaker in this race

and he has yet to make a decision publicly

on who he plans to endorse

but the Save America Act could become a major factor

in all of this.

But we're also seeing similar actions taken in California

as over a million signatures were submitted

for a potential ballot initiative

which would have similar proposal just at the state level

which would include voter ID as well as proof of citizenship.

The big difference with that proposal

is that you would be able to request an ID

specifically for the purpose of voting

as that's worded right now.

But obviously we're seeing some nationwide proposals

related to this.

But obviously the Save America Act does succeed.

This would apply to federal elections in all 50 states.

Well this will certainly be a focus for Republicans

and their voters ahead of the midterms as you've laid out.

Cameron, thank you so much for reporting.

Thank you.

Thanks for waking up with us.

And if you're listening to the show

now you can watch for free on Daily Wire Plus.

We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.