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Ryan Reynolds
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Mary Margaret Olihan
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John Bickley
The President's anti Fraud task force hits the ground running, targeting massive programs like Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Cameron Arcan
This is a problem that has festered
Ryan Reynolds
in this country for far too long
Cameron Arcan
and far too few people have actually
Mary Margaret Olihan
wanted to do anything about it.
John Bickley
I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, March 27th. This is Morning Wire.
Host/Announcer
President Trump warns Iran that the window for diplomacy is narrowing while negotiations appear to gain traction.
Tim Pierce
They want to make a deal. The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat
John Bickley
to and new polling shakes Democrats in California's race for governor. Could the state's top two system actually knock them off the ticket?
Steve Hilton
Everyone's on the same ballot and then the top two finishers, regardless of party, go through to the general election.
Host/Announcer
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
Producer Brandon
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Host/Announcer
President Trump has appointed Vice President J.D. vance to lead the administration's anti fraud task force in the wake of shocking revelations about fraud throughout the United States.
John Bickley
Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan got the first look at the administration's plans and she joins us now. Morning, Mary Margaret. So let's look at this new plan. What is the administration proposing to do?
Mary Margaret Olihan
Good morning. So, yes, this memo we obtained, sent By Vice President J.D. vance, who's the head of this anti fraud task force, it's sent to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and other members of the task force and it lays out this four part plan to tackle fraud. Their primary objective is to stop fraud that's, quote, bleeding the federal government dry, robbing taxpayers and denying honest Americans the services which they have paid for. So the task force plans to prosecute those committing fraud and to recover as much fraudulently obtained money as they can. They're going to be focusing on high spend, low verification programs which are the ones that are the most ripe for fraud and abuse. Now, recovering money that's lost to fraud is really difficult. The federal government loses about $250 billion annually due to FR and it only recovers about 10 billion of that. If that gives you a better idea of how much we're losing and how much we're getting back.
John Bickley
That's so much lost and so little recouped, as you've said. So what are the immediate steps the task force plans to take here?
Mary Margaret Olihan
Yeah, so they have a bunch of steps that they're focused on right away. The first one is to kind of get a picture of all the agencies across the administration and what anti fraud measures are currently in place. So that's step one, step two, and this is interesting, they want the task force to report back on whether the Biden administration failed to actually fight fraud at all. And you know, if they find evidence of that, they will be making a big deal out of it. But they're also planning to assess and implement existing data analysis tools and tech. They want to identify more tools that they can use to prevent fraud, create teams throughout all these government agencies that can combat fraud, and then propose new legislation and regulations to prevent fraud in the first place.
John Bickley
All right, so lots on the docket for this task force. We've talked about the fraud uncovered by YouTuber Nick Shirley in Minnesota on this show. But is that what spurred this fraud task force to get to work in the first place?
Mary Margaret Olihan
Yeah, it's definitely part of it. But Nick's stories were not the first ones we've heard about the fraud that's going on throughout the United States. Obviously, there has been a lot of discussion of Tim Waltz and the fraud in Minnesota, and the vice president has been very vocal about wanting to target this and wanting to look into it more further. Now, obviously, there's been a lot of talk about the war going on in Iran and concerns that Americans have on the home front. This is an easy way for the administration to say, look, we're working on what's going on in the United States. United States, too. Fraud is a huge problem, and we're focusing on that as well. And they're determined to prosecute fraudsters for a number of reasons. And they highlighted these in the memo. They talk about the American people's right to justice, how they deserve to have justice from this fraud, the need to establish deterrence against fraud and the need for accountability. And the memo says, and I'm quoting here, the widespread fraud has not been committed by isolated bad actors. Large and powerful networks have furthered this fraud. The American people have a right to know how the fraud problem has gotten so bad and prosecutions will shed light on how this happened. So like I said before, they're going to be focusing on these high spend, low verification programs that I mentioned, such as Medicare and Medicaid, for example, has $2 trillion a year in spending, while the Department of Labor's unemployment insurance program has 43.5 billion a year in spending. And they view these programs as ripe for fraud and abuse. And the last thing you guys is worth pointing out, that Vice President J.D. vance, this is his project. Trump has joked in meetings in the Oval Office about how Kamala Harris's main project was border czar and how she really failed at that job and the whole country knows it. The president joked about how J.D. vance, this is his job and he better not fail at it. And nobody thinks that he will. And the president has complete faith in J.D. vance, but at the same time, the eyes of the nation are on him to see how he handles this.
John Bickley
Yeah, certainly an important issue for Americans across this country. So a big moment for him, an opportunity. But like you said, got to follow through. Mary Margaret, thanks so much for joining us.
Mary Margaret Olihan
Thanks for having me.
Host/Announcer
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John Bickley
President Trump is giving Tehran a little more Runway before carrying out his threat to strike Iran's power plants.
Host/Announcer
Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce is here to talk about the state of negotiations between the US And Iran. So, Tim, this has been a very chaotic negotiation process due largely to the fact that it's not totally clear who's in charge of Iran at the moment. But the administration did share some insights during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. What did we learn?
Ryan Reynolds
Right. There's lots to parse on the reporting on this, but the president believes that they are in talks with the right people. He gave a few updates on the situation in that Cabinet meeting, and he revealed that whoever is in talks on the Iranian side proved that they are influential. That proof involved a present that the president touted earlier this week.
Tim Pierce
They said, to show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil. Eight boats. Eight big boats of oil. This was two days ago and they'll sail up tomorrow. That was three days ago. I said, well, I guess we're dealing
Steve Hilton
with the right people.
Ryan Reynolds
About the Friday deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the president said it's ultimately up to Tehran whether or not a deal is struck.
Tim Pierce
They are begging to make a deal. Not me. They're begging to make a deal. And anybody that saw what was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal.
Ryan Reynolds
As it stands now, if Iran doesn't fully open the strait, Trump has ordered the military to strike critical energy infrastructure, which would have consequences not just for the regime, but would cut power for Iranian citizens as well. Though on Thursday, as John noted, the president did give the regime more time to open up the straight and he set a new deadline for April 6. The alternative is that Iran opens the strait. And related to that, Israel appears to have killed the official responsible for actually closing it. It said on Thursday that it took out the commander of Iran's nav, which US Strikes have essentially sunk already anyway.
Host/Announcer
Now President Trump has put a lot of pressure on US Allies to step up and assist in opening the strait. Last week, a few nations offered some varying degrees of support. Where do things stand now?
Ryan Reynolds
Right. Trump is not impressed and he's making that clear.
Tim Pierce
We spend trillions of dollars protecting Europe, protecting the countries of NATO. They weren't there for us. For small time. This is small time. You know what? Venezuela is a big deal, but it's not the big one. They weren't there. So what makes you think they'd be there if we needed them for something?
Ryan Reynolds
Now, maybe somewhat ironically for the Europeans, their main interest in the strait is energy prices. But some in the business community are more concerned about the impact on energy prices in the long term if the US does not meet its goals in Iran and instead withdraws too early. And here's BlackRock CEO Larry Fink saying that the real risk to affordable energy is in Tehran.
Tim Pierce
If there's a cessation of war and
John Bickley
yet Iran remains a threat, a threat
Tim Pierce
to trade, a threat to the rates
John Bickley
of Hormuz, then I would argue that
Tim Pierce
we could have years, years of, you
John Bickley
know, above $100, closer to $150 oil.
Ryan Reynolds
For his part, Trump said Thursday that taking over Iran's oil like the US did in Venezuela, is still an option.
John Bickley
Are you thinking of taking control of Iran's oil?
Tim Pierce
It's an option. I mean, I wouldn't talk about it, but it's an option.
Ryan Reynolds
So while the administration is signaling that the war is coming to an end soon, there are still a lot of ways left that this thing could go well.
Host/Announcer
I think everyone is hoping we can stick to that four to six week timeline that we've been promised. Tim, thanks for coming on.
Ryan Reynolds
Thanks for having me.
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Host/Announcer
race is heating up as the June primary raises big concerns among Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans say they've found shocking levels of fraud that should come back to bite their opponents.
John Bickley
Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcan. Morning, Cameron. So let's start with what's gotten the Democrats attention. They're very much alarmed about this, this new polling on the governor's race. What do we need to know there?
Cameron Arcan
So for context here, the Democrats have a large pool of candidates in this top two primary that's going to be in June in this governor's race. Now, the California Democratic Party chair has warned his own people that, hey, if not enough of you drop out, we could have a slim but real chance of a Republican lockout in June because of the jungle primary system. So then what he did is he went and commissioned a poll and it showed exactly what he was concerned about. It had Republican Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco in those top two slots. And then you had three Democrats tied. That was Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter and Tom steyer tied at 10%. And then you had some stragglers, other Democrats in the race at 3% and lower. So a lot of concerns there on the Democratic side about this. And then you have some Republicans on the flip side of this worrying that Democrats will eventually consolidate. And when you have two major Republican candidates, the race, they're worried that it will then cause a Democrat lockout, leaving Republicans out of this race. So a lot of concern here, but there's still a lot of time for the situation to develop. But Democrats are feeling a little anxious right now about this.
John Bickley
On the Republican side, we do know that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has been in the headlines. He's battling with the state's Democrat AG over this recent seizure of the ballots. That's turned a lot of heads.
Ryan Reynolds
What's happening there?
Cameron Arcan
So Bianco, who is the Riverside county sheriff, is at odds with Rob Bonta, the state's attorney general, over the seizure of 650,000 ballots related to the Prop 50 election this past November. That's that redistricting amendment that reshaped the state's congressional maps. Now, here's what Bianco said about this the other day.
Tim Pierce
For those not aware, we are conducting an investigation into an alleged and potential 45,000 extra votes counted than the number of ballots cast in the November 2025 special election.
Cameron Arcan
Bonta's office is arguing that the sheriff's office does not have the authority to do this. But a California court ruled this week that this can move forward.
John Bickley
Now the other major Republican candidate, Steve Hilton, is also making waves for some of his proposals, including his goal to crack down on fraud in the state of California. What has he said on that issue?
Cameron Arcan
So Steve Hilton has been making a big point about fraud, especially in the state government in California, particularly after we've seen some nationwide concerns like this, especially with Medicaid fraud in Minnesota. Now in regards to what we're seeing in California, Morningwire spoke to Hilton about some of these details. Here's what he had to say.
Steve Hilton
We found from the climate fund, they've got this thing called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is a stealth tax, a hidden tax on energy production and use, $1 billion with a B that was supposed to be spent on installing solar panels on low income apartment buildings. Of that $1 billion, only 72 million was actually spent on that 928 million diverted into Democrat political activism, including voter registration. That was our second fraud report. The first one was the cannabis tax. So when cannabis was legalized in California, a tax was put on it supp, supposedly to fund substance abuse prevention, $370 million there that we found all of it parceled out in tiny little grants to Democrat activist groups to do their to build the Democrat political machine.
Cameron Arcan
These issues are certainly not unique to California as we've seen in other states. Now, fraud has obviously become a hot topic in many other statewide races across the country, particularly in the Senate race in Minnesota. But as for California, we'll definitely continue to see this evolve.
John Bickley
Well, Republicans would certainly love to see California in play in this race for governor. We'll see if Democrats are able to unite behind one candidate or not. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting.
Cameron Arcan
Thank you.
John Bickley
Another story we're tracking as hours long lines continue to plague airports across the country. President Trump says he'll now sign an executive order to get TSA agents paid. The agency has been unfunded for over a month as Congress struggles to make a deal and end the DHS shutdown. The president blames Democrats for the standoff, calling it a national crisis, and announced Thursday that he's using his authority to get agents paid and keep travel moving. Details on how and when the order will be implemented have not yet been released.
Host/Announcer
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.
Mary Margaret Olihan
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Host/Announcer
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Producer Brandon
It did, actually.
Mary Margaret Olihan
Okay, good story.
Host/Announcer
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Episode Title: Vance Seeks Fraud Fix & Tehran’s Deadline Extended
Date: March 27, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley and Georgia Howe (The Daily Wire)
This episode focuses on three particularly high-stakes issues:
The tone throughout is urgent but measured, with an emphasis on facts, high-level political maneuvering, and the implications for average Americans.
[02:45 – 06:58]
[08:04 – 11:44]
[12:19 – 16:49]
[16:50 – 17:21]
The episode is characterized by brisk, direct reporting, a slight note of skepticism toward Democratic leadership, and a sense of high-stakes urgency about government accountability and global crises. The language is precise, with strong, plainspoken attributions and occasional dry humor, especially when contrasting Trump’s and Biden’s approaches.
This jam-packed episode of Morning Wire details urgent efforts to root out government fraud under a new Trump/Vance anti-fraud initiative, volatile and potentially explosive negotiations with Iran, and the latest political intrigue and allegations of corruption swirling around California’s unique gubernatorial primary. For listeners seeking a clear, fact-based update on these major national stories, the episode delivers concise breakdowns, direct quotes, and an unvarnished look at the stakes and players involved.