Morning Wire - Biden’s FBI Spied on Senators & Kentucky Killer Walks Free | 10.8.25

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Explosive documents reveal that President Biden’s FBI spied on GOP Senators, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh uncovers shocking new details about the early prison release of a Kentucky killer, and America’s leading evangelical magazine takes seven-figure donations from one of the nation's biggest abortion funders. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Shopify - Go to https://Shopify.com/morningwire to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period and upgrade your selling today. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New FBI documents reveal that President Biden's FBI spied on GOP senators during a sweeping January 6th probe. The Biden DOJ specifically targeted a group of us. They asked for our call records so they could see who we talk to. They'll also track our location over a period of days. This is outrageous. I'm Georgia Howe. John is out this week. It's Wednesday, October 8th, and this is Morning Wire. Daily Wire's Matt Walsh uncovers shocking new details in the early prison release of a man who

brutally murdered a six-year-old boy in Kentucky. What they're trying to tell us is that he was insane when he committed the murder, but he was not insane when he assaulted the other family members. And according to a Daily Wire report, America's leading evangelical magazine took seven-figure donations from one of the nation's major abortion funders. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.

We have the news you need to know. If you run a small business, you know there's nothing small about it. Even the smallest decisions can feel massive. That's where Shopify comes in. Shopify is D-Commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world from household names to brands that are just getting started. You can tackle all the important tasks

all in one place from inventory to payments to analytics and more. Even marketing becomes a breeze thanks to their built-in tools for running social media and email campaigns helping you find new customers and keep them coming back. Plus, Shopify's global selling tools have you covered internationally in over 150 countries and their award-winning point-of-sale

connects your online and offline sales all in the same place. With an impressive 99.99 uptime and the highest converting checkout experience on the planet, you'll never miss another sale. That's the Shopify advantage. Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period

and start selling today at Shopify.com slash morningwire. Head over to Shopify.com slash morning wire. Again, that's Shopify.com slash morning wire. As the government shutdown continues, Washington has been rocked by new revelations that the Biden DOJ spied on a number of Republican senators as part of their January 6th probe. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more. So, Tim, what exactly is being alleged here?

Yeah, Republicans have for years accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice against political opponents. And now there's yet another chapter in that saga. This week, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley released a document showing that President Biden's FBI secretly monitor the private communications, including phone records, of eight sitting Republican senators. The espionage came as part of the DOJ's previously undisclosed Arctic Frost investigation, which went after Republicans for alleged election meddling following the 2020 election. Grassley released a statement along with that document where he said, based on the evidence to date, Arctic Frost and related weaponization by federal law enforcement under Biden

was arguably worse than Watergate. Among the eight senators, the FBI was monitoring were Lindsay Graham, Josh Holly, Tommy Tuberville, and Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn. We talked with Blackburn on Tuesday. is what she had to say. September of 2023, our phones were followed by the FBI. Now, there was no predicate given for why they were doing this. We do know all of us, Republicans, all of us support President Trump, and all of us had questions about the 2020 election. And what they pulled was all incoming and outgoing calls, who they were from, the length of time of the call, and where each of us

were physically located at the time of the call. Now, for their part, Democrats have sought to downplay the story, saying the FBI was simply doing their job to investigate election meddling and reminding folks that agents were not listening in on phone calls and were only looking at who called and when. but that's done little to alleviate the Republican outrage. Here's Blackburn on that from. Absolutely to spy on U.S. senators. Yes, that is out of the ordinary. And for them to actually subpoena our phone records

and for the wireless companies to give them that information, that is something that is highly unusual. It is illegal. The FBI cannot weaponize itself in order to spy on eight sitting U.S. senators. It is a violation of our civil rights. It's a violation of our privacy rights. No one can find a time when the FBI has done this. So as you said, Republicans are pretty furious about this.

What are they calling for in terms of accountability? Well, they've already demanded an investigation to find out how widespread the scheme was and who ordered it. To that point, real clear investigations reported Tuesday that former FBI director Christopher Ray and Attorney General Merrick Garland would have had to sign off on the operation. Republicans want to know if President Biden himself was also involved. Grassley hinted this week that Republicans may call on former director Ray and special prosecutor Jack Smith, who oversaw the operation to testify before the Judiciary Committee. On Tuesday, Attorney General Bondi happened to be testifying before the Senate on a separate matter,

but as you can imagine, was asked about this latest scandal. Here's what she had to say. Operation Arctic Frost was an unconstitutional, undemocratic abuse of power. During Arctic Frost, the FBI also placed 92-linked Republican individuals and Republican groups, such as Charlie Kirk's turning point, on their list. this is the kind of conduct that shattered the American people's faith in our government. FBI director Cash Patel says his staff actually inadvertently uncovered the spying operation and vowed to ensure it never happens again.

In a statement Tuesday, he said, we recently uncovered proof that phone records of U.S. lawmakers were seized for political purposes. That abuse of power ends now. Under my leadership, the FBI will deliver truth and accountability and never again be weaponized against the American people. Well, that's why it's so important to keep an eye on these three-letter organizations. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me.

More shocking details have come out about the early prison release of a Kentucky man. Ronald Exantis was released early from prison, sparking national outrage. Daily Wire reporters, Zach Jewel, is with us to discuss the tragic and horrifying story, including some of the new developments. So, Zach, first off, can you tell us what happened with this crime in 2015? Hi, Georgia. Yeah, this is a nightmarish crime. A man broke into a family's home in the night and stabbed multiple members of the family with a kitchen knife. The victims included a six-year-old boy who later died from his injuries.

Now, this occurred in Woodford County, Kentucky, which sits just west of Lexington. Exantis was tried in 2018, but, shockingly, was found not guilty for that murder by reason of insanity. He was convicted for the lesser charge of assault. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was released in early October, 13 years early, that's serving less than half of his original sentence. He was placed on just eight months of supervised probation. Here's the child's father, Dean Tipton. I've had my talks with God because I'm not afraid to tell you all. I told the court, if I ever cross paths with him, I will kill the man. I will kill him where he stands. More details surrounding his release have been uncovered by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh.

Yesterday, he discovered some more disturbing information about Exantus and how he was released. Here's what Walsh told us. He qualifies as nonviolent under Kentucky law. That's what the spokeswoman for the parole board told us that he's nonviolent under the law because he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, so that doesn't count. Now, the parole board has been facing major criticism over the release, but the board says that its members repeatedly voted for example. to remain in prison. In a statement to Walsh, the board said that, quote, every time it had the opportunity,

the parole board recommended Ronald Exanus stay in prison. Now, after a review for parole on September 30th, the parole board said that it issued a decision for the criminal to stay in prison for the remainder of his sentence. The board added that, quote, despite this decision, Kentucky law required the Department of Corrections to release the inmate on mandatory reentry supervision. So in short, state law required to be released because he wasn't convicted of a capital offense related to the killing of Logan Tipton. He was only convicted on lesser charges of second-degree assault for attacking Logan's sibling and father. But Walsh isn't buying the parole board's reasoning. Here he is again. The excuse the parole board gives is that, in fact, the claim they're making is that they didn't

even choose to let him go. They had to because of state law. That this is, you know, if you have a problem with it, take it up with the state legislature is essentially their attitude. I don't really buy. that excuse for a number of reasons. The other thing they can do is they can put in place really strict provisions if this guy violates them. He has to go back to prison. Now, based on his research, does Walsh have any suggestions of what could have avoided this? Yeah, he did. And here are a few things he said need to take place. This case, although it seems new to us on a national level, I hadn't heard of it until this guy was paroled, but it's not a new case. So the lawmakers in Kentucky have known about this case since at least 2018.

And as far as I know, nothing has been done to change the law, to fix the law. And so I think that this goes to the legislature in Kentucky and also all across the country because this is a major problem of these criminals being released out of prison. So where do things stand now? Is Exantis just a free man? Not really. Now, Exanis enters a state of parole, which means that he must abide by the conditions. Now, those exact terms are still unknown.

Walsh's team reached out to ask what the conditions would be, but they have not heard back. On Saturday, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt highlighted one of Walsh's posts on this story and said that the administration is looking into the case. Now, the White House said, quote, it is wholly unacceptable for the child killer to walk free after just several years in prison. Well, hopefully this family can get some justice, and maybe we can revise some of these laws that allowed this to have. happen. Zach, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me.

America's most prominent evangelical magazine Christianity Today is under fire for taking more than a million dollars from a major abortion funder. Readers also accused the publication of softening their pro-life stance in recent years. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham broke this story and is here now to discuss. So Megan, just to start, can you tell us about this funding that Christianity Today took and then give us some context of why this is so controversial? Well, the numbers here are pretty striking, Georgia. So since 2022, Christianity today has taken more than a million dollars from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In particular, they've taken 600,000 for covering U.S. elections. Now, what makes that controversial is the Hewlett Foundation's history. It is the second

largest private funder of Planned Parenthood in the country. In fact, between 2000 and 20203, Hulet gave the abortion provider more than $100 million. And after Roe was overturned in 2022, the Hewlett Foundation announced that they would be increasing their, quote-unquote, reproductive equity budget that is, of course, abortion access by another 30%. Long story short, Hewlett is simply one of the largest abortion funders in the U.S. Now, is there any reason to believe that this funding has actually skewed their coverage of pro-life issues? Yeah, that's a question that a lot of Christians are asking right now.

So Christianity today has always maintained that it upholds a pro-life ethic, but it has also started expanding the definition of what pro-life means. So instead of focusing solely on protecting unborn babies, these pieces that they've published have argued that the term should also include things like fighting alleged racial injustice, supporting new federal entitlements for things like family medical leave, and even even taking a particular position on amnesty for illegal immigrants. Now, a lot of pro-lifers have told me that redefining the term in that way actually waters down its efficacy.

Now, one of those pro-life leaders, Seth Gruber, founder of the White Rose Resistance, told me that he believes that progressives are intentionally trying to reshape the definition of pro-life in order to smuggle in left-wing political priorities. Also noteworthy that in the run up to the 2024 election, CT published some articles in which they argued that Christians didn't necessarily need to vote on the issue of abortion, that it would be better to just sit out the election and not vote at all. And it's also noteworthy that Christianity Today's board chair, a man named Claude Alexander, took a role as an official spokesperson for evangelicals for Biden.

Now, anecdotally, there have been accusations that Christianity Today has changed their tone in recent years, veering more to the left. Have there been broader funding changes or changes in the funding structure behind the scenes? Well, there's definitely a pattern when you look at the finances. There's no question that Christianity today has become increasingly reliant on these kinds of grants and donations. Back in 2020, they represented only 20% of the outlet's revenues. Today, it's more than 50%. And there are other major secular families. foundations that are also contributing to that. Another one that I found was that over the past few

years, Christianity today has taken more than $8 million from the Lilly Endowment, which was founded by the Eli Lilly family of pharmaceutical fame. Experts tell me that when an outlet grows dependent on foundations like this with their own ideological agendas, they can really risk changing their priorities to align with those agendas, even if it means watering down their historic Christian priorities. Hayden Ludwig, who is executive director of research at Restoration America, has spent more than a decade researching dark money networks. And he told me that large grants like this can have a corrosive effect. Well, I think this kind of money acts like a siren song. You know, you get hooked on Hewlett money and gradually it reorients your entire mission structure

around this progressive agenda just to keep the money spig it open. And I think it's absolutely troubling that Christianity today, this bastion of evangelical thought, would go hunting for grants from this undeniably leftist mega funder like Hewlett Foundation with what's definitely an anti-Christian acts to grind. But unfortunately, you know, the years I've done with this, I can't say I'm surprised because bankrolling these fake conservative groups is actually the Hewlett Foundation's MO. Now, part of why this particular controversy,

especially stings for conservatives, is that Billy Graham founded Christianity today in 1956 as the theologically conservative alternative to a magazine known as the Christian Century, which was very popular and known for being liberal. So a lot of Christians feel that maybe history is repeating itself with Christianity today's current trajectory. And you will hear a lot of critics argue

that the magazine has drifted left and they see this Hewlett funding as just more confirmation of that, particularly that funding earmarked. for covering elections. Has Christianity today given any explanation for taking those grants? No, not yet.

I did reach out to the executive editor and editor-in-chief, specifically asking about the moral tension of a Christian outlet taking money from one of the largest abortion funders in the country, but they have not responded. Well, Megan, thank you so much for looking into this. Yep, my pleasure.

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We'll be back later this evening, with more news you need to know.