Morning Wire - California’s Fraud “Epicenter” & Guthrie Search Continues | 2.4.26

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

The Trump Administration is suing California over “billions” in health care fraud, the elderly mother of Today Show Host Savannah Guthrie vanishes from her home, and the Senate votes to keep a federal agency alive after its CFO confesses to taking bribes. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2615- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Balance of Nature - Go to https://BalanceofNature.com and order the Whole Health System supplements as a Preferred Customer today.Zoc Doc - Go to https://Zocdoc.com/WIRE to find and instantly book a doctor you love today.- - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning 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

The Trump administration is cracking down on California, tying billions in alleged Medicare fraud to crime networks in the state. What we've really witnessed is a weaponization of this criminal effort that has been tolerated. And the key question we should all be asking ourselves is why? How are state officials reacting? I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, February 4th. This is Morning Wire.

The frantic search for Nancy Guthrie continues amid fears she was abducted from her Arizona. home. We do believe that Nancy was taken from her home against her will, and that's where we're at. And a Daily Wire investigation leads to a guilty plea on bribery charges and calls to shut down a federal aid agency. Because, as he put it, it's trash. And as he put it, it's a corrupt culture of waste, fraud, and abuse. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Let's be honest. Most of us have no idea what phytonutrient. actually are, and that's exactly where our sponsor Balance of Nature makes getting them into your diet so simple. So here's the thing about phytonutrients. They're these naturally occurring

plant nutrients and whole foods that actually give fruits and vegetables their color, taste, and smell. Now, what Balance of Nature does is they take all that produce, run it through their specialized vacuum-cold process that keeps everything stable, then they powder it down without any binders, fillers, or flow agents. Just the real stuff. Their whole health system is essentially a value bundle that combines their fruit and veggie capsules with their fiber and spice supplements, so you're getting 47 different ingredients, fruits, vegetables, spices, and fibers, along with those naturally occurring phytonutrients every single day. I really like the convenience that Balance of Nature offers.

I can take my tablets with me on the go. I've even got some bottles loaded up in my work backpack for easy access. Plus, I feel great when I take them. So whether you've been on the fence for a long time, or it's the first time you're hearing about them, I truly recommend that you go to BalanceofNature.com and order their whole health system supplements as a preferred customer today. That's balancefnature.com. CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz says Los Angeles County has become an epicenter for health care fraud, sparking a battle with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Here with the details is Daily Wire Reporter Amanda Press as Giacomo. Morning Amanda. So let's start with these allegations of fraud, billions of dollars we're talking about here. What is going on in California? So Oz says they've identified billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid fraud in California. And this is largely tied to claims of hospice and home care fraud. Basically, scammers are signing up people for hospice care when it's unnecessary or they don't actually provide it. When it comes to home care scams, fraudsters are billing the government for services like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning when these aren't being provided. In California, the government will actually foot the bill for these types of services for the elderly or the needy and Oz says that this is being exploited by fraudsters in a very big way in the Now, as we recently saw with the multi-billion dollar fraud schemes in Minnesota, there appears to be a lot of

coordination in L.A. County specifically, essentially organized crime, to pull off these scams on taxpayers. Oz has suggested that this is largely tied to the Russian Armenian mafia. We were able to speak to Dr. Oz yesterday. Here's how he described the fraud in L.A. and in California more generally. Give you a number, it's going to chill you. We have about one in ten dollars. in America and home health care just in Los Angeles. So other home health care systems around the country, they're all suffering because the money gets pulled. So we began to notice, this is before I came into the administration,

but that there was an increase, about a sevenfold increase in the available hospice in California. That doesn't make any sense. We don't have seven times more people dying, what's going on. Then you begin to look at the individual hospices. Again, it's for end of life. So not everyone should survive. 100% survival rate in these hospices. Now, Oz has previously suggested that there's potentially tens of billions of dollars in fraud statewide.

Now, obviously, that would be theft and a huge burden on taxpayers. But Oz has really emphasized that this is extremely harmful to seniors in California. Seniors are being used by scammers. They're being signed up for services that they're not actually receiving. And then when they really do need care, they're not getting it at all or it's being significantly delayed. I met many patients. One woman, I just can't forget, get her out of my mind, had a brother that she loved dearly,

and he'd had some health problems. He was fine. He was living by himself. He was approached by a young woman who said, hey, listen, you know, I've got some things I can bring you to help you out if you want to just sign this document. He signs a document. What the document said was that you're giving up all your health care to go into hospice.

Which is, by the way, that's the deal, right? If you're going to pass away anyway within a few months, because you've got metastatic cancer, you don't need to have all those ICU and protections and all these extra crazy things you might happen. Do you just want to be able to be made comfortable? Signs of documents, and lo and behold, he has a health problem. He doesn't have access to care because he gave up his insurance, and the man died. He died.

What sort of action has Oz and CMS taken so far? He's been referring cases to the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, and he spoke to Pam Bondi and Cash Patel, and this is on everyone's radar. And last week, he gave government. Governor Gavin Newsom, a corrective action plan with a 21-day deadline to address this fraud. Now, that letter prompted Newsom to file a civil rights complaint with HHS accusing Oz of, quote, baseless and racially charged allegations. He says that in one of the videos Oz made exposing this apparent fraud, he singled out the Armenian community unfairly. The complaint asked HHS to investigate if

Oz violated federal civil rights law in that video. We asked Oz about this action from Gavin Newsom. Here's what he told us. I wrote a letter and I visited it because I care. I want him to care as much as I do about the most vulnerable people in California. I do think political patronage might be part of this. These are issues that he should deal with internally. Frankly, all I care about is stopping the hemorrhage of money into this area and making

sure people aren't hurt. Well, the amounts of defrauded taxpayer money, tens of billions as you've outlined, It's just truly outrageous. Let's hope we do see some real consequences for those involved. I mean, I thank you so much for reporting. You're welcome. Raise your hand if you've been putting off a dental cleaning, an annual checkup, or honestly any kind of doctor's appointment.

Yeah, my hand's up too. But now our sponsor ZockDoc is here to help. Zocdoc is a free app and website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors so you can find someone you love. Whether you're looking for dermatology, dentistry, primary care, eye care, or one of the other 200-plus specialties offered on ZocDoc, you can easily search by specialty or symptom to build the care team that's right for you.

View thousands of verified patient reviews to get a real sense of who your doctor is. Then check their real-time availability and book instantly. No phone tag, no waiting around. Appointments made through ZocDog happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to Zocdoc.com slash wire

to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. That's ZOCDOC.com slash wire. Zocdoc.com slash wire. Thanks Zocdoc for sponsoring this message. Nancy Guthrie, the mother of today's show host, Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, over the weekend, with investigators fearing the worst. Joining us now with the latest is Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake. So, Lyndon, this case has gripped the nation. It's absolutely terrifying.

What's the latest? Yeah, well, you can imagine how many people are investing this story. we all have mothers, grandmothers. This was an 84-year-old woman who went home on a Saturday night, and her church friends realized she was not at church on Sunday and alerted her families. And now we're getting these details that just are shocking. Time is of the essence in this case because when Nancy Guthrie was first reported missing on Sunday, they said she had this medication that she couldn't go 24 hours without. Well, now we're entering day four of this search and that is a dire need. But we're also learning more about the crime scene. And we're also getting withheld information

about the crime scene that could just point to how this case is turning more from a missing person's case into something that other authorities are describing how you would handle a homicide investigation. So the new information that's coming out Tuesday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Daniels did call this a crime again saying Nancy was taken during the night against her will. There have been reports about her Apple Watch, something disconnecting around 2 a.m. Christopher Nanos was asked on Tuesday at the press conference if he could narrow down the time frame of Nancy's disappearance and he wouldn't give any more. details on that. I really don't want to get into narrowing down the time because narrowing it down

means we could miss some tips and leads. We're working to see if that time can be tightened up. Other things that he wouldn't give details on which other outlets have reported. Chris Daniels wouldn't say if there was blood found at the scene, but the LA Times and CBS reported that there was blood at the scene and there were signs of forced entry into her home. So there was blood that was found inside the house and you're testing it for DNA. How much I'm not saying there's blood inside that house or outside that house. What I'm saying is our team processed a scene like you would. Think of any crime scene. We go in and we process it. Another thing that he wouldn't confirm giving limited information on is what the crime scene

looked like. He wouldn't give details on the suspicious circumstances that led to believe that a crime happened. Something else that right now, we don't have camera footage, ring camera footage, any footage from that neighborhood in Catalina Hills outside of Tucson is being withheld. Nanyos said that stuff is being processed right now, but at the press conference on Tuesday, he said he doesn't know if that video is going to be released. They're also processing possible DNA samples at the scene, but that could take time. A reporter asked Chris Nanyos about an Amazon driver that went up to the house on Monday evening, and Chris Nanyos, the sheriff said the crime scene is cleared. We turned that over to the family. This was less than 24 hours after she was reported

missing that a crime scene, which they did label a crime scene, was cleared. I spoke to to a former police captain, Joshua Sherard, director of burner law enforcement, about why they might have cleared the crime scene so quickly. I've spent multiple days, four, five, seven days in a house-sized crime scene because there was just more to process and more to process and more to process. So to clear a crime scene in the matter of, you know, 24 hours or less tells me that there there's a little bit more targeted search than they're letting on. Either that or there just is nothing to process there, which is kind of hard.

to believe at this point. So I think that moving forward, we're going to see that hopefully that they've identified at least a person of interest at this point and are trying to verify that with the physical evidence that they found on the scene. So what are the next steps? Well, right now, they're looking at every single lead. And Chris Nanyos did say, unless something big breaks in the case, they wouldn't have another press conference until Thursday. So what happens right now is when they're looking at those leads, they're taking in every little thing. A big thing happened on Tuesday, TMC said they received an unverified ransom node for the return of Nancy Guthrie with millions of dollars of Bitcoin. They said the sender had a legit Bitcoin address that was

asking for the millions of dollars. They've turned that over to the Pima County Sheriff's Office and authorities of the Sheriff's Office are now looking into that. We haven't heard much from Savannah, but on Monday night she did send out this plea on Instagram with a quote that said, we believe in prayer, we believe in voices being raised in unison, in love and hope. We believe in goodness, we believe in humanity. Above all, we believe in him. She thanked everyone for their prayers and ended it with bring her mom home. Terrible. Lyndon, thanks for reporting. The CFO of a federal agency providing aid to Africa will plead guilty to taking bribes. Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak revealed back in May that the African Development

Foundation was doing exactly what the Trump administration suspected its larger counterpart, USAID, of doing. using foreign aid to enrich D.C. insiders. On Friday, the U.S. Attorney for D.C. announced that Matthew Zahue would plead guilty to one of the actions laid out in Luke's story, admitting to accepting bribes and lying to law enforcement. Luke joins us now to discuss. So, Luke, first, remind us what exactly this agency is. Hey, John, absolutely. The African Development Foundation is a federal agency that not many people knew existed until it became a hero to Democrat politicians and some media outlets. when its staff locked the doors to prevent Doge auditors from entering. So back in May, I spoke to a number of former staff who told me the agency would send money

to African groups, which made it look like it was fulfilling its mission. But then the African groups would send the money, part of the money, back to the U.S. to do things like pay staff at its D.C. office and their friends. And so this agency was getting such support from Democrats in the media that when I showed up at Zayhew's house in May and told him I was a journalist, he glanced. He gladly spoke with me. Take a listen. So it was one of those guys and Peter Morocco, at least that we recognize those three.

Yeah. So when they show up, we didn't let them in, they eventually threatened the building security with a gentleman that present himself as a marshal, so they let them in. then the force that we're in. One instance involved no-bid contracts to an African company called Ghanium Limited, which was owned by a friend of Zayhuz named Mena Gekor. One of those contracts was for travel during COVID when nobody was traveling. I asked him about that.

Ghana provides basically IT services and administrative administrative administrative administrative services to us. Logistics, administrative, logistics, administrative, and IT. So it was like 800,000 total. I can add down the number. Did they do like... I doubt the number very much.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Because they didn't do like $800,000 worth of work? No, no, no, no, no. It's on a contract. But after that, they had a grant. So the grant is a... So Ghanium did have a grant?

Yes, did I have a grant. Yes. That has nothing to do with the contract. How did you know the owners? I would, I would, I would do an L. He was in D.C. It was, it was big. It was in the U.S. then he returned home.

As a guy, African, that's where he's returning home. Okay, so it was actually an American. No, I think he's an, I don't, he's American. Yeah, it might be an American, but I know he's from Kenya. Okay. Did you know him prior to working at ADF? If I know it in me personally, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, yeah. Yeah. Zayu has now admitted that Gekor didn't do any work, but kept more than $100,000 and paid him $12,000 in kickbacks. The rest was used to pay bills for the agency, making it look like more money was going to Africa instead of bureaucratic overhead. That was just one troubling example I found, and others involved officials beyond just Zahue.

Just really brazen levels of fraud, as you've outlined. So U.S. AID has all. already been abolished, as we've reported. I'd imagine that this agency is next to go. You'd think. Hours after Zayhu's plea deal was announced, Senator Mike Lee introduced an amendment to abolish the African Development Foundation. But it failed.

Here's Lee. Republicans acting alone could have, would have and should have defunded this today. But instead, what was the result? Well, it was defeated. All Democrats voted to table it, and they were joined by just enough Republicans, just a small handful of them to table this measure with a vote of 58 to 42. I look forward, let's just say, to hearing my colleagues explain this vote. Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Sher asked all 11 Republicans why they voted not to defund this agency, and none replied.

They were Senators Boosman, Capito, Collins, Kramer, Graham, Hoven, McConnell, Moran, Murkowski. Tillski, Tillis, and Wicker. Well, maybe they should have all read the Daily Wire Report first. Luke, excellent reporting, as always. Thanks. 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.