Morning Wire - Government Deadlock Continues & Canada Buys Back Guns | 10.2.25

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

No progress as the U.S. government shutdown continues, New York state issued commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants without requiring a name, and Canada launches a new gun buyback program. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Chevron - Build a brighter future right here at home. Visit https://Chevron.com/America to discover more. Quince - Go to https://Quince.com/WIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. - - - 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

The government shutdown begins as both sides dig in. The Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. Who will flinch first and who will the American people blame? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Vickley. It's Thursday, October 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. Illegal immigrants in Iowa and New York have been working under illegal professional licenses. The name on this official document found on one of 125 illegal immigrant drivers, quote, no name given. And Canada's liberal government rolls out its new voluntary gun buyback program.

What the government is doing with the gun registry is putting in place a much more efficient way for Canadians to voluntarily return prohibited firearms for fair compensation. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to. America is built on hard work and powered by American energy. Chevron has spent $44 billion with local businesses across all 50 states since 2022, fueling infrastructure and communities, all while strengthening local economies. Last year, Chevron increased U.S. production nearly 20% powering communities and businesses from the heartlands to the coast. We're helping to fuel

America's energy advantage, building a brighter future right here at home. Visit chevron.com slash America to discover more. Tensions in Washington remain high as the government shutdown enters its second day after Senate Democrats once again blocked a Republican funding measure on Wednesday. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest from D.C. So Cabot, the shutdown is here. We're now on day two. Where do things stand now?

Yeah, 750,000 federal workers deemed non-essential have already been furloughed. And we expect to see tens of thousands of more sent home in the coming days as more funding. as more funding continues to dry up. Now, as with any shutdown, essential law enforcement and military personnel, obviously are still working, along with folks like air traffic controllers, power grid workers,

the obvious essential services. But unlike past shutdowns, President Trump is stepping in to ensure that federal workers focused on his core policy agenda are deemed essential. For example, the vast majority of immigration enforcement operations

will continue on as usual, while trade officials, working in the office of the U.S. trade representative, will maintain 60% of their staff so they can keep on hammering out those tariff deals. In the past, that would have been 30 or 40%. So Trump wanting to keep his core people there. Over on the Hill, Senate Republicans once again proposed a short-term stopgap that would turn the lights back on until November to allow time for a bigger, broader deal. But Democrats once again voted it down 55-45.

That's the same result we saw Tuesday. So no movement. The Senate will not convene again until Friday. It's almost certain to drag on at least until the weekend. probably well after that at the moment. It just doesn't appear like either side is willing to budge. So the American people hate when this happens, how is each side packaging this? Well, the real battle right now during a shutdown is which side can be most effective at convincing Americans.

The other is to blame. For their part, Democrats are making this all about health care. Remember, they said they would only vote on a budget that included tens of billions of dollars in new funding for Obamacare and Medicaid subsidies. Daily Wires, brand new congressional reporter Amber Joe Cooper was on the hill all day hearing from leadership. She's got more on what we're hearing from minority leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. Chuck Schumer is calling this, quote, Donald Trump's government shut down, saying Republicans have, quote, barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans' health care.

He argues the House passed continuing resolution does nothing to fix the health care mess that they've created. Now, Republicans argued that Democrats could have fought for that funding this fall when the full budget was debated, instead of demanding it be added now to this temporary stopgap measure. They've also been quick to point out that the health care funding Democrats are calling for would also provide billions of dollars in coverage for illegal immigrants. Schumer and others on the left deny that claim, but Republicans like J.D. Vance have pushed back hard saying that's exactly what they're calling for. The Biden administration gave mass parole to millions upon millions of illegal aliens,

and then they simultaneously made those parolees eligible for health care benefits funded by taxpayers. In the one big beautiful bill, President, Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to health care funding for illegal aliens, the Democrats want to turn it back on. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government. It's preposterous for them to run away from it now. Now, President Trump is reportedly thinking this is his opportunity to cut a large swath of workers permanently. Walk us through that. That is an important element here. And part of the reason that there are those in the Trump administration who feel the shutdown could actually have a

silver lining here and open up the opportunity for more trimming of government waste. To that point, Russ Vote, that's Trump's head of the Office of Management and Budget, instructed federal agencies last week before the shutdown to begin making plans for mass layoffs if the lights did go out. And on Wednesday, he told House Republicans that they would begin terminating employees within the next day or two, so they're moving fast. Essentially, their argument is that if your job is considered non-essential, why are taxpayers employing you to begin with? Now, it's unclear just how many federal workers would be laid off under those plans, but if nothing else, it could incentivize Democrat leaders to reach a deal and avoid mass government layoffs.

Here's Trump speaking to that point from the White House earlier this week. The last person that wants to shut down is us now. With that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like. So now the big question becomes which party voters are going to blame for the shutdown. But as the details of why exactly the shutdown took place and what Democrats are demanding become more well-known, those on the right are confident that public perception will flip. And here's Amber Joe again with more on that aspect of this story.

Senate Majority Leader John Dune is calling it a Democrat shutdown and says real people are suffering. He says the only thing standing in the way is Senate Democrats. Well, it's always a gamble to do this. It sounds like they're taking the risk. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. As the weather cools, I'm swapping in the pieces that actually get the job done. Warm, durable, and built to last. and Quince delivers every time with wardrobe staples that will carry you through the season. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere starts at just $60, which is incredible,

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Now available in Canada as well. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash wire. Free shipping and 365-day returns, Quince.com slash wire today. We're continuing to learn more about the illegal immigrant, former superintendent of Des Moina, Iowa Public Schools, who was recently arrested by ICE. Here to discuss the latest on this story is Daily Wire's immigration reporter Jenny Tear. Hey, Jenny. So could you tell us what you've discovered since we've learned of this arrest? Right. So since we've learned of ICE's arrest of Dr. Ian Roberts, that's the ex-superintendant of Des Moines Public Schools, we found some alarming information, taken a deep dive into his background, and found, number of concerning elements. One thing that we learned from federal law enforcement sources recently was that Dr. Roberts had declared on a previous immigration application that he had six children with five different women. Three of those children were born within the same year

of each other. And that application, by the way, was denied. Additionally, we learned from U.S. citizenship and immigration services that Dr. Roberts was actually never checked through the E-Verify system, which would have showed that he was not authorized to work legally in the U.S. due to his citizenship status. He was never checked through that program going back for more than a decade. On top of that, the school district has not been registered, according to their records, with the E-Verify program. So this brings up a number of alarming elements about his past, about the school district's

possible issues with vetting him. You know, they said that he had filled out a form, an employee verification, form, an I-9, and said that he was a citizen on that form. But without the E-Verify check there, they were never able to confirm that he actually lied on that form by saying he was a citizen. So that could have really stopped this all in its tracks. Yeah, indeed. Now, I assume the Trump administration is looking at this on the federal level, correct? Yes. In fact, the Department of Justice has just launched an investigation into the school district over its DEI hiring practices saying that they may have

you know, violated civil rights laws for discriminating during their hiring of different individuals in the school district. For example, on their website, they say that they want to reflect the student demographics with their hiring of employees. So they want it to be race-based according to their website. And they've also stated that they want to prioritize hiring of, quote, people of color. All right, so clearly, like you said, D.E.I. Principles at work here. Now, we're also learning about a federal crackdown on blue states giving illegal immigrants commercial driver's licenses. Again, another thing about licenses being given to illegal immigrants. What can you tell us about this effort? Right. So we've learned that the Oklahoma State Patrol, in conjunction with ICE, has arrested 120 illegal immigrants on the roadways of Oklahoma that we're driving through from Texas. Some of those individuals, had commercial drivers licenses from states like New York and Pennsylvania, where they also found that those driver's license had, quote, no name given on them. This has been a big cause for concern in recent months following a major crash on a highway in

Florida where an illegal immigrant with a commercial driver's license behind the wheel of a truck, a commercial truck, had made an illegal U-turn and killed three individuals tragically. that individual actually came here illegally, was given some permissions under the Biden administration, but not only that he received a commercial driver's license from the state of California. So this is something that the Trump administration is doing their teaming up with Republican states

to really go after this issue. Yeah, that story really shocked the nation and shown a pretty harsh light on the reality of what's going on with these licenses. Jenny, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. 60% of the vans on Amazon Provines of vendors and dependents

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on Amazon. com. The Canadian Federal Government has started the rollout of their controversial

gun buyback program following sweeping bans of what they call assault-style weapons. Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, what do we know so far about Canada's new gun buyback program? Well, this story actually starts way back in 2020. Canada already had relatively restrictive gun laws, at least compared to the United States. But in 2020, after a Nova Scotia man went on a deadly shooting spree, then Prime Minister Trudeau used executive authority to add over 1,500 firearm models to the nation's prohibited list, effectively banning the sale and ownership of entire classifications of firearms that were previously allowed.

So in Canada, can the Prime Minister, with just a stroke of a pen, decide which models of firearms people can and can't have? Basically, yes. Parliament passed firearm reform laws decades before, but those laws essentially gave the Prime Minister's Cabinet authority to decide which specific firearms are banned. So technically, the Cabinet would have to vote on new restrictions, but the Prime minister has authority to appoint or fire his cabinet members at will. So in practice, the prime minister has pretty sweeping authority to enact gun bans. So the bans were enacted in 2020. Why are they just acting on it now? But a large-scale ban like this is a bit of a logistical nightmare to enforce. Not only does

it ban the sale of these firearms, it also makes possibly hundreds of thousands of currently owned firearms illegal. The government offered an amnesty period of two years in which gun owners could surrender their firearms, but that period was repeatedly extended due to a lack of compliance. In the meantime, by the way, the Canadian government also put a complete freeze on the sale of all handguns. But now that the amnesty period is coming to a close, the government is showing no intention of any further extension and is beginning to crack down in full force. What's happening right now is a pilot program exclusively in Nova Scotia, where owners of the now illegal firearms can turn them into the police for a reimbursement of $4 to $700, depending on the model. The plan, though, is to

expand that program to the entire country soon. Now, a funny thing about the rollout of the plan is that government officials insist on calling it a voluntary buyback program. This has drawn a lot of criticism because in reality, the only choice Canadian gun owners are actually being offered is to either turn in their guns, destroy them, or to be in violation of the law, and theoretically have them confiscated in the future and possibly face criminal charges. So it's voluntary in the sense that Canadians have a little bit of say in exactly how their guns are going to be taken away from them. But technically, it's not a complete gun ban, correct? No, it's not a complete ban, but it's just about as far as they could go.

The laws around the prime minister's authority still provide language meant to protect sportsmen. So theoretically, guns commonly used for hunting should be protected. But the language is pretty vague, and it seems like the prime minister really pushed to essentially ban everything that he was legally allowed to. The ban is said to focus on assault-style weapons, which, by the way, is not a term that is clearly defined either in Canadian lines. or in the firearm industry. It's somewhat understood to refer to semi-automatic rifles, like an AR-15 or AK-style rifle, but these bands go pretty far beyond even those.

It bans car beans that fire pistol rounds, as well as 22-caliber semi-attos. But it also bans many guns that aren't semi-automatic at all, including large-caliber bolt-action rifles and even many, but not all, pump-action shotguns. This is, of course, in addition to the fact that handgun sales are now completely prohibited as well. Now, has the government indicated what's going to happen to people if they don't sell back their gun?

Well, this has been a pretty big point of tension in Canadian politics since the bans were enacted. Obviously, images were immediately conjured in people's minds of armed police, raiding the homes of gun owners to confiscate their weapons and arrest the non-compliant, which is an image that the government would certainly like to avoid. But it could be a reality if they really want to push the issue. Public safety minister, Gary Anand Sangri, who's spearheading the program, actually got into some hot water recently when he, was caught on a hot mic, assuring a concerned gun-owning citizen that even if he didn't comply

with the buyback, the police probably wouldn't do anything about it. That attitude might be appealing to gun owners, but the rest of the government sought as an embarrassing allusion to their lack of authority and have since completely backtracked, promising to fully enforce the ban, including confiscation if necessary. So these images of police raids for noncompliance might soon become a reality for Canadians. So this kicked off September 23rd, so we're now one week into this buyback program. We'll follow up and see how it goes. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.