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

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Iran desperately fights to maintain their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a sweeping investigation in Southern California reveals a breeding ground for hospice care fraud, and the battle over the SAVE America Act splits Capitol Hill right down party lines. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2677- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text 'WIRE' to 83848 to learn more.Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.com- - -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

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your agent of voyage. The conditions can apply. As bombs continue to hammer Iran, the real pressure point may be in the Strait of Hormuz. For years, the Iranian regime has threatened commercial shipping in U.S. forces and 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 12th, and this is Morning Wire. A new investigation finds that Van Nuys, California, may be able to be. 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 Save Act 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 in 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 Alliance defending Freedom have just announced that the state of Vermont has agreed to change its policy that discriminated against Christian foster families. Families like the Woeatis and Gantz were model foster parents. They had taken in siblings and even focused on caring for kids with struggles like fetal alcohol syndrome. And these parents had lost their foster licenses because they refused to compromise their faith 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 out of Oregon last year, this win in Vermont means we're winning the battle, folks. I can't tell you how inspiring it is to learn about the courage of these families, moms and dads who have answered the call to care for vulnerable children who deserve a loving home. Go to join ADF.com slash wire and find out more about this incredible victory and how Alliance defending Freedom is standing up for everyday families and protecting our constitutional rights. That's join ADF.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 and celebrate this amazing victory with us. 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. 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 straight-of-hormuz anyway, despite this risk, and sort of downplayed the potential danger. I think they should use the strait. Look, we took out just about all of their mindships in one night. Just about all of their navy is gone.

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-Aran 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 straits. So it's not a long-term solution. Right. Now, throughout this conflict, one of the big stories was the explosion at a girls' 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. And 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. I wish it hadn't happened.

I'm sorry it happened. I can assure it wasn't intentional. And 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 as they 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. We'll be live from DailyW. HQ. Kevin, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. This episode is sponsored by Brickhouse Nutrition. You've probably heard about those weight loss injections that everyone's been talking about. And for good reason. The results can be pretty incredible. They work by helping regulate blood sugar and keeping your appetite in check. But here's the thing. Not everyone wants to deal

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wire at takelein.com today. 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. So 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 L.A. County because of the

explosive rate of growth of those programs. So now about 40% nationwide of all hospice care providers are located in L.A. 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 sevenfold increase in the available hospice in California, this doesn't make any sense. We 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 1,800 hospice programs in L.A. 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 Van Nuys 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. What 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 the 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 this story needs to get out. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yep, my pleasure. 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 as Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcand, Morning Cameron. So the Save Act has become yet another line in the sand in D.C. 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 ID 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 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, you know, if they get rid of the filibuster, one, he doesn't think they have enough support for it. And two, he thinks that 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 a 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 going to 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 trail? 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, if 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. Thank you.