Morning Wire - U.S. Defends Tanker Seizure & Senate Subsidy Standoff | 12.12.25

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

American forces seize an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the Senate shoots down competing bills on the future of health care, and a prominent college football coach is fired from his position��then arrested. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2532 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Ethos - Get your free life insurance quote at https://Ethos.com/WIRE UATX - To apply to the University of Austin, visit https://UAustin.org - - - 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

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Trouvee de petitions, like one other. Ones across the U.S. of international piracy after military forces seize a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker. It was seized for very good reason. What happens to the oil on that ship? Well, we keep it, I guess.

I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor, John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, December 12th. This is Morning Wire. Three-fifths the senator's duly chosen and sworn. Not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. The Senate showdown over Obamacare subsidies ramps up as votes on dueling health care plans fall short. And after being fired by the university, the now former Michigan head football coach is arrested on suspicion of assault. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This episode is sponsored by the University of Austin, Texas.

You know college is broken. Activist professors, seminars that feel like struggle sessions, $80,000 a year to hear Hamas chants on the quad while being told America's evil in class. So what's the alternative? It's called the University of Austin, or UATX. At UATX, students are in small seminars taught by great professors. They read the great books of Western civilization to learn from them, not tear them down.

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not another generation of credentialed activists. To apply to the University of Austin, visit uaustin.org. That's u-a-us-tin.org. The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday in an escalation of President Trump's pressure campaign against dictator Nicholas Maduro. Here to talk about the situation is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Morning, Tim. So a major escalation here from the Trump administration.

What is the latest on this tanker? Yeah, Bloomberg was first to report this news earlier on Wednesday. But then President Trump himself confirmed it later that day at a roundtable with business. leaders. Here's that moment. An interesting day from the standpoint of news. As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized, actually.

Daily Wire's Mary Margaret Ollahan tried to get a little bit more information out of him, but he wouldn't say much. You see the result, and I guess they probably have released the pictures by now. It was seized for a very good reason. Some administration officials then posted video of the operation that showed U.S. forces dropping onto the tanker and taking control of it. For people watching the show, they will be seeing that footage now. Attorney General Pam Bondi explained that the U.S. executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

She added that the oil tanker had been sanctioned because of, quote, its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations. Now, obviously, all eyes on Venezuela for their response. What have we heard so far from the Maduro regime? Well, Maduro is not happy about it. The Venezuelan government condemned the seizure in a statement. Venezuela, quote, strongly denounces and repudiates what constitutes blatant theft

in an act of international piracy. We'll have to wait and see if that strongly worded statement turns into anything more, but this has to be concerning to Maduro. Venezuela is a petro state, which means that petroleum is only, almost all of the economy. The money that the Maduro regime pulls in from oil sales is key to his regime's stability. Because the U.S. has sanctions on Venezuelan oil, Maduro has been forced to do business with regimes that are typically opposed to U.S. interests such as China. And then at deep discounts to make up for the risk of violating U.S. sanctions. If Venezuela is no longer able to sell its oil,

that's going to be a huge blow to Maduro. Meanwhile, in Washington, we have a lot of responses from lawmakers, obviously, controversial move here. What are we hearing from them? Yeah, the response from lawmakers has generally dependent on which side of the aisle they fall on. One of the few exceptions to that role is Senator Rand Paul, who had this to say to News Nation's Hannah Brand. Sounds a lot like the beginning of the war. I'm not really in favor of beginning wars with other countries. Look, I detest Maduro. I detest socialism. I've written a book, The Case Against Socialism. So no law lost for socialism. But I don't think it's really the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries and beginning wars.

But other than Paul, Republicans generally seem okay with the Trump administration's action here. Here's Brandt again with Senator Ted Cruz. And so are you worried that this will ask you into a war? Well, I don't think we're going to see a war with troops in round combat. But I'll tell you this, if you're an archer trafficker and you're thinking about getting on a speedboat that is filled with a bunch of cocaine, you're going to. you're having second thoughts right now because President Trump is saving the lives of Americans.

So a big escalation, but we're not sure yet where this wall had. Well, we'll be tracking it and have you back on to report what comes next. Tim, thanks so much for reporting. Good to be on. This episode is sponsored by Epo's. When we take proactive steps to secure our family's financial stability through life insurance, something remarkable happens. Instead of constantly worrying about what if, we can focus on what matters most, being fully present for the memories we're creating today, knowing that tomorrow is already taken

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Again, that's et hos.com slash wire. Application times and rates may vary. The battle over Obamacare is in full swing. Democrats are pushing to extend subsidies while Republicans offer alternatives. Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. So Amanda, as we've been covering here, there's been this looming Obamacare deadline approaching and that set up a big fight over health care more generally. We just had two votes in the Senate yesterday on this issue. Tell us how did those votes go? So neither of these bills passed. The Democrat-backed bill called the Lower Health Care Cost Act. That would extend Obamacare subsidies, which are technically tax credits for another three years. These started back in 2021. and they were only supposed to be in place for two years, but Democrats extended them until December 31st. The plan is pricey. It's expected to cost taxpayers about $83 billion.

But Democrats argue that this extension is necessary. Otherwise, more than 20 million Americans will see their health care costs more than double on average. Republicans dispute this. We spoke to GOP Senator Ron Johnson about this, and here's what he told Morning Wire. 22 million of the 24 million people will still get their sense. subsidies, the original Obamacare subsidies, which subsidized the insurance at 91% of the premiums. Okay. So their premiums won't double. Going from zero to an eligible amount is an infinite increase. You can't call that, you can't put that as doubling premiums. The people we're talking

about about 1.6 million people whose subsidies completely go away. That I'm willing to work with Democrats on. Republicans argue that Obamacare, and specifically these subsidies, are creating massive fraud and another burden on American taxpayers. Here's Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday talking about a recent report from the government accountability office. They submitted 24 fraudulent applications for the ACA subsidies, the Unaffordable Care Act subsidies, Obama care, okay? The investigators did not submit any social security numbers, citizenship documentation, or reported income documents, and 23 of the 24 applications were still approved. The GAO report also found that multiple people,

were utilizing the same Social Security numbers to openly defraud the American taxpayers. The GAO also found it more than $94 million was sent to insurers on behalf of dead people. Okay? Wow, so a pretty shocking number there. So the subsidy extension did not pass, but there was also a GOP-backed bill. What was that calling for and what was its fate? So the GOP-backed bill called the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act of 2025, that let the Obama. care subsidies expire on that Democrat timeline, but it also offered Americans direct payments to

help cover health care costs. This was an idea that was first floated by President Trump last month. The health savings accounts created by the bill would extend to Americans making up to 700% of the federal poverty limit, and the funds would range from $1,000 to $1,500 for 2026 and 27, and the amount would be based on mostly age. The accounts would restrict use for abortion and certain gender transition coverages as well. Republicans needed 60 votes, which would have to include a handful of Democrats, and they didn't get that. And not surprisingly, Republican Senator Rand Paul, he voted against the bill. There are other GOP bills in the works as this deadline approaches. One plan led by Texas Rep August Flugger and Senator Rick Scott, Florida, is called the More Affordable Care Act or MacA.

This plan, they say, would create HSA-style accounts and add a new state waiver program within Obamacare to allow competition and drive down prices. Rand Paul is also floating a plan. He says this is not a watered-down version of Obamacare like other GOP options. Here he is on Fox News. Basically, I legalize the ability to buy insurance across state lines through a co-op. So if people want to join Costco and 44 million people are members of Costco, one person. one person negotiates for them, and they get one enormous group plan. They become the largest group plan in America.

They will have more leverage to bring down prices than the biggest businesses in America. Well, an interesting idea, and I think Americans are open to hearing different ideas. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. The University of Michigan finds itself engulfed in controversy after administrators abruptly fired head football coach Sharon Moore with cause. And now he's in custody on suspicion of assault. Joining us now to discuss this increasingly crazy case out of Michigan

as former Michigan quarterback Craning Company co-host David Cohn. David Cohn, thanks for coming on. Thank you all so much for having me. So I've been honestly kind of shocked by this story. We looked at it initially yesterday and thought, oh, this will be an evening wire, and then it turned into a full-blown story that we felt like was worth covering for sure here.

What exactly is happening in this case? Sad day for Michigan football, a sad day for this country. I just want to say that first. and I'm praying for this man because there's some very serious allegations here. And I'll just say to you now that I heard as far back as September following Michigan's loss to Oklahoma, I had a very reliable source. Someone closely associated with Michigan football, call me and just say, it's widely known that Sharon Moore has engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a staff member

and that that conduct likely resulted in a pregnancy that was terminated. So I heard this in September. I did some due diligence, but every time I would hear something that corroborated, that, I would hear something else that says that's just rumor and this is what happens when football coaches lose football games, right? Come to find out throughout the fall, many other people and former players close to the program had been hearing something very similar. Ward Manuel, the athletic director, decided to fire Sharon Moore with cause. And the reports out of Ann Arbor are that Sharon Moore did not take that news very well and that allegedly

threatened to take his own life. And I don't know if this was directly with his wife or with the staff member that is in question here, possibly threatening to even take her life and he was arrested. I do want to go to as reliable of a source as it gets with the University of Michigan. This is John U.Bacon, and this is directly from him. The U of M employee in question presented irrefutable documentation about Moore's conduct to U of M leaders. The president and regents had seen enough and Ward Manuel fired him. Moore is now detained in protective custody in a mental health institution. So one of the big questions here is who knew what, when?

You said you have this source, which is pretty shocking. You heard this all the way back in September. Do you feel that this is a cover-up situation by the administration? I know that's a major allegation to make, but is that possibly the case here? That is a critical question that you're asking, particularly since we are a week now removed from national signing day. You have national recruits here who, in good faith, sign their name to a national letter of intent because they thought Sharon Moore was going to be the head football coach. How does that impact their decision? I lived through this as a recruit at this very place. This was my alma mater. But again, this is way bigger than football.

We're talking about someone's life and family at stake here. So again, I can't answer what Ward Manuel knew when. I just know that if I'm hearing about something in September, the athletic director certainly must have heard about this sooner. At the same time, how does he separate rumors that he must hear on a daily basis versus something that is credible and he must investigate? I want to go back to John Bacon again, who says U of M conducted an internal investigation interviewing both Sharon Moore and the employee in question. Separately, I presume, this summer, both said no way, know how anything was happening between them, which didn't give U of M much to go on her account flipped yesterday. That's from John Bacon. I'll say something else that I heard from a completely different

source is that possibly the staffer in question was playing ball this entire time, and maybe her father got involved. I haven't been able to confirm that just yet. I'll just say, as a father of two daughters, if that is the case, good for him. And to clarify for the audience, those texts said yesterday, and of course we're talking about this happened Wednesday, later Wednesday, right? So again, lots of questions to be answered here. We do have some sources saying there was an internal investigation initially, maybe some new evidence came to light for the administration that forced their hand here. We'll certainly be learning more in the days to come. Thank you. And I'll just say, I know the internet is running crazy

with this story. There's a lot of false facts out there. I'm doing the best that I can to deliver the information from credible sources who want what's best for the program moving forward. And again, I'll just reiterate that in our household, we're praying for this young man and for his family. And I hope everyone listening does the same. Thank you so much for coming on, Dave. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, 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.