Morning Wire - U.S. Secures Iran’s Airspace & Walz Wilts Under Pressure | 3.5.26

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

The U.S. & Israel make moves for air dominance over Iran, Governor Tim Walz faces a fraud hearing, and the Pentagon identifies four of the six soldiers killed by an Iranian strike in Kuwait. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2665 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.com Shopify - Sign up for your $1-per-month trial and start selling today at https://Shopify.com/morningwire - - - 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

Iran's murderous terrorist leaders are paying for their crimes against America, and they are paying in blood. The Trump administration tightens its grip on Iran, announcing complete control over the regime's airspace and declaring its Navy a thing of the past. The Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated. Pick your adjective. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, March 5th, and this is Morning Wire. Either you're lying or the court's line, and I'm just asking you, which one is it? I just simply know what the attorneys at the agency believed that it was a misinterpretation.

And I would note that those came... Put it me you were trying to hide behind the court, governor. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls and state AG Keith Ellison come under fire on Capitol Hill over their alleged cover-up of fraud in the state. And the Pentagon identifies the six fallen soldiers killed in the Iranian attack over the weekend. Our nation stands with you and we are eternally grateful for your courage, your resiliency, your devotion to this mission and to our nation. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. 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.

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cravings. Let's get you started with 20% off and free rush shipping so you can add lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit takeleen.com and enter wire for your discount. That's promo code wire at takelein.com today. United States ramped up its military operation in Iran on Wednesday, targeting missile sites and naval warships deploying some weapons for the first time since World War II. Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips, is here with the latest on the conflict. So Cabot, a lot happening just in the past 24 hours. Catch us up to speed. Yeah, since our last report, the U.S. and Israel continued to bombard Iranian missile sites,

production facilities, and naval warships. And on Wednesday, in a new sign, the operation was broadening in its scope, a U.S. submarine destroyed an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka. For context, that is more than 2,000 miles from Iran. The Pentagon released footage of the strike, which marked the first time, as John mentioned, since World War II, that a U.S. sub had sunk an enemy ship with a U. a torpedo. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference where he made clear that the U.S., quote, has only just begun to fight. He also offered details on the sinking of that

warship, which was ironically named the Soleimani, in honor of the Iranian general killed in an air strike during President Trump's last term. Last night, we sunk their prize ship. The Soleimani looks like Potus got him twice. An American submarine sunk in Iranian warship. that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Later on, Hegzeth went on to say that the U.S. and Israel are now close to achieving total air superiority over Iran, which obviously will allow them to further ramp up their assault.

He also announced that airstrikes had killed the man responsible for an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump. Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump. got the last laugh. As the fighting continues, it's important to note that the U.S. and Israel have been largely successful at shooting down the vast majority of missiles and drones launched from Iran. But the big question now is just how long we can keep that up. The Pentagon expressed confidence Wednesday that Iran's missile and drone supplies would dry up before our air defense stockpiles ran out. But remember, their weapons are far less sophisticated and easier to build than the expensive high-tech interceptors being used to take them out. So to keep that numbers

advantage the strategy of the U.S. so far has been to first target not just Iranian missile stockpiles, but also the launch sites where they're being sent from and the facilities where they're being manufactured. And to date, that strategy appears to be working. Here's General Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to that point. Iran's theater ballistic missile shots fired are down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours. And their one-way attack drone shots are down 73% from the opening days. Now, as you mentioned earlier, this conflict continues to expand because now more countries are being targeted by Iran. Which other countries have now become involved? Yeah, as the Iranians have

grown more desperate, they've begun indiscriminately targeting military bases and infrastructure in at least 10 different countries. Cyprus has now been added to that list. And some of those missiles have now struck military installations belonging to the UK, France, and Germany. British responded by dispatching new forces to the region and allowing the U.S. to use their airbases for strikes, while the French and Germans expressed a new openness to launching strikes of their own in response. And then on Wednesday, Turkey announced that NATO forces had shot down a missile that had entered their airspace. The missile's final target is not known at this point, but obviously if it had gotten through and hit Turkey or any other NATO member,

it could lead to a massive escalation and trigger the mutual defense clause, which would draw all 32 member states into the conflict. Well, and thus far, no significant allies have come to Iran's aid either. Yeah, we are seeing an isolated Iran for sure. All right. Well, for more on this rapidly developing story, tune into Cabot's new show, Wired in live at 4 p.m. today on Daily Wire. Thanks, George, Jeff. Starting something new like a business or podcast isn't just hard. It can be terrifying, too. So much work goes into the thing that you're not in. entirely sure will work out, and it can be hard to make that leap of faith.

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automatically generating compelling product descriptions, crafting, engaging headlines, and even optimizing your product images to save you valuable time. It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morningwire. Head over to Shopify.com slash morning wire. Again, that's Shopify.com slash morning wire. A tense showdown on Capitol Hill yesterday as Minnesota Governor Tim Walls and Attorney General Keith Ellison sat before the House Oversight Committee.

They were there to answer for billions in federal funds allegedly stolen through fraud in their state. Here with the details is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Bash in Morning Megan. So to start, remind us what exactly prompted this hearing yesterday. Yeah, John, so this hearing is part of a federal investigation into sprawling allegations of. fraud in Minnesota that have been going on for several years. And just before the hearing started, the oversight committee released this new report titled the cost of doing nothing that details some of these allegations. So just to go over a few of them, it included how fraudsters have been exploiting federal programs like nutrition assistance, child care, and Medicaid to the tune of

billions. So housing stabilization services, for instance, ballooned from 2.6 million to over $100 million a year with invoices for services that were never delivered. And federal prosecutors have suggested that up to $9 billion in Medicaid funds could be missing from as many as 14 different Minnesota programs. Perhaps the most infamous example here is a program called Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors say that that single nonprofit stole nearly $300 million in COVID assistance that was supposed to go to feeding vulnerable children, and instead, the directors of this program spent the cash on things like luxury vehicles and properties overseas.

This was the exchange that Chairman Jim Jordan had with Governor Walls. Whistleblowers raised concerns, as the chairman said, auditors raised concerns. Everybody raised concerns. March 30th, 2021, the payments are stopped, and a little over a month later, the payments are restarted. Why didn't you tell the truth about, why you restarted the payments. So as you heard there, the House report alleges that dozens of these NGOs racked up hundreds of violations, and yet the state kept sending them millions of dollars. And Republicans say that Ellison, Walls, and other state officials did

have credible allegations about this fraud way back in 2019, and yet they did nothing. That's what the Republicans allege, and they want to know why. Right. The how much did you know and when did you know it question overhanging all of this? How did Ellison and Wals explain that? Well, you know, both men strongly pushed back against this idea that they did nothing about the fraud. Walls argued that the state has actually taken some steps in recent years to tighten some safeguards. And he says that his state is just being targeted for political retribution. I have taken decisive action. Our cooperation with the FBI and the Department of Justice have led to serious criminal charges for over 75 individuals.

Now, Attorney General Ellison largely echoed that message. He said that his office has prosecuted fraud cases and that they are working alongside federal investigators in order to hold perpetrators accountable. But GOP lawmakers say that the prosecutions that they're pointing to are really just a tiny fraction of the number that they should have been addressing. And meanwhile, state whistleblowers say that when they try to raise red flags about this rampant fraud, Walls and Ellison and other state officials actually retaliated against them. Yeah, let's talk about that allegation. Did the whistleblowers come up at the hearing?

Yeah, very much so. So the report claims that over 30 whistleblowers raised red flags inside state government, but senior officials allegedly retaliated against them instead of going after the fraud. And this was Congressman Brandon Gill raising that issue. Your administration's response to whistleblowers is also been described as, quote, nearly unbearable retaliation. We've heard claims that, quote, they've been denied vacations, promotions, and that it's hurt people's careers to speak out against fraud. Do you think that that had something to do with the prevalence of fraud in your administration? Now, the whistleblowers say that the Walls administration silenced them because they were afraid of, quote, unquote, bad press or lawsuits because so many of the perpetrators of this fraud

do come from the Somali immigrant community. The whistleblowers also say that Walls and Ellison feared loss of political support from that community and also being labeled racist if they acted. So there is still the outstanding question about whether any Minnesota officials actually benefited from some of this fraud. Certainly questions are still swirling around Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. And this investigation is going to continue, so we may get more information yet, John. Yeah, let's hope we do, and certainly a lot of Americans, very interested in seeing if there are eventually consequences for a lot of this.

Megan, thank you so much for reporting. Yep, my pleasure. The Pentagon has identified the six soldiers who were killed Sunday in an Iranian strike in Kuwait miles away from the main army base. Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake joins us now with more. So, Lyndon, what do we know about these individuals who were killed? These are those stories that you hate to tell, but it's important to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for all those. of us living here in the United States. So I can tell you the one of the guys that was killed in that attack

has been identified as Captain Cody Cork. He was 35 years old. His family described him as the life of the party. His parents and stepmother did release his statement. They said he was known for his infectious spirit, his generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him. And for everyone who was blessed to know him, he was from Lakeland, Florida.

These people were from really scattered out throughout the United States. that were all serving there on that same base. Another one of the victims in this attack was Sergeant First Class, Nicole Amor. She was a 39-year-old mother of a high school senior and a fourth grader. And her husband said she was just days away from returning home to them. CNN had reported that Amor had just talked to her husband hours before that attack took place. She was from Minnesota and she had served our country for more than two decades. Another victim is Sergeant First Class Noah Deegians.

He was described as the kind of guy who would just all. always help you out. And his military people would say that that's rare. Oftentimes you would find someone that would just do anything for you and that's what he was described as. He was a husband and a father who loved practicing martial arts with his son in Nebraska is where they lived. The martial art studio is now setting up a college fund for his kid. Another victim was Sergeant Declan Cody. He was just 20 years old from Iowa. He was one of the youngest in his class and his father said that his son stood out among them. While he was deployed, he was studying science. He was taking these online classes at Drake University.

Late last night, two other soldiers who were killed in the strike were identified. According to a ward department press release, it's 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O'Brien from Iowa and 54-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan, who was from California. Major O'Brien was confirmed dead from an Iranian kamikaze drone while operating out of a trailer, while Chief Warrant Officer Marzan is believed to be deceased. A medical examiner will certify the identification. That's according to a separate press release from the Pentagon.

And I mentioned they were from all over the country, but they were all assigned the 103rd Sustainment Command. What do we know about that incident? Yeah, so this is what happened. And Secretary of War Pete Hexed says this is one of those things that he describes as a squatter missile, meaning that this missile was the one that was able to get through the air defense, whereas the air defense blocked everything else. He said that the missile hit a tactical operation center that was fortified, but there was just that one projectile that made it through, and that was the one that killed the six soldiers.

And Trump did say that the United States will avenge their deaths. He added that we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. So again, those in the Trump administration just paying their respect to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Indeed. Lyndon, thanks for reporting. Thanks. Thanks for waking up with us and for those listening to the show.

You can also watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening. More news you need to know.