Morning Wire - Virginia Gerrymandering Blocked & Left-Wing Nonprofit Scandal Spreads | 4.23.26

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Democrats’ radical redistricting map hits a legal roadblock, fallout spreads from the bombshell indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Middle Eastern countries pressure Iran to return to the negotiating table — as does the U.S. blockade. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2748 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Quince - Go to https://Quince.com/WIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.  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

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The Democrats' radical redrawing of Virginia's congressional maps hits a legal roadblock. There's a lot of questions about whether this vote is actually going to stick. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, April 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. The fallout spreads from the bombshell indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is a non-profit entity that purports to fight white supremacy. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred. And more countries in the Middle East ratchet up pressure on Iran to come back to the table,

while the Trump administration says the blockade is working. We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade. They're losing $500 million a day. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Today's show is brought to you by Quince. an online retailer that sells high quality, classic clothing and home items made of real materials like cotton, cashmere, leather, silk, linen, et cetera, for extremely affordable prices. And surprisingly,

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Plus that link is going to get you free shipping and 365 day returns. That deal also applies to Canadian listeners as well. So go to Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash wire for free shipping and 365-day returns. That's quince.com slash wire. The fallout from the massive redistricting vote in Virginia this week has already begun, but pending lawsuits in front of the state's Supreme Court could offer hope to Republicans. Joining us now to discuss the legal challenges to the Democrats' most recent move and the consequences from this vote is Daily Wire opinion editor Ben Dominic,

host of the Big Ben show. Ben, thanks for coming on. Yeah, it's great to be with you. This is such a fascinating vote, and there's so many different things that could come out of it. Of course, you know, we are looking at it from the national scale where Republicans already were kind of on their back heels when it came to trying to keep the House. But there's a lot of questions about whether this vote is actually going to stick. Right. Well, there are some legal complaints already about what Democrats have done here with the map in Virginia. One district court already has issued an injunction blocking the certification of this referendum. What are the arguments in that case and what are the odds that the state Supreme Court will actually overturn this?

So first off, the arguments are actually pretty solid. The way that this decision came down, it came from a special session that wasn't even supposed to deal with a question of this nature. There are certain legal requirements when it comes to that in Virginia that were not met. Additional requirements included to have the language posted for this type of decision for more than 90 days. They had not met that. They also didn't actually confine themselves within the Article 2 limits that happened within Virginia that would have had condensed districts that you have probably now seen quite embarrassing ones, including the one that's shaped like a lobster that have been going around.

We'll have more commentary on this, by the way, by the former attorney. General of Virginia Ken Cuginelli and by others as well in the Daily Wire coming forward. But the thing that I think people need to understand is that the Supreme Court in Virginia is a political appointment. You do not get lifetime terms. You do not get to sort of spend your days on the bench forever. And the idea that this Virginia Supreme Court would go out and reverse something that National Democrats spent so much money trying to achieve, it really stretches the imagination. So I think that there's no question. But when it comes to the actual politics of the way that this is going to play out, I really doubt the Virginia Supreme Court is going to

bail out Republicans. They really should have spent some more money and worked harder to try to win what looks like now a very winnable vote. Now, Republicans are saying this is egregious, but Democrats are defending it. They're saying they're just doing what red states are doing. So what's the truth there? Well, the truth is that Democrats are leaving a lot out of this. And let's not pretend for a moment that both parties don't try to, you know, split districts in ways that benefit them the most. But the truth is that the whole kind of cascade that started this was actually the Biden-D-O-J suing Texas over a district in Galveston that ultimately led to blowback for them and giving Texas the opportunity to draw new districts, which they did. And you've seen this play out in states like Indiana. there are still kind of a ticking clock for states like Florida if they're going to end up doing anything prior to these coming up midterms.

But look, I think everybody's looking right now in a house that's so closely divided to get any advantage that they can. And when it came to Virginia, I mean, even Abigail Spanberger didn't want to get a map this extreme. Her proposal was for nine to two in terms of majority Democrat districts. They ended up passing 10 to 1. They did it by a lot less than I think they thought they were going to win by. And that's because of the backlash from rural Virginians who understand, essentially you're taking away their voice in Washington. What was the final split of the vote? It's going to end up being around 4%, which is much better, of course, than Donald Trump did when he was running in Virginia against Kamala Harris.

And I can tell you that it's really a situation where this is not a Commonwealth that has been trending in the right direction, thanks to all the bureaucrats in Fairfax who want to run your lives. Not just in Virginia, by the way, but across the country as well. Well, we'll see if this sits well with voters going forward. Ben, thank you so much for coming on. It's always great to be with you. 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 entirely sure will work out, and it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Luckily, our sponsor, Shopify is on your side to help you launch and achieve your dreams. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and an incredible 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.

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conspiracy to commit money laundering. That's acting attorney general Todd Blanche alleging that a prominent left-wing group paid Nazis and members of the KKK more than $3 million, then raised money from people who were alarmed by those groups. Joining us now with the details is Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak. So, Luke, this broke on Tuesday, and we touched on it in yesterday's show, but we wanted to bring you on to unpack it since you've been covering the SPLC for years now. So first, they've defended this practice as supposedly paying informants, similar to what law enforcement might do. What does the indictment actually say? Hey, Georgia. So first, it says the SPLC profiled specific white supremacists on their website as the individuals they were trying to stop while paying

those exact same individuals. For example, it paid $70,000 to the one-time director of a faction of the Aryan nations who was featured on an extremist file on the SPLC's website. And second, some of these so-called sources were actually the leaders of these groups, which is pretty different from a mole that kind of infiltrates and listens. The SPLC apparently wasn't even in contact with some of the people it was funneling money too. In one case, it paid $160,000 to somebody who then sent money to a grand wizard of the KKK and other extremists. Joe Biden said again and again that the 2017 alt-right rally in Charlottesville was what inspired him to run for president. Well, it turns out that the SPLC paid more than $270,000 to somebody in the leadership group of that event,

who, quoting the indictment here, made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event. Now, the indictment says all this amounts to defrauding donors who thought they were giving to dismantle white supremacy, not fund it. So it sounds like a case of the demand for racism in America exceeding the available supply. Now, critics of the SPLC, though, say they're not actually surprised by these allegations. Why not? Well, the SPLC was founded back in the 60s by a direct mail salesman named Morris D's who had these tactics down to a science. What do you have to tell people to get them to mail back a check? The problem, if you want to call it that, is that these overt hate groups essentially died away.

And that left SPLC struggling with how does it keep bringing in the money? And so it did two things. Number one, it claimed that groups like the KKK were still running rampant in the U.S. And it also redefined hate groups to include religious and center-right groups. Now, we spoke with Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has felt some of those effects. Here's what he told us. They have, through their hate group list, essentially weaponized that list in corporate America, in the federal government, when the Biden administration was in the White House.

to punish their political opponents. ADF, where I work, has been lost access to essential technological services because of their hate group lists and many other organizations have as well. If the DOJ is able to prove its case and ultimately get a guilty verdict, then I don't think the SPLC is going to have a future.

The indictment is based on SPLC employees allegedly lying to banks when opening bank accounts to hide those payments to Nazis, telling the banks that the entities were not controlled by anyone but them, when in fact they were fronts for the SPLC. Now, are the offenses that are listed in the indictment things that people would actually go to prison for? Well, they can, and this is going to be heard by a jury in Alabama, not D.C. So this actually could have teeth. Now, at a minimum, the indictment calls for forfeiting the proceeds obtained by the offenses.

Now, SPLC's fundraising doubled after Charlottesville, for example. And that's the criticism that has been leveled inside and outside of SPLC for years, that it's basically a financial racket. It's hoarded more than $700 million in net assets, including tens of millions in offshore tax havens. An interesting move considering non-profits don't pay taxes. Luke, thanks for reporting. Thank you. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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national security and foreign policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. Victoria, great to see you again. Wonderful to be with you. So things are very much touch and go right now with this extended ceasefire. Where do things stand now in this standoff? No, we're definitely in a sort of holding pattern for the moment. And I think the real reason for it is the, disarray of Iranian leadership. Essentially, the 40 top people in Iran were taken out in that

original strike in late February, and they haven't recovered. And we're not sure we even have a Supreme Leader. And bear in mind, the previous Supreme Leader Kahani had been in place for 40 years and had been a very, very stern and firm decision-maker. He was the ultimate decider in the Iranian regime. And not only is he gone, but everyone around him, is gone, except for his son, Muchtaba, who became the Supreme Leader, but we haven't seen him. I mean, he hasn't even done a proof of life video in the month that he's been Supreme Leader. So I think you do have disarray. I think the president does want to give them a chance to accept the terms, but he wants to be confident that whoever is accepting them has the authority to do so.

Now, there's been some speculation about a coup or civil war going on behind the scenes. Is there a sense that the military leadership is taking control of the political leadership in Iran? The short answer is we don't know. Bear in mind, Iran has been at 1% Internet access now for almost two months. It's inconceivable what's going on inside that country. I certainly think it's fair to say there's a power struggle going on. And I think this will all hinge on that nuclear program. I think the IRGC officers believe that to be their only time.

ticket to relevance and to power. And so they're going to fiercely resist any attempt to relinquish that enriched geranium or give up their terrorist proxies or their missile programs. The prospect of a second round of talks in Pakistan kicking off Tuesday went down in flames, obviously. The White House says they're giving Iran's leadership more time to get unified on a proposal. And you're saying here, we're not seeing any outward sign of that. Are you seeing anything else? Is the Trump administration still feel confident that they're going to get some sort of proposal? Well, I do believe they think that every day that passes makes their leverage greater because of the economic pressure that Iran is under because of that Internet outage.

And then they stop paying salaries for the police and the soldiers as of this week. So those guys aren't getting paid. That bill is going up every day. And the currency problems, the inflation problems, they're not. getting better. And then you also have the region turning on them. So you have UAE opening investigations into their illicit terrorist financing networks through Dubai. You have the government of Syria cracking down on the drug running that's going on with Hezbollah and Capdagon, which was another source of income for the regime. All of those individually wouldn't bring down the government,

but collectively they start to put more and more pressure on them to find some kind of economic lifeline. China, obviously a major player here. Do we see signs that China is putting pressure on Iran to offer a deal? Yeah, China has an interesting situation here. They have disproportionately the largest oil reserve system in terms of stockpiling supplies. And that whole ecosystem for the Chinese energy world has thrived on the cheap Iranian and cheap Venezuela and cheap Russian gas that they have secured over the course of the last seven years. years. And when you start to cut that off for them, and they can't get as much supply, you have energy prices going up in China in a way that's a problem for them. So I do think they have a

powerful motivator to wrap this up. Now, that said, we just interdicted a ship this week, which was carrying the chemicals you need to create for missiles that was coming from China to Iran. And so they are also, as the president called it, a nice little gift. This is a deeply dangerous thing for them to be doing, to be expected, of course. But it shows you that they want to meddle, but their capacity to do so is fairly limited. Well, we'll see if Iran being starved of their much-needed financial flow from the strait does eventually force them back to the table. Victoria, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, you can now watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this

evening. More news you need to know.