transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 3:
[00:34] President Trump extends the Iran ceasefire, giving the fractured regime more time to come to the table.

Speaker 4:
[00:40] Iran can get themselves on a very good footing if they make a deal. I want to make it not a good deal, I want to make a great deal.

Speaker 3:
[00:46] I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, April 22nd. This is Morning Wire.

Speaker 5:
[01:00] Typically, when a member is facing serious charges, they will just resign from Congress. You saw two examples of that last week.

Speaker 6:
[01:07] Another resignation in Congress and high-profile departure from the White House. We look at the shakeups and the new leadership taking the reins.

Speaker 3:
[01:15] And Congress launches an investigation after several nuclear and aerospace scientists die or disappear under mysterious circumstances.

Speaker 7:
[01:23] There are 11 individuals. Five of them went missing. Six of them were dead. Of those six, two of them were murdered.

Speaker 6:
[01:33] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

Speaker 8:
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Speaker 6:
[02:36] President Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely just a day before it was set to expire and also said the blockade will remain in place.

Speaker 3:
[02:45] Here with the latest is Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce. Morning, Tim. So a lot has changed in a very short time here. The clock was ticking on that ceasefire. Now it's extended suddenly with this announcement from Trump. So where exactly do things stand now? Yeah, the president has given the faction inside Iran that wants a peace deal, some room to negotiate. He announced over True Social that he would extend the ceasefire because of the chaos that the war has caused inside the Iranian regime. Now, hours before that post, Trump had actually said on CNBC that he didn't want to do that and that he was prepared to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges.

Speaker 4:
[03:22] It's not my choice, but it will also hurt them. It'll hurt them militarily. They use the bridges for their weapons, for their missile movements. They're trying to move the missiles because we've obliterated most of their missiles and they're trying to move their missiles around, even during the ceasefire, which I think was a good thing because we're totally loaded up.

Speaker 3:
[03:40] Those strikes have now been put off, but the president said that the blockade on Iranian shipping will remain in place. This will be the state of the war at least until Iran comes up with a unified proposal. The longer Iran takes to unify, the more damage will be done to their economy as the United States blocks their oil from reaching global markets. In that CNBC interview, Trump made clear that he won't be rushed into a deal and that all the pressure should remain on Iran. And on that, he took aim at Democrats for trying to pressure him to end the conflict.

Speaker 4:
[04:11] I want to make a good deal. I'm not going to be rushed. I have all the time in the world and I don't want to be rushed by people that are really treasonous as far as I'm concerned with here. And it's just, you know, I watch this low IQ guy, Hakeem Jeffries, he's a totally low IQ person and he's always ranting and raving, oh, this war is so terrible, terrible. They shouldn't be saying that when we're in the midst of a negotiation, because it does hurt us somewhat. It gives the other side some hope, and I don't want them to have hope.

Speaker 3:
[04:38] Now pressure on Iran is building. For the first time since this conflict started, Beijing on Monday called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened. That's significant because China has been one of Iran's biggest backers, but it is also one of Iran's biggest customers for crude oil. So the longer the US blockade stays in place, the more China's economy suffers as well. Right, lots of strain on China because of the situation. Speaking of the blockade, yesterday we saw it expanded well outside the strait to the Indian Ocean. What can you tell us about that? Right, the US military is now chasing down sanctioned vessels wherever it can find them apparently. The War Department announced yesterday that it had caught an Iranian linked cargo ship called the Tiffany, which the Pentagon called stateless but said was used by Iran to traffic sanctioned goods. The Pentagon said in a statement, quote, as we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran anywhere they operate. According to reports, the Tiffany had loaded up Iranian crude from Karg Island before it arrived at a port in China in late March. The president spoke vaguely about the seizure yesterday on CNBC.

Speaker 8:
[05:48] Here's some of that.

Speaker 4:
[05:49] We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn't very nice, a gift from China, perhaps. I don't know, but I was a little surprised, but because I have a very good relationship, and I thought I had an understanding with President Xi, but that's all right. That's the way war goes, right?

Speaker 3:
[06:05] And with all this going on, we also have Trump pleading for the women about to be executed in Iran. What is happening with that situation? Yeah, throughout all of this, Iran continues to put dissidents to death. And it's not clear how that will affect negotiations, but the president did yesterday try to curb those executions. As you mentioned, Trump did put out a post on True Social yesterday with a message for Iran to spare and release those eight women. The president said that if the regime were to let them go, it would, quote, be a great start to our negotiations. Many people, including us, praying for the victims of this regime. Tim, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 3:
[07:41] We've seen more shakeups on Capitol Hill and in the White House this week, while new leadership is filling some key positions in the administration.

Speaker 6:
[07:49] Joining us now with all the latest and what to expect next is Daily Wire political reporter, Cameron Arcand. So Cameron, let's start with this third resignation from Congress in a matter of just a few days. Who was the most recent person to leave and why?

Speaker 9:
[08:04] I mean, it's just an insane amount of turnover that we're seeing in Congress these past couple of weeks, but the latest member to exit is Representative Sheila Sherifles McCormick. She's a Democrat out of Florida who is facing federal criminal charges on top of the fact that the House Ethics Committee found her guilty on over 25 violations. She allegedly took $5 million from this FEMA contract overpayment and then funneled it to her 2021 congressional campaign. And so now her brother is facing charges, as well as the guy who prepared her taxes could also be going to prison over this as well. So we'll see what happens on the federal prosecution end of this. But when it came to the internal processes in the House to hold members accountable, they said that she could have even potentially faced an expulsion vote. And if that did happen, she would have been only the seventh member of Congress ever to face expulsion. And we saw some of this ball rolling last week when we saw Eric Swalwell leave because of sexual misconduct allegations that are also under investigation. And we also saw Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez resign as well. They were both facing the potential of expulsion if they didn't take those actions either. Meanwhile, we're seeing South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace put forth a measure to potentially expel Florida Republican Cory Mills as he's also facing a very broad range of allegations related to his conduct in office as well. So quite a bit of upheaval in the House of Representatives, a lot of turnover, and we're going to be seeing quite a few special elections on top of the ongoing midterm election cycle.

Speaker 6:
[09:47] Now, speaking of departures from Washington, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez, Dorema resigned on Monday. What led to her resignation?

Speaker 9:
[09:56] So there was a report in the New York Post a while back alleging that she had an inappropriate relationship with staffer as well as allegations of her potentially drinking alcohol while on the job. There was also an inspector general taking a look at some of the allegations related to her conduct while in office as well. And this ultimately were some of the reported reasons that have led to her resignation. From a public perspective, she has said that she is now going to the private sector for work, and she has also blamed, quote, deep state actors for spreading these allegations that have now made waves here. But this is, you know, we've seen other cabinet secretaries resign or go to other jobs in recent weeks. We saw that departure of Pam Bondi to the private sector. We don't know what her role is yet. We also saw Kristi Noem go to another role as well. But in terms of Doremer, the really important detail here is she hasn't made a ton of headlines since she took office outside of these allegations. But the reason why she was nominated to this role had to do with when Trump was running to bolster that union support. She ended up getting the backing of Teamsters President Sean O'Brien when she was first nominated. So the thing I'm watching for incredibly closely here is who is the next labor secretary and is that going to be someone who would carry that torch in terms of that union support for the president?

Speaker 6:
[11:22] Now we've discussed Doremer, but you also mentioned Noem and Bondi, who have also departed. What do we know about their new replacements?

Speaker 9:
[11:29] So Keith Sonderling is now the acting secretary of labor. There's not a whole lot known about him publicly yet. We don't know if he's going to be permanently filling that position. Same goes for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who's taking over for Pam Bondi. Blanche, though, has already made a big splash. He and FBI Director Cash Patel announced a very high-profile indictment yesterday of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a left-wing organization known for targeting groups it considers hateful. I was at the presser for it, and we're digging into this now. We're going to have more soon. But just to sum this up, a federal grand jury indicted the group on a series of fraud charges for directing money to right-wing extremists, and what they say is part of their informant operation. Now, these are, of course, allegations at this point, and we're going to learn more. But this is a big announcement by some of the new leadership in the administration. And again, we'll have more coming on that soon.

Speaker 6:
[12:25] Cameron, thanks for reporting.

Speaker 9:
[12:27] Thank you.

Speaker 10:
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Speaker 6:
[13:03] The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into nearly a dozen scientists who have died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. All had links to US nuclear or aerospace programs.

Speaker 3:
[13:16] Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the details. Megan, so this is a story that started out more as tabloid reporting than anything else, but then more reputable news outlets began to take it seriously. Now, lawmakers are calling for an investigation. What do we actually know?

Speaker 7:
[13:35] Yeah, John. So the basic outline here is the stuff, I have to say, of a Hollywood thriller. So in the last four years, 10, possibly even 11 scientists and researchers, all with ties to aerospace, nuclear, or advanced defense research, have either died unexpectedly or they've gone missing. Now, members of the House Oversight Committee are warning that if these cases are connected, it could represent what they call a grave threat to US national security. So they're calling for an investigation. This was committee chair James Comer on Sunday.

Speaker 11:
[14:10] This is a national security concern. This would suggest that something sinister may be happening. Anyone that knows of any information out there, have them contact Congress, so we can help determine what's going on here and prevent this from happening in the future.

Speaker 7:
[14:26] So the committee has sent letters to numerous agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Energy, NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration, asking all of them for briefings about these incidents and also what protections exist for personnel working with this kind of sensitive scientific information.

Speaker 3:
[14:45] So as you alluded to there, when people hear dead or missing scientists, their minds naturally go to conspiracy theories. But in this case, there are some reasons for suspicion, correct? Can you unpack that for us?

Speaker 7:
[14:58] Yeah. So one of the earliest cases that's frequently being cited here is Michael David Hicks. He was a longtime scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he died back in 2023. Authorities never publicly disclosed a cause of death. And then another case is Monica Jacinto Reza. She also worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a director, and she disappeared in 2025 while hiking. And despite extensive searches with helicopters, radar, volunteers, she's never been found. And then in February of this year, retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland. He previously led the Air Force Research Laboratory, and he worked on classified aerospace programs. Well, he vanished from his home in New Mexico. A repair man spoke with him in his house the morning of February 27th, but when his wife returned home around noon, he was gone. So investigators say his phone was left behind, but his hiking boots, his wallet, and somewhat key here, a 38 caliber revolver were missing, though McCasland had been complaining of mental fog before he disappeared.

Speaker 3:
[16:09] Right, could be a key detail there. Now, you mentioned national security concerns. What specifically are lawmakers worried about here?

Speaker 7:
[16:17] Well, the big concern is that these individuals had access to sensitive scientific or military information. Think about things like rocket technology, nuclear research. So that's why we have some lawmakers floating the possibility that foreign adversaries, think China or Russia, could be attempting to acquire US secrets by targeting some of these key personnel. And then on Sunday, FBI Director Kash Patel said that his agency is working to determine whether these incidents are linked or if maybe they're just a series of unrelated tragedies.

Speaker 12:
[16:50] We're working most importantly with our state and local partners. They have the evidence of what we're going to do is collectively pull it all into one place. We started this process last week, and then we're going to look for connections, like you said, on whether there are connections to classified access, access to classified information and or foreign actors. And then we will produce that information to the White House and the world because it's of such great public importance.

Speaker 7:
[17:12] Right now, though, officials are saying that it's really too early to say whether these deaths are linked or whether there's any reason to believe that foul play was involved.

Speaker 3:
[17:23] Obviously, lots of questions still to be answered. And meanwhile, lots of fodder for the screenwriters and novelists out there. Megan, thanks so much for reporting.

Speaker 7:
[17:31] Yeah, my pleasure.

Speaker 3:
[17:33] Another story we're tracking. Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a sweeping redistricting referendum that paves the way for a new congressional map, and it could give House Democrats a 10 to 1 advantage in the state. The Democrat plan could reshape the balance of power in Washington. Right now, Democrats control six of Virginia's 11 congressional seats, but under the new maps, they would take over 10 of the 11 districts. A legal challenge is currently pending before the Virginia State Supreme Court.

Speaker 6:
[18:01] 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.

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