--:-- Georgia Howe: The government shutdown begins as both sides dig in. The Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. Who will flinch first and who will the American people blame?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 2nd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Illegal immigrants in Iowa and New York have been working under illegal professional licenses. The name on this official document found on one of 125 illegal immigrant drivers, quote, no name given. And Canada's Liberal government rolls out its new voluntary gun buyback program. What the government is doing with the gun registry is putting in place a much more efficient way for Canadians to voluntarily return prohibited firearms for fair compensation.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. America is built on hard work and powered by American energy. Chevron has spent $44 billion with local businesses across all 50 states since 2022, fueling infrastructure and communities, all while strengthening local economies. Last year, Chevron increased U.S. production nearly 20 percent, powering communities and businesses from the heartlands to the coast. We're helping to fuel America's energy advantage, building a brighter future right here at home. Visit chevron.com slash America to discover more.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Tensions in Washington remain high as the government shutdown enters its second day after Senate Democrats once again blocked a Republican funding measure on Wednesday. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest from D.C.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, the shutdown is here. We're now on day two. Where do things stand now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, 750,000 federal workers deemed non-essential have already been furloughed. And we expect to see tens of thousands of more sent home in the coming days as more funding continues to dry up. Now, as with any shutdown, essential law enforcement and military personnel obviously are still working, along with folks like air traffic controllers, power grid workers, the obvious essential services. But unlike past shutdowns, President Trump is stepping in to ensure that federal workers focused on his core policy agenda are deemed essential.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, the vast majority of immigration enforcement operations will continue on as usual, while trade officials working in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative will maintain 60% of their staff so they can keep on hammering out those tariff deals. In the past, that would have been 30 or 40%. So Trump wanting to keep his core people there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Over on the Hill, Senate Republicans once again proposed a short-term stopgap that would turn the lights back on until November to allow time for a bigger, broader deal. But Democrats once again voted it down 55-45. That's the same result we saw Tuesday. So no movement. The Senate will not convene again until Friday. It's almost certain to drag on at least until the weekend and probably well after that. At the moment, it just doesn't appear like either side is willing to budge.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the American people hate when this happens. How is each side packaging this? Well, the real battle right now during a shutdown is which side can be most effective at convincing Americans the other is to blame.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For their part, Democrats are making this all about health care. Remember, they said they would only vote on a budget that included tens of billions of dollars in new funding for Obamacare and Medicaid subsidies.
--:-- Amber Jo Cooper: Daily Wire's brand new congressional reporter Amber Jo Cooper was on the Hill all day hearing from leadership. She's got more on what we're hearing from minority leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats.
--:-- Chuck Schumer: Chuck Schumer is calling this, quote, Donald Trump's government shutdown, saying Republicans have, quote, barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans' health care.
--:-- Amber Jo Cooper: He argues the House passed continuing resolution does nothing to fix the health care mess that they created.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Republicans argue that Democrats could have fought for that funding this fall when the full budget was debated instead of demanding it be added now to this temporary stopgap measure.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They also been quick to point out that the health care funding Democrats are calling for would also provide billions of dollars in coverage for illegal immigrants.
--:-- Amber Jo Cooper: Schumer and others on the left deny that claim, but Republicans like J.D. Vance have pushed back hard, saying that's exactly what they're calling for.
--:-- J.D. Vance: The Biden administration gave mass parole to millions upon millions of illegal aliens, and then they simultaneously made those parolees eligible for health care benefits funded by taxpayers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In the one big, beautiful bill, President Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to health care funding for illegal aliens. The Democrats want to turn it back on.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government. It's preposterous for them to run away from it now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, President Trump is reportedly thinking this is his opportunity to cut a large swath of workers permanently. Walk us through that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That is an important element here. And part of the reason that there are those in the Trump administration who feel the shutdown could actually have a silver lining here and open up the opportunity for more trimming of government waste.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To that point, Russ Vogt, that's Trump's head of the Office of Management and Budget, instructed federal agencies last week before the shutdown to begin making plans for mass layoffs if the lights did go out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And on Wednesday, he told House Republicans that they would begin terminating employees within the next day or two. So they're moving fast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Essentially, their argument is that if your job is considered non-essential, why are taxpayers employing you to begin with?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, it's unclear just how many federal workers would be laid off under those plans. But if nothing else, it could incentivize Democrat leaders to reach a deal and avoid mass government layoffs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Trump speaking to that point from the White House earlier this week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The last person that wants to shut down is us now. With that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So now the big question becomes which party voters are going to blame for the shutdown. But as the details of why exactly the shutdown took place and what Democrats are demanding become more well-known, those on the right are confident that public perception will flip.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And here's Amber Jo again with more on that aspect of the story.
--:-- Amber Jo Cooper: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is calling it a Democrat shutdown and says real people are suffering. He says the only thing standing in the way is Senate Democrats.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, it's always a gamble to do this. It sounds like they're taking the risk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for reporting, Cabot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: We're continuing to learn more about the illegal immigrant, former superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa Public Schools, who was recently arrested by ICE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss the latest on this story is Daily Wire's immigration reporter, Jenny Ter.
--:-- Jenny Ter: Hey, Jenny. So could you tell us what you've discovered since we've learned of this arrest?
--:-- Jenny Ter: Right. So since we've learned of ICE's arrest of Dr. Ian Roberts, that's the ex-superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, we found some alarming information, taken a deep dive into his background, and found a number of concerning elements.
--:-- Jenny Ter: One thing that we learned from federal law enforcement sources recently was that Dr Roberts had declared on a previous immigration application that he had six children with five different women.
--:-- Jenny Ter: Three of those children were born within the same year of each other. And that application, by the way, was denied.
--:-- Jenny Ter: Additionally, we learned from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that Dr. Roberts was actually never checked through the e-Verify system, which would have showed that he was not authorized to work legally in the U.S. due to his citizenship status.
--:-- Jenny Ter: He was never checked through that program going back for more than a decade.
--:-- Jenny Ter: On top of that, the school district has not been registered, according to their records, with the E-Verify program.
--:-- Jenny Ter: So this brings up a number of alarming elements about his past, about the school district's possible issues with vetting him.
--:-- Jenny Ter: They said that he had filled out a form, an employee verification form, an I-9. and said that he was a citizen on that form.
--:-- Jenny Ter: But without the e-verify check there, they were never able to confirm that he actually lied on that form by saying he was a citizen. So that could have really stopped this all in its tracks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, indeed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I assume the Trump administration is looking at this on the federal level, correct?
--:-- Jenny Ter: Yes. In fact, the Department of Justice has just launched an investigation into the school district over its DEI hiring practices saying that they may have violated civil rights laws for discriminating during their hiring of different individuals in the school district.
--:-- Jenny Ter: For example, on their website, they say that they want to reflect the student demographics with their hiring of employees. So they want it to be race-based according to their website.
--:-- Jenny Ter: And they've also stated that they want to prioritize hiring of, quote, people of color.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right. So clearly, like you said, DEI, principals at work here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, we're also learning about a federal crackdown on blue states giving illegal immigrants commercial drivers licenses. Again, another thing about licenses being given to illegal immigrants. What can you tell us about this effort?
--:-- Jenny Ter: Right. So we've learned that the Oklahoma State Patrol, in conjunction with ICE, has arrested 120 illegal immigrants on the roadways of Oklahoma that were driving through from Texas.
--:-- Jenny Ter: Some of those individuals had commercial driver's licenses from states like New York and Pennsylvania, where they also found that those driver's license had, quote, no name given on them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This has been a big cause for concern in recent months following a major crash on a highway in Florida where an illegal immigrant with a commercial driver's license behind the wheel of a truck, a commercial truck, had made an illegal U-turn and killed three individuals tragically.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That individual actually came here illegally, was given some permissions under the Biden administration. But not only that, he received a commercial driver's license from the state of California.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So this is something that the Trump administration is doing. They're teaming up with Republican states to really go after this issue.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, that story really shocked the nation and shown a pretty harsh light on the reality of what's going on with these licenses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Jenny, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Jenny Ter: Thank you.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: America's first responders rely on FirstNet, a wireless network built with and for first responders covering the nation and keeping us all safe. FirstNet, built with AT&T. Learn more at FirstNet.com slash public safety first.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Canadian federal government has started the rollout of their controversial gun buyback program following sweeping bans of what they call assault-style weapons.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, what do we know so far about Canada's new gun buyback program?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, this story actually starts way back in 2020. Canada already had relatively restrictive gun laws, at least compared to the United States. But in 2020 after a Nova Scotia man went on a deadly shooting spree then Prime Minister Trudeau used executive authority to add over 1 firearm models to the nation prohibited list effectively banning the sale and ownership of entire classifications of firearms that were previously allowed
--:-- Tim Pierce: So in Canada can the prime minister with just a stroke of a pen decide which models of firearms people can and can't have? Basically, yes.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Parliament passed firearm reform laws decades before, but those laws essentially gave the prime minister's cabinet authority to decide which specific firearms are banned.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So technically, the cabinet would have to vote on new restrictions, but the prime minister has authority to appoint or fire his cabinet members at will. So in practice, the prime minister has pretty sweeping authority to enact gun bans.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So the bans were enacted in 2020. Why are they just acting on it now?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, a large scale ban like this is a bit of a logistical nightmare to enforce. Not only does it ban the sale of these firearms, it also makes possibly hundreds of thousands of currently owned firearms illegal.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The government offered an amnesty period of two years in which gun owners could surrender their firearms, but that period was repeatedly extended due to a lack of compliance.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In the meantime, by the way, the Canadian government also put a complete freeze on the sale of all handguns. But now that the amnesty period is coming to a close, the government is showing no intention of any further extension and is beginning to crack down in full force.
--:-- Tim Pierce: What's happening right now is a pilot program exclusively in Nova Scotia where owners of the now illegal firearms can turn them into the police for a reimbursement of four to $700 depending on the model.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The plan though is to expand that program to the entire country soon.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, a funny thing about the rollout of the plan is that government officials insist on calling it a voluntary buyback program. This has drawn a lot of criticism because in reality, the only choice Canadian gun owners are actually being offered is to either turn in their guns, destroy them, or to be in violation of the law and theoretically have them confiscated in the future and possibly face criminal charges.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So it's voluntary in the sense that Canadians have a little bit of say in exactly how their guns are going to be taken away from them. But technically, it's not a complete gun ban, correct?
--:-- Tim Pierce: No, it's not a complete ban, but it's just about as far as they could go. The laws around the prime minister's authority still provide language meant to protect sportsmen.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So theoretically, guns commonly used for hunting should be protected. But the language is pretty vague, and it seems like the prime minister really pushed to essentially ban everything that he was legally allowed to.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The ban is said to focus on assault-style weapons, which, by the way, is not a term that is clearly defined either in Canadian law or in the firearm industry.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It's somewhat understood to refer to semi-automatic rifles like an AR-15 or AK-style rifle, but these bans go pretty far beyond even those.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It bans carbines that fire pistol rounds as well as .22 caliber semi-autos. But it also bans many guns that aren't semi-automatic at all, including large caliber bolt-action rifles and even many, but not all, pump-action shotguns.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This is, of course, in addition to the fact that handgun sales are now completely prohibited as well.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, has the government indicated what's going to happen to people if they don't sell back their gun?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, this has been a pretty big point of tension in Canadian politics since the bans were enacted. Obviously, images were immediately conjured in people's minds of armed police raiding the homes of gun owners to confiscate their weapons and arrest the noncompliant, which is an image that the government would certainly like to avoid.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But it could be a reality if they really want to push the issue.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Public Safety Minister Gary Anand Sangri, who's spearheading the program, actually got into some hot water recently when he was caught on a hot mic, assuring a concerned gun-owning citizen that even if he didn't comply with the buyback, the police probably wouldn't do anything about it.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That attitude might be appealing to gun owners, but the rest of the government saw it as an embarrassing allusion to their lack of authority and have since completely backtracked, promising to fully enforce the ban, including confiscation if necessary.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So these images of police raids for noncompliance might soon become a reality for Canadians.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So this kicked off September 23rd. So we're now one week into this buyback program. We'll follow up and see how it goes.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.
