FBI Busts Alleged ISIS Terror Plot & $10 Million in Daycare Fraud EXPOSED | 9.16.26

What if a few minutes with God could change the direction of your entire day with pray.com you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers inspiring Bible stories and messages created to strengthen your faith whether you need peace encouragement or a fresh start pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the Pray.com app today the FBI stops another ISIS inspired terror plot before it could start while the Bureau's director comes under fire on Capitol Hill. How did ISIS manage to radicalize an American teenager and how's the Bureau handling domestic threats. I'm daily wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday September 16th this is Morning Wire. The Trump administration charges a dozen fake daycares for $10 million in fraud and clause back billions from COVID era scammers. Based on today's allegations over 10 million taxpayer dollars that were supposed to support our children were stolen by criminal actors. And a Catholic family is in a custody battle with the state for their daughter the reason refusing to call her a boy. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire stay tuned we have the news you need to know. For generations female athletes have fought for the right to compete on a fair and level playing field today those opportunities are being threatened again athletes like Sophie Cunningham are speaking up and reminding the WNBA of a simple truth biological differences matter in sports but the fight is bigger than one athlete or league it's about protecting opportunities for the next generation of girls concerned women for America the largest Christian women's policy group in America is standing up for female athletes and calling on organizations like the WNBA to remember what the W stands for. Join concerned women for America and add your name to the petition today go to concerned women dot org slash wire. Federal prosecutors announced a foiled ISIS terror plot on Tuesday after FBI agents tracked a 21-year-old suspect to a hotel in cranberry township Pennsylvania. This comes as FBI director Cash Patel appeared before a Senate panel yesterday where he touted the murder rate falling to a 20 year low and also fielded some tough questions from lawmakers joining us now with more on this is our DC bureau chief Tim rise Tim thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me guys. So let's start with this foiled plot the Department of Justice announced yesterday what other details do we know. Yeah so as Georgia sort of alluded to the FBI arrested 21-year-old Jonathan Kramer of Valencia Pennsylvania on September 12th he was nabbed in a Walmart parking lot after somebody in his life tipped off authorities to the fact that he was planning some kind of terror attack in support of ISIS. A couple of things that we know about this based on both the police reports and this guy's posts on the internet we know that he was as far as we can tell and as far as he said unaffiliated he said in some of these weird pro-Isis forums basically that he was alone wolf he wasn't with an ISIS cell he didn't have anyone giving him instructions he just wanted to make some sort of attack and hurt a lot of people in the name of this group and according to police reports he has been stockpiling ammo he apparently had 190 rounds of ammunition for this gun that he was that he was planning to use so pretty shocking again a young American kids radicalized somehow by ISIS we don't have a ton more information about these sketchy sites that he was on but I suspect that in the coming days we'll hear more and more about what these forums are how this guy got radicalized what his story was basically what brought him to this very radical point is this young man part of a broader trend when it comes to these kinds of ISIS-inspired domestic threats yeah it's certainly starting to seem that way so back in August a woman from Albany New York a 35-year-old woman named Jessica Bowie was arrested for plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol before fleeing to ISIS in Syria and again these are things that we know because she was posting about them on the internet so she was caught I mean again this is an American woman she was in a full burqa and face covering and the reason we know that is because again much like with Jonathan Kramer there were someone had had tipped off authorities so she was under surveillance Kramer was under surveillance since March there certainly does seem to be this spread of radicalism another point on this this is slightly less homegrown but worth noting on September 11th the United States alien terrorist removal court which is a body that was created about a decade ago but has never actually been used in response to a petition filed by Attorney General Todd Blanche made its first-ever deportation it was a 47-year-old Afghan woman named Nazira Haji Zada she was living in Fort Worth Texas both her son and son-in-law are currently serving time for a planned again ISIS-inspired attack that they planned to launch on election day in 2024 so pursuant to an order from this court she has been deported and is not allowed back in the United States but again the throughline she obviously was an Afghan national with a throughline here ISIS-inspired ISIS-inspired really shocking stuff as we mentioned while this was being announced FBI director cash betel appeared before senators on Capitol Hill yesterday he faced some pretty aggressive lines of questioning what can you tell us about that hearing yeah and sort of an interesting counter an interesting counterpoint to all of this considering this is what's going on in the background it was a very DC hearing you know this is just the sort of thing that happens to government officials and cabinet members they get hauled in front so to your point yeah we'll start on the right actually Josh Hawley obviously Republican Senator from Missouri grilled cash betel a lot about artificial intelligence about the threat of AI should the FBI be doing more to police or patrol nefarious uses of AI or dangerous growth of these technologies and again Patel like any good government bureaucrat said that the FBI would love to do more to to monitor this threat but it would need Congress to approve more money to buy more technology of course from the left you know it was everything that's ever been said against cash betel people wanted to know why he was in the locker room partying with the U.S. Olympic hockey team he said they were my friends and they invited me they wanted to know if you know what he thought if it was a becoming of the office or if he had any regrets about assuming a journalist who alleged that he had a drinking problem he said I was a vow I was availing myself of my rights you know to defend my name as any other American citizen so pretty good answers from him even while the director of the FBI is being hauled before Congress to answer a bunch of very political very DC questions the agency itself and the agents on the ground are out there discovering threats and keeping American safe I think a lot of Americans are very appreciative of their efforts on the ground to thwart threats like this one this week in Pennsylvania Tim thanks so much for coming on of course guys every business owner is looking for an edge sometimes that's hiring the right people sometimes it's launching the right product and increasingly it's knowing how to use AI in a way that actually saves time not just creates more noise every minute that you spend chasing reports tracking inventory answering routine questions or digging through spreadsheets is a minute you're not spending growing your business that's what net suite next is built for you probably already know net suite the AI-powered 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New exclusive reporting from the daily wire reveals that the Justice Department has charged a dozen foreign born individuals with operating fake daycares and stealing more than 10 million dollars from taxpayers joining us now is White House correspondent Mary Margaret all ahead Mary Margaret thanks for coming on thanks for having me so tell us a little bit about what you found with these fake daycares that have now been exposed. Yes so this was a really interesting story that I co-byline with Jenny Tara our colleague where we learned from the Justice Department that these individuals had been doing what we've seen all across the country and that our colleague Luc Rosiak has reported on extensively as well, pretending to operate a daycare when they did not in fact do that. So these individuals were charged by the Justice Department. They're facing criminal time for defrauding the government, for defrauding the American taxpayer, and pretending to operate a daycare when they were actually just taking the money for themselves. And this is something like I said that we've seen in Ohio where Luc Rosiak did a much reporting out there exposing the fraud that was going on in their home health care systems prompting President or Vice President Jody Vance to take action against their home health care systems there and to pause that activity from receiving dollars from the federal government. So just another example here in San Diego of this activity going on all over the country. And it's not the only fraudulent activity that the Trump administration has taken aim at this week. There's been examples of this all over the country and they also made arrests I believe in Dallas, Texas related to other fraudulent activity on Tuesday. So just examples galore I spoke to Attorney General Todd Blanch about this the other day and he told me that it's like looking under a rock and seeing all these different things coming up and really there's so many examples it's hard to keep track of. And this comes on the heels of Vice President Jody Vance announcing this week that the Trump administration is suspending the numbers stunning 870,000 individuals who are suspected of fraudulently receiving a COVID era small business loans. What did we learn there? I know you were on the ground for that. What did we hear from the Vice President? Yes. So I was in Kansas City with the Vice President in Missouri a few days ago and he made this announcement at an FBI facility backed by a cash betel, Todd Blanch, SBA Administrator Kelly Laughler and so many other Trump administration officials. Also a lot of local law enforcement and then partners all across the region across the aisle, both Democrat and Republican who had worked really hard to track down these PPP loans which during the coronavirus pandemic were supposed to go to people who actually needed them. Now unfortunately we are understanding that a lot of these loans did not go to people who needed them and they were actually fraudulently obtained by a number of individuals and used to promote their own selfish ends defrauding the United States government and Vance, he talked about this at length at this presser in Kansas City and I actually asked him a number of members of his administration said that the Biden administration turned a blind eye to this activity. So I said to Vance, was this accurate? Did the Biden administration know this was going on and did ignore this activity? And he was, he had a really interesting response. He said that he believes the Biden administration was fully aware of what was going on and here's a little bit of what he had to say on that front. >> When you asked the question, did the Biden administration know this was stuff, this stuff was going on? Of course they did. It was an open secret. If you talk to any state governor, the small business administrator, any United States Senator in 2022 or 2023, we knew that the PPP program was right with fraud. Everybody knew what was going on, everybody knew people were skimming off the top. It's just the federal government wasn't doing anything to stop it. Now the federal government is doing something to stop it, but absolutely we need to be looking into the officials who were turning a blind eye to this stuff. >> So there's just spending their ability to ever obtain these loans again and the vice president really was adamant on this front. He said that if you did a fraud the government, we're going to make it so that never again will you have the ability to take money from the federal government and he was very final about that. So he talked about this at length, Cash Betel and Todd Blanche did as well and they're really trying to send a message here that behaving in this fraudulent manner is going to cost you dearly and it should be a strong deterrent against anyone who continues to try and do this to the United States government. >> All right, well, this definitely seems like an initiative that basically every American can get behind Mary Margaret. Thanks for reporting. >> Thanks for having me. >> A Catholic family in Massachusetts says the state has kept their teenage daughter from them for nearly two years because they would not affirm her belief that she's a boy. The state is now seeking to place the girl on testosterone despite her parents' objections. >> Here with the details is daily wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, I think a lot of people assumed we had kind of moved past this and this kind of thing wasn't happening anymore. What happened in this case? >> Yeah, Georgia. So this case centers on Joseph and Arlene Kutsko of Northboro, Massachusetts and their daughter Sophie. So back in December of 2024, when Sophie was still just 15, the state's department of children and families removed her from her home and her parents say that DCF took custody of their daughter and they then accused them of abuse because they wouldn't refer to her with male pronouns or a male name. Now, the Kutskos are devout Catholics and they have a strong religious conviction that this would be condoning a grave sin and they also believe that it would be destructive for their daughter if they were to do that. >> So how did the DCF come to investigate this family, the Kutskos at all? >> Well, according to them, it started with their local high school. So they say that Sophie was placed in counseling sessions at Algonquin Regional High School with the school counselor and without her parents' knowledge or consent. And the Kutskos say they were told that Sophie was simply getting extra math help after school. And during that time, the school's counselor exposed her to gender identity ideology and other teachings that conflicted with their Catholic beliefs and the school actually began helping her socially transition, again, without her parents' knowledge. Now, according to Bernadette Broiles of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign who is acting as the Kutskos family attorney, when they refused to start treating Sophie as a boy, the school then reported them to DCF. >> You start with school policies that refuse to inform parents when a child rejects their sex and claims another identity. That's part of a system that starts everything down the rabbit hole. Now in this case, the school then reported these parents to DCF so that it was a direct school to DCF pipeline in this case as we have seen elsewhere. >> So the family says that things escalated very quickly from there. At that point, a physical abuse allegation was lodged against Joseph Kutskos, but that was investigated and deemed to be unfounded and yet a permanent restraining order was still issued against the family and DCF cut off all contact between the family and Sophie entirely. And the Kutskos say they have not been allowed to see or speak to their daughters since January of 2025. >> Now, the parents are saying there was no indication immediately beforehand that Sophie even wanted to sever ties with them. Is that correct? >> Yeah, that's right. So, in that same Fox News report, in that interview, Joseph Kutskos became emotional while reading a birthday card that he says that Sophie gave him in October of 2024. So less than three months before the date that the state removed her from the family's home. >> Without you, I would have nothing. So, it's wholeheartedly, fully, sincerely, I love you with no end. The Kutskos also stressed that they did not reject Sophie, they didn't throw her out. They say that they were willing to see counseling for her. They just were not willing to affirm a male identity or authorize any medical transition for her. And they say that they're desperate to see their daughter. >> Mama miss you, please come home. Mama miss you, please, I'm begging you, please. Massachusetts DCF has said that they can't publicly talk about details involved in this dispute because it's a confidential juvenile case and the school has also declined to comment on any of these allegations so far. >> Now, Massachusetts is not one of the 27 states that have now banned these gender transition procedures. Do we know if the state is providing those kind of medications or potentially surgeries to Sophie while she's been in custody? But it looks like they are at the very least trying to. So, the Kutskos say that Sophie is being housed in a boys dormitory and that she's been placed on birth control and psychiatric medication. Now, last Friday, a judge temporarily blocked the state from starting to administer testosterone shots, but the next court hearing is scheduled for October 29th, so that could change. And in the meantime, her parents are trying to halt any treatment with any potentially permanent effects on Sophie. >> Yeah, chilling story and one that I thought we were kind of getting out of the woods on this stuff, but apparently not. Megan, thanks for reporting. >> My pleasure. >> Before we sign off, just a quick reminder, DailyWire's new film, Run Hyde Fight Infadels is now streaming exclusively on DailyWire.com. We both loved it, and we loved seeing other fan reactions. Jonathan Majors is excellent, and when you watch it, you're going to see why this is a film only DailyWire could make. So stick around for the trailer after this. >> Thanks for waking up with us to enjoy the show at free and join our mission, become a member at DailyWire.com. 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