Transcript

Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed

From Morning Wire · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 15 min · 2,717 words · 42 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed", an episode of Morning Wire published December 23, 2025 (15 min, about 2,717 words). It mentions 8 people, works and ideas, including Daily Wire (company), Nicolás Maduro, Kabat Phillips, Amanda Prea Jacamo, Joseph Thompson.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Daily Wire (company), Kabat Phillips
  2. – 9:00: Amanda Prea Jacamo, Daily Wire (company), Joseph Thompson
  3. – 12:00: Daily Wire (company), Tim Pierce
  4. – 15:00: David Cross

Notable quotes from "Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed"

  • I'm Georgia How with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, December 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
    about Daily Wire (company) · at
  • Daily Wire senior editor Kabat Phillips is here with more on the escalating tensions. So, Kabat, DC might be slowing down a bit for the holiday, but the Trump administration is not relenting at.
    about Kabat Phillips · at
  • Here to break down the latest is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prea Jacamo. Hey, Amanda. So, we've been covering this scandal for weeks now. It just keeps getting bigger and sort of more jaw-dropping. First, just how much money.
    about Amanda Prea Jacamo · at
  • Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the admission and what it means for election integrity. So Tim, what exactly have these election officials admitted happened here? And.
    about Tim Pierce · at
  • All this was uncovered by David Cross.
    about David Cross · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Full transcript with timestamps

As President Trump tightens the naval blockade on Venezuelan tankers, he announces plans for a new fleet of battleships.

They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built.

I'm Georgia How with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, December 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. Officials uncover more shocking evidence on the sprawling Minnesota fraud schemes that have built taxpayers of billions. The fraud is not small. It isn't isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. Industrial scale fraud.

And Georgia officials admit to egregious ballot counting errors in the 2020 election.

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Amid a massive naval buildup in the Caribbean, President Trump announced new efforts to crack down on Venezuela's socialist regime.

Daily Wire senior editor Kabat Phillips is here with more on the escalating tensions. So, Kabat, DC might be slowing down a bit for the holiday, but the Trump administration is not relenting at all toward Venezuela. What's the latest? Yeah, that is the truth. Now, a quick refresher. Trump's push in Venezuela originally began as a crackdown on illegal drugs flowing into the US. But in recent days, the operation has shifted into a full-blown military blockade, keeping Venezuelan tankers from selling oil. For context, the Venezuelan government has been relying on what the Pentagon calls a quote dark fleet of oil tankers sailing under false flags with fraudulent paperwork trying to evade American sanctions. The Coast Guard and Navy have already seized two of those tankers this month and on Sunday and Monday were in quote hot pursuit of a third. That vessel called the Bella 1 is one of Venezuela's

largest oil tankers. It was returning to the country to fill back up when it was spotted by the Coast Guard. It was allegedly flying without a valid national flag, making it a quote stateless vessel and subject to search under international law. But when the Coast Guard ordered it to stop, they refused and went on the run. Pentagon has yet to confirm how that chase ended, but did say the fact it was forced to turn around and flee Venezuela was in itself a victory. Now, more broadly, the Trump administration says the crackdown is intended to send a message to the rest of the world, not just Venezuela.

Here's the HS Secretary Christy Noam, whose department oversees the Coast Guard, making that case.

The illegal activity that Buro is participating in cannot stand. He needs to be gone, and we will stand up for our people. They're using these dollars to funnel and purchase and proliferate drugs around the world that's killing the next generation of Americans.

Now, all of this is part of a broader pressure campaign against the Venezuelan government, and this has been a years's long point of tension. Can you give us some context on the Trump Maduro conflict?

Yeah, there's no doubt the administration is ramping up the pressure on Nicholas Maduro, again, the socialist strong man leading Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that his days are numbered and last week issued a new demand calling on Maduro to return all American assets seized over the years. For context, since the 70s, the Venezuelan government has nationalized the oil industry, taking control of virtually every private company operating there, including a number of American businesses like Exon Mobile. White House adviser Steven Miller called it the quote largest recorded theft of American wealth and property in history.

And now Trump says the blockade will continue until Venezuela quote returns to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets they previously stole from us. Now Maduro is highly unlikely to give into those demands as oil revenue is basically the only thing keeping his economy afloat. So the big question now becomes how far Trump is willing to go to make him. There are those who believe this could escalate into a military regime change type conflict. For example, Moscow has ordered evacuations for their diplomats and families living in Venezuela. So, they are fearful of potential conflict, but we'll see again how Trump reacts and if he uses the military further.

So, let's get to Trump's ship building announcement yesterday that some interpreted as a show of force. What did we hear on that front?

Yeah, Teddy Roosevelt famously had his great white fleet and now Trump is christening what he calls the golden fleet. We know Trump uh he loves his gold. Uh speaking from Mara Lago on Monday, the president announced plans to build a next generation fleet of battleships that'll protect America's trading vessels and other larger ships around the world. Here he is with more details.

They will have 100 times the force, the power. There's never been anything like these ships. These have been under design consideration for a long time. These are the best in the world.

The plan is for those ships to be unveiled by 2028. And of course, the timing is probably not a coincidence given everything going on right now. As the president continues to exert power in the southern hemisphere, he's also sending a message to adversaries like Russia and of course China.

Well, and some context there. Just in the past 10 years, China's Belt and Road initiative has drastically expanded in Latin America.

Right. Cabbat, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Stunning new details have surfaced in Minnesota's sprawling fraud scandal, which is largely tied to the state's Somali community.

Here to break down the latest is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prea Jacamo. Hey, Amanda. So, we've been covering this scandal for weeks now. It just keeps getting bigger and sort of more jaw-dropping. First, just how much money do authorities now believe has been stolen? Well, after a shocking press conference from federal prosecutor Joseph Thompson, we've learned that $9 billion or potentially more of taxpayer money could have been stolen. He called this quote industrialcale fraud. There were 14 taxpayer funded programs in particular that have been rife with fraud since 2018. Those programs cost $18 billion, and Thompson said it's possible that half of that or more could have been fraudulently claimed. Here's Thompson. I think we're an outlier in a bad way. Yes. You don't see fraud on this scale in other states. And part of that is just we sit here as a team and it's a relatively small team. We're a

relatively small US attorney's office and every day we look under a rock and find a new $50 million fraud scheme. That shouldn't be the case in a in a state of our size. Certainly other states have problem with frauds, but I think our problem is unique.

Now, building off of that, Thompson actually said scammers became aware that Minnesota was, you know, a great place to rip off the government. that it actually created what's called fraud tourism.

I mean, these defendants came here not to enjoy our lakes, our beautiful summers, our warm people. They came here because they knew and understood that Minnesota was a place where taxpayer money could be taken with little risk and few consequences.

Thompson added that people in the state or those traveling there would create companies entirely dedicated to fraud. This wasn't upcharging for services, which is typical with Medicaid fraud. This was something entirely new and bigger. And as for new indictments, Thompson laid out many, including that of Hassan Ahmed Hussein and Ahmed Abdurish Muhammad. They're accused of stealing $750,000 from a housing program, falsely claiming that they were helping addicts who were leading treatment facilities. Camil Omar Salah is accused of stealing more than $1 million in that same housing scheme.

He's apparently now fled the country. And Asha Faran Hassan, who was charged with stealing 14 million in funds to help children with autism, she recently pleaded guilty.

Now, there were initial reports that this money was going back to Somalia and potentially even funding terrorist operations. Have we learned anything more about that?

So, Thompson said that this is a nuanced issue, and I would guess that's because the al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, controls large portions of territory in Somalia. Here's Thompson.

Well, there's no indication that the defendants that we've charged were radicalized or seeking to fund al-Shabaab or other terrorist groups. Some money went to Somalia indirectly. Some money might have gotten into the hands of Al-Shabaab, which controls significant parts of Somalia and imposes attacks there. Now, with all this new information coming out, what have we heard from state leaders? So, Democrat Governor Tim Walls, who's really in the hot seat over this scandal, he's claiming Thompson is engaging in sensationalism and says that there's no evidence that the scope of the scandal is $9 billion or more. Then we have the state's Democrat AG Keith Ellison. He actually put out a video over the weekend praising his own efforts to stop scammers in the state. No surprise here that generated a lot of criticism online given the circumstances.

Yeah. When industrial scale fraud and fraud tourism are being used to describe your state, it's hard to see this as evidence of a job well done. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

You're welcome. Election officials in Georgia say that Fulton County violated state election rules when it certified some 315,000 ballots in the 2020 election.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the admission and what it means for election integrity. So Tim, what exactly have these election officials admitted happened here? And how significant was this error?

Well, essentially there is a chain of custody issue that affected hundreds of thousands of ballots in the 2020 election. The issue is over tabulation tapes and zero tapes. State election rules say that these tapes have to be signed by election workers to certify their authenticity. But for most of the polls across Fulton County, the tapes weren't certified. Those tapes account for essentially every early in-person vote cast in Fulton County in 2020. That's about 315,000 votes in total. All this was revealed publicly in a December 9th Georgia state election board meeting and reported on by the Federalist.

Here's the attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections and Bruma admitting the mistake.

I've not seen the the tapes myself, but I we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule. We have new leadership and a new building and a new board and new standard operating procedures. And since then, the training has been enhanced. The poll watchers are trained specifically, they've got to sign the tapes in the morning, and they've got to sign the tapes when they're run at the end of the day. Um, when the tapes come back to the hub for, you know, with all the the documentation, they are checked again. And if somebody forgot to sign a tape, then Fulton initiates an investigation. We don't dispute the allegation from the 2020 election.

Tabulation tapes are printed for each ballot scanner at the end of each day, and the tape is basically a summary of the ballots that machine processed on that day. Those tapes are supposed to be signed and then cataloged as part of the process to track the work of vote counting. Zero tapes are just tabulation tapes made at the start of the day and those have to be certified too to ensure that each machine is starting the day from zero. That ensures no extra ballots from tests or prior elections are being counted as well. Here's state elections board vice chair Janice Johnston on what missing that certification means. That is the one document that promises what's in the ballot box that we don't count the ballots, you know, but what's in the ballot box is the right number. So, if you open on a tabulator, but you close on a different tabulator, not going to work. It's a break in the chain of custody.

Correct. So, I I find this this case very troubling. All this was uncovered by David Cross. He's a local election integrity activist who said he paid nearly $16,000 to receive about 77 megabytes worth of election records through an open records request.

So these admissions from officials have really set off a lot of alarm bills. How consequential was this to the 2020 election results?

Well, there's no way to retroactively change the outcome. Though if those votes from Fulton County were thrown out, President Trump would have won Georgia but still lost the 2020 election. Secretary of State Brad Raffensburgger, who is now running for Georgia governor, downplayed the findings. He said in a statement, quote, "Georgia has the most secure elections in the country and all voters were verified with photo ID and lawfully cast their ballots. A clerical error at the end of the day does not erase valid legal votes." And others have pointed out that Fulton County's votes were recounted and recounted again. So, while the process may have been shoddy, every ballot was eventually individually certified. Cross has a different opinion however.

Because no tape was ever legally certified, Fulton County had no lawful authority to certify its advanced voting results to the Secretary of State. Yet, it did. And Secretary Raffensburgger accepted and folded those uncertified numbers into Georgia's official total without questioning them. This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are by definition uncertified.

Now, the Department of Justice has filed suit against Georgia and a host of other states for voter information. The Trump administration has said this is part of its efforts to enhance election security ahead of 2026 and 2028. And with these new revelations, we'll see if the administration puts even more scrutiny on Fulton County in particular. Well, fortunately, it sounds like Georgia has made significant efforts to clean up their systems. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. Before you go, some programming notes. As we go into the Christmas holidays, we will be changing up a few things. We won't have evening wires for the next couple of weeks, but no worries. We will continue to offer fresh content every morning. That includes our regular news show for the first half of this week, followed by some original interviews and special episodes. And as always, if there's any massive breaking news, we won't hesitate to drop a special episode. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news you need to know.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed"?

In order: 0:00 Daily Wire (company), Kabat Phillips; 6:00 Amanda Prea Jacamo, Daily Wire (company), Joseph Thompson; 9:00 Daily Wire (company), Tim Pierce; 12:00 David Cross.

What is mentioned in this Morning Wire episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Daily Wire (company), Nicolás Maduro, Kabat Phillips, Amanda Prea Jacamo, Joseph Thompson, Tim Pierce. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 2,717 words in 42 timestamped sections.

More from Morning Wire

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.