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Morning Wire

Inside the UFC Terror Plot & The Iran Deal's 60-Day Clock | 6.19.26

19 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What new developments are there in the Iran deal negotiations?

4.115 - 11.725 John Bickley

The new 60-day window to negotiate a peace deal begins, and VP Vance says it all comes down to Iran's actions, not words.

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12.265 - 22.258 J.D. Vance

It's going to be a holistic approach where we look at their behavior. Are they funding terrorism? Are they leading to attacks of other people? Are they trying to get centrifuges to redevelop their nuclear weapons program?

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22.698 - 28.806 John Bickley

I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Friday, June 19th. This is Morning Wire.

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35.924 - 40.411 Georgia Howe

More details come to light about the terror plot targeting the White House UFC event.

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40.671 - 49.544

The suspected ringleader here was actually a DACA recipient and a Mexican illegal immigrant who overstayed his visitor visa by more than two decades.

50.285 - 56.154 John Bickley

And we talked to Senator Josh Hawley about his demands of Major League Baseball after the targeting of Christian players.

56.555 - 62.083 Senator Josh Hawley

They need to knock it off. I mean, they need to quit persecuting these players. They need to apologize to these players and they need to stop it.

62.266 - 66.392 Georgia Howe

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

69.437 - 83.077 Lucia Rahilly

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Chapter 2: Who is the prime suspect in the UFC terror plot and what is his background?

152.166 - 153.527 John Bickley

Ben, two days in a row, we're on a roll.

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154.108 - 155.47 Ben Domenech

Yeah, it's great to be with you, as always.

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155.551 - 170.353 John Bickley

So the Iran deal continues to dominate the headlines. We wanted to start off specifically asking you about the J.D. Vance angle. He's really taken a central role in messaging on Iran, including the press briefing yesterday. First, what did we hear from him?

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170.553 - 190.182 Ben Domenech

Look, I think J.D. Vance has made himself quite available to the press in the past week plus because he's been on this book tour. And the fact that it's coincident with this Iran deal being announced, this memorandum of understanding, is something that has led to him basically becoming the public face defending this.

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190.162 - 218.093 Ben Domenech

Whether that's something that he chose to do or not, he's leaned into it, and he certainly has performed, I think, admirably from the perspective of the White House and the president in fending off a lot of the different critiques that have been laid against this deal, both by Republicans in Congress and by people outside who are concerned that it includes a number of different aspects that could end up with Iran benefiting significantly, despite the fact that their military has been largely destroyed.

218.073 - 229.872 John Bickley

Right. And what is the defense now that we're hearing? You talked yesterday about how the Trump administration is basically asking us to trust them in this 60-day process. Did we hear anything new from Vance yesterday?

230.433 - 251.368 Ben Domenech

What Vance said is that essentially this MOU has a number of different things that aren't in it that they're trusting the Iranians to live up to. He referred to it as a gentleman's agreement. That's something that I think will probably ring a note of a little bit of skepticism in people's ears because it's the same phrase that was used during the Obama years about their deal with Iran.

251.809 - 267.818 Ben Domenech

And I think that the fact is that the critics of this deal will basically say the Iranians can't be trusted. In fact, there's also emerging skepticism just given the backlash from Republicans on Capitol Hill. We saw Roger Wicker, the powerful chair of the Armed Services Committee. We saw Joni Ernst.

267.838 - 287.092 Ben Domenech

We saw others today coming out and expressing their skepticism about this $300 billion fund, which of course does not include taxpayer money from the United States, but could include a lot of other investment back into Iran, that that could go to doing the same kinds of things that they've done in the past. The Ayatollah's grocery list doesn't exactly change.

Chapter 3: What plans did the suspects have for the UFC event?

492.914 - 507.853 John Bickley

Go to shopify.com slash morningwire. That's shopify.com slash morningwire. The Department of Homeland Security has revealed new details about the UFC terror plot, including that the prime suspect is an illegal immigrant.

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507.952 - 517.027 Georgia Howe

Daily Wire immigration reporter Jenny Ter joins us now to discuss. So, Jenny, what do we know now about the main suspect and what was his role in spearheading all of this?

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517.548 - 537.019 Margot Sanger-Katz

Federal authorities have come out and said that 31-year-old Abraham Alvarez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was apparently the ringleader of this whole plot. He came to the U.S. on a visitor visa as a tourist in 2001. according to the Department of Homeland Security, and then he never left.

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537.42 - 557.593 Margot Sanger-Katz

Now, the Obama administration eventually gave him DACA status, so he was able to stay in the United States through that. The Trump administration is calling him out again as an illegal immigrant and is really laying down the hammer on him. Authorities arrested him on June 14th in Nebraska, just days before this plot was supposed to be carried out.

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558.014 - 565.169 Margot Sanger-Katz

And ICE then lodged a detainer asking those local authorities to hand him over eventually for deportation.

565.229 - 572.704 Georgia Howe

Now, what have we learned about the plans that Alvarez had in place? And then also, what have we learned since arresting other suspects?

572.684 - 595.734 Margot Sanger-Katz

So there are many charging documents when it comes to this case that give a glimpse into what these individuals were planning. This individual specifically, he was living in Omaha, and he was allegedly recruiting people through group chats on Signal. And these were people across the country. One of them was actually turned in as part of this operation by the federal authorities.

595.775 - 621.439 Margot Sanger-Katz

He was turned in by his own mother. That's Tyson Proper, a 19-year-old who was living in Ohio. She saw that he was acquiring body armor and ammunition and firearms. And talking about certain plans that were very concerning, they found out through Proper that he was allegedly recruited initially to an anti-government protest that was happening in D.C., and that was through TikTok.

621.419 - 645.503 Margot Sanger-Katz

And then he started to become active in signal chats that were actually apparently discussing active plans to carry out an attack at the UFC fight. That's where you have this other individual, the illegal immigrant, who comes in and he allegedly was discussing pretty detailed plans to carry out this attack. And his role seemed to be a ringleader from those discussions.

Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Iran deal for U.S. foreign policy?

691.386 - 714.662 Margot Sanger-Katz

Vance, Elon Musk. But again, discussing all of this on Signal, The chat was named Hunters. He was using the moniker Shepard. And then, again, he was assigning these roles. He was saying who was going to be the snipers and the drone operators. And he was saying where they would be stationed for drone launch points, for sniper positions. across Washington, D.C.

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714.863 - 734.896 Margot Sanger-Katz

And then he was allegedly saying where they should escape once the attack was carried out. So they were saying, you know, meet at the Jefferson Memorial. That seems to be the best place to escape all of this and to run from authorities, essentially. The individuals who are accused in this plot, there have been five who have been arrested across the country in multiple states.

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735.277 - 749.03 Margot Sanger-Katz

And there have been dozens of others, apparently, who are tied to this that authorities are still apparently looking at. If these individuals are convicted, they could face up to life in prison and up to a charge of $250,000.

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751.012 - 768.27 Georgia Howe

Very scary that this stuff is going on on all these chats. Jenny, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri sent a letter this week to the commissioner of Major League Baseball after the league sent a warning to Christian players who had Bible verses on their mandated Pride Night hats.

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768.65 - 772.076 John Bickley

The senator joins us now. Senator Hawley, thank you so much for coming on.

772.597 - 773.358 Senator Josh Hawley

Thank you for having me.

773.919 - 782.393 John Bickley

So we've been covering this backlash against the MLB. You sent a strong letter to the commissioner. First, why did you feel compelled to send that letter?

782.508 - 798.63 Senator Josh Hawley

Well, I think it's absolutely outrageous that for years now, MLB has forced their players to turn their uniforms into billboards for the most controversial political messaging, endorsing the BLM movement, which is under investigation for fraud, by the way, endorsing the trans movement, trans rights and ideology.

798.75 - 814.571 Senator Josh Hawley

And now when a couple of players who are religious believers want to write a Bible verse on their uniforms, they're told, oh, no, no, no. way too controversial. I tell you what it is. It's a violation of the First Amendment to target religious believers in this way. I think it's probably a violation of their labor contracts.

Chapter 5: How is Vice President Vance involved in the Iran deal discussions?

835.038 - 837.304 John Bickley

And if they don't, what have you threatened to do here?

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837.385 - 848.758 Senator Josh Hawley

Well, number one, they need to knock it off. I mean, they need to quit persecuting these players. They need to apologize to these players and they need to stop it. Number two, they need to respond to me and tell the country why it is they think they have grounds to do this.

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848.878 - 867.24 Senator Josh Hawley

I wanna see all of the rules that have governed all of their political messaging for the last six years, where they've been forcing players to adopt and espouse explicitly political messages. I wanna know all of the rules that have governed that. I wanna know what the rules are now that they say prevent Bible verses, for heaven's sake, from being quoted.

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867.22 - 881.803 Senator Josh Hawley

And I want to know why they think that they can use their federal antitrust exemption in this way. And I can tell you, if I don't get answers, and if the commissioner goes forward with disciplining so-called and fining these players, I'm going to ask him to come to Congress, take an oath, and explain himself to the country.

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882.188 - 893.002 John Bickley

Do you see this Pride Night warning as an isolated incident when it comes to other sports organizations? Is the MLB particularly bad about this, or is this a trend elsewhere?

893.022 - 910.729 Senator Josh Hawley

Well, it seems like they're particularly bad about targeting people of faith. This isn't the only team that has done this. The Washington Nationals got caught excluding a Catholic player for being too Catholic, for being too Christian, deliberately excluding him from promotional materials. I mean, this seems to be a problem at the management level in baseball.

910.769 - 929.999 Senator Josh Hawley

I say again, it probably violates the labor contract they have with the players. I think it certainly violates the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and they need to quit it. They need to quit using the power that the federal government has effectively given them. in order to persecute people of faith, who, by the way, make up, I would suspect, most of their fan base.

930.239 - 933.002 Senator Josh Hawley

You talk about being out of step with your fans. They need to stop this.

934.103 - 948.358 John Bickley

Before I let you go, we reported in the first segment on the Iran deal. There's been, you know, reportedly some tensions between President Trump and Senate Republicans. What have you seen on that front, and what's the mood among your colleagues now that this deal is signed?

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