Capital Attack Fallout & Venezuelan Skies Closed? | 12.1.25

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As the nation mourns the fatal attack on National Guardsmen by an Afghan national, President Trump continues to clamp down further on immigration from high-risk countries.

This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country.

I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, December 1st.
This is Morningwire.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besend announces a plan to cut off all federal benefits to people in the U.S. illegally.
And is the U.S.

about to carry out strikes against narco-terrorists on Venezuelan soil? Venezuelan drug dealers need to tread very, very carefully. Thanks for waking up with Morningwire.
Stay tuned.

We have the news you need to know.

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The tragic shooting of two National Guard members from West Virginia by an Afghan national has triggered a massive immigration response from the Trump administration.

And the president does not appear to be done with his sweeping actions. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arkand is here with us in studio.

Hey, Cameron, so great to have you in the studio, first of all. Thank you.
So we've seen President Trump take a series of aggressive actions over the last few days.

We also also have a very tragic update. Catch us up to speed.
What's the latest? Yeah, so some very harrowing details continue to emerge with this.

We know that the 29-year-old suspect approached with a revolver and was shooting at a point-blank distance. He was also reportedly shouting Allahu Akbar.

And in the work of a heroic action of one of the guardsmen who was unarmed, he heard the gunman and then charged the shooter and then stabbed him with a pocket knife in order to stop the attack.

Unfortunately, Sarah Beckstrom, who is the woman who was one of the guardsmen who was shot, she died at only 20 years old.

The other soldier who was shot, Andrew Wolf, he's still fighting for his life. There continues to be an outpouring of support and prayers for his recovery and his family.

Now, of course, the suspect was severely wounded, but he is expected to survive.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Piro, said that the charges have been upgraded to first-degree murder.
Piro said that this appears to be a case of an ambush-style attack.

The FBI is even looking at this as a possible act of terrorism.

Now, in response to this, President Trump said that he's looking at 500 more troops, sending that into the district in order to keep the peace, doubling down on the order from earlier this summer in order to protect the city and quote crime.

Now, we've learned more details about the suspect and a lot of frustration and really anger coming from those revelations. This has also impacted immigration policy.
Tell us about that.

We've now learned that this suspect fought with a group of elite Afghan fighters known as Zero Units, and they were also called desk squads who worked with the CIA in order to help fight the Taliban.

Now, a friend of his told the New York Post and some other outlets that he suffered from serious mental health issues.

As a result of the attack, Trump said we are not admitting any more Afghan nationals into the United States.

He's asking for a review process for how these people were vetted during and after the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Keep in mind, we saw tens of thousands of Afghan nationals come to the United States as refugees following the withdrawal.

And the State Department has already said that they're refusing visas from Afghan nationals until they look into further vetting from the country.

And the president said that he will, quote, deport any foreign national who is a public charge security risk or non-compatible with Western civilization.

We're probably going to get more details on that in the coming days and weeks, especially in the wake of this attack and what countries could potentially be implicated in that as well.

Now, we have some additional immigration changes beyond just Afghanistan that are coming down the pike. What are we hearing from the Trump administration in terms of broader changes?

Yeah, so this has been a turning point for broader reform.

The administration said that is stopping, quote, all asylum decisions until they can assure that every person is vetted to the maximum degree possible. That was from the U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services. There's also going to be new standards in place for people from 19 different countries that they consider to be high risk.

In a true social post over the holiday, Trump said he's going to be looking at stopping people from third world countries, and we're waiting on details on what that specifically could mean.

Before we let you go, we had another immigration-related incident in New York City that was pretty alarming. What took place over the weekend? It was just pure chaos in New York City on Saturday.

We saw protesters essentially try to hold up immigration enforcement officers in New York City in this parking garage in Chinatown. So it started at around 11 a.m.
in the morning.

Protesters were gathered outside this parking garage. They saw ICE agents there and then started blocking the opening to this.

And they piled up trash bags, stood in the way, and even shouted anti-ICE slogans. Those watching on Daily Wire can see some of this footage.

ICE vehicles were finally able to leave the garage around 1 p.m.

and the protesters threw things like garbage cans at them and even MYPD officers tried to quell the riot, but they were generally unsuccessful encountering even physical pushback at times.

Several protesters were arrested, but an apparent ice ride was foiled. Well, the alarming trend of violence targeting federal law enforcement just continues.

Meanwhile, our prayers are with the families of the guardsmen. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting.
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The Trump administration is working to remove federal benefits from people who are in the country illegally. Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda PrestiGiacomo.

So Amanda, we just covered this horrible attack on the National Guard, which prompted a very strong response from President Trump.

But it sounds like his administration is looking more broadly at some fraud that's been perpetrated by foreigners in this country. What's the administration doing about that?

Yeah, so Trump said that he will end all federal benefits and subsidies to non-citizens.

Trump said that many recent arrivals depend on taxpayer-supported welfare programs while coming from failed nations, from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels.

Do we know what specific changes are expected and to which programs?

Well, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said that his department is working to cut off federal benefits to illegals and stressed that these must be preserved for U.S. citizens.

Specifically, Besant said that the Treasury will issue proposed regulations clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal or other non-qualified aliens.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued an alert to better crack down on the exploitation of the U.S. financial system by illegals who are seeking to move illicitly obtained funds.

The department said that over the past several years, the U.S. has witnessed a significant volume of cross-border funds transfers, including remittances from illegals.

So this crackdown obviously comes in the wake of this attack from an Afghan national, but it also follows a massive fraud scandal connected to the Somali community in Minnesota. You dug into this.

What do we need to know? Yeah, so City Journal reported on this in detail.

Basically, there was a massive fraud scheme under the tenure of Democrat Governor Tim Walls, where billions of taxpayer dollars intended for social services were funneled through fake nonprofits and shell companies.

And alarmingly, some of that money ended up in the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group El-Shabaab.

Much of the fraud has been traced back to Minnesota's Somali community, where fraudsters have allegedly exploited numerous loopholes in the state's welfare system.

Here's Ryan Thorpe, an investigative reporter who helped break this story, speaking to NewsNation about why this was missed or possibly intentionally overlooked.

I think it's safe to say that there was a real unwillingness or inability among Democratic state officials in Minnesota to

recognize some pretty obvious alarm bells here all across these programs. Claims were skyrocketing, absolutely spiraling, out of control.

The reality is that the Somali community is the voting bloc you have to win if you're going to win political office in Minneapolis.

On that same note, the Minneapolis police chief just recently issued an apology to the Somali community for linking Somali youth to local crime. Here's Chief Brian O'Hara.

The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it.

If people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that's caused harm, I apologize, and I'm sorry for that, because that's not my intention at all.

So not communicating much concern about the actual crimes being committed, it sounds like. Has Governor Walls commented directly on the fraud scandal?

Well, he was asked just yesterday about this, and his response was to try to direct attention away from the Somali community. It's not just Somalis.

Minnesota is a generous state, but that attracts criminals. But to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy.
And final no on federal benefits.

In Trump's Big Beautiful bill, Republicans moved to stop illegals from receiving health care subsidies.

And regarding SNAP or food stamps, Trump's Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has promised to crack down on the estimated millions of illegals receiving these benefits.

She's currently in a legal battle with blue states for information to root out this fraud. Well, it sounds like a very widespread issue that will take a lot of work to uproot.

Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome.

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Tensions in the Caribbean are escalating after President Trump announced that the airspace over Venezuela should be considered closed. The announcement has raised new questions over potential U.S.

strikes inside Venezuela amid the president's war on the drug cartels. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Trump's pressure tactics against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Things appear to be pretty precarious. So as Georgie noted, Trump just told everyone who flies to stay away.

Trump posted on True Social on Saturday, quote, to all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers, please consider the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety.

That post has again kicked up predictions of possible U.S. airstrikes on Venezuela.
Here's Retired Admiral James Davritas giving his prediction.

We should read into it that strikes are very probably going to occur over the course of this week.

When you hear the President of the United States throw that warning out there, to me, it sounds like strikes are coming probably sooner rather than later.

Venezuela's foreign minister said Trump's post constituted an extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.

Now, legally speaking, a country can't actually close the airspace of another country, but that really is just a technicality here.

Ten days ago, the FAA had already warned about a potentially hazardous situation for flights over Venezuela. Commercial air traffic has avoided the area since.
Venezuela has said that even U.S.

migrant repatriation flights have stopped. Is there a way to reverse this? Any avenues for de-escalation? Well, there appear to be some discussions behind the scenes.

The New York Times and the Wall Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and Maduro spoke by phone recently. Trump confirmed that call on Sunday, and that could be the start of new talks after the U.S.

cut off diplomatic discussions in October.

Reportedly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the call as well, and Trump and Maduro talked about the possibility of a meeting, which would be a huge shift for Trump since he has called on Maduro to step down and authorize CIA operations in Venezuela.

In the meantime, allies of the president have maintained that this is a drug operation, a very intense one, but one that will not lead to war.

Here's Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen on CNN on Sunday. No, he's made it very clear.
We're not going to put troops into Venezuela. What we're trying to do is protect our own shores.

Now, we've seen Democrats really lean into this messaging that Trump has given illegal orders to the military. Some now say they have a clear example of that.
What's going on here?

Right, the Washington Post reported last week that War Secretary Pete Hagseth gave an order to kill everybody on board drug boats.

And according to the Post, that order was precisely followed after a couple people survived an initial strike on a boat in September.

Now, this story was sourced to anonymous officials, but Democratic Senator Mark Kelly said it could constitute a war crime on CNN on Sunday.

If that is true, if what has been reported is accurate, I've got serious concerns about

anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over. The White House does not seem to be deterred, to say the least.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox News on Sunday and promised that strikes against cartel members would continue.

They are narco-terrorists and they are being blown up. The drugs that are flowing into our country from these terrorists are killing our children.

If the Democrats won't protect our children, Donald Trump will by any means we need to within the legal realm of our society. And that's what we're doing.

So regardless of the pushback, the Trump administration is committed to its moves moves in South America.

And we'll see if Trump and Maduro do have that meeting or if the situation takes another dramatic step. Tim, thanks so much for joining us.
Good to be on.

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We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.