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6/23/2026 Healthcare Fraud, Vote Counting Anomalies, the SPLC, and Iran’s Future, All Featured Today on WW
June 23, 2026 · 59 min
Today on Washington Watch: Investigating healthcare fraud that runs into the billions of dollars; Looking into the problematic delays in vote counting; the continued firestorm surrounding the Southern Poverty Law Center; the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Strait of Hormuz.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video June 23, 2026 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Today on Washington Watch: Investigating healthcare fraud that runs into the billions of dollars; Looking into the problematic delays in vote counting; the continued firestorm surrounding the Southern Poverty Law Center; the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Strait of Hormuz. ...more Show the full description Show less Today on Washington Watch: Investigating healthcare fraud that runs into the billions of dollars; Looking into the problematic delays in vote counting; the continued firestorm surrounding the Southern Poverty Law Center; the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Strait of Hormuz.
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In this video 0:00 Top Headlines: Iran Deal, Fraud Bust, Ukraine Update5:18 Healthcare Fraud, Religious Liberty, Election Races13:13 Fraud Oversight, Prayer, Voter Integrity Battles28:48 SPLC Scandal, New CEO, Founding Faith45:03 Iran Talks, Hormuz Strait, Energy SecurityComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Top Headlines: Iran Deal, Fraud Bust, Ukraine Update 0:00 Hello. I'm Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and host of Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in. Every day, we offer a biblical perspective on the news as well as insightful interviews with elected0:12 leaders, newsmakers, and culture experts. We have a great program planned for you today, but 1st, get up to speed on the top headlines with Washington Stan's news brief.0:27 Welcome to the Washington Stan news brief. I'm Casey Harper bringing you today's big stories. For our 1st story, a major breakdown in the new Iran deal may be happening right now. The Trump administration has repeatedly0:39 insisted that Iran has agreed to allow nuclear inspections long into the future, But now Iran is reportedly contradicting that. In response to those reports, President Trump wrote on Truth Social, quote, Iran has fully0:51 and completely agreed to the highest level nuclear inspections. If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations. But now Iran is denying any talks about its nuclear program or an1:02 agreement to invite those inspectors back to the country. This could derail the deal or even suggest that Iran was never sincere in the 1st place. President Trump also said that the US would leave naval ships in the1:13 Strait of Hormuz in case it needs to reinstitute that blockade. This could be a major upending of the peace talks, especially since the US already promised to waive sanctions on Iran for 60 days from
1:25 Monday. And the US Treasury is releasing funds that will go into an escrow under US control to buy US goods. But whether that can hold up remains to be seen. Well, meanwhile, back in the
1:37 US, the Department of Justice on Tuesday announced a major crack down on 6500000000 dollars in health care fraud. Here's FBI director, Kash Patel.
1:46 Fraud is no longer being tolerated, is not being put up with, and you've seen the staggering numbers that in just the last 2 weeks that's all we're here to talk about today. It's just the last 2 weeks of fraud of
1:57 perpetrators and criminals who have been arrested and apprehended from around the world, totaling over 6 and 7000000000 dollars in fraud and money stolen from the American people. Our precious tax payer dollars that are
2:09 supposed to service our seniors and our kids were being stolen outright, by individuals who thought they could get away with it. But thanks to the Trump administration and the vice president's task force and the White
2:19 House task force and Department of Justice's courageous we have now been able to charge a record number of individuals.
2:26 The DOJ announced 455 people, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, have been charged for health care fraud and opioid abuse. That's totaled in the billions of dollars across
2:37 45 states. Here's acting attorney general Todd Blanch.
2:42 The coordinated actions of the past 2 weeks have resulted in over 182000000 dollars in cash and other assets seized, making clear our health care fraud enforcement efforts generate a
2:54 significant return on investment for our taxpayers. In terms of Medicaid fraud, we're able to announce today the creation of the West Coast strike force and the deployment of additional prosecutors,
3:06 allowing us to bring charges against a record setting 295 defendants. Our indictments alleged over 518000000 in Medicaid fraud between these individual defendants.
3:18 You're gonna hear from director Patel in a moment, but apprehending alleged fraudsters remains a top priority of the Department of Justice and the FBI and our other law enforcement partners,
3:30 including the DEA who's here as well.
3:32 But it doesn't stop there. People overseas were also defrauding the government. According to the DOJ, 1 man in Kyrenia, this off the coast of Turkey, allegedly stole nearly 4000000000 dollars. 2 defendants in
3:44 Estonia were arrested with a whopping 10600000000 dollar alleged scheme. And another example, an alleged fraudster in the Philippines was arrested for a 1200000000 dollar telemedicine scheme.
3:57 Well, for our last story and update on the Ukraine war. Ukraine's military said on Tuesday, it destroyed a railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal. They described it as a strategic military logistics crossing used
4:09 by Russian forces. Now drone footage released by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine showed the strikes on the rail bridge over the North Crimean Canal and on equipment appear successful. This is a major
4:20 passageway into Crimea, which is increasingly facing shortages as Ukraine works to cut Crimea off logistically and for supplies in that peninsula. Now Russia has so far struggled to prevent these
4:32 Ukrainian drone attacks on supply lines, which suggests that Russia's position may be weaker than was thought. Well, that is today's news. I'm Casey Harper. Check-in next time for more stories that matter.
4:53 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and
5:05 newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.
5:11 Since June 8th, we've charged 455 defendants across 56, like I said a minute ago, US attorney's offices, and 45 US states and territories. As
Healthcare Fraud, Religious Liberty, Election Races
5:23 alleged in in the various indictments, these individuals participated in health care fraud schemes involving over 6500000000 dollars in false claims submitted to
5:35 Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care programs.
5:39 Wow. Big news. That was acting attorney general Todd Blanch earlier today outlining the government's latest efforts to crack down on a massive health care fraud situation.
5:51 Welcome to this Tuesday, June 23rd edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heise. Glad to be back with you. I took the last 3 weeks off for our family annual grandkids camp.
6:03 I wanna thank Casey Harper for filling in for me on Fridays, and it's great to be back and an honor to be filling in for Tony today. Alright. We've got a lot to bring your way.
6:15 Arizona congressman Andy Biggs will be joining us shortly from the Patriot Mobile hotline to talk about today's announcement from the Department of Justice regarding that health care fraud.
6:27 Also, Middle East and energy expert, Brigham McCown, will be joining us for an assessment of the negotiations taking place with Iran and the impact of the Strait of Hormuz
6:39 on the global international energy supply chain. In addition, as we all know, the voting counts continues in the state of California. Now 3 weeks after
6:51 that state's primary elections, and some on the left are actually claiming that this slow vote count in California is a feature,
7:03 Well, we'll discuss all this with Cleta Mitchell of the Integrity Network. So all election integrity network. So all that and much more will be coming your way straight ahead.
7:18 Alright. The justice department is announcing a massive massive health care fraud bust. They're saying hundreds of people are accused of stealing billions of
7:30 dollars from Medicare, from Medicaid, and other government health care programs. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche, as you heard a while ago, said that this is the largest
7:41 crackdown of its kind and that actually new technology is helping them catch some of the suspicious activity faster. So what are all the investigations finding?
7:53 Well, joining us now to discuss this is Washington stand reporter Casey Harper. Casey, 1st of all, thanks for filling in for me on Friday, but, let's jump to this huge anti fraud investigation.
8:05 What's going on?
8:06 Yeah. Thanks. It was an honor, Jody. But this, this is a pretty amazing investigation. Some of the details briefly, 455 people have been charged across 45 states. So I the largest ever crackdown according to the the
8:18 DOJ of this nature. Now prosecutors alleged that defendants were involved in these schemes, some smaller, some very large, that totaled up to 6500000000 dollars in false health care claims. But just to be clear, that's
8:29 just this latest round. That's by far that's not even close to the overall number that we've seen in past months and years. Now, acting acting attorney general Todd Blanch says that the operation is the biggest joint,
8:41 health care fraud enforcement ever conducted by this cooperation of federal and state authorities. Here is what FBI director Kash Patel said about the investigation.
8:50 Fraud is no longer being tolerated, is not being put up with, and you've seen the staggering numbers that in just the last 2 weeks that's all we're here to talk about today. It's just the last 2 weeks of fraud, of
9:01 perpetrators and criminals who have been arrested and apprehended from around the world, totaling over 6 and 7000000000 dollars in fraud, in money stolen from the American people. Our precious taxpayer dollars that are
9:12 supposed to service our seniors and our kids were being stolen outright, by individuals who thought they could get away with it.
9:19 Well, they thought they could get away with it because they have been getting away with it for a long time. But, Jody, you mentioned the technology and health, secretary Robert f Kennedy junior. He said they're actually
9:29 using AI, and advanced data tools to spot suspicious billing patterns, not just after the fact, but in real time so they can stop these fraudulent payments even before they're made in some cases.
9:40 Yeah. This is is staggering is the word. Both the amount of money and the the depth, the breadth of just how big this is. Thank goodness that it is being discovered. Casey, I wanted to to
9:52 bring a a more local story, to you as well to get some information on a Texas judge who declined, to perform same sex abortion, same sex marriages
10:03 has won a huge, huge legal win. Can you, break that down for us? Tell us what happened there.
10:10 Yeah. That's right. This case centers on judge Diane Hensley of Waco who was reprimanded, really, by the state after she refused to officiate same sex weddings. Now Hensley sued and argued that the punishment that she
10:22 received violated her religious freedom rights, of course, and a Texas court has now took her side. The judge was, awarded 10000 dollars in damages and the state was ordered to pay more than 600000 dollars in
10:34 attorney's fees. But the ruling also prevents the judicial conduct commission, which is involved in this case, from disciplining her in the future for declining to do the same to perform same sex weddings based on her
10:45 religious beliefs. It really just goes makes it a closely watched case in the broader debate over religious liberty and and same sex marriage, Jody.
10:55 Wow. So much going on. You know? And, also, I just wanna throw this before I transition away. Casey, it seems like every Tuesday for the last several weeks, there's been primary elections,
11:07 that have been taking place in different regions of the country. And several more of those were, taking place today, potentially shaping and reshaping the political landscape. What
11:19 are some of the key races that we're following today, and, what what are we looking at?
11:25 Yeah. So in in Maryland, New York, South Carolina, and Utah, voters are making decisions in races that could have a major impact on who controls seats, not just in congress, but some key state offices. So up in New York,
11:36 Democrat socialist mayor Zohron Mamdani becoming a household name. He's getting involved in the several congressional races by giving out his endorsement as the party continues really this, identity crisis. It'll be
11:48 interesting to see how well his endorsement fares. Now down south in South Carolina and up in Utah, Republicans are watching a couple races closely. South Carolina's GOP governor's race features Lieutenant governor
12:00 Pamela Yvette and attorney general Alan Wilson. While in Utah, new congressional maps create a real test for Democrats who are trying to make gains in what is a traditionally Republican state. And you mentioned the
12:11 California election, Shody. I just realized that, your your vacation was shorter than the time it took California to count these votes.
12:20 Wow. Good point. Good point. Alright, Casey. As always, thank you so much for giving us these updates. So much taking place. I wanna switch over now and bring in a member of congress to
12:32 discuss the government's efforts to try to crack down on this health care fraud. And joining me now is Arizona congressman Andy Biggs. He's a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and
12:44 which in the subcommittee there on on crime and and federal government surveillance. He represents Arizona's 5th congressional district. Congressman Biggs, always great to see you, my friend. Thank you
12:56 for joining us today on Washington Watch.
12:58 Thanks, Jody. It's always great to be with you as well.
13:01 Alright. Let's, this is a huge, huge story that's unfolding with us, a massive fraud development case. What's your reaction to this, and what, from your perspective, seems
Fraud Oversight, Prayer, Voter Integrity Battles
13:13 to stand out the most as it relates to the size and the scope of what's being discovered here?
13:20 Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg, I fear. We've heard that there could be as much as 1000000000000 dollars a year in waste, fraud, and abuse in our federal government spending. And this is a real
13:32 indication of it. I mean, you have over 450 people involved. You have 6500000000 dollars. And get this, Jody. The the Arizona case that's mentioned in here, the
13:44 reason that that's not even 2000000000 dollars higher higher, it's it's it's about 2 and a half billion dollars. The reason it's not 4 and a half billion dollars is because they only paid out 2000000000 dollars, and they
13:55 didn't finish paying out, to these fraudsters. And so I I I think it's just absolutely insane that there's so much money floating around out there, not enough oversight,
14:07 and now we're finally starting to claw it back. So hallelujah to that. But I'm telling you, it is huge, the fraud that we have in our country.
14:14 Yeah. You know, when I hear about this type of thing, just how massive this is, it's you know, we're talking billions of dollars, and as you say, is potentially could go up in trillion range.
14:28 How does stuff like this happen? I mean, you've got to this is such an incredibly huge amount of money. How can it possibly be that this much money
14:39 for this long of a time has been being stolen right of our system. How how does this happen? Is this surprising to you?
14:50 Yes and no. Yes. That we are so morally bankrupt that we have people that actually take money that's meant to actually help people, and they use it to, buy
15:02 expensive cars and just steal it. This this is just theft. That's moral bankruptcy in our society. But the other part of it is, Jody, so much money. Let's I mean, you could take multiple things. You this is under every
15:15 every type of, partisan, administration. But you take a look what Joe Biden was doing. He threw 7000000000 dollars of, assuming 7000000000000 dollars worth of money into the economy. No no
15:27 economic basis for that. Just sending it out. And then people committed fraud all over the place. And so those 2 things happen, and then you don't have enough oversight. So how in the world can you have
15:38 what you had is you had I think it's 8. They had 10 people in Arizona. 8 of them are professionals. Jody, they're they're doctors or nurses or and they just 2000000000 dollars they
15:50 received, Jody, for doing tests that they never did. They never did them. So how how are we writing the checks when we don't have any verification that there that there's a patient or that the patient's
16:02 receiving those services. That is just gross mismanagement.
16:06 On every front, it's a gross mismanagement is about as kind of a way of describing this as I can think of, and it makes me cringe to think as you said this is but the tip of the iceberg potentially.
16:18 You know, 1 of the things that they've been using, congressman Biggs, to get into all of this is, new technology, AI, for example. How do you think that potentially changes the game, not only in what's happening
16:30 here, but maybe for future investigations?
16:33 Well, what you're gonna see is the fraudsters will get better at using AI, and and they will they will scam us out of more money. In the meantime, we've gotta get our people and on our AI
16:45 systems on the prevention side to combat that, to actually detect the fraud, more quickly. And, and the bottom line is, Jody, you've got to detect the fraud, stop the
16:56 fraud, find the fraudsters, and prosecute them until you're doing those types of things, and then recover the fraud that the, fraudulently obtained goods. Until you do those things, it's gonna we're we're gonna be the
17:08 wild west with with, massive amounts. 7 and a half trillion dollars of of government spending on an annual basis. These that's just at the federal level. That doesn't include the hundreds and hundreds of billions of
17:19 dollars at the state level. And, Jody, that entices a lot of dishonest people. So AI is gonna be a big fig feature of them scamming us and a big feature in us being able to stop them and
17:31 and, make the arrest that we need to make.
17:33 Well, I look forward to joining you and some other colleagues in a meeting later on this evening. But are you hearing from other congressional colleagues? Is this is this an issue that's going to require some
17:44 congressional action?
17:47 Yeah. I think it is. We need to keep working with DOJ and other law enforcement to make sure they have the tools that they need, but we have to make sure that we start putting checks in there in
17:59 the spending bills. Jody, you know this, that that when people get going around here, they just sign off on spending bills instead of putting in all the checks and balances and restrictions necessary to make sure
18:11 only the people that are intended and are qualified to receive those benefits receive those benefits.
18:17 Yeah. It's, always easier it seems to spend somebody else's money. And, when there's not the restrictions on it, things like this, unfortunately, happen. Thank you so
18:29 so much, Arizona congressman Andy Biggs. Always great to see you and always an honor to have you joining us on Washington Watch. We appreciate it.
18:37 Thanks, Jody. Catch you later tonight.
18:39 Alright. Alright, friends. Don't go anywhere. We have much, much more Washington Watch coming your way and a lot of big news to cover. So stay with us. We'll be back on the other side of this break.
18:54 1 nation under God, America's undeniable foundation of faith.
19:04 Before America was exceptional, America was prayerful. Just as Paul urged Timothy, 1st of all, that prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people,
19:16 our founding fathers understood deeply the command to be devoted to prayer. This great American experiment began as a mighty appeal to heaven, petitioning the lord
19:28 of heaven's armies to intervene for the right cause of liberty. As war began to sweep across the colonies, the Continental Congress called days of fasting and prayer in their
19:40 fight against the British. The lord answered and the colonies prevailed. Yet in spite of victory, our founding fathers knew that dependence on god and prayer was not to be forgotten.
19:52 With countless challenges facing our young nation, John Adams declared national days of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer to directly address the many trials and
20:04 call on Americans to seek mercy and restoration. Years later, in 1 of America's darkest hours, Abraham Lincoln stood upon this unshakable foundation by
20:16 calling the nation to repentance, declaring it is the duty of nations as well as of men to confess their sins in humble sorrow and to recognize that those nations
20:27 only are blessed whose god is the lord. We have seen the hand of god answer prayers again and again as our nation has turned to him. However, the wise warning of Ronald Reagan
20:39 still stands. If we ever forget that we are 1 nation under god, we will be a nation gone under. Through war, uncertainty, and turning points in history, many of our leaders have
20:51 known where to turn, and now it's our turn. We echo the call of George Washington 250 years ago, humbly to supplicate the mercy of almighty god, that it would
21:03 please him to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions, and finally establish the peace and freedom of America upon a solid and lasting foundation,
21:16 the undeniable foundation of faith.
21:22 Looking for a trusted source of news that shares your Christian values? Turn to the Washington stand, your ultimate destination for informed faith centered reporting. Our dedicated team goes beyond the headlines,
21:34 delivering stories that matter most to believers. From breaking
21:54 Thank you for joining us today on Washington Watch. Welcome back. I'm Jody Heiss, an honor to be filling in for Tony today, and thank you so much for tuning in. Yesterday, a
22:05 federal judge blocked the Trump administration's overhaul of a DHS maintained system to verify the citizenship or immigration status of
22:17 registered voters or individuals who are registering to vote. This Biden appointed judge from Trinidad and Tobago accused the Trump
22:28 administration of, catch this, trampling the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. Those are strong words,
22:40 but is that what the Trump administration was doing? Well, joining us now to discuss this and more is Cleta Mitchell. She's a senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partner Institute
22:53 and also the founder of the Election Integrity Network. Cleta, it's always great to see you. Thanks for joining us again on Washington Watch.
23:01 Great to see you, Jody. Thanks for having me.
23:04 Alright. Let's, share with us more about this case. What was the Trump administration actually trying to do?
23:11 Well, I I have to tell you, Jody, just as a preface to your answering your question. What we are seeing and I think that we need to pay more attention to this, and I decided
23:24 yesterday, interestingly, even before this ruling came down, that I'm gonna make it a point to start trying to highlight for people even we we need to let people know what these federal judges all across the country are
23:35 doing. They are so hostile to president Trump that they are ignoring black letter law and denying efforts by the justice department to enforce federal laws related to elections.
23:47 This particular judge, whose 1st name is Sparkle, by the way, and she was a former political appointee in the Biden, justice department. And so she takes her left wing
23:59 politics to the bench in Maryland, and she rules. And she doesn't even get the she doesn't even get the facts right. What's let me tell you about the saved system. The saved
24:11 system was established by statute and was it as a direct result by congress more than 20 years ago for the purpose of allowing
24:23 people who are in the country, who are not citizens, who are here legally, supposedly legally, to be able to check to see if they had been in the country long enough to qualify
24:35 for welfare benefits. And so the system is 1 it's called the system for alien verification for entitlements, for food stamps, for welfare payments, etcetera. Because it
24:47 used to be, until the Biden administration just started ignoring the law, it used to be that people, who were here, legally could apply after a certain period of time to receive
24:59 welfare benefits. But they could go online into this database, enter their alien number, and find out if they were qualified yet, for those benefits. What began to happen
25:11 over the past several years, in the I would say the last 5 to 7 years, states began to but as there began to be concerns about non citizens getting
25:23 added to the voter rolls, secretaries of state and other election officials began to ask, could we use the safe system to verify citizenship before we register someone to vote? The
25:35 problem was until last year after president Trump came into office, you had to do that 1 by 1 search. You couldn't bulk upload millions of voter records to compare
25:47 it to the database at the say at the Department of Homeland Security. So, I mean, this database, number 1, has been around for more than 20 years, and I've given you the history of what it was for. What
25:58 the Trump administration did was it listened to secretaries of state and overhauled the system to be able to allow them to upload their voter rolls to be able
26:10 to identify not just noncitizens, but dead people. Right. They have identified hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dead people on the voter rolls. And this judge,
26:23 this cuckoo left wing judge has ruled she doesn't even all you have to do is read her order. She doesn't even know what the facts are, the history of the database. She says this database was created
26:36 last year in an effort to help the president, violate the privacy rights of Americans. It's just preposterous. It really is. All over the country.
26:48 It's ridiculous.
26:49 It is. And I don't know if anybody who can break it down for us more than you, Kleta. There's so much so much happening across the country on elections. I mean, we have, elections taking place even today
27:01 at various places. But I I referred to earlier in the program, California. We are now 3 weeks away from their primary elections and still do not have a
27:13 final vote. 3 weeks removed. What in the world is going on in California?
27:18 Well, let's just start with this, Jody. What you're what we are watching happen in California is exactly what the left, the Marxist, the Democrats. This is what they
27:30 want for the entire country. California has systematically dismantled its election code over the past 10 to 12 years. They have everything
27:42 in their system, in their laws, that we as election integrity, supporters know is exactly the way not to have an election. They verify no
27:54 voter registration. They allow ballots to come in for for 7 days after the election with no postmark. You don't have to have a postmark. So you can just deliver votes after the
28:06 election, after you know what the margins are. They have same day registration. They have ballot harvesting. They have they've their voter rolls are a complete nightmare, bloated, ever
28:19 completely erroneous. We've heard all seen all the stories of people getting 10 ballots to their house, people whose kids went to college and been married for 10 years, moved away, and they still get ballots for their
28:30 adult children who haven't lived there for decades. All of these things. And they send a ballot to everybody on the voter rolls.
28:37 Wow.
28:38 That is what they want to do to the entire country. That is what the election integrity network is fighting against. And we're gonna we're gonna make a California index so we can show peopleShow more
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