Transcript of Nowak Murder Ignites Rage & The Making of a Teen Terror Suspect | 6.3.26 New

Kaffee in seiner besten Form. Mit Qubo wird jeder Kaffee auf Knopfdruck zum Genussmoment. Denn mit der neuen Qubo One Kapselmaschine von Chibo genießt du feinsten Spitzenkaffee aus besonderen Anbaugebieten. Vollmundige Aromen dank innovativer Press Brew Technologie und über 17 Sorten Kaffee für jeden Geschmack. Erlebe Premiumkaffee schon ab 29 €. Entdecke jetzt die Qubo Kapselmaschinen in deiner Chibo Filiale und auf chibo.de.

President Trump is backing away from a controversial anti-weaponization fund after blowback from fellow Republicans. We look at what went on behind the scenes and what may have proved fatal for the fund.

The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but, um, we are not moving forward with the fund.

I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. Georgia's out on vacation today. It's Wednesday, June 3rd. This is Morning Wire. The fallout in the UK is growing over the racially charged case of a white British teen dying in police custody.

Henry's family have responded to this in just the most extraordinarily dignified way, but I suggest the rest of us respond to this with pure cold rage.

And a new report on an FBI case involving involving an autistic Ohio teen turned terror threat highlights the growing trend of online radicalization in the U.S.

This kid was on YouTube and he was looking up videos about Islam and started asking questions in the comments, and from there, uh, other users kind of lured him into a Discord server.

But before we get to all that, several key open primaries took place in California yesterday, and two high-profile Republicans, Spencer Pratt and Steven Hilton, are vying to make the ballots for LA mayor governor, respectively. As of this recording, both contests are still too close to call. Check dailywire.com for the latest. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned, we have the news you need to know.

If somebody Googled you right now, what would they find? Not just your LinkedIn profile or social media or that Thai place you love to review for— your actual information: home address, phone number, relatives, places you've lived. And in the age of AI, that information has become even more valuable to scammers, spammers and bad actors looking for easy targets. Delete.me removes your personal information that's being sold online. The reality is that most people don't have the time or patience to track down hundreds of data broker websites and request removal one by one. Delete.me does the hard work for you. Delete.me was named Wirecutter's top picks for data removal services, and it's never been more affordable. Individual plans start at a little over $8 a month, with even bigger discounts for families and longer-term plans. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete.me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete.me plan when you go to www.delete.me/techtalk. Www.joindelete.me.com/wire and use promo code WIRE at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to www.joindelete.me.com/wire and enter code WIRE at checkout. That's www.joindelete.me.com/wire, code WIRE.

The Trump administration is pulling back from a controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund that was intended to compensate people unfairly targeted by the federal government during the Biden years. Here to break it all down is Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice. Great to see you, Tim.

Good to see you, John.

So what's the untold story here? From the outside, you know, this looks like a fund that went from a White House priority to then a political liability almost overnight. What happened behind the scenes? What brought us to this point?

Yeah. So let's go back to the beginning, right? So why this fund was created in the first place, which is a detail that I think has been kind of shockingly absent from a lot of the coverage in recent days. So this was the deal the president struck with the IRS. He said that he would drop his $100 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service Congress, who he claimed was unfairly targeting him and his supporters, in exchange for the creation of this $1.8 billion fund, which to your point is being widely seen and widely pitched by the Trump administration as a way to compensate political victims of the Biden administration, but which, uh, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch and the Justice Department have really wanted to stress is a fund available for anyone who has been targeted by the government at any point in time. Now, The degree to which that's true is part of the sticking point here because obviously the president himself and his supporters very quickly started discussing this as the Biden administration reimbursement fund. Right. So very quickly, people started saying, you know, naming people who could take advantage of this, pro-life Catholics and other religious folks who were targeted under the FACE Act under the Biden administration, people who were surveilled by the FBI and the Justice Department, things that we've reported on and know about.

But the bigger sticking point came when obviously perhaps the biggest group of people who could have recourse to this fund were people imprisoned over their role in the January 6th Capitol riots.

Yeah.

So this turned this into basically a political liability for the Trump administration and for Senate Republicans who very quickly realized, well, this is going to get branded as the January 6th fund. And while there are certainly people who were unjustly imprisoned and targeted and prosecuted for just being on the Capitol grounds on January 6th. There are also people who have been charged with assaulting police officers, people who we don't necessarily want to be the poster children of this fund. And that's where things sort of started going off the rails.

Yeah, one of the most interesting details in the reporting is that many Republicans seemed caught off guard by this fund. How much of this was maybe a communications failure versus a policy disagreement?

What we have here is a failure to communicate for sure, but I think probably less so than Senate Republicans want you to believe, right? So I think it was probably a communications failure insofar as this happened very quickly. The Trump administration probably didn't share their plans with Senate Republican leadership as they were negotiating with the IRS, which is kind of fair, right? You wouldn't think it was ongoing negotiation in an open civil case. It would make sense if the lawyers and the president and the defendants weren't going around the Hill blabbing about deliberations. This is also just sort of how the president works, right? The bigger issue here is that there was a split inside the Republican Party. So I don't think there were any Republican senators who were really gung-ho about this. There were others, Chuck Grassley being one of the most prominent ones. They were very much against it. And the way that they sort of stuck a poison pill in this is they hauled Attorney General Blanche in for a hearing. And somehow there was a split among Senate Republicans that basically said, if you, the Trump administration, don't take care of this weaponization fund and basically make it disappear, we are not calling for a vote on the bill that is still pending to to fund ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and all of those parts of DHS that have kind of remained unfunded even since that partial government shutdown ended.

Yeah, that's a powerful card to play there for sure.

Right.

Looking ahead, what's the real takeaway from this episode? Is this simply a failed policy proposal, or does this reveal something larger about challenges for Trump in the future?

I think I think it's mostly a failed policy proposal. I don't think that Trump is going to face more challenges of this nature, but I do think it reveals something very interesting about how the Republican Party is looking towards the future. Republican leadership, especially on the Hill, are starting to think about a post-Trump future, which is coming whether they want it or not. Two years from now, the president's going to be out of the White House. This is a very, like, bare-knuckle brawl kind of settlement thing that is very of the Trump era. And you can see why Senate, House Republicans might want to move past this, and certainly why future Republican nominees and presidents might just want this to go away before it even becomes a live issue.

Mm.

Well, another fascinating chapter playing out in DC now. Thank you so much for joining us.

Anytime, John.

Raise your hand if you've been putting off a dental cleaning, an annual checkup, or honestly any kind of doctor's appointment. Yeah, my hand's up too. But now our sponsor Zocdoc is here to help. Zocdoc is a free app and website that helps you find and book high-quality in-network of doctors so you can find someone you love. We're talking about booking in-network appointments with more than 150,000 providers across all 50 states. Whether you're looking for dermatology, dentistry, primary care, eye care, or one of the other 200+ specialties offered on Zocdoc, you can easily search by specialty or symptom to build a care team that's right for you. View thousands of verified patient reviews to get a real sense of who your doctor is, then check their real-time availability and book instantly. No phone tag, no waiting around. Appointments made through Zocdoc happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking, and you can even score same-day appointments. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.com/wire to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. That's zocdoc.com/wire. Zocdoc.com/wire. Thanks, Zocdoc, for sponsoring this message.

The police handling of 18-year-old Henry Novak's murder has put a spotlight on Europe's hyperfocus on so-called anti-racism. Here are the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. Welcome, Amanda. So Novak was murdered back in December, and his killer, Vikram Digwa, was sentenced just this week to life. Uh, first, what happened in this case, and why is it gaining international attention?

Yeah, John, so the police handling of this crime, it almost sounds fake, like it's a fable warning against this fixation on anti-racism and mass migration in the West. What happened was innocent teenager named Henry Novak. He's a white male. He was walking home one night in Southampton and he encountered Vikram Digwa. Digwa is a Sikh man who was carrying a blade. Now, based on evidence from the trial, there was some sort of interaction between Digwa and Novak, and this might have been sparked because Novak saw this blade on Digwa. Digwa stabbed the teen 4 times, and then when authorities showed up, he falsely claimed that Novak racially abused him. He said that Novak ripped off his turban and called him a, quote, Paki. Police then, astonishingly, they arrest Novak. They handcuff him while he's on the ground bleeding and saying that he's been stabbed and cannot breathe. Digwa, meanwhile, he looks untouched. He has no injuries. Now, footage was just recently released of this incident, and that's really sparking all this outrage here. It's unbelievable to watch. At one point, Novak tells officers that he's been stabbed, and he's seemingly mocked by an officer who tells him, quote, "I don't think you have, mate." Also, at no point is Digwa handcuffed.

Here's some footage from the incident.

You've been stabbed?

Whereabouts? I don't think you have, mate.

Now, some other details that listeners should know is that while there are obviously strict laws in the UK about carrying weapons or knives, uh, Digwa, since he's Sikh, he has a religious exemption to carry a kirpan, or a ceremonial blade. There's also no clear restriction on size for this either. Another component that's getting a lot of attention is how Digwa's family handled this. His brother helped lie to police about Novak. He advanced this racism narrative. And Digwa's mother actually stashed the murder weapon at the family home after she was directed to by Digwa himself. She's actually awaiting trial right now for that offense. And as for Digwa, as you said, John, he was sentenced to life this week, but he is eligible for parole after 21 years. He's 23 years old right now, so by 44 he could be out of prison. And one last note on this, a A reporter who was at the courthouse during sentencing, she said that there was a lot of commotion in the courtroom. Someone from Degwa's side actually yelled that the victim was racist.

Unbelievable. Now, there's been a lot of fallout to this case. It's not hard to see why. Uh, tell us about some of those reactions.

Yeah, a lot of people see this as blatant anti-white discrimination. There's been a lot of conversation about anti-racism in Europe, these historically high levels of mass migration, a lack of assimilation, these demographic shifts, and so on. Here's former UK leader Nigel Farage expressing some of that.

The biggest fear a police officer now has going about his or her duty on the street is the fear of being reported for having acted in a way that was racially biased. That fear now greater than dealing with a dying man living on the ground.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also weighed in on this. He was asked directly about how the prospect of being deemed racist played into police actions here. Here he is in his own words.

I felt sick watching it. It is absolutely right that the IOPC are looking at this. There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision-making.

Now, Starmer also strongly condemned Farage. He said that Farage was trying to whip up hatred and some sort of controversy. So while the PM is acknowledging this racial component in this case in particular, He's ignoring these broader issues that have been bubbling up in the UK for years. And finally, about the police in this case, John, there is an investigation that has been opened into their actions, and so far one officer has resigned.

Well, glad to see there's justice with the killer here and some accountability perhaps for the police, but let's hope, uh, the policies that are driving this change here and soon. Amanda, thank you so much for reporting.

You're welcome.

A growing number of cases of young people radicalized online is prompting more parents to take more proactive steps to protect their children. A new investigation titled "The Making of a Teenage Terror Suspect" highlights one such alarming case. It follows an Ohio family whose autistic teen son was arrested by the FBI in 2023 after plotting violent attacks on a classmate and religious sites. The boy had been radicalized online by jihadist extremists. Joining us now is the investigation's author, Maya Sulkyn, a reporter at the Free Press. Maya, thanks for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me.

So you spent months reporting this story. Tell us more. What first drew you to it, and what surprised you most when you got inside this family's life?

Yeah, so a few months back, I just started to see a lot of lawsuits being filed against Discord and similar companies like Roblox, uh, that are meant to just be used by gamers, they're gaming platforms that have kind of become messaging boards for a lot of extreme behavior. Uh, so I started following these lawsuits and then I was connected to an organization called Parents for Peace. And what they do is basically go in to, um, help families really de-radicalize their kids. And that is how I got connected to this specific family. And, um, by the time I had gotten to them, they had been dealing with this for about a year and a half.

This story begins as a, a terrorism story, and by the end of it, it feels almost like a parenting story. And as a parent, for me, this is very fascinating and troubling in so many ways. Uh, what story do you think you were actually telling?

So interesting you asked that because as I was reporting it, I, I mean, I probably, filed 4 drafts of this, but the first story was really about Discord and about online radicalization. And like you said, by the end, it really did become a story about how you parent a kid in the digital age. One thing I'll say about this family is they're really normal. Um, they live in a suburban Ohio neighborhood. They go to church every Sunday. They give to charities. They have family game nights. Um, and they went through the checklist that every parent does or should be doing when you have a kid who's inevitably going to be on the internet. So They were doing routine sweeps of his devices, which is how they found these messages and videos in the first place. But they were going through the checklist that all parents do, which is cyberbullying, sexual predators. They just didn't even understand that this was something they had to look out for. And what I would say is that this is not such a unique case, and it is really something parents should be aware of, which is that on these platforms, and it's not just Discord, it's on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat.

There are extremists who are very intent on radicalizing, especially young American boys who are feeling isolated.

How much did autism play into this? Do you think that was a key factor here or just one of the elements?

For a pretty big population, which is young men isolated in the pandemic, searching for meaning, hyper-online, they are already going to be susceptible to some level of indoctrination. But then you take someone on the autism spectrum. Who is prone to binary thinking, who looks for a clear sense of authority and is especially looking for a sense of belonging. And it becomes all the more attractive to them. And this isn't really unique. You look back to the San Diego shooting just a few weeks ago where an 18-year-old killed 3 people at a mosque. And the days after that, his parents came out and said he was on the autism spectrum and he was radicalized online. You think about in 2024, the, um, shooter who killed 3 little girls at a Taylor Swift dance class. His violence was dismissed because he was on the spectrum. And after that, there were two copycat killers, uh, one of which was also autistic and had an Al Qaeda training manual saved on his phone. And so I do think there's kind of a pattern of people who are drawn to this because they really do know how to search for vulnerable people.

I think people that are, that are vulnerable online, they can easily fall into any kind of extremism from the right, from the left. Nihilism, um, white nationalism, anything. But I do think there is a specific draw to radical Islam. And one of the people I spoke to is a de-radicalizer who works with this boy. And before he worked as a de-radicalization expert, he was actually a recruiter, a jihadist recruiter. And he had said like, this is the reason that people are so drawn to this is because it kind of replaces the hero narrative. So for someone that is maybe ostracized at school, um, doesn't have a lot of friends. This makes them feel like they have a sense of belonging, that they are powerful, um, that they are misunderstood and that their job— and what he says when they're— when he was explaining their recruiting tactics is they really drill into their minds that we are at war with the West and it is your job to carry out that war on our behalf. But the really dark thing is that the people on the other side of the screen are really using these kids as political pawns.

So when they read a news story about a kid they radicalized going to jail, they're giving each other high fives. So that's what this, this, um, person told me who used to recruit himself.

And every young boy wants to be a hero. Here's a way they can be a hero, they're told. It's so appealing. Uh, this story, the parents have been working to de-radicalize their son. How has that gone? Is there a happy ending at the end of this? Uh, where is that at now?

I wish that I could say this kid was totally fine, but even his parents, who of course have, have more faith in him than anyone, have said it will take years for us to really understand and know what this will look like. So he's still a practicing Muslim. He goes to the mosque every day. He wakes up at 5:00 AM to pray every day. And so a big part of this has just been working with him and with the kind of de-radicalization specialist at Parents for Peace to get him to kind of be drawn to a more moderate view. Of the faith. And so one of the big questions left from the story, which we won't know for a while, is, is this kid still a threat?

A really alarming story. Really glad you wrote this and did this, this drill down on this. It's very impactful, and I recommend our listeners go and read your piece. Maya, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of all of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show ad-free and join our mission, become a member at dailywire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.