Senator Ted Cruz
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the Texas Revolution was very much like the American Revolution. We lost every damn battle. The Alamo was a slaughter. Goliad was a slaughter, much like Washington, where every battle he lost and lost and lost. And then at San Jacinto, we won, defeated Santa Ana, General Sam Houston. And we became our own nation, the Republic of Texas, from 1836 to 1845.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So, well, look, there are a lot of numbers that matter intensely. Let's start at one where you talked about low unemployment. As you know, that number can be deceptive because we also have among the lowest labor force participation we've ever had.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so there are millions that have just dropped out of the labor force altogether. They're not measured in top-line unemployment, but it's still a real challenge. We have healthy young adults who should be working who are not working.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I think it varies state by state, but I think when you have a welfare state where you get paid for not working, people end up not working. And the statistics are really crushing that if anyone doesn't work for a year, the odds of their going back to the workforce drop precipitously. That once someone gets the habit of dependency, I've said a bunch of times,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You know, I try to think of every policy from the perspective of easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder. And I think about, you know, my dad when he was a teenage kid in Austin washing dishes. Thank God some well-meaning liberal didn't come to him and say, Raphael, let me take care of you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Just stay home. Let me send you a government check. Don't work so hard. And it's utterly destructive. It breaks your self-respect, your individual responsibility.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And you're right that much of it is not from ill will. But we do need to have a real conversation about what works to lift people into prosperity. And by the way, all of us know this in our own life. If you're a kid, let's say you have a kindergartner who's struggling with math. there's not a one of us who would do our kids' math homework. We know that's not helping them.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That if your daughter doesn't learn to do arithmetic, it's gonna hurt her for the rest of her life. So you've gotta work through that problem with her, even if it'd be easier for you just to finish it for her. We know that in our lives. The old adage of give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
We know that with people we love, but yet when it comes to public policy, You have a lot of people who don't think about it more broadly. I'll say back in 2017, I did three different CNN town hall debates with Bernie Sanders. And listen, I like Bernie because he is an unapologetic socialist and I'm an unapologetic capitalist.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we had 90-minute town hall debates on which system was better for maximizing human prosperity and abundance. And we didn't insult each other. Neither of us called each other a son of a bitch. We talked about the facts. And I'll point out something. Let's take socialized medicine. It's interesting. The advocates of socialized medicine, when I pointed out,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It does.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
all of the problems socialized medicine produces in every country in which it's been implemented, the United Kingdom, Canada. Bernie's answer was, well, it wouldn't be that way here. So the reality would not be here. Every year, about 50,000 Canadians come to America on what they call medical tourism because they can't get the medical care they need in Canada.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I will suggest to you a question, particularly for those of y'all that are Californians, that I love asking advocates of socialized medicine. Why doesn't California adopt it? You've got a Democrat governor. You've got a Democrat supermajority legislature. There's no constitutional impediment. California could adopt socialized medicine today.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It's not the mean old Republicans that are stopping them. And as you know, the legislature looked at it and realized it would bankrupt them. By the way, Vermont, Bernie's home state, they could adopt it. And the reason you don't see California or New York or Illinois or Vermont or any blue state in America adopt socialized medicine. It wouldn't work.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It wouldn't work and people would flee their state. And so their answer is, we want to do it to everyone in the entire country so you can't flee. Unless you're willing to leave America, you're stuck.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, on Monday we're going to see a flurry of executive orders. I think it'll be in the neighborhood of 100 executive orders. I'm optimistic about them. That's the number they're talking about. It's going to be in that neighborhood. Shock and awe. And I actually, I'm pretty happy about that. Now look, will I agree with all 100? I don't know.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
My guess is I'll agree with the vast majority of them, but I don't know everything that's in there, so we'll see.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yes, and Chamath, that's actually a point. You know, I think back to, so my wife Heidi and I met on the 2000 George W. Bush campaign. And so we both served as young people in the Bush administration. And I think there is a quantum of outrage, and I call it the arsenic quantum of outrage. If you remember the beginning of Bush 43, One of the first things he did is his EPA revoked a rule on arsenic.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And for like six weeks, the media saturated the airwaves with the evil Republicans want to poison our children with arsenic. And I mean, it was it dominated forever and they beat the living daylights out of him for it. Now, look, Monday, when you get 100 executive orders, I think that's how much outrage there is. And that arsenic quantum of outrage will be directed at everything smeared.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Which makes it very hard for them to oppose anything coherently and directly and gives an opportunity, I hope, for this administration. What I'd like to see is really delivering on the mandate of this election. The outcomes in November were clear.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So number one, secure the border. And I believe that'll start on January 20th. And it will start by ending catch and release so that when people are apprehended, they are detained and they're sent back to where they came from. I think that will be followed up by going and arresting criminal illegal aliens, going and arresting murderers and rapists and child molesters and gang bangers.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think all of that will roll out very, very fast. I think there is also a mandate to end the federal government's war on energy, on Texas oil and gas. And that will lower prices at the gas pump, at the grocery store, every bill people are paying. And I think if you look at the top two issues in this election, it was illegal immigration and safety, and it was inflation and the economy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think we will also see a lessening of the job killing regulations on small businesses, a return to thriving, booming economic growth. What would those be? Look, there are a host of them. Energy is the easy example where the Biden administration's put in over 90 different regulations and executive orders, all designed to drive up the cost of energy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so I expect pretty much all of those to be reversed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I think on energy, we ought to pursue all of the above. Beyond that, I think there is also a mandate on the economic side. The 2017 Trump tax cuts are expiring this year. We're going to extend them. My hope is we make them bigger and bolder. That's going to take some time. We'll do that through what's called the reconciliation process. And then on foreign policy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think under Biden, we have abandoned and alienated our friends and we've shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies. I think that will stop. on Monday as well.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I'm happy to answer that directly. Let me just say one thing you just said there with respect is incorrect.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You said there's no way we're cutting taxes and not cutting spending and having inflation stay down. And I just say that's objectively false because that's exactly what happened in the first Trump term. which is the 2017 tax cuts. CBO had these apocalyptic projections.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Tax revenue went up every single year. After we cut the taxes, the revenue from the federal government went up. So we cut taxes. Sadly, we did not cut spending. I tried mightily to cut spending, but we did not have the votes to do it, and inflation still stayed down. So if the economy is booming, you can turn things around.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So I am excited about Doge. Elon is a good friend. I admire the hell out of him. I'm thrilled that he's a Texan. You know, I've joked with Elon that he doesn't just think outside the box. He doesn't know there is a damn box. That's a great thing. Now, Elon calls me periodically going, all right, what the hell is this government thing? How does this work this way?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I'm trying to give whatever guidance I can on that. But I think how you deal with a disruptor in government is going to be an interesting challenge. Vivek is very smart, very creative. I will say a couple of challenges. Right now, look, I'm excited about Doge. I want to see some big, bold, creative ideas. I'm going to give you two warning signs. Number one, the phrase waste, fraud, and abuse.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So California used to know the answer to this. 50 years ago, California was the economic engine of the country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Anytime someone talks about waste, fraud, and abuse, they don't really want to cut government spending. You know why? Because there is no waste, fraud, and abuse caucus. There's no one that says, I'm for the waste. So it's the easy place to go. We'll cut the waste.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
If you actually cut real government spending, there is always, always, always a constituency who's pissed off, who likes the thing they're getting.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so you have lots of politicians that are going to lose. They're going to lose their votes. Right. Somebody will be mad. That's right. And so that is a challenge. I will say, secondly, at least in the first term, Donald Trump did not campaign as a small government conservative and he did not govern as a small government conservative. And in fact, I will relay a story.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
At the end of the first term, you remember we're in COVID and the government is in the business of sending out checks and more checks and more checks to people all over the country. And Trump wanted the checks to be even bigger. And a lot of the folks in the White House, they asked me, they said, Ted, can you go try to talk him down from this lunch?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So I went on Air Force One, and I'm sitting there with the president. I'm trying to make the case that we don't need these gigantic stimulus checks. And he goes, Ted, and I get the back of the hand. He goes, Ted, no one ever lost an election by spending too much money. I said, yeah, but they did bankrupt the country. So I did not succeed then.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
and unfortunately you're cursed by idiot politicians who were destroying this this mighty economic engine you know none of this is rocket science in in texas we believe in freedom we believe in low taxes and low regulations and and to understand the state texas was basically founded by a bunch of wildcatters who were guys with fourth grade educations that began drilling holes in the ground and one after the other became the richest man on earth yeah
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That's a good idea. Look, I'll go with it. He likes big.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So look, it's a good question.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yeah, listen, I am also a passionate advocate of term limits. So I have introduced in every Congress a constitutional amendment that would limit senators to two terms, limit House members to three terms. I think term limits would change that dynamic in a very significant way. Right. and the career politicians in both parties oppose it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, on any big spending bill, you unfortunately have a bipartisan coalition in favor of spending. You have essentially all the Democrats and about half the Republicans. There are about 20 of us who will vote against a trillion dollar spending. And we are frequently begging our colleagues.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And to be honest, I don't think we will ever see real spending restraint without strong presidential leadership, which means it will never come from a Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. And look, if Elon and Vivek convinced President Trump that he's going to lean in aggressively on cutting spending, great. But that hadn't happened so far.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yeah, look, it varies. It takes electing strong leaders. So I engage, elections matter, and I engage, so I think I've probably campaigned for more candidates for Senate, House, and governorship than any Republican in the country. I mean, I travel all over the country, I endorse candidates, and I follow the old Bill Buckley rule, which is I support the most conservative candidate who can win.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And that varies. Look, a candidate who can win in Texas is different than a candidate who can win in Maine.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But I can say the problem is you get, I can tell you in Texas, I mean, when I ran, 2012, I ran for Senate. I'd never been elected before. Never been elected to nothing. Literally the last thing I was elected to was student council. By the way, Chamath, you may not remember this. You actually wrote me a check in that race.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, my view on Denmark and Greenland, so I did a podcast two weeks ago on Denmark, Greenland, and Canada. And I did all three of them on my Verdict podcast. And I put them in a spectrum. Let's start with Canada. I think the President's Canada remarks were just trolling. I think he was just screwing with Trudeau.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think he was sitting at the table and decided, you know, why are you even a country? You ought to be a state. You should be a governor.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the ethos of Texas, you know, it was interesting. A number of years ago, I was visiting with a CEO and an executive team of a company that had moved from California to Texas. And they didn't have any Texas ties, but they were just fed up with California. They moved to Texas. And so I was asking them, they'd only been in Texas for a couple of months.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I love it. You know, I would have paid, frankly, to be sitting at that table just to see Trudeau's face.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, it was reminiscent, if you remember the 2016 campaign on the debate stage, where Trump turned Rand Paul was at the end. And he's like, why are you even on this stage? And what is it with your hair? I mean, it was the same sort of comment that was just messing with him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I put that in one, and by the way, that may be the most epic troll of all time, because I think that literally pushed Trudeau into resigning. Crazy, huh?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And welcome to Texas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I will say, I couldn't resist tweeting and said, you know, Trudeau's lasted really long for a son of Fidel Castro. Oh, wait, wait.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So Canada's a troll.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Greenland, on the other hand, I think is a very serious policy proposal. And I think there are... You know, Trump mentioned this in the first term, and a lot of people dismissed it. Oh, this is just Trump talking wacky.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But I think there are enormous national security and economic reasons why acquiring Greenland makes a ton of sense. Yeah. And you look at Greenland's location on the Arctic, it has incredibly prime location on the Arctic. From a national security perspective, God forbid we ever get in a shooting war with China or with Russia, ICBMs are coming right over the Arctic.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And Greenland is a prime location to deal with that. We're also seeing more shipping lanes coming in and around the Arctic. And China and Russia are both competing for prized access there. Greenland makes an enormous sense from that perspective. It also makes an enormous perspective from critical minerals and rare earth minerals. They have vast amounts.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so what I said is, look, I think we should pursue this seriously. I'll tell you, I had a conversation this week with the Danish ambassador to the United States. And look, Denmark's a little freaked out by all this conversation. And I'll tell you what I told the ambassador. I said, listen, Denmark is our friend. You are our ally. You will continue to be our friend and ally.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But friends and allies can have conversations. And the ambassador said, well, Greenland's not for sale. I said, that's fine. Everything's for sale. We're going to have a conversation. And by the way, if you maintain that, one of the things this has produced is a growing independence movement in Greenland.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And if you do nothing, you may end up getting nothing for Greenland because they break off on their own. Now, look, for it to happen, I think you would probably have to have a referendum on Greenland. I find it quite plausible that the Greenlanders, about 50,000 of them, would say, wait a second, I get to be an American? Their poll just showed positive results.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I mean, to become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I said, all right, what's the biggest difference? And I thought maybe they'd say taxes or maybe regulations or maybe lawsuits. Those were the three things I was gonna guess. Their answer blew me away. They said, the biggest difference is the culture. And what they said is, in California, if you're in business, you're a pariah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the billions in investment, if Greenland became an American territory, the difference it would make for Greenlanders.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So look, Ken Howery, you guys know, I know, is a good friend who has been nominated to be ambassador to Denmark. I've talked with Ken just yesterday about this. I think we need to lean in and try to negotiate, both with Denmark and Greenland. I'm certainly from the Senate going to push it. But I wanted to contrast it. Is Canada going to become a state? No.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But Greenland, listen, we acquired Louisiana purchase. We purchased from France. Alaska, we purchased from Russia.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so Panama, I view as kind of in the middle of the two. And Panama is a little more complicated. Look, I think Jimmy Carter giving away the Panama Canal remains one of the most spectacularly stupid decisions a president has ever done in office. I think it was profoundly harmful to U.S. national security interests, to our economic interests.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That being said, it's been long enough that unwinding it is really tough. However, President Trump, if you listen to what he's saying on Panama, he's got actually some very sophisticated legal arguments that he's making. Number one, when we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, technically sold it for a dollar, we had a binding agreement that laid out the terms of that transfer.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And one argument that President Trump has put forth is that Panama is in violation of that agreement because they have allowed China to effectively seize control of the canal. How is that? Because a Chinese state-owned enterprise owns a building on one end of the canal and on the other end of the canal.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And should we be at a point of conflict, military or other, with China, it's not difficult to imagine those Chinese state-owned enterprises using that location to try to shut down
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
anyone traversing the sounds like they avoided the contract that's that's a pretty powerful argument the second argument and i had breakfast this morning with president trump he had breakfast with all the republican senators two and a half hours he gets sworn in tomorrow and he spent two and a half hours stamina stream of consciousness talking we talked about panama he's pointing out uh the president said this morning said u.s navy ships paid double
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
what any other country's Navy ships pay. He said that American commercial ships pay 58% more than other nations pay. Look, we need to drill down into those facts, but on the face of it, I think there's a powerful argument that that's inconsistent with the terms of the agreement. And is the final outcome of this that we get total control of the Panama Canal back? Probably not.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
They said, look, there's an exception for tech and an exception for Hollywood. I need more. Well, that was their view. But they were not in tech or Hollywood. They were in sanitation, which was not a sexy business. And the way they described it, they said, if you're at a party and someone asks, what do you do? And you say, I'm a businessman. They said, people will turn around and walk away.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think that's a high lift. But in many ways, I think Trump is negotiating on price. And I could easily see an outcome where both Navy ships and commercial ships that are American pay much, much lower rates, number one. And number two, critically, that we get China the hell out of the canal. And that, if we accomplish those two, that would be a massive improvement from U.S. interest.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I've been really happy so far. I think the array of cabinet nominees has been very, very strong.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, look, clearly the most bumpy was Matt Gaetz and they withdrew Matt Gaetz. He was not going to get confirmed. There were multiple Republican senators who were going to vote no. Right. But I will say, I mean, they withdrew that nomination pretty quickly.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Pam Bondi is going to be terrific. She's going to get confirmed easily. I think right now every Trump cabinet nominee gets confirmed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Pete Hegseth is clearly who they're shooting at the most. I don't think they've scored real blood. I did a whole podcast on the Hegseth confirmation hearing where it spoke volumes that the Democrat virtually all of the Democrat attacks were personal attacks based on anonymous charges, typically with no evidence and with no one coming forward and putting their name on it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And they had virtually nothing to say about the job to which he'd been nominated and what he intends to do as the Secretary of Defense. I think that fundamentally is a flawed strategy. So I think everyone gets through right now.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yes. Rubio? So Rubio will get 90 votes. He could get north of 95 votes. It'll be a huge bipartisan vote for Rubio. John Ratcliffe for CIA, he'll get significant bipartisan votes. Sean Duffy at Transportation, he'll get a bunch of bipartisan votes. Howard Lutnick at Commerce, my guess is he'll get bipartisan votes, although he hasn't had his hearing yet, so we'll see.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So there will certainly be some. Pam Bondi, I think Pam is terrific. Brooke Rowlands? Brooke will get bipartisan votes. Part of it is, all right, let's take Sean Duffy. So I chaired the confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation. it was a love fest. Why was it a love fest? Because everyone wants a bridge or a road in their state.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So if you're a Democrat, you're like, wait, you're Santa Claus and you're giving out hundreds of billions of dollars, I want some. And so everyone wants it. And so Brooke Rollins at Department of Agriculture, again, everyone wants stuff for ag and farmers in their state. So in that sort of role, it's easy for it to be a love fest. Pam Bondi, even though she did very well,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I'd be surprised if Democrats vote for just the nature of Attorney General in this politicized environment. My guess is, I think on the committee, the D's are going to vote no. But I think Pam will hold every Republican. And so I think she gets through easily. Bobby? Senator? I think he makes it through. I spent an hour with him. It'll be interesting. I was talking with him about this.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I gotta say, as a Texan, that is weird. I mean, we lionize entrepreneurs.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Will any Democrats vote for him? Obviously, he's been a Democrat his whole life until like 12 minutes ago.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And they really, they do view him as a Judas for daring to change. All of us. It's still, look. J. Cal too. You look at like red dye number three. You look at what Bobby is doing.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And his willingness to take on corruption, corruption of big pharmaceutical companies that get in bed with big government, that they perpetuate their monopolies using government power. So I talked to Bobby, for example, about a bill that I've been fighting for a long time that I call the Results Act.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
The Results Act says that if any pharmaceutical, any medical device is approved in another major developed country, so approved in Canada or Japan or the EU, that the FDA has 60 days to approve it here or it's deemed automatically approved by operations. Love it. Brilliant. I'm going to fight. I have been fighting for that, but I think now I have an HHS secretary that agrees with it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That's easy. These are Lucchese. Lucchese, the factory is in El Paso. They're handmade there. They're beautiful.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I do think if you look at these cabinet nominees, the most striking characteristic of virtually all of them is that they're change agents, that they're going to fundamentally disruptors. And that's exciting. We need that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You are tempting me with poker chips. No, we're going to get you in a game. Senator, I know you don't make it to California much, but when you do, come play.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we need scotch and a cigar, and I am perfectly happy. Maybe we'll go play in Austin. I can't stand all these gang balls where everyone's in tuxedos, but my happy place is sitting around the poker table with good conversation and good scotch.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That was great.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, there is a cause and effect. And you go back to 1987, and 1987 is when Ronald Reagan signed amnesty into place. And at the time, there were 3 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. And Congress went to the American people and said, all right, we got a deal for you. We're going to secure the border. We're going to fix the problem of illegal immigration forever.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And in exchange, we're going to give amnesty to the 3 million people who are here illegally now. And in 87, the American people said, OK, that sounds like a reasonable deal. They took the deal. Now we now know what happened, which is the amnesty happened, but the border never got secured. What did that mean for California? The highest concentration of illegal immigrants was in California in 1988.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And these particular boots, the front of them have the Senate seal on them. Oh, that's cool.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
California voted Republican in the presidential race as it had for six consecutive years, six consecutive cycles previously. 1988 was the last year California ever went Republican.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
For president.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
In the presidential race. And so I think the amnesty law played a significant part, the federal law changing the voting composition of the state.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And then, and look, you guys would know the state politics more, but it also seemed to me that you have the public employee unions in California that realize that they could vote themselves more and more of the largesse. The ultimate failure of democracy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the back of them have the come and take it flag. Whoa. Which, I don't know, do you know the history of the Come and Take It flag? I was about to ask you. Okay, since you're a new Texan, this is important. And he started saying y'all, so he's adapting, but he needs to learn.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
The real estate taxes are a little bit higher, but we have no income tax. So it more than makes up for it. Two percent, one and a half. That's the principal avenue of taxation. You've got real estate taxes and sales taxes are where the state and local governments get their taxes. But no income tax. Look, some of it is government does less.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I mean, there's a philosophy that government doesn't have to spend and provide everything. Government does police and firefighters and roads and does the basic responsibilities of government. But it's not engaged in funding every pet project of every politician. That's part of it. You look at across the country, it is not a complicated migration pattern.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
People are fleeing bright blue states with high taxes and high regulations. And they're coming to red states with low taxes and low regulations.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So we've had, it has now been more than a decade that we have had over a thousand people a day moving to Texas. So when I was first elected 13 years ago, we had 26 million Texans. Today we have over 31 million Texans. So we've added 5 million Texans in 13 years. And the biggest state folks come from is California. It's interesting, the migration pattern, you get a lot of California to Texas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
New Yorkers tend to go to Florida more. We get some New Yorkers, but for whatever reason, West Coast folks seem to prefer Texas and East Coast folks seem to prefer Florida. But I actually think the competition in terms of where we lose people to, we lose people either to Florida or Tennessee. Those are about the only two places if someone's thinking of leaving. And I love that competition.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I want Florida and Tennessee to be out fighting and saying, we can create an even better environment for small businesses and jobs. And part of it is The number one reason people come to Texas is Texas is where the jobs are. And you want an environment where you have small businesses that are doing great, but people also want to be safe.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so you look at things like defunding the police or Soros prosecutors that let murderers go. And that gives people a pretty acute incentive to get the heck out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
All right, so Texas in the 1820s and 1830s, we were part of Mexico. And the dictator of Mexico was General Santa Ana. And there's a little town in south Texas called the town of Gonzales. And General Ana sent an order to the Texians, which is what we were called back then, Texians, to hand over their guns and there was a cannon that guarded the city.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, absolutely both. I have for a long time described my immigration views in four words. Legal, good, illegal, bad. Okay. I think most Americans, most Texans agree with that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, there's a right way to come to this country. There's the way you came to this country. There's the way my dad came to this country. My dad was born in Cuba. He grew up in Cuba. He fought in the Cuban Revolution. When he was a teenager, he fought, was thrown in prison. He was tortured when he was 17 years old. And he came to Texas in 1957. He was 18, couldn't speak English.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
had a hundred dollars in his underwear, and he washed dishes making fifty cents an hour. But he came legally because he had applied to the University of Texas, he'd gotten in, he came on a student visa.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
and he was an 18-year-old freshman and he started going to school here and he came legally and he worked and got a job and went on in time to start a small business and worked towards the American dream.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He is. My dad is 85.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He is my hero. He's an incredible, I will say, when you have lost freedom, it's personal to you. People ask sometimes, why do you do politics? And I grew up as a kid, I would sit on the floor, along with my cousin Bibi, with my dad and Bibi's mom, my tia Sonia. And she also, she was also imprisoned and tortured in Cuba. And we would sit and listen to them tell stories.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And all I ever wanted to do from when I was three, four, five years old was be a freedom fighter. I mean, it was, it's inspiring because what they said and still say, and they're both still going strong, is look, if The only thing that prevents us from tyranny is having good people in office who will fight for our freedoms.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so I gotta tell you today, I literally jump out of bed every day because I look at the US Senate and I think it is basically the Roman Colosseum. and you strap on some armor and you grab a battleaxe and you go fight the barbarians. And that's an amazing opportunity. I feel blessed and fortunate every day.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And General Santa Anna said, hand over the cannon. And the Texians responded by making a flag with an image of the cannon and underneath it the legend, come and take it. And they flew it over the town and that was the beginning of the Texas Revolution. Now the epilogue is Santa Anna came in with about 6,000 soldiers and he did in fact take the cannon. I mean, Gonzales was a tiny little town.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Listen, I agree with your point at the outset, which is that we need to talk to each other. I worry that we are too polarized and tribalized, that the left only listens to left-wing media, the right listens to right-wing media. Anyone who disagrees, you scream at them. The sense of community that we used to have has been badly badly unraveled, you know, on social media.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
If someone disagrees with you, you unfriend them. And we're all in this little echo chamber.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But we're living in alternate realities. And so look, what y'all are doing is really important. I'm grateful for this podcast. We got to talk to each other. I do a podcast every week called Verdict with Ted Cruz. We've got about a million unique listeners that listen to the Verdict podcast. And we do it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every week, my podcast is beating CNN.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I think the reason is the same reason people listen to you guys, because you're actually talking about issues and you're not just screaming at each other. It's not Jerry Springer, go grab a chair and fling it at somebody, but it's have a real and substantive conversation. And I'll tell you one of the things that I've done and enjoyed is I've taken the podcast on the road to college campuses.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, for example, we did one at Yale a couple years ago and had about 700 students come out, and I didn't know how the reaction would be. And interestingly enough, about a third of the students were left of center. And I know that because it was right after Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed. And I made a reference to that. And about a third of the room began cheering.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I stopped and I said, hey, look, the fact that you're cheering at that shows that obviously we're coming from different places on the political spectrum. I said, I want to thank you especially for coming here. Because you may not agree with me on everything or even most things. But thank you for coming and being part of a conversation. And so we did about 90 minutes of all Q&A.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we had a rule. We said, if you have a hostile question, if you have an antagonistic question, come to the front of the line. And we spent 90 minutes having a real conversation. Afterwards, I went out with an Orthodox rabbi on campus and we got a drink and he said, he said, Ted, you know, I've been working on Yale's campus. for decades.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He said, this is the biggest group of students I've seen have a positive, civil, constructive conversation on conservative ideas, he said, in 20 years.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
There's a long way to go.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So the budget resolution just starts this process. Now what's happened in the House is they've directed each of the House committees to draft the underlying bill. So what was voted on tonight was not securing the border. It was not rebuilding the military. It was not cutting taxes. It was the opening resolution to say, go draft that legislation. That was a real fight.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Yes. Now, it actually gets your batter at the plate. Like if they failed, they don't even get a batter at the plate. So now we can start swinging. We're in the game. But they're going to be harder steps forward. And I believe we're going to get this done. I believe we're going to get this done. We're going to secure the border. We're going to rebuild the military.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
We're going to unleash American energy and we're going to extend the tax cuts. But but it is going to be a lot of tradeoffs. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard because the House majority is so excruciatingly tiny that on any issue, if you lose two votes, you're out of luck. But I think we will get the job done.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And I will say both Mike Johnson, the speaker, and Steve Scalise, the majority leader, they're both good friends. I work very closely with both of them. And I think we will go through some difficult times. paths to get there. But all of us, from the most conservative Republican to the most moderate, squishy, wobbly Republican, all of us want to produce these victories.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
We get there was a mandate from the election and we can't fail. And by the way, if we fail. if we don't secure the border, if we don't rebuild the military, if we don't unleash energy, if we don't extend the tax cuts, we'll get killed in November of next year. Yeah.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Like, hey, you don't want to be involved in this. Right. Get it done. We made a promise to the voters. Let's deliver on the voters. And I think today was an important step to doing that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And finally, we're going to talk about the latest step in the battle over boys and girls sports, which is the Department of Justice is coming after the state of Maine, the state of California, and the state of Minnesota to comply with the federal law and Trump's executive order concerning boys and girls sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So let me read from a story in the New York Post. Texas rancher killed by suspected cartel IED on Mexican border as authorities warn of growing threat. Here's what the New York Post reported. Quote, a Texas border rancher was killed near the border by a suspected cartel IED earlier this month. The Texas Department of Agriculture told the Post Tuesday.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
as officials issued an urgent safety warning for the Rio Grande Valley. Rancher Antonio Gaspérez Saldeña, 74, who worked on both sides of the border, along with Horacio López Peña, was killed in the blast in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was just south of Brownsville, Texas. Lopez's wife, Ninfa Griselda Ortega, was hospitalized with injuries.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Saldirna was driving on his ranch when he hit the explosive device, causing it to detonate, according to KRGB. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the deadly explosion is part of a, quote, growing threat posed by cartel activity along our southern border and encourages ranchers to, quote, exercise extreme caution in the area.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Quote, I encourage everyone in the agricultural industry to stay vigilant. remain aware of their surroundings, and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. Additionally, you can avoid dirt roads and remote areas, refrain from touching unfamiliar objects that could be explosive devices, limit travel to daylight hours, stay on main roads, and avoid cartel-controlled regions, said Miller.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
This is happening right at the Texas-Mexico border. I got to say, it is dangerous and it shows, you know, some in the media say, gosh, it's hyperbole, it's rhetoric to call the cartels terrorists. They are terrorists and they're murdering Texans.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And Maine and California and Minnesota are saying, hell no, we're going to break that down as well.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Well, I believe we're going to do that. I believe we're starting with we saw on January 20th, President Trump securing the border. We've seen the numbers of illegal crossings plummet, drop 90 percent. We're going to go after them. We're going to go after them. We're going to go after the people who are here, the murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, the gang members. We're arresting them.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
We're deporting them. We're going to send them back. But we're also stopping the traffic coming in, the human traffickers, the drug traffickers that is impacting the cartels bottom lines. But I think we're going to use leverage to go after the cartels directly and try to Joe Biden and the Democrats. gave billions of dollars to the cartels.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
A stat you and I have talked about multiple times, but it's a stunning stat. In 2018, the Mexican drug cartels made roughly $500 million from human trafficking. $500 million is a lot of money. Last year, they made $13 billion, a 2,600% increase. That is ending now. And I have every confidence the Trump administration is going to go after their money. It's going to go after them directly.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And you are going to see the cartels targeted just like we target al-Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah. the days of the cartels terrorizing Americans, those days are ending.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Well, listen, unfortunately, elected Democrats remain radical. They have not learned any lessons from the November election. So if you look at Democrats in Congress, if you looked at Democrat governors, they continue to support open borders. They continue to support releasing murderers and rapists and child molesters into this country.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
You look at we talked about this in last week's pod, how Massachusetts is literally releasing violent child rapists. who are illegal immigrants, rather than turn them over to ICE to be deported. And I got to say, look, this is not a 60-40 issue. It's not a 70-30 issue. This is an 80-20 or a 90-10 issue.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
I mean, if you ask any rational and sane person, a violent child rapist, should we release him into our community? Any rational person, most normal Democrats would say, hell no, that's a dumb ass idea. And yet the elected Democrats in Massachusetts, their answer is let them go. We are opposed to deporting anyone, no matter how vile. They're continuing the same position on on.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
They continue to support the Democrats in Congress, continue to support Democrats. sterilizing and castrating children for sex change operations. Again, that's an 80-20 issue. They're on the wrong side of it, but they're listening to their radical base. And when it comes to men and women's sports, this is another 80-20 issue. The American people don't want boys competing against their daughters.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
They don't want men competing against women. And yet the Democrats are all in on that. And I've been amazed that Normally, when your party gets clobbered in an election, you go and reassess, gosh, maybe we miscalibrated. Maybe we should change where we stand. The Democrats are not doing that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And so what happened this week is Pam Bondi, the new attorney general, targeted in particular three states, targeted Maine, California and Minnesota. And she issued a warning to them. that those states have to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws that require them to keep boys out of girls' sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And here's what Pam Bondi said, quote, this Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law. And she continues, the Department of Justice says, quote,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
As President Trump's recent executive order 14201 on this subject explains, allowing men and boys to compete in women's and girls sports, quote, is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls. This practice is also illegal under federal law.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
It denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports in violation of Title IX of the educational amendments of 1972.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And so understand the Department of Justice is making clear they intend to sue these states and they intend to cut off federal funds to these states if they continue to embrace the radical notion that they're going to let boys compete in girls sports. We talked about in Monday's pod how the governor of Maine is in open defiance saying to hell with you. We'll see you in court.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
It's amazing Democrats continue to embrace these radical positions. Yeah, it really is.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Well, tonight was the first step in delivering on our promises to the American people. And if you look at the election in November, there was a mandate from the voters. Number one, the mandate is secure the border. And that is the most overwhelming mandate we have. Beyond that, there's a mandate to rebuild the military and defend America.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
There's a mandate to unleash American energy and by doing so to lower energy costs, to lower inflation. And there's a mandate to to bring the economy back to help small businesses. And that means extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts that are expiring this year. All of that. We got to get done. And I got to say, failure is not an option.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So tonight, what the House did is they voted on their budget resolution. Now, why does a budget resolution matter? The reason it matters is ordinarily to pass legislation in the Congress. You need 60 votes in the Senate. Why is that? Because the Senate rules give the minority the ability to filibuster.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And the ability to filibuster is the ability to block legislation unless you have 60 votes to cut off debate. Now, we only have 53 Republicans in the Senate, which means if you need 60 votes, you need seven Democrats. The seven Democrats are not going to vote. There are there are not seven Democrats.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
There's not even one Democrat who's going to vote to secure the border, who's going to vote to cut taxes, is going to vote to rebuild our military. And so if you've got to go through the filibuster, you can't win. Now, the main exception to the Senate filibuster rule is. is something called budget reconciliation.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Budget reconciliation is a law that was passed in the 1970s that provides for moving forward on budgetary matters. And by statute, a budget reconciliation cannot be filibustered, which means you can pass it with only 50 votes in the Senate. You don't need 60. So if you go back to 2017... The 2017 Trump tax cuts we passed using budget reconciliation.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
If you go back to the Biden administration, the Democrats used budget reconciliation multiple times to pass things like their incredibly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which was the Green New Deal spending scam. They used that because they couldn't get 60. Now, in order to pass our agenda, we are trying to pass budget reconciliation.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
The House and Senate have a difference in strategy on how to do this. And we've talked about this in a previous podcast, but I'm going to explain a little bit of it. The House, the Speaker of the House, believes we should pass one single reconciliation bill. What he refers to it as is one big, beautiful bill. Donald Trump has repeated that multiple times.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And he believes that's the best way with his exceptionally narrow majority in the House to get all of this across the finish line. I will tell you, virtually every Republican senator, including myself, believes the way to do this is two bills, starting with one bill that secures the border, rebuilds the military and unleashes energy.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And then a second bill that extends the tax cuts and makes them bigger and bolder. I don't know who's right. I don't know if the Senate's right or the House is right. But at some level, Ben, I don't care. We just have to get the job done. So tonight I had dinner with Steve Scalise. Steve is a good friend. He is the House majority leader.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Well, this is the first step. So you and I are recording this. It is 1220 in the morning, Tuesday night. The House had a touch and go vote on the floor of the House on whether to begin the first step of budget reconciliation. They ended up getting the votes by one vote. Initially, they put it on the floor of the House and it failed. Then they brought it back. President Trump
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Really, really well. So Steve, Steve has been is a good friend. He's from Louisiana. He's a conservative. He's a friend. He and I have been friends a long time. He's doing great. And listen, Steve, we all remember where Steve was shot with with the crazed, angry leftist who went to the practice of the congressional baseball game and wanted to kill Republicans. And shot and badly wounded Steve.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Shot him in the pelvis and he was in a coma for several days. He almost died. He's recovered from that. And then I got to say, Steve has had some tough health scares because he had just a couple of years ago cancer. And he was down in Houston at MD Anderson being treated. And MD Anderson is an amazing hospital. My mom, who's 90 now, she was treated there for cancer.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
It is... Look, cancer is a terrifying diagnosis. I hope never in my life to be a patient at MD Anderson. I don't want to be a patient there because you're only a patient there if you have cancer. I'd really like not to have cancer. But I'll tell you this, if I ever get cancer, you better believe I want to be a patient at MD Anderson. I mean, they do an amazing job. And I got to say, Steve...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
His health is doing great. I told him tonight he's in remission. He's finished with his cancer treatment. He is strong. His color is back. He is full of life and vim and vigor. I told him, I said, look, even five, six months ago when he was coming out of the cancer treatment, you could see, look, when you go through that, you go through chemo, it weakens you. You can just see it's hard.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Your body is, I mean, it exacts the cost. It's brutal. It's brutal. But you know what? Steve is strong and effective and good. I was really encouraged. It's the best I've seen Steve in years. And he's come through this. And he was jubilant. So he was on the House floor. He's the House majority leader. He was trying to get the votes to pass this on the House. And he wasn't sure.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So the first time they brought it on the House, it failed. And then he kept pressing and then he got it done. And he got it done. Look, a critical piece of getting it done was President Trump. And I sort of joked when Steve showed up at dinner, I said, you know, it does help when the chief whip in the House is named Donald J. Trump. Yeah, no doubt about it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
And they were putting President Trump on the phone with the Republican votes that are wobbly. And he was saying, listen, I need you to vote with us. And he flipped the votes. And so it was... And Steve told me, so we were supposed to have dinner at 730. He didn't get there until about 830 because he was on the floor battling. And Steve told me, he's like, all right, I'm late for dinner.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So he said, I'm picking up the tab, which I appreciated. Last time Steve and I had dinner, I picked up the tab. And he said, I'll tell you what, order a drink, whatever you like, make it expensive, I'm paying. Okay. And he said, I want to celebrate.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So I ordered McAllen 25 Neat. There you go. Which is a great single malt scotch. And, you know, Steve is not a big scotch guy. I actually don't drink scotch a lot, but I do like McAllen. And so we toasted. And when someone else, by the way, is paying, it's just a nice little touch there. Look, Steve said hurt me a little bit and ordered something pricey. So I thought about Michelob Ultra.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
But somehow McKellen 25 seemed a better call.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
I'm still on the boycott train there, by the way. By the way, I will say you and I have been to a lot of Astros games. Yes. I love the Strohs. You know, it used to be a few years ago I'd go to the Astros and every baseball game I'd have a Bud Light. I mean, that's just what I drank, you know.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
was whipping the votes that were on the sidelines, and it passed by one vote. Now, this doesn't mean it's done, but it's the beginning of the process. We're going to break that down. We're going to explain what it means, what that is starting us on the path to do.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
I'm old enough that I drink light beer instead of regular beer because, you know, I like, you know, water that's slightly flavored. I like it. But... After the whole Bud Light thing, it's an amazing thing. You go to the Minute Maid Stadium. You go to watch, I guess it's now the Dyken Stadium.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
But I'll say this. You'd go to the stadium, and a few years ago, like, everyone was drinking Bud Light. It was literally every person in the stadium, that's what they drink. And now, I don't even think they sell Bud Light. I mean, it is an astonishing difference.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
So, by the way, there's a structural reason for that. So listen, you take something like the NBA. The NBA got all woke. It put all the damn slogans on the court and on the jerseys. It pissed me off. It pissed a lot of conservatives off. Here's the problem. I love basketball. Like, for me, the price of boycotting the NBA, the price of boycotting the NFL, the price of boycotting sports is painful.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Like, I get great joy from watching professional sports. And so I didn't like their politics, but I'm like, I'm not willing to sacrifice my joy just because I'm pissed about politics. What got Bud Light... is they have a product that is easily substitutable. Yeah, easily replaceable. Every place you could get a Bud Light... There's a Coors Light. Yeah. There's a Miller's Light.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
It's right next to it. And by the way, show me the guy that if you do a blind taste test between Bud Light, Miller's Light, and Coors Light could tell you the difference. I don't know. That's someone with a better palate than me. They're all light beers, and they all taste pretty much the same to me. I'll probably piss off some listeners.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
But I can tell the difference between a Guinness and a Bud Light. Yes, yes. But I'll be damned if I can tell the difference between a Bud Light and a Coors Light. That meant every customer, it was not a boycott that was painful. It was not a boycott that's like, I got to give up something that gives joy to me. It was a boycott that said, oh.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
We're also going to talk about the rather shocking news from this week about an IED that exploded in South Texas, blowing up a Texas rancher as the Mexican cartels are engaged in what you would have to call just open warfare at this point. IEDs you envision in Iraq, you envision in war zones, you don't envision them in the state of Texas. We're going to break that down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Yeah, I literally hold my beer or let me return it and I'm going to get a different one and watch how easy this is for me. Right, right. And that got them in real trouble. By the way, Target gotten a little bit of this when they got super woke and Target is somewhat substitutable.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
But I'll say I think Target and they suffered a big drop, but I think they've come back because listen, I mean, I guess instead of Target, you can go to Wal-Mart. But they're not a ton of choices. I'll tell you, my girls, I'll confess, my teenage girls love Target.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
House Budget VICTORY, Cartels Escalate War Zone at Southern Border & Dems DIg in on Boys in Girls' Sports
Yeah, I mean, but it's a more expensive substitution. Bud Light got hit because it was a cost-free way to say, I don't like what you did.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Stop, yeah.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So I remember you and I first met in 2013 when I was a brand new baby senator. Yeah. And I was still down in the basement office. They stick freshman senators in a basement office, kind of like hazing. Yeah, yeah, I was about to say, it sounds like it. There are 100 Senate offices, but for six months you stay in the basement. Put you in your place. Yeah, it's like wearing a beanie.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
They want you to know where you're supposed to be.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And you know, I got to say, now 13 years into it, I think there's a lot of wisdom to doing that. Sure, sure. But you were down in the basement office and I remember you were coming and sitting down with SpaceX. And at the time, the Air Force was not letting you all bid to launch satellites. And so you were coming and saying, look, we got a company. I think we can do a really good job of this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And yet we're locked out of this. It's a little amazing to think the journey SpaceX has gone from then to now.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
They are the ones that help give the support that is needed. And the people of Israel need now more than ever before life-saving security essentials. And your gift today will help save lives by providing bomb shelters, armored security vehicles and ambulances, firefighting equipment, flak jackets, and bulletproof vests, and so much more.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
When did it strike you, okay, you're going to have to do this if you want to? Well, I'll tell you, it gets crazier.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
How'd that go?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Do they sell ICBMs? Does that work?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
You got to tell us a story that I want to know who was out of the warhead.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Yeah. Please walk me down that. I want to know how you made that phone call.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So those are big enough with one more stage to get to Mars?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Your generous donation today will help ensure the people of Israel are safe and secure in the days to come. So give a gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting supportifcj.org. That's one word, supportifcj.org. Or call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCJ. 888-488-4325 or supportifcj.org.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So you try to buy CBMs. Do you succeed or no? Or do you figure out you got to build your own instead?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
By the way, was there another bidder or were you the only one trying to buy them?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
That put it on really badly.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Well, as you know, we couldn't even get to the space station. We needed the Russians to get us to our own space station.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Yeah.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
But it was the only ride they had.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Yeah.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
All right, I want to take a moment to tell you real quick about an incredible company called Patriot Mobile. And the reason why I say it's incredible is because, number one, the reason why it was started. Patriot Mobile was started by a group of conservatives that found out where their money was going when they paid their bill to Big Mobile.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And they said, we've got to stop this because Big Mobile gives massive donations to Democratic causes, candidates... and organizations, even organizations that advocate, support, and pay for abortions. If you don't want your money going there, then you need to switch to the only Christian conservative wireless provider in the country with nationwide coverage.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
I use Patriot Mobile, and I travel all the time. A lot of people say the number one reason why they don't change, they say it's just too hard, too difficult, and I don't want to have bad coverage. None of that's an issue in 2024 anymore. You literally can change right now over the phone.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
All you got to do is call Patriot Mobile, and they can do it over the phone, and you keep your same cell phone number you have now. You can keep your same cell phone you have in your hand right now, and you can upgrade to a new phone if you want to. But then this is where the best part happens, the most fun part of switching.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Every month, Patriot Mobile, when you pay your bill, they take about 5% of your bill at no extra cost to you. And they give it back to conservative causes that fight for our First and our Second Amendment. They fight for the rights of unborn children. And they stand and support and advocate and help our wounded warriors, our veterans, our first responder heroes each and every day.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
That is why I love Patriot Mobile and I want you to make the switch. So go to patriotmobile.com slash verdict. And you are going to get a free month of service with a promo code verdict. Or you can call them 972-PATRIOT. That's 972-PATRIOT. 972-PATRIOT. Or call them and go online at patriotmobile.com slash verdict. Promo code verdict for a free month of service.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Make the switch and make a difference every time you pay your bill.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So a few months ago, you and I were down in Boca Chica with the president for a Starship launch. And it is incredible what you built in Boca Chica. Five years ago, it was an empty beach at the southern tip of Texas.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and today is part two of our exclusive conversation with Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator who is transforming industries and is dismantling government waste, fraud, and abuse with Doge. Musk's relentless pursuit of technology and space exploration continues to capture the world's imagination.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And it's now a city and a factory where you're building a rocket ship a month with incredible precision. Yeah. Well, one of the things you said to me when we were down there that really stood out to me is you said your philosophy on intellectual property. I talked to lots of CEOs. They're like, we fight to guard our IP. And you had a very different approach. What's your view of IP?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
I literally do not know anyone else in business who would say something like that. Like it was a startling. And what Elon said down there is he said, look, this stuff, I assume everyone will steal everything. But by the time they steal, it will be five generations beyond and it won't matter.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
You want ideas to flow maximum to people to get there faster and do things bigger.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
But I'll say the perspiration part, you're really damn good at also. Because you're making, you know, the companies you're building... are actually building stuff. They're building cars, they're building spaceships, they're building things that if they don't work, it's a real problem. And the precision you manufacture things with, how do you get that level of precision? How do you build a culture?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
You're amazing at thinking outside the box, but what's interesting is you may even be better at execution, which is how do you execute so effectively?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
In this episode, we unravel the thoughts and aspirations of a man who defies conventional boundaries, pushing humanity towards new horizons. So join us in the White House as we continue to explore the riveting journey of Elon Musk, a modern-day pioneer whose revolutionary ideas are set to redefine tomorrow.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Look, that sounds like an astonishing statement, but it's not a crazy statement. And you're somehow... Running Tesla and running SpaceX and running X and running the Boring Company and running Neuralink and doing Doge. How much do you sleep in a given night?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So about six. So that's, it wouldn't have shocked me if you said three or four.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So the next question is how many hours do you work a day?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And Ben, he's not kidding at that. Like when Elon and I were first getting to know each other, I suggested, I said, hey, let's grab dinner sometime. And I don't know if you remember what you said. You said, I don't eat dinner.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Right. I mean, that, yeah, I mean, you obviously eat food, but the idea of like, you're not going to a restaurant for two hours. But the idea of like, I don't, but it was just kind of matter of fact, why would I go to dinner? Like, you work, right?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
How many nights have you slept at your offices, you think your career percentage wise, where you say, I just got to take this nap basically because my body forces me to and I got to get back to work fast and efficiently without going somewhere else?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So that was a long time ago.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So you're now the richest man on earth. Do you still sleep at the office? Well, that's true. Maybe Mars, we'll find someone else.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto download button from the White House. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for being with us on Verdict. We'll see you guys back here in a couple of days.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Let me start with a question you know a lot about. What year... Does man first set foot on Mars?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And that's not an unmanned. That's a human being putting his foot on the surface.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And what do you put the odds of finding either alien life or evidence of alien life?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
All right. If man lands on Mars in 29, how soon after that do you land on Mars?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And how close are we technologically to be able to do that, to have a self-sustaining settlement on the surface of Mars?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
But it would take 20 years. So we're not, in 29, we're not there. What are we missing?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So, but you think we could have a million people on Mars in 20 years?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
And what's the technology we're missing right now? When you think about a million people on Mars... Do we have the ability to get water, to get food, to keep them safe? I mean, what do we need to make that happen?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Like a dome you think is likely?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Have you identified a location on Mars that is likely to be ideal for habitat?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Um, and what makes that attractive?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So like when you were 10, did you look up and say, I'm going to Mars?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
How do you become Elon Musk? Look, you're obviously smart as hell, but there are a lot of smart people that don't do squat. And you've managed everything you've touched has been an extraordinary success.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Look, I mean, that's just objectively right. So what has led to that? Because there are other smart people that that's not true, and they gaze at their navel and they don't do anything. So what do you do differently that makes you so effective?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
So let's go back 25 years, late 90s. You're at PayPal. How do you turn PayPal into the success it was, which then helped launch you to the next one and the next one?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Yeah.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
All right, so you sell the company for 300 million. How much does that change your life?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
Well, and as you know, Peter Thiel and I were buddies back in the mid-90s before he went and did any of this. But I became friends with him when he was a corporate lawyer in New York and just sort of a young libertarian with a lot of dreams. So it's been a heck of a journey.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
All right. So 2002, you start SpaceX. How do you start a rocket company? What's the first day where you're like, I want to make rockets and I want to go to Mars? What do you do on day one?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Part 2: Elon Musk 1-on-1 Exclusive at the White House-DOGE, AI, Trump, Mars & Killer Robots
After more than a year of war, terror, and pain in Israel, the need for security essentials and support for first responders is still critical. Even in times of ceasefire, Israel must be prepared for the next attack, wherever it may come from, as Israel is surrounded by enemies on all sides. That is where the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and you come in.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Well, look, this is where doing the podcast is fun. It is 1228 in the morning. I just got got home to my D.C. apartment about five minutes ago and just left the State of the Union and the State of the Union. I got to say it was, I think, a spectacular State of the Union address from President Trump. It's the fifth one he's given. I think it was triumphant. I think it was positive.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So, look, I thought it was a terrific speech. As I said, it was optimistic. It was positive. It was focused on results, the results that the president has been producing and Republicans have been producing in just over 40 days. I mean, it really is incredible.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
It was also a funny speech, like that whole litany going through the people on Social Security over 120 and over 200 years and over 300 years old. Every line of it was funny. He had a whole litany. He went through Doge and the wasteful spending. That was just hysterical. And by the way, we're cracking up laughing all the Republicans.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
No Democrat laughed like even on the funny lines as he goes through. They support every bit of waste possible. And just just across the board now in terms of the length. So this was the longest State of the Union in history. And I'll tell you, so I was sitting with Tommy Tuberville from Alabama. I was sitting with Josh Hawley from Missouri. And I was sitting with Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
No, no, no. You just kind of – we all – all the senators gather on the Senate floor, and then we walk from the Senate floor over to the House floor across the Capitol, and we walk in together, and the House saves the front seats for the Senate. And so they actually give the best seats to the Senate, which is nice of the House to do.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And so there are a whole bunch of seats, I presume 100 seats, that are kept in the front, and they have little placards on the seats that say, "'Reserved for a Senator.'" But but other than leadership like John Thune and the elected leadership, they have seats that are reserved specifically for them. But for everyone else, it's just senator and you can sit wherever you want.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
I think it was forward looking. I think it emphasized exactly. what you and I predicted in Monday's pod that he was going to emphasize. It emphasized promises made, promises kept, the victories we've seen in the first month and a half of the presidency. But I've got to say, all of that was overshadowed in many ways by the utterly disgraceful behavior of the Democrats.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And so just as you walk in, you take the open seat. So it's a little bit happenstance. But as as we were we were preparing, we actually had a friendly wager on how long the speech was going to go. So I bet that it was going to go 93 minutes, so an hour and 33 minutes. Josh Hawley, who was sitting next to me, bet it was going to go an hour and 37 minutes.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Little Price is Right. Tommy Tuberville and Dave McCormick both bet an hour and 40 minutes. So we were all in the same neighborhood, and actually the one who won was Holly. So it was, in fact, an hour and 38 minutes. So I was five minutes off, but Josh was only one minute off. And if he'd got another minute, McCormick and Tuberville would have won. So it was interesting.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Those were the four of our weeks.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
We had not seen a text of it at all. It's just knowing Donald Trump and having been to State of the Union addresses before. Look, I mean, we knew it was going to be about an hour and a half, maybe a little bit more. And so that we knew he had a lot to say. It was not going to be a short speech. And but it didn't feel long. You're right. I mean, it was there was storytelling in it. It was funny.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
It was relating powerful moments. And then, as I said, the the antics of the Democrats really look, including, sadly, Al Green, congressman from from you're in my hometown, Houston. Who stood up and just made a complete ass of himself.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So, look, I think everyone was shocked, shocked and not shocked. We expected the Democrats to to misbehave and engage in antics. I didn't expect that they would refuse to applaud for anything. And I've never seen there been a couple of instances where where House members have have called out like like have said,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Joe Wilson famously said when Obama said, I think it was on Obamacare, if you want your health insurance, you can keep it. And Joe Wilson famously called out, you lie. And that was a big deal that one congressman called out two words was a big deal that people still talk about a decade later.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And look, he stood up. He interrupted the speech. And by the way, I don't know.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So so what he was saying, it's interesting what he got mad at. He got mad when Trump said, I've got a mandate from the election. And Al Green stood up and he was yelling, saying, you don't have a mandate. You do not have a mandate. And it was the Democrats are in absolute denial. They're in denial that the election happened. Look, the facts are straightforward.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Trump, of the seven swing states, he won all seven. He won the popular vote in this country, something that Republicans haven't done for 20 years. He won a Republican House and a Republican Senate. Any way you look at it, that's a mandate. And yet that's what Al Green was screaming about. And he kept on screaming and interrupting the president. The president finally had to stop.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
It was something I've never seen before. It was shocking. It was disrespectful. It was defiant. It was delusional. We're going to break it all down. We're going to break down the best parts of the speech, the best things President Trump had to say, and we're going to talk about what it indicates that today's Democrat Party stands for nothing, applauds for nothing, does not cheer on America.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
I mean, he was standing right in the middle and just screaming and trying to yell over the president and the speaker.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
gaveled him down and and and said listen if you don't uh maintain decorum the sergeant at arms will remove you and al green kept on yelling and so the sergeant at arms removed him uh and and by the way the speaker said tonight on hannity that al green is likely going to be censured by the house of representatives which which i think is unsurprising because if you if you disturb uh an official proceeding like that that's that's the natural remedy
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Now, not a Democrat clap for not not one. And by the way, just this past week, every single Democrat in the Senate voted against protecting girls from from boys competing in sports. Every one of them. And, you know, in in the campaign, listen, in my reelection campaign, Colin Allred claims, I don't support boys playing in girls sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
It is something never before seen at a State of the Union address. We're going to break it down and what it means.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Well, every Senate and except the fact that he voted for it over and over and over again. Every single Senate Democrat, when they're on reelection campaigns, they tell the voters, I don't support boys and girls sports. And yet every single one of them just voted for it and not a one of them applauded. I mean, it's the simple reality of how extreme their party is.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Now, I will tell you one thing that that was particularly meaningful to me. was all the Texans whom President Trump honored tonight, including Alexis Nungere, the mom of Jocelyn. Now, Alexis was going to be my guest tonight. Every senator gets one guest. And I had invited Alexis. She was coming up as my guest. And then the president invited her. So she went and she was sitting with Melania Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
I was really grateful for the... For her being being invited by the president to come there. And then right next to Melania Trump was Elliston Berry. And Elliston Berry is someone also another Texan who was the inspiration for the Take It Down Act. So Elliston Berry is a 15 year old girl from North Texas, from Aledo.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
who, when she was 14 and a freshman in high school, a boy, a classmate of hers, took an innocent social media picture of her and used artificial intelligence to create a deep, fake, naked image of her that appeared to be real, but it was fake, and then sent it to her classmates. And she was the inspiration for my legislation, the Take It Down Act, which passed the Senate unanimously.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
A lot of times I passed one hundred and one different pieces of legislation into law. A number of them were unanimous. The Senate often if you do the work, you can bring people together and pass something. And actually, just yesterday, the first lady, Melania Trump, came came to the Capitol. First time she has his first lady, the second term.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
supporting the Take It Down Act, and we did a roundtable, which we're going to talk about significantly more on Friday's pod, but we did a roundtable where Melania Trump heard from Elliston Berry, heard from other victims of non-consensual intimate images, and called on the House to pass the Take It Down Act, and President Trump tonight called on the House to pass the Take It Down Act.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So I was really glad the two people directly next to Melania Trump to her left were, were two Texans, Elliston Berry and Alexis Nungere, and that made me very happy.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
That was one of the multiple times I turned to the folks around me and I'm like, what the hell is wrong with these people? Like, like, how do you not? This is not partisan. This is not. I get that they don't cheer for, you know, conservative ideas because they're all wacko lefties. But but how do you not cheer for things that are just unambiguously good? And it's today's Democrat Party.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
It's a combination. They become the party of hate and rage and they're in denial. They don't know how to respond to this election other than to fume and glare. And I got to say. If you're an elected Democrat, how do you think this is a good message to the American people? We hate everyone and everything. That's the Democrats. Like, I don't get that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Look, I agree with you. I think the American people are going to be happy with this speech. They're going to be happy with the results. The American people are happy with successes for America. And we're getting on the border, seeing illegal immigrations and illegal boarding crossings drop over 90 percent. That's an unambiguous victory.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
on energy, seeing energy production going up, seeing regulations being repealed, seeing wasteful spending being eliminated. Those are unambiguous victories. In terms of jobs, he went through the investments, the investments on new investments, whether from Oracle or Apple or car companies bringing new factories here. Those are big wins. Those are the sorts of things.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Those are the sorts of things, frankly, when Joe Biden talked about if he, you know, he had Democrats in their speeches would talk about a new factory. And you know what? The Republicans would all stand and cheer because, hey, a new factory in America is a good thing. And even if we don't support many, if not most, of Biden and Obama's policies, we cheer for the American people.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
I think that the president's message was really strong, but I also think the contrast with the Democrats made it even stronger. And so... I think this was a good night for America, but not a good night for today's Democrat Party.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Yeah, but look, let's start with the very beginning of the night. The very beginning of the night is when the president walks onto the floor of the Senate and he's introduced the president of the United States. Not a single Democrat stood. Not a single Democrat applauded. Now, Ben, listen, I've been to 13 State of the Union addresses. I've gone to every one since I got elected to the Senate.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And I actually love going to the State of the Union. There's a pageantry to it. There's something amazing. It's more fun when your guy's in office. It's more fun when you get to cheer on your own party. But I go when the Democrats are in office. And I got to tell you, every single time, Joe Biden walked in.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Every single time Barack Obama walked in, I stood up and I applauded, not because I agreed with their agendas. Their agendas were disgraceful and disastrous, but because I respect the office of president of the United States and I respect the American people. And I have never once seen. The opposing party refused to applaud for the president. Understand what a break with tradition that is.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Even in past years, the Democrats applauded at the outset for the president of the United States until tonight and the entire night. I guess I'm actually grumpy with the Democrats because they've stolen my favorite game to play at the State of the Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Yeah, and we've talked about it in the pod before. So the State of the Union address, look.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
if your party's in power it's you know i i joke it's it's like i actually was yeah i was sitting with dave mccormick the new senator from pennsylvania uh who's you know an army veteran and i said all right dave this is going to be like pt in the army uh get ready for jane fonda fonda aerobics you're going to pop up and down and up and down and imagine the the president's wearing leg warmers and you're just going to be doing nothing but every four words standing up and applauding and
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
That's what we did. I got to say, you know, my thighs are killing me from just doing squats all night.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So I don't know. I could look at it in a second. And I don't know if they count as steps because we're not moving. We're just standing and sitting and standing and sitting and standing and sitting. But what I like doing during the State of the Union is,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
is watching the opposing party and picking out like a couple of senators or House members and typically the more moderate ones and watching them agonize over what to applaud or what to stand for. And in the past, you know, I'd look at like a Joe Manchin and, you know, he would be, you know, America is great. And you'd see a few Democrats applaud for that even stand.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
We support the troops and they'd kind of agonize. OK, I guess I could support the troops. But then they'd go back and forth. Tonight, they stood for nothing. So they stood, they did not stand for nothing. Jocelyn Nungary's mother, the 12 year old beautiful girl raped and murdered in Texas by illegal immigrants. They would not stand for Alexis.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
They did not stand for Lake and Riley's mother and sister. They did not stand for a 13 year old kid surviving brain cancer. Like, how do you not like like, OK, I'm a crazy partisan who hates Trump, but OK, 13 year old kid surviving brain cancer wants to be a cop like us, like. Literally every single State of the Union address that has been given from the beginning of time.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
every person on the floor would have stood for the 13-year-old kid who survived brain cancer. Zero Democrats stood. I looked at them.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So I will say it was emotional, but it was true when you were in the chamber, we couldn't see the kid's facial expressions. It was just too far away that you couldn't see it. So I saw his facial expressions for the first time about a half hour ago when I did Hannity. And Sean played the close-up, and so I could see... I mean, I saw the kid, and it was beautiful, and we were cheering.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And when Trump made him an honorary Secret Service agent, that was really cool. But you're right. The close-up of his facial expressions was really powerful. And he's a Texan. D.J. Daniel is a Texan. You had Alexis Nungria was a Texan. But it was amazing. Look, the Democrats did not stand. They didn't stand for cutting taxes. They didn't stand for no taxes on tips. They didn't stand for...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
automakers building new manufacturing plants in America. They didn't stand for steel workers. They didn't stand for Border Patrol agents. They didn't stand for a kid going to West Point whose father was a police officer killed in the line of duty. And the president admitted him to West Point in the middle of the speech, which was a pretty amazing moment, too. Like, it was...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
But I will say, this is actually, there was one thing the entire night they stood and clapped for. Do you know what it was? What was that? They stood and clapped for giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So not everyone stood, but a number of them stood. A number of them pulled out Ukrainian flags. None of them had American flags, but a number of them pulled out Ukrainian flags. And I got to say, look, you could have disagreements about the war on Ukraine. But what the hell does it say about Democrats that they will cheer for Ukraine, but not for America?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
I'm curious. For a joint address, do you call your show Ben Ferguson with Ted Cruz? Yes.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Responsible for murdering 13 servicemen and women in Afghanistan, capturing the terrorists, and they're not happy to capture the terrorists.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
There you go. I'm just trying to help you out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And listen, I was looking over at the Democrats and repeatedly turning to the folks around me, just saying, what the hell is wrong with these people? Like it is. How do you not cheer for that? And I think the answer is they're so filled with hate. This is now the party of hate and rage. And they hate Donald Trump. They hate Elon Musk.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
And they're just and they hate the voters that elected Donald Trump. And so. There always were points. Listen, in Democrat State of the Union addresses, there have been a number of things that I applauded for. If they say something that I agree with, I happily applaud for if they you know, anytime they talk about supporting the troops, by the way, at a State of the Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So the Supreme Court never, never applauds other than they applaud at the beginning. So the Supreme Court applauds traditionally at the president of the United States when he's introduced. And that's typically the only thing they applaud for. The Joint Chiefs, they usually do the same thing. They'll applaud at the introduction of the president of the United States.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
But I'll tell you, the Joint Chiefs, they applauded at the kid when he was admitted to West Point. And it was I noticed that the generals applauding and yet not a Democrat would. And I got to say, Ben, there was a lot in this speech to applaud for. As I said, I think this is the best speech President Trump has ever given. And so I was happy and enthusiastically applauding.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
Now, if you did not have two hours to listen to the speech tonight, if you didn't actually watch it, We've tried to help you out on this podcast, so we have a montage where we've selected some of the key moments of the speech, and it's a little over three minutes, so it's not very long.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury
So if you didn't have two hours, here's three minutes that sums up the best moments from President Trump's State of the Union address tonight.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Yeah, it really is astonishing. And let's look at what happened in the United States following October 7th. Following October 7th, we saw protests on college campuses across this country, predominantly in left-wing college campuses in blue states. where radical pro-Hamas protesters stood up and they denounced Israel. They chanted things like, we love Hamas, we are Hamas.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
They threatened Jewish students. They engaged in acts of violence, and they threatened even more acts of violence. And astonishingly, Ben, the Democrats were silent. You know, there are some folks who said in the wake of these protests, well, gosh, it's terrible, but they're happening all over the country. That's not right. They were only happening in blue states with blue elected officials.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
They happened in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Washington State. They didn't happen to Florida. They didn't happen in Texas. Actually, in Texas, we briefly had protesters at the University of Texas and officials sent in police officers that arrested them all. And it was done within a day.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
The places that it happened, it happened because the university administrators agreed with the protesters and the elected officials, they had been indoctrinated in the leftist ideology that said Israel is the bad guy and Hamas is the good guy.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Now, one of the things you and I have talked about at length – and by the way, if you did not listen to Monday's podcast, you should listen to Monday's podcast because we did a deep dive on the Trump administration rightly cutting off $400 million of grants to Columbia University. Columbia was probably the single worst actor in all of these universities in terms of tolerating and –
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
celebrating these anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests, but not only that, arresting a pro-Hamas protester. And let me be clear, this is the first of many. I believe we will see many more of the pro-Hamas protesters arrested and deported. And what I've said from the beginning is
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
If you are threatening other students, if you are attacking America, if you are embracing terrorists and you're a foreign student, you should be expelled and you should be deported. And what happened, Mahmoud Khalil, who is from Syria, he came to the United States, my understanding is in 2022. He came to be a student at Columbia. He married a woman from the United States. He got a green card.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
So 2022 is three years ago. It's not very long. He got a green card very quickly. And in his time in America, he came into America and he organized anti-America, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic pro-Hamas protests. Now, it's interesting. There have been a number of people online, a number of leftists who are saying, well, this is free speech. This is allowed. Let me be clear. Under U.S.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Well, it's beautiful. So the Biden administration launched an app called the CBP One app. And here's what Bill Mlusion, who's the best reporter on immigration for Fox News. Here's what he reported. Quote, Scoop, the Trump admin has repurposed the controversial Biden era CBP One cell phone app into a self deportation app called CBP Home that launches today.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
law, American citizens are protected by the First Amendment. foreigners are not a visa to come to this country as a student that is a permissive decision and you do not have a right if you are a guest to this country to actively undermine america let me be clear to anyone if you hate america if you want to undermine america don't Do not come to this country.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And the Trump administration rightly arrested and plans to deport Mahmoud Khalil for organizing anti-Israel, anti-America, pro-Hamas protests. And what's stunning, Ben, what do you think the reaction of the Democrats is to this? They stand with Khalil. They stand with the anti-Israel pro-Hamas protesters.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
So if you want to know where you stand, if you stand with Israel, if you stand with American Jews, if you stand with freedom, if you stand with the right to be free from oppression and violence, that ain't the Democrats. They stand with those engaged by.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Well, you said this is not a joke, and sadly, I wish it was. Here's what Fox News has reported. Quote, Doge said it identified the Small Business Association administration, I assume, granted nearly 5,600 loans for $312 million to borrowers who only listed owner was 11 years old or younger at the time of the loan. The loans were issued in 2020 and 2021, and it is unclear what they were used for.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Quote, while it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, 593 loans, as they all also use the Social Security number with the incorrect name. Doge and the SBA government are working together to solve this problem this week.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
While making the announcement, Doge shared a post on X from Tuesday where it also revealed that in 2020 and 2021, the SBA issued 3,095 loans for $333 million to borrowers over 115 years old. The borrowers were still marked as alive in the Social Security database. In one case, a 157-year-old individual received $36,000 in loans, the agency said.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Look, this is, I feel very confident that nobody is 157 years old. And if they are and they're getting $36,000, that is fraud.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
So I want to know, is that guy the vampire Lestat? Is he like literally an ageless vampire who like flies with the bats?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
To be clear, if you're giving millions of dollars to a five-year-old, you're not. That is an adult engaged in theft. If you're giving millions of dollars to someone who's 150 years old, you're not. That is an adult engaged in theft. What this report indicates is that the Biden administration didn't give a damn
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
DHS tells me any migrants who had prior CBB1 app will have it auto-update to this new app. And DHS can use data from prior CBB1 registrations to track migrants for removal. The new app allows illegal aliens and migrants in the US to register with CBP to self-deport.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
about whether the money was actually going to real people who had real needs, who were engaged in the purposes for which Congress appropriated the money. Instead, they were just shoveling money out the door, and tragically, the fraud was rampant. In many instances... the fraud was going to radical left-wing Democrat groups because the Biden administration believed in paying off their buddies.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
In other cases, they're just lazy. They don't care. When a six-year-old puts in an application for government money, the answer should be no because you're six and you ought to be playing with blocks in kindergarten and not trying to get millions of dollars from the government.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
But if you're a corrupt Democrat, you give the millions of dollars and let the parents use it for the political purposes they want.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
They fill out biographical information, including their countries of citizenship, which country they plan to return to, their alien registration numbers, contact information, and it allows them to upload photos of themselves to confirm their identity. All of it then is submitted to CPB as they leave the country. You may ask yourself, why would an illegal alien want to self-deport?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
In a statement to Fox News, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem answered the question, quote, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don't, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return, Noem said. The Biden administration exploited the CBB1 app. to allow more than one million aliens to enter the United States.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
With the launching of CBP Home App, we're restoring integrity to our immigration system.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
So, Ben, I got to say, I don't know if this is going to work or not, but I got to say, if you're an illegal immigrant, you came to this country, you went to a human trafficker, you were coming from, say, Central America, came up through Mexico and the Biden administration said, hey, we've got an app. Fill out your information. You can come here and we'll let you in. And you filled it out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
You came to America. And suddenly over your cell phone, you get, oh, crap. Wait, they want me to go home. And if I don't go home, they're going to find me. They're going to arrest me. They're going to send me home. And the consequences are I can never come back. I don't know how many people are going to respond to this, but I think this is fabulous. Listen, my view on immigration is simple.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
I've summed up my immigration view in four words many times. Legal, good, illegal, bad. For the people who are here illegally, the Trump administration is leaning in, saying we're going to secure the border. We're going to remove you. And by the way, going back to our first story, if you were a pro-Hamas, radical, anti-Semite protester... And you're not a U.S. citizen. Bye bye.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
You're going to be deported. You're going to be expelled. You're going to be thrown out of this country. That is a view that makes an enormous amount of sense to me. And we will see. And by the way, if we get the data on how many people have used this app, we'll report on this data on this podcast.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
But the simple act of saying, all right, the prior administration opened up our borders and let you in. We're now enforcing them. I say bravo, bravo, bravo.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Yep. So this past week, the Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing on anti-Semitism. Now, you might think given the massive rise in anti-Semitism, particularly following October 7th, given the acts of violence against Jews across America, you might think the Senate Judiciary Committee would be looking at this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Do you know how many hearings we had on anti-Semitism when the Democrats had the gavel? I'm going to go out on a limb and say zero. Wow, you got it precisely right to the 100 decimal point. That would be 0.000. They do not care at all.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Even a blind squirrel.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
not a one so a month into the new congress republicans have the majority we held a hearing this past week on anti-semitism the democrats were terrified they didn't want to talk about it but but i i took the opportunity listen i gotta say this issue pisses me off what we've seen happen to our schools and so i want you to listen to my questioning of the witnesses and what i had to say last week at the hearing on anti-semitism give a listen
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Antisemitism is evil, it is wrong, and it is flourishing with the acquiescence and in many cases active participation of students, of faculty, of administrators, and government officials. And sadly, the Democrat Party has a deep and pervasive problem confronting this evil.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
For the last two years, in the wake of October 7th, this committee held zero hearings on antisemitism in the United States, despite the fact that Republicans repeatedly called for it. The acts of violence prior to October 7th, 3,669 antisemitic incidents occurred in the United States. Following October 7th, in less than three months, that number spiked to over 5,000.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
In 2024, that number skyrocketed to 10,005 antisemitic incidents. This problem is particularly acute on our college campuses. Columbia University. Columbia University was a major epicenter where they encouraged, tolerated, and celebrated this vicious and vile antisemitism.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Rabbi Eli Buehler emailed every Jewish student on campus and said, quote, the events of the last few days have made it clear that Columbia University's public safety cannot guarantee Jewish students' safety in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy. I would strongly recommend you return home. This is the rabbi at the university saying, your school will not protect your safety.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And Columbia didn't do a damn thing about it. And I'll tell you what, the rabbi wasn't crazy. Here is one picture taken on the campus of Columbia. In the back are Jewish students waving American flags and Israeli flags. In the front is a Columbia student wearing a mask because these cowards are oh so brave they cover their faces, holding a handwritten sign that says Al-Qassam's next targets.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Al-Qassam is the military branch of Hamas. Understand what this student is saying. She is calling for the murder of her Jewish classmates. And by the way, this student, the internet being what it is, she's been identified now on the internet. This is not a Palestinian who's subject to oppression. This is a rich blonde girl from Atlanta.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
whose parents are multi-millionaire real estate developers, and they got so proud, I'm sending my child to an Ivy League education where she'll be indoctrinated to dress up and advocate Hamas murdering Jewish students because they are Jews. Now, if you agree that is evil and vile, let me ask you something. We're the Democrats. Not a one is here.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And it's because the Democrat Party has decided the pro-Hamas wing of the party is more important than protecting Jewish students in America. And if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer. Texting with Columbia said the following.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
On January 4th, then President of Columbia, Shafik explained to Shipman and her fellow co-chair David Greenwald that she had met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who advised Shafik that universities' political problems about anti-Semitism are really only among Republicans. We the Democrats, we don't care about this anti-Semitism stuff. Ms.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Lewin, am I the only person that has noticed that these anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic protests, that the tents all match?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Is it clear that there is significant money funding these attacks on Jewish students and attacks on America?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
In the last two years under the Biden Justice Department, are you aware of any investigation to follow the money behind these protests?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Are you aware of anyone who has been indicted for funding these protests?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Are you aware of any university that has had their Title VI federal funds cut off because they've tolerated welcome, celebrated, and as Senator Hawley put out, had their own officials cheering on anti-Semitism as even one university lost their funding?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And I'll point out also some of the defenders say free speech, free speech. You're right. You have a free speech right as an American citizen to say vile, hateful, bigoted things. Let me ask you something.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
If a university student went into the public square dressed up in a Klan outfit, burned a cross and said we should murder African-American students, do you have any doubt the university would expel that student?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
They should expel them if they're foreign students. They should be deported. And mark my words, if you are horrified at the anti-Semitism, you will see the Trump Department of Justice follow the money prosecute the people who are paying for this, prosecute those engaged in violence, and cut off the money from universities that are tolerating and celebrating this. That is the rule of law.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And ask yourself, why did the Biden Justice Department do absolutely nothing about this horror that is unfolding?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Look, because they believe the same things. The administrators, they have been teaching the same poison. The faculty has been teaching the same poison. And I'll note that clip you played while I was questioning at the hearing on anti-Semitism. As I noted, not a single Democrat senator was in the room. The hearing room was empty. And that really spoke volumes. They don't want to talk about this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
And the problem is a political problem in today's Democrat Party. There is a real and meaningful pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, and the Democrats are terrified of that pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party. The question I've asked repeatedly – and look, most of the people who listen to Verdict are, I think, politically right of center or conservative or libertarians.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
But we actually have a fair number of reporters who listen to Verdict. And, you know, I'm hoping we have a handful of open minded, free thinking liberals, people who consider themselves left of center, but recognize that if you want to actually have an intelligent understanding of the issues, then you want to hear from a wide spectrum of views and try to process and ascertain what is right.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
If you at home are one of those, let's say you're a Democrat who lives in New York City. Let's say you voted for Kamala Harris. You voted for Joe Biden. Maybe you voted for Barack Obama.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
If you disagree with the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, if you don't like the vile anti-Semites that have flourished on college campuses and that have threatened the safety of Jewish students, you ought to ask yourself very seriously what happened in the last week. Columbia got its money cut off. One of the organizers of the protests is going to be deported.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
Why didn't any of that happen under Joe Biden? There was nothing to prevent the Biden administration from doing this. They had every bit of legal authority. As far as I can tell, they didn't even investigate it. They didn't ask where the money came from. I certainly asked the Attorney General and the FBI repeatedly if they were doing that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
If they were investigating it, they refused to tell the Senate, they refused to tell me. And we do know that no one paid any consequences for it because no one was indicted. And that ends up encouraging more of this. And you have to ask yourself, was that an accident? Or was there a reason? Listen, if Kamala Harris, God forbid, had been elected president in November... Ben, let me ask you this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
What do you think are the odds Columbia would have had that 400 million cut off if Kamala Harris were president?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
The Self Deportation Proclamation, Justice comes to Antisemitic Campuses & COVID-era Loans to Children Week In Review
She might be marching with the pro Hamas protesters. And by the way, this this organizer who's being deported, the odds of his being deported if Kamala were president are zero. Elections have consequences. And this issue, this issue matters.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
This is happening right at the Texas-Mexico border. I gotta say, it is dangerous and it shows, you know, some in the media say, gosh, it's hyperbole, it's rhetoric to call the cartels terrorists. They are terrorists and they're murdering Texans.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, I believe we're going to do that. I believe we're starting with, we saw on January 20th, President Trump securing the border. We've seen the numbers of illegal crossings plummet, drop 90%. We're going to go after them. We're going to go after them. We're going to go after the people who are here, the murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, the gang members. We're arresting them.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
We're deporting them. We're going to send them back. But we're also stopping the traffic coming in the human traffickers, the drug traffickers that is impacting the cartels bottom lines. But I think we're going to use leverage to go after the cartels directly and try to Joe Biden and the Democrats. Er gab Billionen von Dollar an die Kartelle.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Eine Statistik, die wir schon mehrere Male gesprochen haben, aber es ist eine erstaunliche Statistik. Im Jahr 2018 haben die mexikanischen Drogkartelle ungefähr 500 Millionen Dollar von Menschenverbrechen gemacht. 500 Millionen Dollar ist viel Geld. Last year they made 13 billion dollars, a 2,600% increase. That is ending now.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And I have every confidence the Trump administration is going to go after their money. It's going to go after them directly. And you are going to see the cartels targeted just like we target Al-Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah. The days of the cartels terrorizing Americans, those days are ending.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, this is a stunning article. I do not know if it is true, but if there is evidence that the attempted assassin, the man who shot Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an accomplice or multiple accomplices, that would be a big damn deal. And I gotta say, it has been a long time. It has been 229 days. since President Trump was shot at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And yet we know next to nothing about the shooter. It's almost as if it just dropped into a memory hole and disappeared. And I want to read some of this article from the New York Post, because it has some very interesting information in it. It's not clear what's true or not, but let me read from the New York Post.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Quote It's been almost nine months since a seemingly mild matter 20 year old attempted to assassinate then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler. And we still have no good reason why. Sources told the Post the FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
It's left local law enforcement as well as Crooks' former friends, classmates and teachers frustrated. Those who may know, Crooks' parents, Matthew and Mary, have refused all interviews and remain in their small three-bedroom home, sealed off from the world like hermits. Neighbors say they only leave the house at 3 a.m. to buy groceries.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Quote, By the way, why do we know nothing about that guy in Butler? Elon Musk yelled out to the audience at CPAC last week before warning that FBI Director Kash Patel is going to get to the bottom of it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
A veteran private investigator from Erie, Pennsylvania, who was hired shortly after the fateful July 13th event at Butler Farm to look into crooks by a private client, told the Post he believes a, quote, criminal network was operating with him at the time of the assassination attempt, is still in existence and still wants to kill President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Doug Hagman, whose team of six other investigators had been working the case for months and have interviewed more than 100 people, said they also conducted extensive geofencing analysis of cell phones and tablets not belonging to Crooks that were found with him at his home. We don't think he acted alone, Hageman told the Post. Quote,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual and he was used for this assassination attempt. And I wouldn't preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him. Hageman said one of the electronic devices geolocated with Crooks at several different places at the time of the shooting ist noch heute bei Bethel Park High School.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Schau, ich weiß nicht, ob das wahr ist oder nicht. Ich kenne keinen Hintergrund über diesen privaten Investigator. Und ich weiß nicht, ob seine Angelegenheiten richtig sind oder nicht. Aber es ist frustrierend.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Ja, nein, das ist genau richtig. Trump ist nicht zurückgegangen. Und ich muss sagen, die Demokraten, es scheint, dass sie nichts von der Wahl gelernt haben. Hier, hören Sie zu dem Verhandlung zwischen dem Gouverneur von Mainz und Präsident Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
dass die amerikanischen Leute, schau, ich bin auf dem Senate Judiciary Committee, ich habe keine Informationen, die nicht öffentlich sind, darüber, wer dieser Assasin wäre, was seine Motivation war, was für Beweise es ist, dass jemand anderes involviert ist. Und ich sage dir, als ich mit Kash Patel und Pam Bondi sitze, als sie sich für ihre Verkündigung vorbereiten,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
I had an extensive conversation with both of them about the need for transparency. That when you've had four years of both the Department of Justice and the FBI politicized and weaponized, the result is that people don't trust the FBI. I mean, this article in the Post repeatedly argues that the FBI is obstructing efforts to get to the bottom of what happened. That... That's infuriating, if true.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And it is very much my hope that we'll see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel make significant information about this assassination attempt public. The American people have a right to know, have a right to know if anyone else was involved with this. And I don't know if the FBI, if they didn't put a priority on it. I don't know if they didn't investigate. I don't...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
I guess it is possible this kid acted alone. But the absolute dearth of information is frustrating and infuriating.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
The article says that Hageman, this private investigator, said that he was personally escorted to the Butler County line and told to leave twice during the course of his team's investigation. The people who did so were either federal agents or some type of private security.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Und so, schau, und ich kann eigentlich, ich kann verstehen, dass eine FBI-Investigation, dass sie frustriert wäre, wenn sie einen privaten Investigator interviewt, die gleichen Leute. Also, das ist tatsächlich, der Fakt, dass die FBI sagt, dass dieser Typ, weißt du, aufhören, das ist nicht schockierend für mich. But I don't know what investigation the FBI conducted.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
I certainly don't know the results of the investigation. They haven't made anything public to the American people. And I think the FBI's attitude has been in recent years, they don't know the public answer. You don't get to know anything if they don't want to tell you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Oh yeah, the Time Magazine cover story that put Elon at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office was obvious in a clumsy attempt to piss Trump off and get Trump mad at Elon. And it was so transparent that I think it did not remotely have the effect they were trying to have.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, look, I mean, the view, they are unhinged lunatics and they don't care about truth. But they, you know, the crazy thing is, Joy Behar believes what she says. You know, it's amazing. Apparently, Elon Musk is the only immigrant who that Joy Behar and the crazies on The View dislike. If you're an MS-13 gang member, if you're a murderer or a rapist, they're perfectly fine with you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
They don't have a problem with Joe Biden and the Democrats releasing millions of criminals into America. That they have no problem with. But if someone comes legally to this country, if someone builds multiple incredible companies, creates thousands and thousands of jobs...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
is an incredible innovator and then volunteers his time to serve his nation, that merits being called a foreign agent and an enemy of the United States. You know, at the end of the day, what the view was saying doesn't say much about Elon Musk, but it says a lot about the media and the left and how terrified they are of him. And I'll tell you, Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat Congresswoman,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Hat very similar comments. Listen to what she said about Elon Musk. Apparently she enjoyed the horror reading from the same talking points.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, look, I spent a good chunk of this morning with Elon over at the White House. And he met with a number of senators talking about what he's doing on Doge. And it was a very interesting meeting. And it's stunning some of the things that they're finding.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
They're finding, for example, they're going into agencies and finding agencies that have more electronic subscriptions than they have employees. Und in vielen Fällen tausende und tausende mehr, wie 30.000 Lizenzen für verschiedene elektronische
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
applications 30.000 licenses and 15.000 employees that that order of magnitude and so they're going in and canceling the ones that that that aren't used they also went and checked and they said hundreds and hundreds of them had never been open had never even been installed so even of the employees not everyone is using them they've never logged in and so they can go and check all right and so anyone who's not using it they're canceling those those are the sorts of things
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
They're finding that they're really just astonishing.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
You know, there are things like he talked today about ghost payments, about the Treasury has computers that transfer funds that make federal payments. And he says that there are... Ghost payments that are going out that a program officer puts in for a payment to a contractor, to somebody. And then the program officer retires, dies, leaves, is gone, and the payments just keep on going.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And, you know, he said it's stunning, the treasury computers have a field where you categorize, okay, what is this payment for? And what in the congressional appropriation is it going for? And he said, routinely, That field is left blank. He said USAID, they always left it blank, he said.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
So there's no way, he said, in many ways it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to audit the billions of dollars that are going out the door because they don't keep the records. And it was interesting, Elon's comments, he said, if any public company did this, he said they would be massively fined and the executives would be put in jail.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, it is. And by the way, there's also real teeth to it. So simultaneously with this exchange, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine. And the state could be in jeopardy of losing a hundred million dollars in federal USDA funding over noncompliance with the executive order on keeping males out of female sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And at the end of the day, and by the way, This is not hypothetical. This is happening in Maine. In Maine, there was a transgender boy who identifies as a girl who took first place in the girls pole vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. Und es ist ein Wettbewerb, der die Hochschule überhaupt in den ersten Platz genommen hat.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Und so, wie würdest du dir fühlen, wenn es deine Tochter ist, die im zweiten Platz ist? Und sie ist die beste Pol-Walter in der Stadt, die eine Mädchen ist. Aber es gibt einen Jungen, der sagt, nein, ich bin eine Mädchen. Who beats her and dominates. It's just fundamentally unfair. And I got to say, overwhelmingly, 80, 90 percent of Americans agree with that proposition.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And what's striking is this is not Democrats fighting on some issue where the voters are with them. I promise you, even in Maine, the voters don't want this. They're not happy about this. And today's Democrat Party, this election, if there is an elected Democrat who learned anything from this election, I don't know who it is. Because not only are they doubling down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Yeah, but they're also doubling down on open borders. They're also doubling down on anti-Israel. Look, the Democrats in the Senate voted against sanctioning the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which has gone after Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Every Democrat but one, every Democrat but John Fetterman voted against Israel. They did that after the election. They did that just a few weeks ago.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
I mean, that's where the Democrats are right now, is they're still open border. They're still anti-Israel. They're still pro boys and girls sports. And it's look, look, this is the same issue we started with. Fundamentally, I think, you know, the Democrats love to prattle on about democracy. But when they prattle on about democracy, what they really mean is they want power
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And they don't care what the voters want. They don't care about respecting the will of the voters. Instead, they want to fight against the will of the voters. It's why they indicted Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. It was designed to stop democracy. It's why you had multiple Democrats, judges and state officials protesting.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
trying to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot because nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters for voting for your opponent and making it impossible. This is all intertwined, which is a lack of humility, a lack of understanding that you have a boss and the boss is the men and women who elected you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Well, listen, unfortunately, elected Democrats remain radical. They have not learned any lessons from the November election. So if you look at Democrats in Congress, if you looked at Democrat governors, they continue to support open borders. They continue to support releasing murderers and rapists and child molesters into this country.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
You look at, we talked about this in last week's pod, how Massachusetts is literally releasing violent child rapists. who are illegal immigrants, rather than turn them over to ICE to be deported. And I gotta say, look, this is not a 60-40 issue, it's not a 70-30 issue. This is an 80-20 or a 90-10 issue.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
I mean, if you ask any rational and sane person, a violent child rapist, should we release him into our community? Any rational person, most normal Democrats would say, hell no, that's a dumbass idea. And yet, the elected Democrats in Massachusetts, their answer is, let them go. We are opposed to deporting anyone, no matter how vile. They're continuing the same position.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
They continue to support, the Democrats in Congress continue to support sterilisieren und Kinder für Sexveränderungen kastrieren. Wiederum, das ist ein 80-20-Issue. Sie sind auf der falschen Seite davon, aber sie hören zu ihrer radikalen Basis. Und wenn es um Männer und Frauen in den Sporten geht, ist das ein weiteres 80-20-Issue.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Die amerikanischen Leute wollen nicht, dass Mädchen gegen ihre Töchter kämpfen. Sie wollen nicht, dass Männer gegen Mädchen kämpfen. Und die Demokraten sind auf das allein. Und ich bin überrascht, Normalerweise, wenn dein Partei in einem Wahlkampf kloppert, gehst du und reassessierst, Mensch, vielleicht haben wir uns misskalibriert, vielleicht sollten wir wo wir stehen ändern.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Die Demokraten machen das nicht. Und was diese Woche passiert ist, dass Pam Bondi, der neue Staatsanwalt, drei Staaten, Main, Kalifornien und Minnesota, beteiligt hat. Und sie hat ihnen eine Warnung gegeben. dass diese Staaten mit den föderalen Antidiskriminierungsregeln verabschieden müssen, die sie benötigen, um Mädchen und Mädchen-Sport zu halten.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Und hier ist, was Pam Bondi gesagt hat, Quote, dieses Bundesamt für Gerechtigkeit wird Frauen verteidigen und toleriert nicht Staatsanwälte, die föderalen Regeln ignorieren. And she continues, the Department of Justice says, quote,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
As President Trump's recent executive order 14201 on this subject explains, allowing men and boys to compete in women's and girls sports, quote, is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls. This practice is also illegal under federal law.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
It denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports in violation of Title IX of the educational amendments of 1972.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And so understand the Department of Justice is making clear they intend to sue these states and they intend to cut off federal funds to these states if they continue to embrace the radical notion that they're going to let boys compete in girls sports. We talked about in Monday's pod. How the governor of Maine is in open defiance, saying to hell with you, we'll see you in court.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
It's amazing Democrats continue to embrace these radical positions.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
So this is the first sitting to use a baseball analogy. Ja, jetzt, es bekommt eigentlich deine Batterie auf die Platte. Wenn sie verfehlt haben, bekommen sie nicht mal eine Batterie auf die Platte. Also können wir jetzt anfangen zu swingen. Wir sind im Spiel. Aber es werden schwierige Schritte vorwärts. Und ich glaube, wir werden das erreichen. I believe we're going to get this done.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
We're going to secure the border. We're going to rebuild the military. We're going to unleash American energy. And we're going to extend the tax cuts. But it is going to be a lot of trade-offs. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard because the House majority is so excruciatingly tiny that on any issue, if you lose two votes, you're out of luck. But I think we will get the job done.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
And I will say both Mike Johnson, the Speaker, and Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader, they're both good friends. I work very closely with both of them. And I think we will go through some difficult times. pass to get there. But all of us from the most conservative Republican to the most moderate, squishy, wobbly Republican, all of us want to produce these victories.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
We get there was a mandate from the election and we can't fail. And by the way, if we fail If we don't secure the border, if we don't rebuild the military, if we don't unleash energy, if we don't extend the tax cuts, we'll get killed in November of next year.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Like, hey, you don't want to be involved in this. Right. Get it done. We made a promise to the voters. Let's deliver on the voters. And I think today was an important step to doing that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
So let me read from a story in the New York Post. Texas rancher killed by suspected cartel IED on Mexican border as authorities warn of growing threat. Here's what the New York Post reported. A Texas border rancher was killed near the border by a suspected cartel IED earlier this month, the Texas Department of Agriculture told the Post Tuesday.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
as officials issued an urgent safety warning for the Rio Grande Valley. Rancher Antonio Guespedes Saldierna, 74, who worked on both sides of the border, along with Horacio Lopez Peña, was killed in the blast in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was just south of Brownsville, Texas. Lopez's wife, Ninfa Griselda Ortega, was hospitalized with injuries.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Saldirna was driving on his ranch when he hit the explosive device, causing it to detonate, according to KRGB. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the deadly explosion is part of a, quote, growing threat posed by cartel activity along our southern border and encourages ranchers to, quote, exercise extreme caution in the area.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review
Quote, I encourage everyone in the agricultural industry to stay vigilant. remains aware of their surroundings and reports any suspicious activity to law enforcement. Additionally, you can avoid dirt roads and remote areas, refrain from touching unfamiliar objects that could be explosive devices, limit travel to daylight hours, stay on main roads and avoid cartel-controlled regions, said Miller.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And listen, I spent an hour with Elon yesterday. It's not working. It's not working with Elon. It's not working with Trump. But in this instance, you had a reporter that was trying to say, Mr. British Prime Minister, would you attack Donald Trump, please, in the White House? And a head of state who actually knows what the hell he's doing says, no, we are close, good friends.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Not just close, the closest of friends is what he said. And he understood he has a mission. And by the way, I promise you behind closed doors, they had some issues of disagreement. But once the cameras came on, that's what heads of state do with the president of the United States, particularly when you're at the White House.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And listen, I think there are a number of consequences of what happened today. So the plan today was to announce an agreement with Ukraine, an agreement that would have given the United States an entitlement to significant portions of the rare earth minerals that are in Ukraine as a way of paying back the money that had been spent funding the Ukrainian war. That was the initial plan.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
There was a press conference. Donald Trump canceled the press conference. So the agreement on rare earth minerals was not signed. Trump essentially said, get the hell out. And in fact, I'm going to read the truth social that Trump put out after the meeting. He said, quote, we had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It's amazing what comes out through emotion. And I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage. I want peace.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
He disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he's ready for peace.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Senate were it not for the Club for Growth making a big gamble on me. They know how to pick winners. And by the way, when the club got behind me 13 years ago when I first ran, I was literally at 2% in the polls. You had to be out of your ever-loving minds to be backing me. The last job I had been elected to was student council. And the club leaned in in a big way and shocked every observer.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Look, there's an image, there's a picture from the meeting in the middle of the meeting, and it's the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States saying, holding her head in her hands. Yeah. Like, what am I watching? And she's looking at her boss crap the bed on global television.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
That's a technical diplomatic term. And I will say, by the way, let me just do it aside. This is one of the great things about podcasts. If you're used to watching... Meet the press. Yes. People rarely use phrases like crap the bed on Meet the Press. Now, the host often will crap the bed on Meet the Press. That's also accurate. But they rarely will describe it thusly.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
The virtue of a podcast is you talk directly to people. If you're doing this right... It should feel like you're sitting at a coffee shop or a bar and having a conversation about what the hell, man, did you see what just happened? And that's the whole power of this medium is that there's not a press intermediary that decides here's what you get to hear, here's what you don't. This will go down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Look, you and I, we did another emergency podcast. We don't do many emergency pods. We only do it when the breaking news is of sufficient magnitude to justify it. But you and I did an emergency pod the night of the first and only debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Yep. And as soon as that debate ended, you and I immediately recorded a podcast, put it out an hour after the debate was over.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
We said that night, that this will prove the most consequential presidential debate in the history of our country. Why? And what I said that night, Joe Biden will not be the nominee. This debate was so bad that he's done. He will be pulled from the ticket. He will not be the nominee. That obviously ended up proving accurate. In this instance.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
We open this by my saying this will go down in history as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting in history. I think that's going to happen as well. I think this meeting could easily end President Zelensky's tenure.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
What happens now? The media loves him. The hard left loves him. He's decided he wants to be a Hollywood celebrity rather than a world leader. And I will say at the outset of this war, he had moments. So, for example, Joe Biden was so weak that when Russia invaded, Biden's like, you can't win it all.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And he offered he offered we'll send a plane to get you, President Zelensky, so you can flee the country. This is in the first week of the war. And Zelensky had a comment that at the time was an extraordinary comment. He said, I don't need a ride. I need ammunition.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And that leadership at the time rallied his country behind him, and he ended up fighting with significant resources from the United States and Europe, fighting against Putin and slowing down the onslaught significantly. What is strange, look, you and I did a podcast last fall, and it was when Zelensky came to the United States, and it was during the presidential campaign.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And Zelensky made the bizarre decision to do what was essentially a campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania. And he simultaneously did interviews attacking Donald Trump and attacking J.D. Vance. And this is in the middle of the campaign. He was campaigning. And you and I did a podcast at the time, and we said, what the hell is this guy thinking?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Look, he is ostensibly leading his country. They're at war. Their most important ally in this war has been the United States of America. And... either his instincts or the advisors around him think it's a really good idea to pick a partisan side and go all in and attack the other side.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And we both said, listen, if Trump wins, which both of us believed he was going to, Zelensky is going to deeply regret doing so. And what's amazing is he keeps doubling down. I think there's a very good possibility that as I said that Zelensky does not politically survive this, and within days that he's out of office.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I also think, look, it's not complicated that President Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine. This was not a mystery. Every voter who went and voted in November understood that if you elect the Democrats, the Ukraine war goes on and on and on and on, and we keep pouring billions into it forever. And every voter understood if you vote for Donald Trump, this war is going to come to an end.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And they play cycle after cycle fighting to elect strong free market principled conservatives. And so I've been to the Club for Growth conference many, many times. There are extraordinary patriots here. And so I just want to say thank you to the men and women here for your leadership standing up and fighting to save our nation.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Now, I think it is important. This is something I have urged President Trump repeatedly. I think it's important that this war come to an end in a way that is a clear and unmistakable loss for Russia, a loss for Putin. I think Russia losing. benefits the national security interests of the United States.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I got to say, by the way, Zelensky's performance was so bad that I think it not only harmed his own country, but I think it harmed world peace. And that's, I cannot imagine the plane flight back right now. No, neither can I. Look, you and I, I assume Zelensky's in the air right now flying back. What I don't know... What is he landing to? Are his advisors sitting there blowing smoke at him?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Oh, wonderful job, Mr. President. You showed him.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I mean, listen, this war needs to end. It needs to end promptly. I believe it is going to end promptly. And as I said, it is important that it end in a way That is a clear, discernible loss for Russia. I also think the direction President Trump was going of signing an agreement where the United States gets significant benefits from rare earth minerals in Ukraine, that has a lot of upside to it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
but not when they have a world leader coming into the Oval Office telling the President of the United States, essentially, screw you. Look, an analogy, if you think about it, there are a lot of small business owners in the room. If your business is in crisis and you're facing a moment where you've got to lay off 1,000 employees, you've got to go under.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And you go to the bank and you say, I got to borrow $50 million or my business goes under. And the bank lends you $50 million and you save your business. You don't fire your employees. And then a week later, you go to the bank. and say, you damn jerk, why didn't you give me more?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Like, it is not complicated that if you went to the bank and they gave you the capital you needed to save your business, even the person with the lowest EQ on planet Earth, even the person with no sense of other human beings would say, maybe if someone is providing me the only financial lifeline that is keeping me alive, maybe I have the sense to be nice to them.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Zelensky, I just think, you know, he's been in Vanity Fair. He's been on People Magazine. I think he thinks he's Brad Pitt or Taylor Swift. And I'm pretty sure he's not dating Travis Kelce. No. And if he is, I really don't want to know about it. I don't want to know about it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I don't think dramatically. I think almost all of what the president is going to talk about is the domestic agenda. I think what the president is going to talk about on Tuesday night is promises made, promises kept. I will say this. We're 40 days into a new administration. In our lifetimes, there has never been a president who has hit the ground running as fast and furious as this president.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
It is breathtaking. It is wild right now. Elon Musk is obviously integrally involved. That is driving Democrats and the media crazy. And it's embodying the old Silicon Valley adage of move fast and break things. I think that's what we'll hear Tuesday night is we made promises to secure the border. We're securing the border. We made promises to unleash American energy.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
We're unleashing American energy. We made promises to unleash the economy and bring back jobs and small businesses. We're doing exactly that. We made promises to make America safer. Hamas has been releasing hostages. And I think the president will say we will end the war in Ukraine. But I I'll be surprised.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
If the president, it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't even use the word Zelensky in the speech. I think his approach will be. We want to end it. What he said in the Oval Office spoke for itself. But I, for one, am damn glad we have a commander in chief with a backbone and that our enemies are afraid of. America is much safer as a result.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
You're not here for that at all. So, look, I suspect pretty much everyone here has already watched much of this exchange and what happened. What I will tell you is that President Zelensky showed up in the Oval Office and decided he was there to battle Donald Trump, decided he was there to insult Donald Trump, decided he was there to attack and belittle Donald Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And without exaggeration, I believe this will go down as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting in the history of our nation. Wow. Zelensky had one job. His one job was to go there and to try to get the president's support for a peace that leaves his country in a good and strong position. That was his entire mission.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And he apparently decided that he knew better than everyone else and that President Trump should be kissing his ass. Now, I got to say, look, for any president, You go back from George Washington to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Joe Biden to Donald Trump coming into the Oval Office and behaving like an ass, insulting and attacking the president with the TV cameras running.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
By the way, doing this for the entire world, for any president. is a dumb ass move.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
It wasn't an accident. So there literally is no analog. If you look back, you look back, I've been in a lot of Oval Office meetings. No foreign leader has ever done what President Zelensky did. And it's particularly ironic because it is exactly opposite what he wanted to do. It's exactly opposite what his mission was. Look, he was there
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Number one, the United States has given hundreds of billions of dollars to Zelensky. Let's be clear, not millions. You said it. Billions. With a B. And 50% he said they can't find. Zelensky's attitude was, why the hell haven't you given us more? And we're entitled to every bit of it. Here, I want to play the first clip.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
This is a clip of the exchange between President Zelensky and President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Look, it clearly is. And I want to give an example. Let's say you're running a business. All right, let's play it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
They don't do it that way. There are meetings where world leaders disagree, and disagree sometimes with a great deal of candor. 100% of the times, the TV cameras are turned off. Behind closed doors, world leaders can have very frank discussions, and I have been in on many of those discussions with President Trump and world leaders.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
But when the TV camera turns on, Zelensky's putting on a show, and you heard him say, you know, I have much respect. You're wearing a sweatshirt, for Pete's sakes. It's the Oval Office of the White House, the Office of the President of the United States. Put on a frigging jacket and tie.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I mean, it's obnoxious. And he's acting like a performance artist. He used to be a comedic actor. Yeah. And his costume is the sweatshirt. Look, he came and addressed a joint session of Congress a few years ago. He stood on the dais of the House of Representatives. I was there for those remarks. He wore the same damn sweatshirt.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I will say at the time, there was a fairly amusing meme that went around. I remember. That it was Zelensky trying to explain what happened. He said, I'd planned to wear a suit and tie, but then an official from the Biden administration stole my luggage.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And if you remember this odd transgender official in the Biden administration who was arrested for going to airports and stealing strangers' luggage. Yeah. It was weird. Stealing women's clothes. Well, there is that. But this, the arrogance that Zelensky brought to this, and I actually want to credit Trump. Trump doesn't get mad in this exchange. He could get angry, but he doesn't.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
But it's just... astonishing. You know, yesterday I met with the foreign minister of the European Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
So the number three official in the European Union, the former prime minister of Estonia, she came to my office. We spent about an hour talking about Ukraine and Russia and what's happening in Europe. And she was expressing concerns. And I said, look, Number one, this war was unnecessary. It was caused by Joe Biden's weakness. It was caused by his unwillingness to stand and be strong.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
His weakness caused this war. And in particular, Joe Biden waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Nord Stream 2 is the undersea pipeline Russia was building from Russia to Germany. And the reason Russia was building Nord Stream 2 was to be able to get natural gas directly to Europe without having to go through Ukraine. The entire purpose of Nord Stream 2 was to enable Russia to invade Ukraine.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
In December of 2019, I authored sanctions legislation that shut down Nord Stream 2. Putin literally stopped building that pipeline the day that President Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
It worked. It prevented war. Joe Biden came in. He was sworn into office on January 20th, 2021. Putin resumed deep sea construction of Nord Stream 2 four days later, January 24th. Because Biden had foreshadowed weakness, that foreshadowing was accurate because several months later he formally waived those sanctions on Russia, on Putin, effectively gave him billions of dollars.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
That caused the war in Ukraine.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Listen, if Donald Trump had been president the last four years, There is no war in Ukraine. Putin does not invade. But Biden's weakness, you remember Biden's disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, the absolute debacle that was there.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I said the day that happened, I said the chances of Russia invading Ukraine have just risen tenfold because a weak commander in chief in the United States that our enemies are not afraid of, it emboldens them. Now, what I told the EU's foreign minister yesterday, I said, listen, Zelensky is behaving catastrophically badly.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Zelensky, for the past two weeks, has been running around to the European press and has just been shooting his mouth off and attacking President Trump. And I told the EU foreign minister, it's not complicated. Donald Trump, if somebody attacks him, will punch back. Every time. 100% of the time, with no exceptions in every instance. This is not a secret.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
I'm not revealing top secret classified psychological profiles.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And by the way, show me one person in a negotiation with Trump that thinks the thing to do is just go in and be a jackass. Yeah. and just insult him publicly and ridicule him. And by the way, I'm there asking for hundreds of billions of dollars. At the same time, I'm going to insult him. It was staggeringly bad. And I actually want to give a contrast. So we actually had the day before.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
We had the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, who came and met with President Trump. Now look, Keir Starmer is a leftist in UK politics. Keir Starmer's politics are markedly different from President Trump's. He's not a conservative in any way, shape, or form. Sadly, the conservatives in the UK have been obliterated politically right now, and the left is in control in the UK.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
And by the way, Keir Starmer has a terrible record on things like free speech, where he's willing to send in and arrest people for social media tweets he doesn't like. So his record on free speech is abysmal.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Nonetheless, Keir Starmer understood exactly what his job was coming there, which was to respect the president of the United States, which was to strengthen his friendship with the president of the United States. I want you to listen to this exchange where a reporter tries to get Keir Starmer to criticize and blast President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Well, let me say, you and I are both at the Club for Growth conference down in Florida today. I will say the Club for Growth is an extraordinarily important conservative and a free market organization. They support conservative and free market candidates running for the Senate, running for the House. I literally would not be in the U.S.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)
Where they're desperately trying to get Trump and Elon battling. You know, Time magazine was so clottish, they put out a picture of Elon at the Resolute desk. They're like, oh, this will work. This will piss Trump off.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
It was seriously badass. And it was... I told Elon, so you and I spent the afternoon at CPAC last week, and we did Friday's podcast we did from CPAC on Thursday, and we interviewed Pam Bondi. We interviewed Pam Bondi live on the stage. We've done Verdict live on the stage at CPAC several times.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Let me encourage folks, by the way, if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast interviewing Pam Bondi, it was one of the very first major interviews of the new attorney general that has happened. Pam and I have been friends a long time, and so we had a really good and candid conversation about what she's doing, what she's accomplishing, what her objectives are.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
So if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast, go back and listen to it, because it was an interview that I think was really worthwhile. But afterwards, you and I hung out afterwards. I spent about 20 minutes with Elon. And Javier Millay delivered this chainsaw to Elon. By the way, Millay brought it up on stage while you and I were doing the podcast. I got to say, my security guys were freaked out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
They're like, wait, a guy is running on stage with a chainsaw, and never mind that it was a head of state running on stage with a chainsaw. That's just a little surreal. Like, you have guys whose job it is to keep you safe. It is, despite the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we rarely deal with people running at us with chainsaws, and yet that happened at CPAC, and yet somehow it was okay.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Come on, Benjamin. Benjamin, if you're going to do it, do the full enchilada.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
I'm all into this show. I'm trying to rescue your dignity, because a bad-a moment is just a weenie way of putting it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And the Democrat governor is eager for that fight because that is apparently what today's Democrat Party is all about.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, no, that's exactly right. Trump is not backing down. And I got to say, the Democrats, it seems they've learned nothing from the election. Here, give a listen to the exchange between the governor of Maine and President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Well, it is, and by the way, there's also real teeth to it. So simultaneously with this exchange, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it had initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine, and the state could be in jeopardy of losing $100 million in federal USDA funding over noncompliance with the executive order on keeping males out of female sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And at the end of the day, and by the way, This is not hypothetical. This is happening in Maine. In Maine, there was a transgender boy who identifies as a girl who took first place in the girls pole vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. And it's a win that helped the high school take first place overall.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And so, you know, how would you feel if it's your daughter who's in second and she's the best pole vaulter in the state who's a girl, but there's a dude who says, no, I'm a girl. Who beats her and dominates. It's just fundamentally unfair. And I got to say, overwhelmingly, 80, 90 percent of Americans agree with that proposition.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And what's striking is this is not Democrats fighting on some issue where where the voters are with them. I promise you, even in Maine, the voters don't want this. They're not happy about this. And today's Democrat Party, this election, if there is an elected Democrat who learned anything from this election, I don't know who it is. Because not only are they doubling down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, but they're also doubling down on open borders. They're also doubling down on anti-Israel. Look, the Democrats in the Senate voted against sanctioning the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which has gone after Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Every Democrat but one, every Democrat but John Fetterman voted against Israel. And they did that after the election.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
They did that just a few weeks ago. I mean, that's where the Democrats are right now is they're still open border. They're still anti-Israel. They're still pro boys and girls sports. And it's look, look, this is the same issue we started with.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
fundamentally i think you know the democrats love to prattle on about democracy uh but when they prattle on about what democracy what they really mean is they want power And they don't care what the voters want. They don't care about respecting the will of the voters. Instead, they want to fight against the will of the voters.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
It's why they indicted Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. It was designed to stop democracy. It's why you had multiple Democrats, judges and state officials fighting. trying to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot because nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters for voting for your opponent and making it impossible.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
This is all intertwined, which is it is a lack of of humility, a lack of understanding that. You have a boss and the boss. Is the men and women who elected you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, on Friday, I was at Kash Patel swearing in, and it was a terrific moment. I think Kash is going to bring fundamental reform to the FBI, and I think it is desperately needed. The FBI is an institution. It is an institution with a long and storied history. And I don't think there is any institution in America that has lost more respect, that has had its integrity restored,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
compromised more than the FBI has. Actually, the CDC may be rivaling it. Fauci may have done as much damage to the credibility and respect of government health sciences as James Comey and Christopher Wray did to the FBI, but both institutions are sorely in need of reform. I think Kash Patel is going to come in and do that. And I got to say, Dan Bongino, he's a good friend of mine.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
He's a good friend of yours. He is a strong conservative. He is a reformer. And that combination of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, I think is going to be really potent. to bring the FBI back to its core mission. And its core mission is stopping bad guys. It's stopping violent crime. It's catching the very worst criminals. It's stopping terrorism. It's putting terrorists in jail.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
It's keeping America safe. It's not... being a politically woke enforcer for left-wing ideology, or for that matter, for right-wing ideology. I don't expect the FBI to suddenly be a right-wing enforcer. I want the FBI to lock up murderers, and to be clear, I want them to lock up murderers, whether they're Republicans or Democrats.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
I don't care if you're killing people, if you're raping women, if you're hurting kids, if you're human trafficking, if you're drug trafficking, if you're a terrorist. I want the FBI to go after you and lock you up. And that's what their core mission is. And I'm very confident that Kash Patel and Dan Bongino with Pam Bondi as attorney general, that they're going to bring the FBI right back to that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, look, I think the Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in the House are aware that we've got an historic mandate from the election in November, and we've got an obligation to deliver on our promises. We can't screw around. Failure is not an option, and I do think that is something in both the House and Senate that Republicans get.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
I'll tell you, when it comes to confirmations, we are moving at the fastest pace in 25 years. We're moving at a much faster pace than cabinet nominees were confirmed under Biden or in the first Trump term. I predicted on this podcast that all of President Trump's cabinet nominees would be confirmed, and that's been the path. That's been the ones they went after. They went after Pete Hegseth.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Hegseth was confirmed. They went after Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi was confirmed. They went after Bobby Kennedy. Bobby was confirmed. And so other than Matt Gaetz, who withdrew very early, and Gaetz would have faced a very rocky path,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
But other than that, once once once Gates withdrew and I made the prediction after Gates withdrew, that's exactly what happened, which is every every cabinet nominee has been confirmed.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Well, next week, the confirmations that are coming up, we're going to do the secretary of the army, Daniel Driscoll, and then we'll be voting on Jameson Greer to be the United States trade representative. Both of those are expected next week. And then we're going to go after some of Biden's failed energy policies in the Senate.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
We're going to go after rules and regulations that drive up the cost of energy and make it harder to to heat your home, harder to to. that drive inflation. And so that's going to be the priority in the Senate this coming week.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Well, that's right. This is a list that is done by millionpodcast.com, millionpodcast.com, and they rank podcasts. They rank them based on their content, and they put out a ranking of the best 100 election podcasts, and I've got to say it was pretty fantastic. But Verdict was number one in the entire country, the single best election podcast in the country, according to MillionPodcast.com.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And so that I want to say thank you, as Ben did, to all of our listeners, because the content we're putting out day after day is very hard to get. There is not another place you can get it. And so thank you. And that's a big win.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Well, Elon Musk tweeted out this week, quote, consistent with President Trump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. Very simple. Five bullet points. Tell me what you got done the past week. Now, the media and the Democrats, they are freaking out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
A classic example is Senator Tina Smith, senator from Minnesota, very liberal Democrat. She tweeted out the following, quote, This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss. He's just a dick. So that's the Democrats' response.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Asking someone, what did you get accomplished this week at work, is unacceptable because they live in a world where apparently meritocracy doesn't exist, where government workers aren't expected to do anything positive for the voters. for the taxpayers, and Elon responded to Tina Smith a very simple question. What did you get done last week?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Now, I got to say, I read that, and my reaction immediately was, okay, this is something, frankly, bosses do all the time. It's a very reasonable thing. I've been in a lot of jobs where my bosses have asked for a weekly report at the end of the week. What did you get accomplished? I've submitted...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
hundreds or thousands of weekly reports over the year of what's been accomplished during the past week. That's something a lot of very productive workplaces do. So I responded on Twitter. Here's what I tweeted out in response to Elon. A fair question, Elon Musk. Here's mine. One, passed out of the Senate, the Take It Down Act to protect kids from deepfake porn. 2.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
3.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
4.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Chair a hearing on freeing up 600 MHz of spectrum for commercial development so the U.S. will beat China to 6G. 5. And five met with 20 African ambassadors on strategies to combat China in Africa. So that's what I did last week. And I got to say, you know, it's an interesting thing. Why don't doesn't all hundred senators report back on what they accomplished last week?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Well, it's amazing. Every day, it seems, we see the same story playing out. We see Elon Musk holding the federal government to account. We see Donald Trump standing up to the swamp in Washington. And we see the media and the Democrats losing their mind. Elon Musk with the most basic question any boss asks of what did you accomplish this week? And somehow that is deemed shocking and unbelievable.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
I think it's a perfectly fine thing for Democrats. for federal employees to do it but at the end of the day i've got thirty one million bosses i work for for for every man woman and child in the great state of texas uh... and and and i try on a regular basis in fact this podcast is an aspect of that accountability it's an aspect of of
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Sharing with the men and women I work for what it is that I'm doing, what I'm fighting for and what we're able to get accomplished. And it really does say something about the current surreal expectations of. of, of Democrats and federal government workers that asking, what did you do last week?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, look, it's the basic idea of having deliverables, but there's a very strange dynamic in Washington right now. The average federal office building up until a few weeks ago. was empty. The attendance is five to eight percent. More than 90 percent of federal workers are not going to the office. Now, that is bizarre.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Look, I get in the height of COVID, there was a period where everyone stayed home. But you know what happened? The rest of the world went back to work like everyone's gone back to work. And in the private sector, I don't know of a place where people don't go into the office anymore except the federal government.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And I got to say to Democrats, this is treated as as an entitlement that they are owed this. And to see people freaking out. Well, if we have to go to work, that that makes it very hard to figure out child care. Well, guess what? That's called work. Yeah, it is hard to figure out child care. That's real. Look, every parent who has a job has to figure out child care.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Why do federal employees get to stay at home in their pajamas and bunny slippers? When everyone else has to go to work and it I think these two are intertwined that this this expectation I am entitled to a federal paycheck for the rest of my life. I don't have to produce anything. I don't have to ever go to the office. And I can do my job simply by diverting funds to radical left wing groups.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
All of this is intertwined. It is the politicization of government. It is the lack of respect for. For the taxpayers, the lack of respect. Look, this is intertwined. We've talked about this as well with how Joe Biden behaved the last three months of his presidency after the election. I have never in my life seen a president behave like Joe Biden did because he behaved with absolute contempt.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
He spent three months trying to do everything he could to stop Donald Trump from delivering on the promises that he made to the American people that the voters said overwhelmingly we want. Most presidents, when they leave, when they lose, they're like, OK, fine. All right. The next guys are coming in. We're going to transition over. The voters have spoken.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And it really is a sign of what needs to happen. We're going to break that down and break down the response to it as well. We're also going to talk about a back and forth between President Trump and the governor of Maine, where where the governor of Maine, a Democrat, is continuing what a lot of the Democrats are doing, which is massive resistance. And in this case, boys and girls sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
You know, I may not like what the voters say. I was on the other side. You know, if your side loses. But but but the absolute arrogance, the the lack of regard for the voters and the taxpayers, it is also intertwined. Name a Democrat, an elected Democrat. who has said once, thank God Doge is pointing out all of this waste, fraud and abuse.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Thank God we have stopped sending millions of dollars for transgender surgeries in Guatemala. I haven't heard a single Democrat, not one of them. And it's because they don't think they owe anything to the taxpayers or the voters. For them, it's about power. It's not about honoring the commitment you made to the men and women who elected you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, look, of course. And so there were... natural places where employees were told, don't respond to this email. For example, Kash Patel told FBI agents, don't respond to this email. Run through your management to respond to this email. Why? Because when you're dealing with classified and confidential law enforcement, there are national security and intelligence agencies
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
operations where you can't have this kind of report going and going through non-classified channels so of course that's the case but but if you're a run-of-the-mill employee in the federal in a federal agency those constraints are not there and and those employees are are obligated to to respond
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
Yeah, I will say, in addition to the five things that I tweeted that I accomplished last week, I did did follow up with one more tweet and said, oh, yeah. And six, I got to hold a really badass chainsaw. And this is always amazing. OK, you got to understand. So Javier Malay, the president of Argentina. showed up with a gold and silver chainsaw for Elon Musk.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
And this is not a run-of-the-mill chainsaw. This is a gold-plated chainsaw. It had Elon Musk on it. It had Viva La Libertad on the blade. The blade was long. It was a massive chainsaw. It had... Brass spikes coming out of the main body of the chainsaw. Like something out of Mad Max and Thunderdome. And the pull cord where you start it was a set of brass knuckles.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
It turns out the Democrats, they want them some boys and girls sports and they're willing to stand and fight and do anything. And Trump made clear. Maine is at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds if they continue to defy the executive orders on boys and girls sports.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Are you aware of anyone who has been indicted for funding these protests?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Are you aware of any university that has had their Title VI federal funds cut off because they've tolerated, welcomed, celebrated, and Senator Hawley put out, had their own officials cheering on anti-Semitism as even one university lost their funding?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And I'll point out also some of the defenders say free speech, free speech. You're right. You have a free speech right as an American citizen to say vile, hateful, bigoted things. Let me ask you something.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
If a university student went into the public square dressed up in a Klan outfit, burned a cross and said we should murder African-American students, do you have any doubt the university would expel that student?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
They should expel them if they're foreign students. They should be deported. And mark my words, if you are horrified at the anti-Semitism, you will see the Trump Department of Justice follow the money, prosecute the people who are paying for this, prosecute those engaged in violence, and cut off the money from universities that are tolerating and celebrating this. That is the rule of law.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And ask yourself, why did the Biden Justice Department do absolutely nothing about this horror that is unfolding?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Look, because they believe the same things. The administrators, they have been teaching the same poison. The faculty has been teaching the same poison. And I'll note that clip you played while I was questioning at the hearing on anti-Semitism. As I noted, not a single Democrat senator was in the room. The hearing room was empty. And that really spoke volumes. They don't want to talk about this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
You know, there's a phrase that's gone viral online. It's F-A-F-O. And I got to say, there are a whole lot of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic radicals that are finding out what that means. And there are also a lot of Ivy League administrators and professors who are finding out what it means. You and I, we interviewed on this podcast, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General in front of CPAC. We interviewed live.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And the problem is a political problem. In today's Democrat Party, There is a real and meaningful pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, and the Democrats are terrified of that pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party. The question I've asked repeatedly, and look, Most of the people who listen to Verdict are, I think, politically right of center or conservative or libertarians.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
But we actually have a fair number of reporters who listen to Verdict. And, you know, I'm hoping we have a handful of open-minded, free-thinking liberals, people who consider themselves left of center but recognize that if you want to actually have an intelligent understanding of the issues, then you want to hear from a wide spectrum of views and try to process and ascertain what is right.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
If you at home are one of those, let's say you're a Democrat who lives in New York City. Let's say you voted for Kamala Harris. You voted for Joe Biden. Maybe you voted for Barack Obama.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
If you disagree with the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, if you don't like the vile anti-Semites that have flourished on college campuses and that have threatened the safety of Jewish students, you ought to ask yourself very seriously what happened in the last week. Columbia got its money cut off. One of the organizers of the protests is going to be deported.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Why didn't any of that happen under Joe Biden? There was nothing to prevent the Biden administration from doing this. They had every bit of legal authority. As far as I can tell, they didn't even investigate it. They didn't ask where the money came from. I certainly asked the Attorney General and the FBI repeatedly if they were doing that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
If they were investigating it, they refused to tell the Senate, they refused to tell me. And we do know that no one paid any consequences for it because no one was indicted. And that ends up encouraging more of this. And you have to ask yourself, was that an accident? Or was there a reason? Listen, if Kamala Harris, God forbid, had been elected president in November... Ben, let me ask you this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
What do you think are the odds Columbia would have had that 400 million cut off if Kamala Harris were president?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
She might be marching with the pro Hamas protesters. And by the way, this this organizer who's being deported, the odds of his being deported if Kamala were president are zero. Elections have consequences. And this issue, this issue matters.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And I predicted in that interview, I said, the Trump administration is is going to go after universities that allow these radical anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic protests, and they're going to go after them on a couple of fronts.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Well, and there was an example I used in my Senate questioning that I want to flesh out a little bit because some people will say free speech, free speech. And it is absolutely right that an American citizen has a right to engage in free speech and to say things that are horrible, that are bigoted, that are hateful. You have a right to say that. I will defend your right to say that.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
But it doesn't mean that you are entitled to be immune from the consequences of what you say. And so one example I gave, if you're a university student, and let's say a university student dressed in a Klan outfit and went onto campus and burned a cross and began screaming that we should murder all the African-American students.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
If that university student was an American citizen, he or she would have a First Amendment right to say that. But I think the odds are 100% the university would expel them. There could be consequences for your speech when they are so vile and hateful. And if someone did that, advocating for the murder of their fellow students, they would be expelled. Now, they wouldn't be incarcerated.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
It is not a crime to say that. But a university would be within its rights to say that we are not going to tolerate this level of hate directed at our fellow students.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
that is what the pro-hamas protesters were saying when they said from the river to the sea when they said at the university of washington to jewish students you go back to the ovens they were arguing when that columbia woman held the sign saying al-kassam's next target pointing at jewish students they were arguing for their fellow students to be murdered in this instance because they are jews a university is fully within its right to expel that student for doing so now secondly
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Number one, it is existing federal law under Title VI of the civil rights laws that you cannot create an environment that is hostile, that is discriminating against people based on ethnicity or faith.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
if someone is not a US citizen, if they are on a student visa. A student visa is a privilege. It is the United States making the decision. We think it is beneficial to us to let you come to our country. and study in our schools. It is a permissive grant.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And if you are organizing radical protests and harassing Jewish students with vicious anti-Semitism, and mind you, vicious anti-Americanism, these bastards are burning American flags while in many instances taking federal money and student aid and basking in the protection of the federal government. Listen, I am confident
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
This guy is not the first foreigner who has been a radical, who's been admitted under the Obama administration and Biden administration, who's going to have his visa revoked and is going to be deported. And he should. It doesn't mean that an American who said that says this would go to jail for saying it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
But there are consequences for speech, and that is entirely consistent with protecting robust free speech.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And when you have universities like Columbia and much of the rest of the Ivy League that are allowing Jewish students to be afraid for their lives, the Columbia Orthodox rabbi in the midst of the very worst protest after October 7th sent out an email to the Jewish students on campus and said, Do not come into campus. You are not safe. Columbia will not protect you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And what you and I predicted on this podcast with Attorney General Pam Bondi is the Trump Department of Justice is going to come after these universities and cut off their funds. And I said, you know what? First in line is Columbia University because they've been the most brazen about it. And I predicted second that we are going to see
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And that testimony ended her tenure within days. The immediate fallout of that testimony. She lost her job. Now, mind you, Harvard gave her a cushy job paying her nine hundred thousand dollars a year. So they're still she's just not the president anymore. But but they didn't run very far.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Fully agree.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
These anti-Semitic protesters who are foreigners, we're going to see their visas revoked and we're going to see them deported. Well, all of that is happening right now. This past week, the news broke.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
The Trump administration is cutting off $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, claiming that it has failed to take steps to confront anti-Semitism on campus after Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
The cuts represent the federal government's first round of grant cancellations for Columbia, according to the administration's newly formed anti-Semitism task force, which is leading the effort. Columbia has over $5 billion. Let me repeat that again. $5 billion in active federal grants that are being reviewed by the government. So $400 million has already been cut off.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And they've got a total of $5 billion in federal grants that are potentially on the chopping block. And let's be clear, Columbia is just the first of those. But not only that, on top of that, the news has broken in recent hours that immigration agents arrest Palestinian activists who help lead the Columbia University protests.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
The Associated Press is reporting, quote, federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University's protest against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration's pledge to detain and deport student activists.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several immigration and customs enforcement agents entered and took him into custody, his attorney Amy Greer told the Associated Press.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Greer says she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on the State Department orders to revoke Khalil's student visa Informed by the attorney that Cleo was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer. As I mentioned, Ben, F-A, F-O.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Well, sure, and you go back to last year when you had the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn all testify in the House. It will go down in history as the most disastrous House testimony I think that's ever happened. Within two weeks, two of the three university presidents, Harvard and Penn, both resigned. It was a hearing on anti-Semitism where they basically explained –
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
They gave lots of academic jumbledy-jook, but essentially what they were saying is anti-Semitism. We don't know what it is. We don't care to stop it because we're leftist, and that's what universities are all about.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And their complete obliviousness to creating a hostile environment where a significant percentage of their students, their lives and safety are in danger, it was really astonishing, and it's the fruit – Of the ideological rot that has happened in our college campuses.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Look, I've told the story before of about a year ago, I was meeting with a very successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a man of the left, a Democrat, who was expressing bewilderment. He said, where is all of this hatred, this anti-Semitism, this anti-Americanism on college campuses? Where is it coming from?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And I told him, I referenced the last book I wrote, Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. And I said, listen, this is the fruits of cultural Marxism that have taken over our universities and our institutions.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And it goes back to the 1960s and 70s, sadly to my alma mater, to Harvard, where you had Marxists that came onto the faculty, and they began teaching and dividing the world into a Marxist dichotomy. where everyone falls into one of two categories. You are either an oppressor or a victim. And to the modern-day leftists, Jews are categorized as oppressors.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And importantly, I did not say Israelis, I said Jews. If you are Jewish to a leftist, you are an oppressor, period, the end. And Palestinians, in that taxonomy, are categorized as victims, right?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And once you slot them into those two categories, the leftist Marxist ideology is they support the violent revolutionary overthrow by the victims of the oppressors, which is why you saw so many left-wing radicals cheering on the Hamas terrorists who murdered 1,200 people on October 7th, who raped little girls and women, and you had these leftist radicals cheering them on.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Our academic campuses are so sick. This is the ideology that is being taught to our children.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Yep. So this past week, the Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing on anti-Semitism. Now, you might think, given the massive rise in anti-Semitism, particularly following October 7th, given the acts of violence against Jews across America, you might think the Senate Judiciary Committee would be looking at this.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Do you know how many hearings we had on anti-Semitism when the Democrats had the gavel? I'm going to go out on a limb and say zero. Wow, you got it precisely right to the 100 decimal point. That would be 0.000.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Even a blind squirrel.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
not a one so a month into the new congress republicans have the majority we held a hearing this past week on anti-semitism the democrats were terrified they didn't want to talk about it but but i i took the opportunity listen i gotta say this issue pisses me off what we've seen happen to our schools and so i want you to listen to my questioning of the witnesses and what i had to say last week at the hearing on anti-semitism give a listen
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Antisemitism is evil, it is wrong, and it is flourishing with the acquiescence, and in many cases, active participation of students, of faculty, of administrators, and government officials, and sadly, the Democrat Party has a deep and pervasive problem confronting this evil.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
For the last two years in the wake of October 7th, this committee held zero hearings on anti-Semitism in the United States, despite the fact that Republicans repeatedly called for it. The acts of violence prior to October 7th, 3,669 anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the United States. Following October 7th, in less than three months, that number spiked to over 5,000.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
In 2024, that number skyrocketed to 10,005 antisemitic incidents. This problem is particularly acute on our college campuses. Columbia University. Columbia University was a major epicenter where they encouraged, tolerated, and celebrated this vicious and vile antisemitism.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Rabbi Eli Buehler emailed every Jewish student on campus and said, quote, the events of the last few days have made it clear that Columbia University's public safety cannot guarantee Jewish students' safety in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy. I would strongly recommend you return home. This is the rabbi at the university saying, your school will not protect your safety.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And Columbia didn't do a damn thing about it. And I'll tell you what, the rabbi wasn't crazy. Here is one picture taken on the campus of Columbia. In the back are Jewish students waving American flags and Israeli flags. In the front is a Columbia student wearing a mask because these cowards are oh so brave they cover their faces, holding a handwritten sign that says Al-Qassam's next targets.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Al-Qassam is the military branch of Hamas. Understand what this student is saying. She is calling for the murder of her Jewish classmates. And by the way, this student, the internet being what it is, she's been identified now on the internet. This is not a Palestinian who's subject to oppression. This is a rich blonde girl from Atlanta.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
whose parents are multi-millionaire real estate developers, and they got so proud, I'm sending my child to an Ivy League education where she'll be indoctrinated to dress up and advocate Hamas murdering Jewish students because they are Jews. Now, if you agree that is evil and vile, let me ask you something. We're the Democrats. Not a one is here.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
And it's because the Democrat Party has decided the pro-Hamas wing of the party is more important than protecting Jewish students in America. And if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer, texting with Columbia, said the following.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
On January 4th, then president of Columbia, Shafik explained to Shipman and her fellow co-chair David Greenwald that she had met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who advised Shafik that university's political problems about antisemitism are really only among Republicans. We the Democrats, we don't care about this antisemitism stuff. Ms. Lewin, am I the only person that has noticed
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
that these anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic protests, that the tents all match?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
Is it clear that there is significant money funding these attacks on Jewish students and attacks on America?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
FAFO Columbia Loses: $400M in federal funds & Antisemitic Organizer Getting Deported
In the last two years under the Biden Justice Department, are you aware of any investigation to follow the money behind these protests?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
The proposal is the result of emergency talks held by European leaders in London following President Trump's heated exchange with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House last week. Over the weekend, leaders from over a dozen countries got together to discuss a roadmap for peace and security for Ukraine as the country faces its third year of war with Russia.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
The emergency summit was also aimed at working to preserve Ukraine's relationship with the U.S. and Americans' involvement in the war overseas. Starmer said that Europe must do the, quote, heavy lifting to secure a lasting peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and that the UK should lead the front. He emphasized that, quote, this effort must have strong U.S.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
backing, which if he means more hundreds of billions of dollars, the answer is no thank you. But he continues, quote, Through my discussions over recent days, we've agreed that the U.K., France, and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, Starmer said at a press conference on Sunday. Then we'll discuss that plan with the United States and take it forward together.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Now, it's interesting. To do so, Starmer vowed the United Kingdom would ramp up its support for Ukraine. That included a loan of, what do you think? A lot of money, right? What do you think? Pick a number. Okay.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
So higher than that. So you're even more pessimistic. Okay. That includes a loan of 2.26 billion British pounds, which is $2.84 billion. So look, $2.84 billion, that's real money, except for the fact that the United States has spent about $175 billion on Ukraine. That's part of the fundamental imbalance there.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Yeah, look, I'm all for the Europeans stepping in and doing everything they can. If they want to do that, knock yourself out. They're welcome to spend their money. But we're not the welfare provider for the world. And to be clear, why are we borrowing when we've got $36 trillion in debt? Why are we borrowing money from China to give it to other countries? That makes no sense.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And it is an interesting shift. Now, look, I will say one of the frustrating things about this meeting last week in the Oval is the meeting was there to sign an agreement, an agreement that had been negotiated ahead of time. And that agreement was an agreement where Ukraine would give the United States a substantial interest in its rare earth minerals and valuable resources to pay back Ukraine.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
the $175 billion we've given them. That agreement made a lot of sense. That agreement was pre-negotiated. I think the White House thought Zelensky was going to show up, sign the agreement, and leave. He didn't. Instead, he put on this performance. And I actually want you to listen—
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
To this exchange on CNN, because it's a striking exchange, the first speaker is Scott Jennings, who, by the way, Scott Jennings is doing a phenomenal job on CNN being a voice of reason and common sense, fighting against a bunch of numbnuts and left-wing commies. he's really doing an effective job. And he's, in this case, talking with Josh Rogin.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Josh Rogin is a very smart reporter for Washington Post Intelligence. He does foreign policy. But look, Josh Rogin and Scott Jennings do not often agree. Listen to this back and forth as they're analyzing what happened with Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And he is not.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Look, he needed mostly to be saying, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. May I have another it? And Scott is right. Look, this deal on minerals. had the advantage for Ukraine of having the Trump administration being an intricately involved economic partner with Ukraine. That's really beneficial.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And the alternative is very different, which is without the United States, Ukraine's prospects are really dim. And so if you know that your prospects for success are miserably sad unless President Trump supports you, in what universe do you come in and start attacking and insulting him?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
OK, so I believe tomorrow's address is the State of the Union. You're right. But but but I think the sort of tradition is wrong. The origin of the State of the Union comes from the text of the Constitution. Article two, section three provides, quote, he the president.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. And so that's the origin of it. that the Constitution says he shall give to Congress information on the State of the Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Now, traditionally, the first address the president gives when he's newly elected is not called a State of the Union address. It's rather just called an address to a joint session of Congress. And traditionally, the first State of the Union is the second address he gives. So a year from now, that will be called a State of the Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
In my view, the plain text of the Constitution is if the president's giving Congress his views on the State of the Union, it's a State of the Union address. And so I think the tradition is wrong. Now, it's interesting if you go and look at the history of it. Initially, it started in writing. So George Washington sent written messages to Congress instead of delivering them in person.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
so did John Adams, so did Thomas Jefferson. So it started out that the State of the Union was delivered in writing. Then Woodrow Wilson, in 1913, delivered his message in person, and Franklin Roosevelt did the same. The first radio broadcast of the State of the Union was in 1923. And the first televised address was in 1947.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And it wasn't until 1965, which was not really that long ago, that President Johnson began delivering the address in primetime. And then in 1966, the opposition party began offering a televised response to the president's speech. So today we think of it as a national speech that's covered on TV on every one of the stations.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
It didn't start out that way, but tomorrow we're going to see exactly that, a national speech given to the country, given to a joint session of Congress. I'll be sitting there on the floor of the House listening to it, and as will millions of people across America and all across the world.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
So my prediction is the theme of the speech will be promises made, promises kept. And it will have many similar themes that the inauguration speech had about the mandate from the last election. But the difference is going to be the inauguration speech was on the first day of the second term. So at that point, nothing had happened yet.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
It was literally raising his hand and taking the oath of office is what made him president. So he hadn't been able to do anything yet in his second term when he gave that speech. In this instance, we have seen the most consequential first 40 days of a president in history. There's never been a president hit the ground running the way Donald Trump has.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
There's never been a president issue as many executive orders do as much as Donald Trump is. And so I expect the speech to be, number one, I expect a lot of focus on the border. So on the border, I think the president is going to say we had chaos. We had open borders. We had 12 million illegal immigrants. We had the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
We had an invasion at our southern border. The American people said enough is enough is enough. I expect the president to point to in the gallery. victims of illegal immigration. I expect to see the families of people who were murdered by illegal immigrants, whether Lakin Riley or Jocelyn Nungary or Rachel Moran. I expect to see the families to highlight This was a tragedy. It was wrong.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And Americans were suffering every damn day, as I put it at the RNC convention this year. And we've seen in just 40 days the number of illegal crossings plummet over 90 percent. I fully expect President Trump to say, you elected me to fix this problem, and we are fixing the problem.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
If you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, if you're a Venezuelan gang member, get the hell out, because if you don't, we're going to find you, we're going to arrest you, we're going to deport you. We will secure the border, and that's a promise made and a promise kept. I think that's going to be a major, major theme.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Look, I think it's important. I don't think it is, you know, game changing either way. I think the president will do a good job. I got to say, State of the Unions are always interesting. And we'll talk about on Wednesday's pod, we'll talk about how it was. And so you and I will record this after the State of the Union.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
That's going to be a brutal one, by the way, because State of the Union goes on forever. And then I typically do various media. I don't know if I'm doing Hannity. I often do Hannity after State of the Unions. But I'll do some media, and then you and I will record the pod at midnight or 1 in the morning. But we will record it, and I will give you my real-time assessments of how it went.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
But look, I think the president is going to do a terrific job with it. And I don't know that it matters. I don't know that it will change anything fundamentally. Other than I think a lot of people, you will have tens of millions of people watching and you will have even more globally watching. And I think the basic message, the American people voted. They elected us.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
They gave us a mandate, and we are delivering on that mandate. We are producing results. We're doing what the voters sent us here to do. I think that message is really important, and I think that message will be conveyed. I'm glad of that. I think that's really important. By the way, I'll say one of the things that I'm looking forward to, so later today –
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
I'm going to do an event in the Capitol with the First Lady, with Melania Trump. I'm going to do an event with the First Lady on my legislation, the Take It Down legislation. The Take It Down legislation protects... Young Girls protects women from so-called revenge porn, protects them from deep fakes. So we've seen multiple instances.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
We've seen teenage girls who, one from Texas, Elliston Berry, who was a freshman in high school, and she woke up one morning and a classmate of hers, a boy in ninth grade, had taken a perfectly innocuous picture of her from social media. had used AI to create a deep fake to make it look like they were naked pictures of her. They were not real. They were fake.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
But if you looked at them, you thought they were real. The AI technology is such that you can't tell. And this boy in her class had sent it to her classmates. And this poor girl woke up in tears, if you can imagine. You and I are both parents. It's hard to be a teenager any time.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
But for a young girl to have all your classmates think they're looking at naked pictures of you, or in some instances you have deepfake videos where they can create pornographic videos of real people that look like they're engaged in lewd and explicit acts. And my legislation, the Take It Down Act, makes it, number one, a crime to post nonconsensual intimate images.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And number two, whether real or deep fakes made using AI. And number two, it puts an obligation on social media platforms and tech platforms to take this garbage down when the victims notify them. In Elliston's situation, I met with her. She reached out to me as her senator. and raised this. And it's actually how I encountered the issue, because it was a concern raised by a constituent.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And I drafted this legislation in response to her concerns. I met with her and her mom. At the time, the pictures had been up on Snapchat for nine months. And I asked her and her mom, I said, well, what's the story with the pictures now? And her mom said, they're still up. And they said... Her mom said, I've called Snapchat. I've emailed them. I've gone round and round and round.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
They will not take them down. And I turned to my team. I said, damn it, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone right now, this afternoon. And I said, those pictures will be down today. Ben, they pulled the pictures down within two hours. Now, you know what? It should not take a sitting United States senator to make a phone call to make that happen.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
The victim ought to have the right to get that down. And so my legislation puts a legal obligation— on the part of the tech platform. If the victim notifies them, they have to take it down. So tomorrow, I'm going to do an event at the Capitol with the First Lady and Melania Trump. We're going to have Elliston Berry is there.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
We're going to have other victims who have been victims there to highlight this legislation. My bill has already passed the Senate 100 to nothing. I believe we'll get it through the House. And I think you could see the president talking about issues like that at the State of the Union as well, laying out, we have a mandate we're going to deliver, and here's what we're delivering already.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Well, Zelensky's Oval Office performance was disastrous. And listen, at some level, it's not complicated what he had to do. He was there to come to President Trump and seek his help. Seek his help, seek the United States to stand with him in some way, shape, and form in their war with Russia. And Zelensky is beleaguered. He is a wartime leader. He feels desperate.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
But to be clear, the United States is also his principal patron, his funder, the person who has paid for the war for years, has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine. And so in any sane and rational world, Zelensky would come into the Oval Office, hat in hand, would come into the Oval Office angry. Being grateful for the support that the United States has given.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And to be honest, kissing Trump's ass. I mean, this is not a complicated dynamic. And by the way, it's also not a new dynamic. I've been in a lot of Oval Office meetings. Just about every foreign leader comes in and treats the President of the United States with respect. That is incumbent on the office.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
The United States is the world's leading superpower, and so foreign leaders, foreign heads of state, whether they like the President or not, they treat the President with respect. I will tell you, Any president, if there were a foreign leader who treated them the way Zelensky treated Trump, would have been pissed off and the consequences would have been bad.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
With Trump, the consequences were spectacularly bad. And listen, one needn't be a forensic psychologist to understand that it is a really dumb idea. to go into a meeting with Donald Trump and insult him and condescend him and attack him. If you do that, Ben, I can actually give out the probabilities to amazing precision.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
If you attack and insult Donald Trump, the chances that he will punch back are 100.000%.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
I mean, behind closed doors on global TV.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Well, the fallout continues from the epic meeting last week between President Zelensky and Donald Trump. The consequences have been massive. As you mentioned, we did an emergency podcast Friday afternoon within hours of the meeting. We put it out. Normally, we put out pods Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We put out two pods on Friday, one Friday morning and one Friday afternoon.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
So, look, I think the problem is Zelensky has been surrounded by an echo chamber of left-wing Democrats. He's been palling around with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. He's been palling around with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He's been palling around with The New York Times.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And he's become—this is a guy who appears in Vanity Fair, appears in People magazine, and he's become a leftist cause du jour. And he made, I think, the stupid assessment of, gosh, all the people I hang around with, they hate Donald Trump. They think Donald Trump is an idiot. So I should go in and treat Donald Trump like he's an idiot.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And it was I think he felt I think Zelensky went into the Oval performing for The New York Times and believing that the world be like, oh, Zelensky stands up and puts Trump in his place. Ha ha ha. And it was truly absurd. It backfired completely.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And by the way, this is the same political idiocy that led Zelensky last fall to go and effectively do a campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and to come to the United States in the middle of the presidential campaign, to come to the United States and do a New York Times interview attacking Donald Trump a month out from the election. And you and I did a whole pot at the time.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
What the hell is wrong with this guy? Is he just an idiot? Look, I don't know who's going to win the race. Both you and I thought Trump was going to win, but nobody knew for sure. At a minimum, Zelensky knew there was some real possibility that Trump was going to be the president. Did he think it made sense? Like what foreign leader comes?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
By the way, I wouldn't have advocated Zelensky should come campaign for Trump either. He's the president of Ukraine. He ought to be focused on Ukraine and stay the hell out of our elections like like it was an idiotic idea.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Look, he thinks he's George Washington, he thinks he's Winston Churchill, he thinks he is larger than life, and everyone around him, and particularly Donald Trump, are just beneath him. And that arrogance and condescension
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
came out and and it really is i i think it's it's the danger of believing your own pr like believing your own bs listen i've met zielinski multiple times um you know people ask me all right is is the guy totally and utterly corrupt and look i want to urge our verdict listeners there is a danger in in talking about ukraine and foreign policy to fall into extremes
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And to say either, Zelensky is a glorious hero defending liberty and everyone with morality will stand against him, against the worst scourge humanity has ever seen, Vladimir Putin. That's one view. I don't think that view is right. There is another view, which if you spend your time on Twitter, you could see as the sort of countervailing view. which is Zelensky is a corrupt, evil autocrat.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
We did it because we wanted to cover what was happening then because it was that consequential. So I will say... As Ben just mentioned a minute ago, if you didn't listen to Friday afternoon's pod, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it. I believe this will go down in history as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting that has ever occurred. We're going to break that down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
He's a Nazi. He's a terrible human being. He started the war against Russia. And Vladimir Putin is a misunderstood, kind soul who we just need to embrace because he's a giant teddy bear and we need to love. unsurprisingly, that view isn't right either.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And one of the things, look, that I love about doing a podcast, if you do a TV or radio interview, both you and I have done a ton of TV or radio interviews, if you've got five or six minutes to discuss an issue, You got to talk about it in a quick little soundbite. You got to talk about it in a sentence or two.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
This podcast, we can actually talk about issues and don't fall into the mistakes of believing the extremes on either side. My view of this, has Ukraine struggled with corruption? Yes, it has for a long time been one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. There's been endemic corruption throughout the government, throughout the economy. Absolutely, yes. Is Zelensky implicated in that?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
I don't know. But given the history of corruption in his country, it's not reasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility. It's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility of that. The United States has also been shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars to this war with no accountability. It's been dragging on forever and people are tired of it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
People want it to be over. Donald Trump campaigned on we're going to end the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough. We're not sending our money there anymore. That is a mandate that came out of the election. Now, you may not like that. You may not agree with it. But Trump was not hiding that was the outcome he wanted.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Kamala Harris was not hiding the outcome she wanted, which is to pay for the war forever and ever and ever and keep shoveling cash to Ukraine no matter what. But by the way, not enough cash that they win and not cutting off the money to Iran, which is making drones and sending them to Russia that it's using them to kill Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
So fund both sides in perpetuity to keep the war machine going. That was Kamala's position. The voters voted for Trump. That mandate means something. But but but I will say, if you look at the aftermath of the Zelensky Oval Office meeting, it was a disastrous meeting for Ukraine. I actually think because Zelensky's performance was so bad. It was not a good meeting for America.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Zelensky did harm to America, too. Why? Because who was happiest in the world about that meeting? And the answer is Vladimir Putin. I think Putin was laughing his ass off as he watched that because Zelensky was such a jerk. That he did real damage to Ukraine. And the consequence of Zelensky's behavior is it benefits Russia. And benefiting Russia is not good for America.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
I do want to urge everyone who listens to this podcast, as I watch Twitter, we're so captured by tribalism. that there are people on the right who are fed up with the Joe Bidens and Kamala Harris's and the virtue signaling on Ukraine, that they've decided Putin is just awesome. Let me be clear. Putin is a KGB thug. He is a murderer. Putin is not our friend. And Putin's ambitions...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
We're going to break down the fallout that has happened in three days since that meeting. We're also going to talk about the fact that tomorrow is the first State of the Union address for the second Donald Trump term. We're going to talk about what President Trump is likely going to say tomorrow and how it's going to be received. All on today's pod.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
You don't have to intuit them. You don't have to infer them. He has told us his ambitions. He has said that he believes the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century is the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He wants to reassemble the Soviet Union. In fact, he said more.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
He said he wants to go back to the old Russian Empire before the Soviet Union, but that was even broader and that had Russia controlling much of modern Europe. That would be a disastrous outcome for America. My view is America first, which means... I want our allies to be strong and I want our enemies to be weak. It's the reason I've urged President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
Yes, you campaigned on we should end the war in Europe. Enough is enough. Stop sending money. But we want a negotiated outcome that is a clear loss for Russia. Why? Because Russia is our enemy. Putin is our enemy and we don't want our enemy made stronger. Zelensky's performance was so bad, so outrageous, so infuriating. that Zelensky increased the chances of an outcome that benefits Putin.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And that is bad for Ukraine, bad for America, and bad for the world.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
And look, I say great. If Europe wants to step up and fund the war for another year, knock yourselves out, guys. Like our checkbook is done. But it is striking. It's an indication of just how disastrous Zelensky's meeting was. that he immediately ran to the United Kingdom, to France, to meet with the King of England. All right, here's one story from NPR.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
UK Prime Minister unveils steps towards a Ukraine peace deal, urges U.S. cooperation. Here's what NPR reports. Quote, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday laid out a framework for a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine, one where Europe will lead the charge for securing peace. Yay! while still relying heavily on U.S. backing. Boo.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Quote, we don't think he acted alone, Hageman told the Post. Quote, this took a lot of coordination. In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual, and he was used for this assassination attempt. And I wouldn't preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Hagman said one of the electronic devices geolocated with Crooks at several different places at the time of the shooting... is still pinging today at Bethel Park High School. Look, I don't know if this is true or not. I don't know any background about this private investigator. And I don't know if his allegations are right or not. But it is frustrating.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
that the American people, look, I'm on the Senate Judiciary Committee. I have no information that isn't public about who this would-be assassin was, what his motivation was, what evidence there is of anyone else being involved. And I'll tell you, when I sat down with both Kash Patel and with Pam Bondi when they were preparing for their confirmation,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
I had an extensive conversation with both of them about the need for transparency. That when you've had four years of both the Department of Justice and the FBI politicized and weaponized, the result is that people don't trust the FBI. I mean, this article in the Post repeatedly argues that the FBI is obstructing efforts to get to the bottom of what happened. That... That's infuriating, if true.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And it is very much my hope that we'll see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel make significant information about this assassination attempt public. The American people have a right to know, have a right to know if anyone else was involved with this. And I don't know if the FBI, if they didn't put a priority on it. I don't know if they didn't investigate. I don't...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
I guess it is possible this kid acted alone. But the absolute dearth of information is it frustrating and infuriating?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
I think that's exactly right. You know, the article says that Hagman, this private investigator, said that he was personally escorted to the Butler County line and told to leave twice during the course of his team's investigation. The people who did so were either federal agents or some type of private security.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And she did so in a formal letter that she sent to Kash Patel. So she sent a letter on February 27th. I'm going to read you the entire letter because this letter is a big deal. February 27th, 2025. Dear Director Patel, before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein. In response to this request,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And so, look, and I actually, I can understand an FBI investigation that they would be frustrated with having a private investigator interviewing the same people. So that actually, the fact that the FBI was telling this guy, you know, buzz off, that's not shocking to me. But I don't know what investigation the FBI conducted. I certainly don't know the results of the investigation.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
They haven't made anything public to the American people. And I think the FBI's attitude has has been in recent years. They don't know the public answer. You don't get to know anything if they don't want to tell you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Oh, yeah. The Time magazine cover story that put Elon at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office was obvious in a clumsy attempt to piss Trump off and get Trump mad at Elon. And it was so transparent that I think it did not remotely have the effect they were trying to have.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Well, look, I mean, the view, they are unhinged lunatics and they don't care about truth. But they, you know, the crazy thing is Joy Behar believes what she says. You know, it's amazing. Apparently, Elon Musk is the only immigrant who, that Joy Behar and the crazies on The View dislike. If you're an MS-13 gang member, if you're a murderer or a rapist, they're perfectly fine with you.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
I received approximately 200 pages of documents, which consisted primarily of flight logs, Epstein's list of contacts, and a list of victims' names and phone numbers. I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
They don't have a problem with Joe Biden and the Democrats releasing millions of criminals into America. That they have no problem with. But if someone comes legally to this country, if someone builds multiple incredible companies, creates thousands and thousands of jobs...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
is an incredible innovator and then volunteers his time to serve his nation, that merits being called a foreign agent and an enemy of the United States. You know, at the end of the day, what The View was saying doesn't say much about Elon Musk, but it says a lot about the media and the left and how terrified they are of him. And I'll tell you, Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat congresswoman,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
had very similar comments. Listen to what she said about Elon Musk. Apparently, she enjoyed the horror reading from the same talking points.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Well, look, I spent a good chunk of this morning with Elon over at the White House, and he met with a number of senators talking about what he's doing on Doge. And it was a very interesting meeting, and it's stunning some of the things that they're finding.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
They're finding, for example, they're going into agencies and finding agencies that have more electronic subscriptions than they have employees. Right. And in many instances, thousands and thousands more, like 30,000 licenses for different electronic devices. applications, 30,000 licenses and 15,000 employees. That order of magnitude.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And so they're going in and canceling the ones that aren't used. They also went and checked and they said hundreds and hundreds of them had never been open, had never even been installed. So even of the employees, not everyone is using them. They've never logged in. And so they can go and check. All right. And so anyone who's not using it, they're canceling those. Those are the sorts of things
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
They're finding they're really just astonishing.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
You know, there are things like he talked today about ghost payments, about the Treasury has computers that transfer funds that make federal payments. And he says that there are... ghost payments that are going out that a program officer puts in for a payment to a contractor, to somebody. And then the program officer retires, dies, leaves, is gone, and the payments just keep on going.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And, you know, he said it's stunning. The Treasury computers have a field where you categorize, okay, what is this payment for? and what in the congressional appropriation is it going for? And he said, routinely, that field is left blank. He said, USAID, they always left it blank, he said.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI field office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein. Despite my repeated requests, The FBI never disclosed the existence of these files. When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information. By 8 a.m.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
So there's no way, he said, in many ways, it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to audit the billions of dollars that are going out the door because they don't keep the records. And it was interesting, Elon's comments, he said, if any public company did this, He said they would be massively fined and the executives would be put in jail.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
tomorrow, February 28th, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office. including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients. Regardless of how such information was obtained, there will be no withholdings or limitations to my or your access.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
The Department of Justice will ensure that any public disclosure of these files will be done in a manner to protect the privacy of victims and in accordance with law, as I have done my entire career as a prosecutor. I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days. I appreciate your immediate attention to this important matter. I know that we are both committed to transparency for the American people, and I look forward to continuing to work with you to serve our president and our country. Sincerely, Pamela Bondi, Attorney General.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Well, that's exactly right. And let me start by saying thank you to Pam Bondi for honoring the promises she made. I have been calling on the Department of Justice to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files. And she is working to do that. And so she released the first tranche of information today.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Well, and from the letter, there may be audio and video recordings. There may be some issue that some of the materials were seized illegally. I mean, there's a suggestion there that regardless of how it was accessed, I want it. But look, I got to say, listen, I worked in the Department of Justice 25 years ago.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
I have been been working in and around law enforcement for virtually my entire adult life. I have never seen something like this happen. So so understand the FBI. reports to the Department of Justice. Kash Patel, his boss is Pam Bondi. The FBI is in the org chart reporting to the Department of Justice. So when the attorney general orders the FBI, I want to see these files.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
In every instance I'm aware of, the FBI complies. They're supposed to be law enforcement. If the attorney general says, I want to see something, you give it to the Look, presumably we will find out, and we'll find out, I guess, within two weeks when Kash Patel prepares his report saying, here's what happened.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
But it is astonishing if you have rogue agents in the New York office of the FBI who are just defying the attorney general. That is a level of open warfare, right? That I've never seen, and it really does indicate the need to clean house in a major way.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
That was good, although a lot of the observers who saw the information were underwhelmed by what was in it. She released it to a group of conservative influencers online and gave them a binder with the information. And there were no big smoking guns in what came out initially. We do know that the new Jeffrey Epstein contact list included Alec Baldwin, Michael Jackson, and Mick Jagger.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Yeah. And I think that's very clear from the letter where it says, when you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information. And so Kash Patel has just been confirmed. As you know, I went to Kash Patel's swearing in at the White House last week. He's brand new on the job. He has a mandate to restore integrity to the FBI.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And I guess the whistleblower, whoever the source was, contacted the attorney general directly. And she's the one, the attorney general, who told Kash Patel about this documents. I am sure he is pissed off.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
uh at at what the new york field office apparently did and and i fully expect he will get to the bottom of it and i expect they're going to make the results of that public i think we're all going to know uh exactly who's responsible and why
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
It's likely the latter. There's not an immediate crime that comes to mind. It's just defying your boss. I suppose you could try to characterize it as obstruction of justice. But I think the simplest explanation, the simplest remedy would be termination.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And I expect any FBI agent that deliberately disobeyed a direct order from the attorney general, I expect anyone involved in that to be terminated.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
To be clear, we don't know that. At least the letter doesn't say that. It just says deliver the full and complete files, including audio and video recordings. And look, lawyers tend to be pretty broad. She may not know that there are audio and video recordings. There may be or there may not be, but she hasn't definitively said that there are audio and video recordings.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
So look, I don't know. I can only speculate. It may be that they want to protect people whose misconduct or criminal conduct is suggested or demonstrated in the files. I don't know that, but that certainly could be a reason. We do know that Jeffrey Epstein was very close to a number of Democrats, that he was very, very close to Bill Clinton. Bizarrely enough, Jeffrey Epstein had a painting of,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
in his New York townhouse of Bill Clinton in a dress wearing pumps, which is really bizarre. A blue dress, right? A blue dress, yes.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
So we don't know. It may be, you know, the reference to regardless how the information was accessed, that may mean some information was acquired illegally. That's a possibility. It may be, look, there's speculation that Jeffrey Epstein worked with intelligence operatives, either from the United States or other nations. I don't know that to be the case.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
But that there's a host of things that could be in there. And that's one of the reasons why I think the Department of Justice should have released this a long time ago, because without the information, all people are left to do is speculate.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
But it was for people who want to know who were Jeffrey Epstein's clients, who was who was complicit and who is guilty as he was of sexually abusing teenage girls. There was relatively little information in the files that were released. But then there was a bombshell because Pam Bondi accused the New York FBI office. of withholding significant parts of the Epstein files. That's a big, big deal.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Well, this is a stunning article. I do not know if it is true, but if there is evidence that the attempted assassin, the man who shot Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an accomplice or multiple accomplices, that would be a big damn deal. And, you know, I got to say, it has been a long time. It has been 229 days since since President Trump was shot at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
And yet we know next to nothing about the shooter. It's almost as if it just dropped into a memory hole and disappeared. And I want to read some of this article from the New York Post because it has some very interesting information in it. It's not clear what's true or not, but let me read from the New York Post.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Quote, it's been almost nine months since a seemingly mild-mannered 20-year-old attempted to assassinate then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, and we still have no good reason why. Sources told the Post the FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
It's left local law enforcement as well as Crooks' former friends, classmates, and teachers frustrated. Those who may know, Crooks' parents, Matthew and Mary, have refused all interviews and remain in their small three-bedroom home, sealed off from the world like hermits. Neighbors say they only leave the house at 3 a.m. to buy groceries.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Quote, by the way, why do we know nothing about that guy in Butler? Elon Musk yelled out to the audience at CPAC last week before warning that FBI Director Kash Patel is going to get to the bottom of it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
A veteran private investigator from Erie, Pennsylvania, who was hired shortly after the fateful July 13th event at Butler Farm to look into crooks by a private client, told the Post he believes a, quote, criminal network was operating with him at the time of the assassination attempt, is still in existence and still wants to kill President Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bombshells: AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice
Doug Hagman, whose team of six other investigators had been working the case for months and have interviewed more than 100 people, said they also conducted extensive geofencing analysis of cell phones and tablets not belonging to Crooks that were found with him at his home. at the rifle range where he took target practice, at the rally, and at Bethel Park High School where he graduated in 2022.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Well, that's right. So on Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the Department of Education to be abolished and calling for the money and the authority to be sent back to the states and sent back to the local districts. Now...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
The corrupt corporate media being what it is, whenever you hear the words abolish the Department of Education, what they transmute that into is abolish education. And they try to say that means that Republicans are opposed to education. It's exactly the opposite. And I just pose a simple question. Where do you want the money going?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Do you want the money going to parents and kids and teachers to have excellent education? Or do you want the money going to woke radical bureaucrats in Washington who are putting red tape and strangling our schools and our education? That's the choice because the Department of Education, there ain't nobody at the Federal Department of Education that is teaching your kids.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
There ain't nobody that is in Mrs. Smith's sixth grade class that is teaching reading or writing arithmetic. But what there are is a bunch of bureaucrats that are putting paperwork in place, that are putting burdens in place. And it is, particularly under Joe Biden, the Department of Education was weaponized. It was weaponized to push an extreme woke agenda. It was weaponized to push DEI.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
As best I can tell, they don't stand for much of anything other than their radical agenda of open borders and releasing violent criminals, murderers, and rapists, and child molesters, and boys and girls sports, and radical gender ideology, and anti-Semitism, and undermining Israel. That seems to be the unifying policy behind the Democrats, but the unifying...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
It was weaponized to push boys and girls sports. It was weaponized to push their extreme transgender ideology. And the president is following through.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
So the executive order directs the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and to return education authority to the states while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely. So again, the corrupt corporate media will say, well, this will halt education.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
funding for low-income kids this will halt funding for kids with disabilities when you hear that on cnn know that they're lying to you know that they're deliberately lying to you they know they're lying to you you should know they're lying to you this is designed to keep the funding there but have the decision making at the state and local level and a huge part of that
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
is to facilitate school choice. And we're going to do a deeper dive into school choice in a moment. But I got to say, this executive order is a big, big deal from the president. He announced it surrounded by governors because it's going to be the governors now who are going to be in charge and the states in charge of the education policies in their states.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Look, that's absolutely right. And to understand the level of waste, since the Department of Education was created in 1979, it has spent over $3 trillion. $3 trillion. Now, what has the result been? The result is, despite per pupil spending increasing by over 245% since the 1970s, Math scores have continued to decline.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Reading scores have continued to decline, particularly among low performing students. Eighth grade reading proficiency has fallen to its lowest level in 32 years, with over a third of students failing to demonstrate basic reading skills appropriate for their grade. Only 67% of eighth graders meet basic reading skills. Only 60% of fourth graders meet basic reading skills.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Their motivation right now is this inchoate anger and rage and hate. And they hate, hate, hate Donald J. Trump. And to be honest, they hate, hate, hate the voters who voted for Donald J. Trump. But they've now projected much of that anger and hate on Elon Musk. And so Trump derangement syndrome is a very real thing. And Elon derangement syndrome is a very real thing.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Reading scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress fell two points on average for both eighth and fourth graders, and there's been a steady decline in reading that predates COVID-era disruptions. I'm going to give you a stat that is stunning. In 2023, 13 high schools in Baltimore, Maryland.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
How many students in 13 high schools in Baltimore, Maryland do you think tested proficient in mathematics?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Zero. Wow. 13 high schools had not even a single student, not a single senior, not a single junior, not a single sophomore, not a single freshman. Had zero students in the entire high school test proficient in math. 13 schools. Now, look. If you were a leader in Baltimore, Maryland, you ought to be really unhappy about this. You ought to be demanding change.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
You are graduating students who can't read. You're graduating students who are not proficient in math. And what is happening, the Democrats, they have a basic choice. Do you care about the kids or do you care about money from the teachers unions? Now, as you mentioned, I'm in Austin today.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
I went to the state capitol, and I went on to the floor of the House, and I'll tell you, the floor of the House, they actually read a commendation thanking me for my leadership in school choice. School choice for me has been a passion for 30 years. I've spent 30 years fighting for school choice. I believe school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
I think there is no other domestic policy that matters more, and I believe every child in Texas... And every child in America deserves access to an excellent education regardless of their race, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their wealth or their zip code. And Texas is on the verge.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
of passing the largest school choice program in America and it is historic one out of every 10 school kids in America is in the state of Texas so for Texas to lead is a big big deal and I'll tell you I have been engaging so for the past six years I engage in primaries in the state of Texas against state legislators who oppose school choice. And I'll tell you, there are 100 U.S. senators.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
To the best of my knowledge, 99 of them stay out of primaries in their own state. And there's a reason for that. When you get involved in a primary in your own state, it's bad politics. It's stupid. It hurts you. Why? Because when you do it, the old rule of thumb is you get half their friends and all their enemies.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
So when you jump in the middle, you're making enemies and you're costing yourself votes. I do it anyway. Every cycle, I have my team make an Excel spreadsheet of every vote a state legislator has cast on school choice. And if you're a Republican state rep or state senator, and you voted in favor of school choice, and you're otherwise relatively conservative, you are very likely to get my support.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
But if you haven't, if you voted against choice, the chance of my supporting you is zero. And if you have at all a credible primary challenger, it is very likely I'm going to endorse your primary challenger. And when I do it, I don't do so gently. I come in and I do radio ads. I do TV ads. I do rallies. I campaign.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And over the last six years, there have been a bunch of Republican state reps who voted the wrong way on choice. And we've come in and beaten them. We brought in someone new who's going to stand for the kids of Texas.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And so I was on the floor of the House, and then I went back to the Speaker's office, and I was meeting one-on-one with a whole bunch of state reps and making the case what you're doing right now is a big deal. And I'll tell you, Ben, I announced today I'm spending a quarter million dollars, $250,000.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
running TV ads all across Texas, running them over the top, directly connecting with voters, also sending texts, supporting 14 state reps, freshman state reps, Republicans, and thanking them. for supporting school choice. Now, look, the teachers unions are spending massive amounts of money attacking these Republicans, trying to scare them into voting the wrong way.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And understand, when the left hates something, they engage in violence. We've seen this with the anti-Semitic pro-Hamas protest on campuses where violence has erupted. We've seen this with the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots across the country where we saw protests. Police cars firebombed and stores looted and police officers murdered. And we saw rampant violence.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And so I'm spending from my own political resources to say thank you to them, to support them, to buck them up, to give air support. Texas is going to get this done. And I'll tell you, I have been leading the fight for a long time. I've never been more excited about school choice in Texas than I am right now.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Well, virtually all of them are bogus. And understand this. You know, choice has been an issue that has been debated for a long time. When I first got involved in the school choice movement, it was three decades ago. And at the time, it was a fairly nascent movement. At the time, it was mostly a theoretical idea.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
It had come from free market economists like Milton Friedman, but it hadn't been implemented in many places. And there were lots of arguments that were used 30 years ago, the most significant one of which was, was school choice will destroy the public schools. And you hear the teachers union saying that. You hear the corporate media amplifying that message.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And I got to say that that message is powerful. If that were true, I would oppose school choice. Let me repeat that. I don't want to destroy the public schools. If school choice would destroy the public schools, I would oppose choice. Why? Because the vast majority of our kids are educated in the public schools and they will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And I think education is so foundational, destroying the public schools would be terrible. We now know that argument is absolutely false. It is not right. How do we know that? We know that because there are dozens of jurisdictions all across the country that have implemented school choice. And in every instance, what happens?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
When you implement school choice, when you give kids scholarships and options, several things happen. Number one, the kids that take the scholarships, that go to new schools, that go to private schools or parochial schools, religious schools, we know the educational outcomes go up. Their reading scores go up. Their math scores go up. Their high school graduation scores go up.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Their percentage of going to college goes up. We know for those kids, their educational outcomes are significantly better. But here's the critical piece. We now know school choice benefits the public schools. It is better for the public schools. What happens is when you have competition,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
The educational outcomes for the kids that stay in the public schools, that never exercise the vouchers, that never get the scholarships, that never leave, their educational outcomes get better. And look, anyone who understands free markets should understand that competition is good. And when you have competition... All right, Ben, here's something that a number of folks will remember.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And we are now seeing this with Tesla. And the left is an ideology that if you are on the opposing side. They don't view it as you have a right to speak. They're opposed to free speech. They want to censor you. They want to silence you. If you're on the other side and you vote for your opponent, they don't view you as a participant in democracy who's expressing your views.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Actually, you're young enough, you will not remember this, but cars in the 1970s, American cars in the 1970s, I'm going to tell you because I was born in 1970 as a kid, the quality of American cars in the 1970s sucked. You had giant gas guzzlers that broke down a lot, and it was not very good. And in the late 70s and the early 80s, you started having Japanese cars come in.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And there was a whole freakout about Japanese cars competing with American cars because they were coming in with Honda and Toyota, and their quality was really good. And... American consumers were buying them instead of American cars.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And there was a whole I remember as a kid when I was like eight, nine, 10 years old, there was a whole freak out like the Japanese are going to destroy the American car industry and we're doomed and we can't compete with the Japanese. People were freaked out. And at Chrysler, there was a CEO named Lee Iacocca came in. and said, all right, the answer is let's stop making crappy cars.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Let's make good cars. Like, how do we beat Toyota and Honda and the Japanese companies coming in? Well, let's make better cars so the consumers want... And we saw quality improve dramatically. American cars are much better. And you now look at things like Suburbans and Escalades and all sorts of American cars that people like to buy. But why do they like to buy them? Because the competition...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Made the American car makers make better cars. Tesla. Teslas are really cool cars. They're incredibly fast. They're incredibly well made. But that's because they're in a competitive market. What happens with school choice? We now know this is when the students and parents have a choice, the quality of education improves and it benefits the public schools.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Well, it's a big step. And let me say, shutting down the Federal Department of Education is incredibly important. Now, Congress is going to need to act. We're going to need to pass legislation making it permanent. And I'm eager to do so. Why? Because I think the states are much more effective, much more responsive to students. And they don't put the same bureaucracy and red tape on the schools.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Look, you want to understand. Here's a point I made at the Texas legislature today. We had a press conference and I pointed out, I said, listen, I think the legislature is going to pass the biggest and boldest and most significant school choice program in America. When it comes time to a vote, most, if not every Democrat is going to vote no. Now, I hope that's not the case.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And by the way, you want to talk about, I had a reporter ask, why do you say school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century? Well, If you look at the failing schools, at the schools where you have rampant violence, where you have high dropout rates, where you have incredibly low test scores, they're predominantly in low income areas and they're predominantly minority schools.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
They're predominantly African-American schools and Hispanic schools. You look at the kids who are disproportionately harmed by failing schools and they're disproportionately minority kids. There is a reason that every time a poll is done of African-American parents or Hispanic parents, you see overwhelming support for school choice, 60 percent, 70 percent, sometimes as high as 80 percent.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
They view you as the enemy. And they want to destroy you. They want to bankrupt you. And they want to engage in violence against you. Now, some of you may be saying, OK, that's too extreme. That's going too far. That's not where the left is. Well, I want you to give a listen to Tim Waltz.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Now, most elected Democrats claim they are fighting for minorities. Many of them are representing districts that are heavily minority. And yet. Almost every Democrat, and maybe every Democrat, intends to vote against school choice, against those kids. And here's why. I'm going to quote Al Shanker, who was the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And here's what he said, quote, when school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interest of school children. Wow. You want to know what's going on with Democrats? They're interested in money and manpower. And the teachers union are consistently among, if not their biggest funders and among, if not their biggest source of manpower.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And every Democrat who makes the decision, I'm voting against choice. What they're saying is I want the dollars from the union bosses more than I care about the kids in my district, more than I care about the African-American and Hispanic kids and the low income kids. who are trapped in failing schools, who are not learning to read, who are not learning arithmetic, who are going to drop out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And by the way, if they drop out, we know, just like night follows day, we know the odds of poverty are much, much higher. We know the odds of crime are much, much higher. We know the odds of substance abuse are much, much higher. We know the odds of serious health care issues are much, much higher.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And so every Democrat who says, I want the money from the union bosses more than these kids is willing to to essentially throw these children overboard and say, your future doesn't matter. That's why it's the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and it's why I've spent 30 years fighting for it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Tim Waltz, who just about six minutes ago was the Democrats nominee to be the vice president of the United States. He was Kamala Harris's running mate. And he's the sitting governor of Minnesota. Here's Tim Waltz talking about what he wants to see happen to Tesla. Give a listen.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Well, listen, I retweeted this and described Tim Walz as a small, bitter, evil, angry bastard. Like, he is sitting there. This is an elected government official that is rooting for, number one, bankrupting Tesla. Now, there are thousands and thousands of employees in Tesla. These are Americans who are making cars. By the way, the left, if you want to see how they're utter hypocrites...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
They claim the climate crisis is going to destroy the world. Well, Tesla is the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in America. Five minutes ago, they loved Tesla. They loved Elon Musk. As long as he was making electric vehicles, they loved him. Now they've decided we hate electric vehicles and we want to bankrupt the largest manufacturer of them in America. Why? Because we hate Elon.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And at the end of the day, this is about tribalism. This is about my team versus your team. And listen, on the right... I don't advocate violence. Violence is wrong. And if you engage in violence, whether you agree with me or not, you should go to jail. We don't support violence against our political opponents. The left does. The left views the world through a Marxist mindset.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
My last book was Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America, a Marxist mindset where they advocate the violent revolution of the so-called victims against the so-called oppressors. And so Tim Waltz is cheering on he wants to see Tesla go bankrupt. He wants to see every Tesla employee lose their jobs. By the way, your 401k is probably invested in Tesla. He wants to see your 401k go down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And if every retirement fund in America, if the teacher's retirement fund, if the police retirement fund, if the firefighter retirement fund goes down because the left succeeds in bankrupting Tesla, These angry, vindictive little Marxists will celebrate. And understand, it's not just about economic devastation. It is about actual violence. I want you to listen to this segment from The Daily Show.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
In The Daily Show, they're talking about the domestic terrorism that is playing out against Tesla. And listen to the crowd's reaction. Give a listen.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
it's striking. So at the end there, that's the Daily Show host. That's the comedian. And he's a little bit like, holy crap, like when he says, wow, you guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism. They're cheering for it. They're happy. And by the way, it ain't petty. The last I checked, arson is not petty. Throwing Molotov cocktails is not petty. Firing guns at Tesla dealership is not petty.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
People are going to be killed. Firing a gun at a dealership, you know, there are people who work there. And the left, this is something they celebrate, they revel in. It's reminiscent of this Luigi clown who murdered the senior executive, health care executive. We did a podcast at the time how the left was celebrating murder. They were happy to see him murdered, the anti-capitalist left.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
They hate their opponents and they are willing to cheer the murder of their opponents. And we're seeing here, this is domestic violence. Now, here's some good news. The Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that three Tesla arson defendants are going to face the full force of law. And for using Molotov cocktails to set fire to electric vehicles and charging statements. Pam Bondi said, quote,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
It really is astonishing. And let me say, first of all, for those of you, if any of you did not listen to the interview that we did with Elon Musk, we went to the White House, we spent over an hour one-on-one with Elon Musk. We put it out as a two-part podcast. Part of it was on Monday, part of it was on Wednesday.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
The days of committing crimes without consequences have ended. Let this be a warning. If you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars. And she's charging three people for their alleged involvement in attacks against Tesla properties in Salem, Oregon, Loveland, Colorado, and Charleston, South Carolina. Bravo, Pam Bondi.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Bravo to the Department of Justice. But you know what? There are a whole lot more people that are committing these acts of violence. And I'm here to tell you, I don't believe these are spontaneous. I think we need to follow the money. I think the Department of Justice and the FBI are going to follow the money. And whoever is funding it, I don't know if it's the...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
clearly organized if you're getting Cusack on a phone call for this it is clearly funded and I'll tell you right now if you are putting money behind and in support of domestic terrorism existing federal law makes it a crime using incendiary devices is defined as domestic terrorism you are going to be prosecuted we talked with Elon in the interview
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
about indications that ActBlue was being used to fund this. I have to admit, I actually hope that is the case because ActBlue is the principal fundraising mechanism for the left and for the Democrats. And if ActBlue is being used, ActBlue will be shut down.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And I don't know if the Soros network is involved, but if the Soros network is involved, I believe this Department of Justice is going to follow the money. And anyone who is funding domestic terrorism, they're going to face the consequences of their action. That is important for the rule of law. And it's striking. Look, there are Democrat members of Congress participating.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Jasmine Crockett from Texas participated in one of these Tesla takedown calls. targeting a major U.S. company, wanting to bankrupt a major U.S. company, wanting to have all of its American workers lose their jobs. By the way, they don't care.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
If you didn't listen to it, you can listen to it by downloading the podcast, or you can watch it on YouTube. If you didn't listen to it or watch it, I would encourage you to. It was fascinating. fascinating. It was one of the most important podcasts we've ever done. And so you don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss both parts. It broke news. It drove news nationally.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
If they were to remove America's leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, the next time they prattle on about the climate crisis, know that they're complete and utter hypocrites because they don't care about that. They only care about it if you happen to be on their team, if you happen to be supporting their side. And every one of these people knows they're not just talking about democracy.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
declining to purchase this product they are talking about and celebrating as the crowd at the daily show demonstrating they are cheering on molotov cocktails violent firebombing and firing guns And I'll tell you, somebody is going to be killed. And these leftists, they do not care.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And we know that because these same leftists cheered on the murder of the senior health care executive by Luigi the communist. And they continue to cheer him on. You see, leftists... Tattooing Luigi's face on their body and making T-shirts and he's become a cause celeb because they advocate violence against anyone who dares disagree with them.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Look, it is I tweeted today leftism is a mental disease. And I don't think that is an overstatement. And let me underscore again, nobody that I know of on the right is calling for violence against the other side. I would strongly oppose and I do strongly oppose violence against the other side. I'll denounce them. But violence is wrong. And what they are doing it. And let me ask you something.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
And it really was Elon revealing who he is. And one of the things we talked about was the violence and domestic terrorism directed towards Tesla. Well, in the days since that interview, it's only gotten worse. I got to say, today's Democrat Party is characterized by rage, and hatred.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Have you heard a single Democrat? Have you heard one denounce the domestic terrorism against Tesla dealerships, against the cars, the firebombings? Have you heard even one?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Dems Cheer Domestic Terrorism against Tesla, plus Trump Orders Abolish the Department of Education
Has Kamala Harris said anything about it? Has Joe Biden said anything about it? Has Tim Walz said anything about it? Yes, he celebrated it. How about Nancy Pelosi? How about Akeem Jeffries? How about Chuck Schumer? They're either silent or cheering.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Well, yeah, so the First Lady came this week to Capitol Hill, and this is the first legislative issue she's gotten involved in this term, and she's leaned in hard in support of my Take It Down legislation, and so we did a roundtable that she came and participated in, and we had several of the victims involved, who had been targeted, share their stories. And it was really powerful.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
We're going to break it down and give you the details. We're also going to talk about the Take It Down Act. The Take It Down Act is my legislation protecting women, protecting teenage girls, teenage boys from revenge porn, from deep fakes online. And this week, the first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, she came to the Capitol supporting my legislation. We did a roundtable together.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And her leadership will really have a powerful effect. Here, I want you to listen. These are my opening remarks at the roundtable. Give a listen. Start by thanking the First Lady for joining us today. And thank you for your support of this incredibly important legislation, the Take It Down Act.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
which has already passed the Senate unanimously, and I am hopeful that the House will soon take it up and pass it and put it on the President's desk to be signed into law to protect young women and young boys and all of those who are being victimized across the country.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
I also want to thank our brave victims and victim advocates who are here, Elliston Berry, Francesca Mani, Brandon Guffey, and Breeze Liu. Thank you for being here. Each of you have endured the unspeakable, and your courage standing up and speaking for others is really remarkable. I also want to thank Stefan Turkheimer with RAINN for your advocacy and support on this issue as well.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Thank you for your leadership. And of course, I want to thank Senator Klobuchar, who is the lead Democrat sponsor in the Senate, and Representative Salazar and Representative Dean, who are the lead sponsors in the House, who've worked alongside in this important bipartisan legislation. If you're a victim of revenge porn or AI-generated explicit imagery, your life changes forever.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Most likely, you've been targeted by someone you know. And you're likely struggling to have that material removed from the internet. Disturbingly, many of these victims are teenagers at American high schools who are facing a surge in AI-generated sexual images. Hundreds of teens, often targeted by their own classmates,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
are enduring senseless psychological harm knowing that these fake images exist and they're still out there and in many cases there's no recourse for these teenage victims but this issue extends beyond high school there are thousands of cases where predators have used non-consensual intimate images to extort victims both sexually and financially and the results
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
can be even more traumatic than financial loss, as we'll hear today. In dozens of instances, parents and siblings have suffered unbearable pain, having lost their child or their brother or their sister to suicide because the victim felt there was no way out from sextortion. Outside of high school,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Many adults are also dealing with the very real and dire consequences of having their sexually explicit images shared online without their consent. I have heard from victims of sexual abuse, of rape, of human trafficking, who strongly support the Take It Down Act because they desperately want some of the most traumatic moments of their lives taken off the Internet.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
So we're going to bring you into what Melania had to say about the Take It Down Act and also President Trump at the State of the Union. praise the Senate for passing my Take It Down Act unanimously and called on the House to pass it. We're going to bring you in that roundtable and you're going to hear what the First Lady had to say and what several of the victims had to say.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
The Take It Down Act empowers victims across the entire United States. It makes it a felony for these deviants to publish any nonconsensual intimate images, including fake, lifelike pornographic images of real people. Just as importantly, our bipartisan bill requires big tech to have a notice and take down process
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
so that every victimized American, not just the rich and famous, but everyone, has a right to get these disturbing images taken offline immediately. We are today one step closer to making this dream a reality. Just three weeks ago, the Senate unanimously passed the Take It Down Act.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Now it goes to my House colleagues, and I have every assurance and confidence that the House will take this up, pass it, and put it on the President's desk so that we can protect the victims of these predators. And we're very excited to be joined today by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Mrs. Trump has long been a champion for protecting our nation's children with her Be Best initiative. And I can think of no more important issue for our first lady to lean on than protecting children online. Your success will mean our children's success and healing for thousands of victims.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Yeah, look, it was tremendously important. She reached out. She wanted to do this. She actively participated in the roundtable. And here I want to play a moment of what she had to say at the roundtable. Here's the first lady, Melania Trump.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Well, and look, the answer is the anger and rage we saw at the State of the Union. They're just filled with anger and rage. But I will say, the fact that the First Lady got involved... So last year, we passed the Take It Down Act out of the Senate. We got it passed out of the Senate and it went to the House. And unfortunately, the House did not take it up and pass it. Now, the House...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
tried to and they actually had it attached to the the continuing resolution at the end of the year and then it dropped out at the at the end of the day and so here here's how this this happens when the first lady wanted to come uh she came and we invited multiple victims to tell their stories and it was very powerful uh but we also invited the speaker of the house
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And and the the majority leader in the House. And so both Speaker Johnson and and Leader Scalise came and both Mike and Steve are good friends. But look, one of the challenges of getting any legislation to move in in either body is getting leadership to prioritize it. There are lots of priorities or lots of people pulling in all sorts of different directions.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And so you're always battling to say, OK. This should be high enough up on the priority list to move. And the fact that the first lady leaned in now makes it a certainty. Both the speaker and the majority leader committed the House will take it up and they will pass it. And I think they're going to do so quickly. And Elliston Berry, so Elliston was there, and she's from Texas.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
She is a 15-year-old girl, and what happened to her, she's from Aledo, Texas, up in North Texas. And what happened to her is she woke up one morning, and she was in ninth grade, and she was getting all these texts and calls from her friends. And it turns out a classmate of hers, a boy in her class,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
took a perfectly innocent picture of her from social media and used an app, an AI app, to create a deep fake that turned her picture into naked pictures. Now, it wasn't real, but anyone looking at it would think it was real. It appeared to be real. And then this... Ninth grader emailed it or not emailed, but sent it on Snapchat to all of her classmates.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And so she woke up, you know, just in tears because all of her classmates. I mean, look, remember how hard freshman year is. It's hard to be a teenager. And the nightmare, you're a teenage girl and suddenly all your friends think they're looking at naked pictures of you. And and and there was nothing she could do about it. The boy they found out who did it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And he did not get in significant trouble. And she was frustrated out of her mind. Now, it's kind of a cool story. how the take it down legislation happened, which is she's a Texan, she's a constituent. And so her mother called my office and described what had happened to her daughter and said, look, can y'all help us with this? And my team brought it to my attention.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And I said, look, this is horrible. Let's do something about it. And so Elliston was actually the inspiration for this legislation because I heard what happened to her. And I said, this isn't right. And so we drafted the bill, and we invited Ellison and her mom, Anna, to come up to D.C., and they were at the press conference where we introduced the bill. And, Ben, it was striking.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
We were meeting in my office before the press conference, and I was talking. It was the first time I'd met them in person. And I was talking, and I asked in the middle of the conversation, I said, okay, so what happened to the pictures? And they both looked at me in enormous frustration, and they said, they're still up. It had been nine months since this had happened.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And Elliston's mom said she had called Snapchat repeatedly. She'd emailed them, and she just got the stiff arm. She said they were just stonewalling. They would get no response whatsoever. And so I turned to my staff, and I said, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today. And I said, I want this garbage down today. Within two hours, they pulled him down. Incredible.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Now, look, it's maddening, but it shouldn't take a sitting U.S. senator making a phone call to the CEO to get it down. The victims ought to have the right to get it down. So what we wrote into the Take It Down Act is, number one, we make it a felony.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
to post non-consensual intimate images either real pictures let's say you have uh and real pictures can come from a number of places they can come from number one uh people who are in a romantic relationship and they take a picture they take a video and then they have a breakup and somebody's pissed and decide to post it to the world and that's a grotesque violation of privacy you don't have a right to do do that to somebody else or they can come uh from
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Deep fakes, and we're seeing the numbers. The numbers have increased 3,000%. of deep fakes that are being put out.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
They're real pictures but they're real people but fake either explicit pictures or in some cases explicit videos that appear to be sexual videos and they're generated by AI but nobody watching can tell and this is exploding and one of the reasons you need the legislation is a number of states have passed laws criminalizing revenge porn But the laws often don't cover deep fakes.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
They only cover real pictures. And so deep fakes fall into a hole in the law. And I'll tell you, Ben, there's another instance where this happens, which which is kids are subject to human trafficking and are sexually abused and violated. And you have the predators will put those images out online and and.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
The second component of this bill is a requirement that any tech platform take down these images or these videos once they're notified by the victim. A legal requirement that once you're notified, you've got 48 hours to take it down or else they face serious penalties. And that...
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
The number of victims I've heard who have been so frustrated getting big tech to act, in many ways, that's the most important part of this bill is getting this garbage taken down and creating a legal right for any victim to remove the content.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Oh, look, it's very important. And personal relationships make a difference. I mean, I had dinner with Steve Scalise last week. Steve is a good friend. Mike Johnson is a good friend. Mike and I have had dinner multiple times. We spent a lot of time together. And that's how you move legislation is through personal relationships, through strategizing, through working together.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And so when the first lady said she was coming, I reached out and invited both of them and invited Brett Guthrie, who is the committee chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is the committee that has jurisdiction over this. It's the equivalent of the Senate Commerce Committee that I'm the chairman of. And Brett's a friend as well. He and I have had dinner.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
I mean, a lot of what if you want to actually move things through Congress, the personal relationships really matter. And I got to say, I was really excited because at the State of the Union address,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
elliston berry was sitting right next to melania trump she she was was her guest was right there in the in the box and actually president trump um explicitly called on congress to pass the take it down act i want you to listen this is the president at the state of the union calling on congress to act and elliston berry who became a victim of an illicit deep fake image produced by a peer
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Yeah, they knew. They had full knowledge. And look, don't take my word for it. Listen to Tulsi Gabbard and what she said this week down in Texas at Eagle Pass. Give a listen.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Yeah, and it makes the chances. I think it's a certainty now the House will take it up. As I said, the Speaker and the Majority Leader both committed to doing that and doing so quickly. And the President and First Lady engaging just raises it on the priority list. So that's really good. Elliston was there, another teenage girl, Francesca Mani, who's from New Jersey. She's the same age, 15.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
She had the same month this happened to Elliston in Texas, the identical thing happened to Francesca in New Jersey. They had the exact same experience. And both Elliston and Francesca, I've had testify at a field hearing I did on the Take It Down Act that I held in Dallas, and they both testified there. And these are two young ladies – who were really, really effective.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Francesca was featured in 60 Minutes. She's really powerful. Ellison and I did Good Morning America together, and she told her story there. And I got to tell you, she's so articulate that the Good Morning America hosts were laughing and saying that Ellison was coming for their jobs. And I think that's right. Here, listen to Ellison telling a little bit of her story in her own voice.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
It is really powerful, and I'll tell you, we had multiple victims testify, and sometimes the consequences of this are even worse. And so I want you to give a listen to the testimony of Brandon Guffey at the roundtable describing what happened with his son. Although the vast majority of the targets of this abuse are women and young girls, young boys can be targeted as well.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And the FBI has warned that there's a growing threat of sextortion, deliberately targeting minors online, where evil people use either real or fake explicit images to extort their victims both sexually and financially. And in some instances, the results can be even more devastating and catastrophic. And that
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
was the tragic situation that South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey and his family experienced in 2022. Representative Guffey, would you please share what happened with your son?
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
You know, what a friggin' nightmare. You and I are both dads. I mean, it's terrifying. And, you know... Young people, anyone, but especially teenagers, are targeted and victimized by this, and that's why the bill is really important, and it's a huge problem. So, listen, I'm grateful to the First Lady, and I'm grateful to the President for leading on this, and we're going to get it done.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And I'll tell you, I told Brandon, and I told Elliston, and Francesca, and all of the victim advocates there that – They're going to be in the Oval Office for the bill signing. The president's going to sign the bill and each one of them is going to get a signing pen that they're going to get to take home.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And then that's, you know, that's really who we're fighting for are the victims who are targeted here.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Yeah. And it's worth really focusing on the facts that Tulsi Gabbard, who's now the director of national intelligence, what she said. She said from Central Asia, there were more than 4000 people who came across our borders using an ISIS affiliated network. So ISIS, you know. kind of bad guys, terrorists who've killed lots and lots of Americans.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
They're smuggling over 4,000 people illegally into this country from Central Asia. By the way, Central Asia includes multiple Islamic countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where radical Islamic terrorism is a real threat. And Tulsi said the National Counterterrorism Center went through and identified those over 4,000 individuals And there were hundreds of them. Hundreds is the word she used.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
who were either known terrorists or associated with known terrorists. And then she says, quote, that information was provided to the Biden administration. So the Biden administration knew hundreds of either known terrorists or people associated with known terrorists were smuggled into America illegally by an ISIS affiliated network. And then she goes on to say in 2024,
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
A little over 100 of those terror-linked people were arrested. And then the shocking thing, of the little more than 100, only eight were either deported or remained in custody. Only eight. Quote, the rest of them were released back into our country. So, this is not illegal aliens crossing the border that get apprehended. They let them go, but they don't know they're terrorists.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
These are people they know are either themselves known terrorists or associated with known terrorists. They also know that they were smuggled illegally into this country by an ISIS-affiliated network, and they were arrested again, and yet... Over 90 of them, nearly 100, the Biden administration released into America, into your community, into my community in a single year. This is in 2024.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
That is stunning. And I got to tell you, Ben, I've never heard a single Democrat give any.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Look, Ben, I really don't know. You know, I had my very first boss had a phrase he used to say. He said, never attribute to incompetence, never attribute to malice what can be explained with incompetence. And look, I think there's a lot of wisdom to that, that a lot of times people are just they just do dumb things.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
That being said, listen, do I believe the Biden administration wants terrorists to attack America? No. But then why the hell would you release these people? And I guess the only plausible explanation I can come up with is they're such radicals on open borders.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
They're so committed to their open borders because they want millions and millions of illegal immigrants because they view them as future Democrat voters that they're just deportation was off the table. They're not in that business. They don't do it. I don't know. Listen, this is related to a story we covered in a pod a couple of weeks ago. We're in Massachusetts right now.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
They're taking violent child abusers, child molesters, people who are raping children. who are illegal aliens, and even with violent child rapists, the Massachusetts authorities are releasing them rather than give them over to ICE to be deported. Now, look, reasonable people, you could have an argument about what should be the level of illegal immigration.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
There are all sorts of things you'd have reasonable disagreements on. But, I mean, Ben, explain to me why someone says, you know what we need more of? We need more... Child rapists in our community. Let's let these go. Like I my brain cannot wrap itself around those repeated actions. And yet that's what's happening. This is the same sort of thing.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
You apprehend someone who's a known terrorist who was smuggled into America by ISIS and you say, oh, let's let him go. Like like I I don't know.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Because he is not absolutely friggin nuts? Yes. I think the Democrat Party has gone insane. Releasing murderers and rapists and child molesters into America is a really bad idea. And it turns out it's a really unpopular idea. Releasing terrorists into America is a really bad idea. And it turns out it's a really unpopular idea.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Look, you and I, we did a pod the night of the State of the Union, and we talked a lot about how the Democrats, for the first time ever, didn't applaud for the President of the United States, didn't stand for the President of the United States, didn't applaud at anything. I'll tell you, actually, yesterday in the Senate gym, I had a conversation with a Senate Democrat.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
I'll keep him anonymous, but he was a Senate Democrat, one of my colleagues. And he made a comment. He said something about he thought we were just living in a surreal world. And I said, look, I got to say, I was shocked that you guys didn't applaud or stand for the president at all. And he was like, well, you got to understand, we just think he's destroying the Constitution. And I said, look.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
It really is a shocking story. Tulsi Gabbard revealed in Eagle Pass in Texas that that that the intelligence community had informed the Biden administration that of hundreds of terror linked illegal immigrants, that that roughly 100 of them were arrested in 2024 and that they released all but eight of them after they knew that they were linked to terrorist organizations. It's a shocking story.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
I stood and applauded every year for Barack Obama. I stood and applauded every year for Joe Biden. And I disagreed with almost everything they were doing. But I respect the office and I respect the American people. And he just kind of shrugged and said, we're living in different universes and we're and we're we're we're our bases are fundamentally different.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
Yeah, look, this administration is securing the border. They're doing it right now. And they are going to deport illegal aliens. They are going to send out of the country, especially the violent criminal illegal aliens, the murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, the gangbangers and the countries that don't take it. They're going to make them take it.
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Biden Released 100 Potential Terrorist Illegal Aliens in a Single Year plus POTUS & First Lady Support my Take It Down Act
And that's what a strong president who's actually defending this country.