Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 04, 2026


#1 NYT Bestseller, plus Al Sayed Embraces 9⧸11 Truthers & China CAUGHT in Massive Espionage


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

162.3

Word count

6,523

Sentence count

379


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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00:00:24.540 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Ketty on demand?
00:00:28.020 We're not boring.
00:00:28.860 A lot of news is boring.
00:00:30.000 And tedious.
00:00:30.880 And depressing.
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00:00:32.840 You don't want to live your life like that.
00:00:35.120 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.
00:00:36.160 He's Joe Getty.
00:00:36.820 We're Armstrong and Getty.
00:00:37.920 We try to bring you the truth.
00:00:39.080 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.
00:00:41.460 How about something about a comedic tone?
00:00:45.940 We have a winner.
00:00:47.460 Yes.
00:00:48.480 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:00:54.740 Welcome.
00:00:55.420 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:57.240 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:58.600 Senator, I tell you what, it's been a really fun week.
00:01:01.580 It got a lot more fun on Wednesday.
00:01:04.180 Congratulations.
00:01:05.880 It is official.
00:01:07.360 You are now a number one New York Times bestselling author while being a U.S. senator.
00:01:14.860 I got to say, it's pretty impressive.
00:01:16.740 Well done.
00:01:17.960 Well, this was a very, very good week.
00:01:19.580 Last week, my brand new book came out.
00:01:21.840 It's called Going Further, the Incomparable Clarence Thomas.
00:01:24.980 It's a biography of Justice Thomas, who, as you know, has been a friend of mine for 30 years.
00:01:29.860 He was a guest on the Verdict podcast, by the way.
00:01:32.780 If you have not watched that interview, it was an hour and 20-minute interview I did with Justice Thomas.
00:01:39.160 It is the one and only podcast Justice Thomas has ever done.
00:01:42.060 You can watch it on YouTube, and I would highly recommend it.
00:01:45.200 It was a fascinating and wonderful interview.
00:01:49.060 And the book, this week on Wednesday, the new New York Times bestseller list came out,
00:01:53.920 and the book is the number one best-selling book in the entire country,
00:01:57.740 and that's the first time all five books I've written have been New York Times bestsellers,
00:02:02.280 but I've never had a number one, and so that's really gratifying.
00:02:06.120 A whole lot of people, I think, are enjoying the book.
00:02:09.140 I did a rally this week up in Fort Worth, and it was great.
00:02:13.440 A whole bunch of people had bought the book and brought it to the event.
00:02:17.060 I think people are really enjoying the book, and it's a big, big threshold.
00:02:22.200 We're going to talk about that a little more. We're also going to talk about the 25th anniversary of September 11th that is coming up.
00:02:29.640 And at the same time as the 25th anniversary of 9-11, Abdul Al-Sayed, the radical Islamist candidate in Michigan,
00:02:39.200 is participating in a conference with radical clerics, with people who justify and give excuses for the terror attack on the United States on 9-11.
00:02:49.060 We're going to break that down and actually go through the long history Abdul Al-Sayed has of tweets that are just astonishing about September 11th.
00:02:58.460 He's deleted all of his old tweets, but the Internet is forever.
00:03:02.720 And when you try to delete something, it doesn't go away.
00:03:05.000 We're going to bring you back to those and walk through just how extreme and anti-American this particular candidate is.
00:03:13.340 And then we're also going to talk about China.
00:03:14.880 uh chinese espionage chinese spying chinese spying here in the united states not far away but here
00:03:22.400 in america multiple instances of chinese spying chinese ships spying on military bases intercepting
00:03:29.660 communications chinese nationals engaged in espionage here in the united states and even
00:03:35.120 an american citizen pleading guilty to being a chinese spy here in america we're going to break
00:03:39.560 all of that down on today's pod yeah it's really it's going to be a very very special show
00:03:44.740 I want to also take a moment and tell you about the midterm elections, the stakes right
00:03:48.980 now that couldn't be higher.
00:03:50.680 And we finally have a president and administration fighting hard for America first.
00:03:54.960 But if we as conservatives, we lose our focus, well, the same people who created this mess,
00:04:00.260 they're waiting to resume their destructive, progressive, radical agendas.
00:04:05.500 Now, protecting this momentum takes more than votes.
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00:05:37.940 All right, Senator.
00:05:38.400 So let's just go back to the excitement.
00:05:40.840 Where were you and how did you find out that you finally have a number one New York Times bestselling book?
00:05:46.960 I don't know who was more excited, by the way, if it was me or you, because I was stalking it all day on Wednesday and hoping that it was number one.
00:05:56.060 It's every author's dream.
00:05:57.580 You've done, what is it, your fifth book?
00:05:59.180 I did one.
00:06:00.620 Even just being a bestseller is amazing, but being number one is a whole other level.
00:06:04.880 I got to say, Ben, you're hurting my feelings with that word, finally.
00:06:09.200 I mean, there seems to be a whole lot of judgment there.
00:06:12.480 You're casting some serious aspersions on my first four books.
00:06:16.140 I liked the first four.
00:06:17.300 I thought they were good books.
00:06:18.120 They sold well.
00:06:19.540 But I think the highest I'd ever made was number five on the list.
00:06:22.700 So number one was gratifying.
00:06:25.500 And look, this book really was a labor of love.
00:06:30.140 the reason I wrote it is because Justice Thomas, I think, is an American hero. And he's someone
00:06:36.040 whose story is inspiring. And a lot of people don't know it. A lot of Americans don't know
00:06:42.960 his story coming from abject poverty, facing just withering racism, and rising to the very top,
00:06:52.800 the pinnacle of American law. But also his ideological journey, going from being an angry
00:06:59.100 left-wing radical to one of the most conservative thinkers in history. And the book tries to do
00:07:08.020 both of those and at the same time take his more than 30 years of jurisprudence and explain it,
00:07:13.760 explain it in terms that are understandable. You don't have to be a lawyer. You don't have to be a
00:07:18.260 constitutional law expert. It's designed to make you understand why it matters. Right now today,
00:07:24.940 Clarence Thomas is the second longest-serving Supreme Court justice in history. In less than
00:07:30.920 two years, he'll be the longest-serving justice in history, and he has written opinions over the
00:07:36.780 decades that are profoundly consequential on issues ranging from race, that there has been
00:07:42.180 no more important justice in the Supreme Court writing on issues of race and the Constitution's
00:07:47.820 protections against racial discrimination by government than Clarence Thomas, and that the
00:07:53.980 book explains it at great length. He has written, obviously, on abortion and Roe v. Wade. He has
00:07:59.940 written on the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. He has written a great deal
00:08:04.200 on Reconstruction and the fundamental rights of Americans. And he's also written that there's an
00:08:14.820 extensive discussion of his opinion in the Kelo case. So the Kelo case was a case where the court
00:08:21.680 upheld a city taking a woman's private home, not for public use, but instead for a parking lot for
00:08:31.800 Pfizer, the giant pharmaceutical company. And Justice Thomas dissented in Kilo when he wrote
00:08:37.780 in his opinion, the Constitution says you can take private property for, quote, public use.
00:08:42.800 The Supreme Court over the years had basically changed the words public use to public purpose.
00:08:49.040 And Justice Thomas said, look, that's not what the Constitution says.
00:08:51.600 Public use means you can take a house, say, if you're building a road or a highway or a school or a library,
00:08:56.260 something that's a government building that the public is using.
00:08:59.220 But the argument here was not that the public was going to use it,
00:09:01.960 but essentially that there was a broad public purpose in taking this poor woman's house
00:09:07.160 because a parking lot would be more valuable to the community.
00:09:09.540 And Justice Thomas says, look, that's contrary to the words of the Constitution.
00:09:14.920 What's interesting that I write about in the book is even though in that particular case,
00:09:18.720 and Justice Thomas has dissented in many cases, he won by losing because his dissent was persuasive
00:09:24.720 and many, many states, including Texas, have passed laws that now put into law that you cannot take
00:09:31.260 private property for public purpose only for public use. His dissent was more persuasive
00:09:36.400 than the majority. And a prediction I've made, if a case comes challenging Kelo, the court will
00:09:41.020 overturn it now. It will embrace Thomas's dissent as it has in so many other areas.
00:10:11.020 boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry you don't want to live your life like that
00:10:16.200 but you do want to be informed can you be informed without being all of those other things we think
00:10:21.920 so jack armstrong and joe getty the armstrong and getty show we try to bring you the truth
00:10:26.620 and help you figure out this crazy modern world if you shoot at us and we deflect it it doesn't
00:10:32.200 really count and that just doesn't make any sense you gotta make a rule don't shoot at the united
00:10:37.380 states or if you prefer iran blah blah blah america haters are winning the would-be communists
00:10:44.420 the marxists are winning in america and they're doing so openly and nobody cares i think giving
00:10:51.900 the downtrodden money enables them they aren't getting the money i'm winning good lord that was
00:10:57.280 the voice of the patriarchy right there folks listen to armstrong and getty on demand on the
00:11:02.200 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:11:06.420 All right, Senator, let's get into Abdul El-Sayed.
00:11:09.600 He is going to join a panel.
00:11:12.440 And the anniversary, an important anniversary, the 25th anniversary of 9-11 is coming up.
00:11:18.480 He is going to join a panel with 9-11 conspiracy theorists at an Islamic convention.
00:11:25.640 Now, this convention clearly is being done just days before the 9-11 anniversary.
00:11:31.040 Obviously, they chose that on purpose.
00:11:33.440 But I cannot believe that more are not talking about the Democratic Michigan Senate nominee and what he is scheduled to speak at and who's around him.
00:11:44.540 Well, I got to say it.
00:11:46.280 The Democrats running for Senate across the country seem to be competing with each other in terms of who can be more radical, more extreme, more out of the mainstream.
00:11:53.420 On Wednesday's podcast, we cover James Tallarico, the extreme left-wing Democrat running for Senate in Texas, and in particular, we uncovered the Zoom call he did six years ago with left-wing activists from the Sierra Club where he pledged to, quote, dismantle capitalism.
00:12:13.960 These guys are radicals and extreme.
00:12:16.000 Well, Abdul Al-Sayed basically said to Tallarico, hold my beer.
00:12:20.860 I can be more extreme than you can.
00:12:22.740 yeah and and the story you just noted so this coming week is the 25th anniversary of september
00:12:30.200 11th that was the most horrific terror attack in on the homeland in american history and
00:12:36.680 instead of honoring that attack instead of honoring the nearly 3 000 lives that were taken
00:12:44.820 that day uh abdul al-sayad is speaking at an islamic conference that that is essentially
00:12:51.580 defending the attackers. Here, I'm going to read to you a story from the Washington Free Beacon.
00:12:56.440 Democratic Senator, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is scheduled to speak at an Islamic
00:13:00.720 convention this weekend, six days before the 25th anniversary of 9-11, on a panel alongside a,
00:13:08.360 quote, 9-11 truther and a Muslim cleric conspiracy theorist who has called for an examination of the
00:13:16.820 official narrative surrounding the terrorist attacks. El-Sayed is headlining the Islamic
00:13:22.140 Society of North America's annual convention in Detroit on Saturday. There, El-Sayed will speak
00:13:27.940 on a panel to examine a, quote, turmoiled America alongside left-wing pundit Saint Uyghur and Zaid
00:13:37.160 Shakir, an outspoken New Jersey-based cleric. Both men have promoted conspiracy theories surrounding
00:13:44.100 9-11, in which Al-Qaeda operatives killed 2,977 Americans. Quote, I no longer believe the official
00:13:54.100 9-11 story, Uyghur declared in a social media rant in February. Uyghur, who hosts the Young Turks
00:14:01.480 YouTube show, is now pushing debunked claims about Israeli involvement, because of course Israel is
00:14:07.180 the one that committed 9-11. Don't you know that? I mean, look, these guys are radicals and kooks,
00:14:11.060 including the, quote, dancing Israelis myth, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that posits that
00:14:18.160 five Israeli spies filmed and celebrated the terrorist attack. Quote, I didn't know we
00:14:24.020 arrested Israeli spies who were here to document the event, wrote Uyghur, who is the uncle of Hassan
00:14:30.500 Piker, a close Al-Sayed ally who has said that America deserved 9-11. Boy, I didn't know that.
00:14:35.520 Did you know that Uyghur is the uncle of Hassan Piker?
00:14:39.740 You know what? I did know that only because I've had to deal with him so many times.
00:14:44.320 You know, he he had to go on Piers Morgan's show and do a mea culpa after losing it when he was debating me recently over the issue of Israel, oddly enough, because he's absolutely obsessed with Israel and anyone that supports Israel.
00:14:57.820 And this is where the hate comes from within the Democratic Party.
00:15:00.940 You can, by the way, that clip when it went completely viral, Piers brought him back to try to rehabilitate himself.
00:15:06.160 And then he doubled down on it, which was even funnier.
00:15:08.480 Well, Hassan Piker, who's campaigned alongside Abdul Al-Sayed, said America deserved 9-11.
00:15:15.520 He's the nephew of Sankh Uyghur, who now Abdul Al-Sayed is sitting on the panel with.
00:15:21.120 Uyghur was widely mocked, as one outlet described it, for going full 9-11 truther.
00:15:26.740 Similarly, Shakir has called for a, quote, examination of what he describes as glaring
00:15:32.620 weaknesses and inconsistencies in the official 9-11 narrative.
00:15:36.580 He has argued that the U.S. government used the attacks to, quote, launch a war on Islam,
00:15:40.540 and he directed followers to the writing of David Ray Giffen, a leading 9-11 conspiracy theorist,
00:15:45.620 who has argued that the United States orchestrated the attacks.
00:15:49.060 Look, these people are kooks.
00:15:50.100 This guy is standing there going, oh, yeah, the American government is the one that knocked down the World Trade Center.
00:15:54.220 The American government's the one that attacked the Pentagon.
00:15:56.980 But they're not just kooks.
00:15:58.480 It's not just crazy.
00:15:59.760 It's not just thinking you see little green men.
00:16:02.120 it is anti-americans conspiracy theories that always always always blame america and always
00:16:08.860 always always apologize for radical islamic terrorists who are murdering americans it is
00:16:15.020 conspiracy theory with an with a a ideological uh bite to it and look in a september 11th 2012
00:16:28.180 essay for CNN that called Muslims, quote, another victim of 9-11. El-Sayed cited a study conducted
00:16:36.520 in California that found a dramatic increase in premature births for Muslim women after 9-11
00:16:42.320 compared to before the attacks. El-Sayed admitted from his essay the findings of his own study
00:16:48.100 comparing birth outcomes for Muslim women before and after 9-11, which found no difference in
00:16:53.680 premature births. Shakir, in addition to propagating 9-11 conspiracy theories, has blamed
00:17:00.100 Israel for other terrorist attacks and called for Muslims to, quote, use guerrilla warfare
00:17:06.540 to achieve their desired political outcomes. In a 1992 treatise, Shakir argued for Muslims to
00:17:14.420 embrace, quote, extra systemic political action ranging from, quote, non-cooperative tactics to
00:17:22.540 guerrilla war in order to influence government policies or eradicate the system altogether.
00:17:29.620 Shakir asserted that every major Muslim political gain in modern history was brought about through
00:17:34.420 such action and cited the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the, quote, armed struggle
00:17:41.000 that led to the Taliban control of Afghanistan. So understand this. Abdul al-Sayed is sitting
00:17:46.340 next to a guy who thinks it's great that the Ayatollah carried out a revolution in Iran and
00:17:53.220 took Americans hostage for 444 days and waged war against America for 47 years. He thinks it's great
00:17:58.680 that the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and oppressed women and enforced Sharia law on
00:18:03.080 everyone, and by the way, coddled and nurtured Al-Qaeda, which launched 9-11. These are the
00:18:08.900 radicals, and this is who El-Sayed is associating with on the anniversary of 9-11. This is who the
00:18:18.980 man is. When he tells you who he is, believe him. All right, let me pause just for a second and talk
00:18:23.780 about something that is about to happen. 25 years ago is the anniversary of 9-11, and America faced
00:18:30.980 the heartbreak of a terrorist attack at home. Now, just three years ago, on October 7, 2023,
00:18:36.400 Israel endured that same heartbreak in the Holy Land
00:18:40.020 Different decades, different attacks, the same evil
00:18:43.700 Now each year the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews hosts Flags of Fellowship
00:18:48.840 It's a movement that you can get involved with with your church
00:18:52.000 Where thousands of churches display memorial flags to honor the 1,200 lives lost on October the 7th
00:18:59.460 It's a way to stand with Israel in faith, prayer, remembrance, and solidarity
00:19:04.280 Each flag represents a loved one, a family forever changed, and a promise that we will not forget.
00:19:10.560 Today, hatred and violence still threaten our world, yet Scripture calls us to stand firm,
00:19:16.300 comfort the grieving, honor those that were lost, and shine a light in the darkness.
00:19:20.980 Now, together, we remember and honor and declare that evil will not have the final word.
00:19:25.980 So join thousands of churches and get yours involved all across America
00:19:30.980 in this powerful act of remembrance and support for Israel.
00:19:35.040 You can learn how your church can participate in Flags of Fellowship at joinfof.org.
00:19:42.580 That's joinfof.org.
00:19:46.040 Senator, I want to go back to this conference for a second.
00:19:48.520 And who is putting on this conference where El Saeed is going to be hanging out with these conspiracy theorists
00:19:55.480 based on the 25th anniversary of 9-11?
00:19:58.380 Well, it's a group that's called the Islamic Society of North America, and it was founded.
00:20:04.580 Do you know who one of the founders was?
00:20:06.240 Who is it?
00:20:07.340 Abdul El-Sayed's father-in-law.
00:20:10.260 So his father-in-law was one of the founders of this organization.
00:20:13.120 By the way, his father-in-law is also the single largest donor to Abdul El-Sayed's super PAC.
00:20:19.740 So this is a man who's funding his campaign.
00:20:23.260 And what is the Islamic Society of North America?
00:20:26.060 Well, it is a group with extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a terrorist organization.
00:20:31.360 It's been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.
00:20:34.740 It's been designated by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a terrorist organization.
00:20:39.140 And the Islamic Society of North America is closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood so closely that the Islamic Society of North America was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2008 Hamas fundraising case, the Holy Land case.
00:20:56.060 this is, and by the way, that was a case where millions of dollars had been funneled from
00:21:01.900 Americans to fund Hamas and to fund terror attacks. The group, who's an unindicted co-conspirator in
00:21:09.660 that, is who is hosting Abdul al-Sayed. By the way, another speaker at the conference
00:21:14.140 is a Texas-based cleric named Yassir Khadi, who has called the Holocaust a hoax. These are not
00:21:22.640 mainstream these are not normal people these are radicals and i want to note also do you know who
00:21:27.280 used to be on the agenda he's not going to be on the agenda but he was originally who was that
00:21:31.480 a pakistani cleric named tarik masood he was scheduled to appear at the event and he admitted
00:21:41.180 to forcing his 13 year old niece into marriage wow in compliance with what he believed was islamic law
00:21:51.020 and and he's been accused of pedophilic rhetoric and and and marriage with her own family and he
00:21:56.600 argued that muslims should marry their their their 13 year old nieces and nephews and their
00:22:03.840 family and and should essentially rape children so so this pakistani cleric was on the agenda
00:22:10.740 and and actually verdict covered this we covered this in a previous pod and we said abdul al-sad
00:22:15.260 is speaking alongside this person who quite openly bragged about pressuring his 13-year-old
00:22:22.300 niece, forcing her into marriage, and said this was a good thing. And Abdul Al-Sayed's defense
00:22:27.720 at the time was, well, yeah, we're both speaking at the same conference, but we're on different
00:22:31.340 panels. I'm not speaking on the same panel with him. He's on a different panel. The public outcry
00:22:36.260 was so great that they canceled the cleric Tariq Massoud, but you know what? Abdul Al-Sayed is
00:22:41.420 still speaking there with every other conspiracy theorist and being an anti-american holocaust
00:22:48.060 denying 9-11 truther hamas and al-qaeda defending zealot and islamist well that that that is
00:22:55.560 apparently a very popular thing in the democrat party right now yeah it really really is and this
00:23:01.380 again goes back to the civil war that we're witnessing right now in the democratic party
00:23:05.760 It's really funny, by the way, and I want to get your reaction to this.
00:23:09.660 You had some Democrats come out and say that Hassan Piker and Al-Sahid basically need to get out of the Democratic Party,
00:23:16.660 that they're not stop using the word Democrat with Socialists of America.
00:23:20.700 James Carville came out and said that.
00:23:22.680 I kind of laughed at his meltdown because it's only because they're afraid they're going to lose that they're now saying this.
00:23:29.120 They did not keep any of these crazies in check.
00:23:32.280 And now he's like, get out of my party.
00:23:33.920 you don't you know get quit using the name democratic just be a socialist if you're going
00:23:38.880 to be a socialist and my response would be well then why did you allow them to run in the democratic
00:23:44.020 primaries if you're now claiming that they are not democrats look they're taking over the democrat
00:23:50.080 party and and and it is uh it's clear that not every democrat in the senator house is is a
00:23:58.300 marxist or an islamist but every one of them is terrified of the marxist and islamist and
00:24:03.740 And it's they're holding the party hostage.
00:24:06.020 They're winning primaries all over the country from New York City to Michigan to Colorado to Florida to Oklahoma.
00:24:13.800 And all the Democrats are terrified.
00:24:16.300 And by the way, these radicals pretend they're not as radical as they are.
00:24:23.060 So, for example, I want to listen to you – I want you to listen to Abdul Al-Sayed on CBS talking about 9-11 and pretending that he's much more reasonable on it.
00:24:34.960 Give a listen.
00:24:36.180 We noticed that there were some resurfaced posts on 9-11, and I was wondering if it's making it challenging to reach more Republican or more moderate voters in this race.
00:24:46.760 Well, I mean, I think all of us look back and say 9-11 was an awful thing that happened in this country.
00:24:51.620 And I think all of us also look back and say, think about all the wars that were fought
00:24:55.460 and how much safer do we feel like they made us?
00:24:58.920 How many lives did they ruin?
00:25:00.940 And my point is just to say that what happened on 9-11 is a disaster.
00:25:06.080 It was a terrible attack on our country.
00:25:08.920 And our responsibility is also to think about how do we build an America
00:25:12.860 where we are protecting our servicemen and women
00:25:17.660 from being asked to fight in wars we have no business fighting
00:25:21.100 that ultimately end up doing harm to people.
00:25:25.220 And we're seeing that right now.
00:25:27.000 If you look at the consequences of this war,
00:25:30.020 that we have no business fighting,
00:25:31.880 the billions of dollars that are being spent to raise our gas prices,
00:25:35.940 we're in a quagmire we don't know how to get out of.
00:25:38.600 And you'd think that after the disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq
00:25:43.640 that we would have learned a lesson, but apparently not.
00:25:46.680 And so I just think it's really important for us to be learning the lessons of our history.
00:25:52.020 And I'm talking to Michiganders every single day.
00:25:54.540 You wonder when the era of all these wars is going to end.
00:25:57.060 Because that's what Donald Trump said he was going to do.
00:25:58.480 He said, America first.
00:25:59.680 I'm America first.
00:26:01.260 Right?
00:26:01.540 There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about the destruction that 9-11 wrought.
00:26:08.280 And also think about how do we build an America where we're not constantly fighting wars we have no business to fight.
00:26:15.720 Right?
00:26:16.020 both of those things can be true. All right, so Senator, you hear that, and it is, again,
00:26:21.800 he's clearly saying, all right, I got to pivot from what I've been saying and what I really
00:26:25.960 believe, and I'm going to totally change it. And you're like, all right, buddy, sure, I believe
00:26:30.220 you. So what's interesting, if you actually listen to the words he said, he's not even entirely
00:26:34.400 pivoting. So like what he says there at the end is, quote, there's not a day that goes by that I
00:26:39.880 don't think about the destruction that 9-11 wrought. What's interesting, when he's talking
00:26:44.880 about destruction that 9-11 wrought, he doesn't mean the 3,000 Americans murdered. He means the
00:26:50.840 destruction that America destroyed al-Qaeda, that America destroyed the Taliban. He is mourning
00:26:56.000 that it costs the terrorists their lives. And by the way, if you think, well, no, no,
00:27:03.300 that surely that can't be the case. As I mentioned, he had made a ton of tweets about 9-11. And when
00:27:14.020 he launched a Senate campaign. What did he do? He deleted all of them. So there were 11 tweets
00:27:19.540 from 2020 to 2022 in which he trivialized 9-11. And you listen to some of them. So here's one he
00:27:28.080 said. The fact that the U.S. government continues to pit the Afghan people against 9-11 families
00:27:33.200 is appalling. All are victims. All deserve the full share of support they are owed. Here's another
00:27:40.420 one. The hypocrisy of the U.S. war on terror, withholding humanitarian aid from the Afghan
00:27:46.000 people who had nothing to do with 9-11 but endured 20 years of war for it and are now facing famine
00:27:51.560 while exporting weapons to Saudi government allies that exported the ideology that created
00:27:56.720 bin Laden. Here's another one. Defending America never should have meant responding to tribalistic
00:28:02.040 grievance with tribalistic grievance as so much of the post-9-11 era has been. Rather, it should
00:28:08.620 have meant embracing the ideals that transcend it. Here's another very revealing one that he sent
00:28:15.280 on September 11, 2021. Quote, today I mourn the 3,000 lives, 6,000 injuries, and infrastructural
00:28:25.320 devastation in New York perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my faith. Tomorrow I'll mourn the
00:28:33.140 one million lives, millions of injuries, and infrastructural devastation in three countries
00:28:39.220 perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country. So understand, when he's saying he weeps the
00:28:45.140 devastation of 9-11, he doesn't mean the Americans killed. He means he's mourning
00:28:50.920 that we killed so many al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban terrorists. That's who he's mourning.
00:28:58.400 And here's another tweet that he deleted.
00:29:01.920 COVID-19 has taken over 3,000 American lives, more than 9-11.
00:29:05.720 I hope that means we'll spend the next 10 years fighting a war for public health
00:29:09.120 and against climate change and poverty, like we launched a global war on terror after 9-11.
00:29:13.440 We could save lives rather than take them.
00:29:17.580 This is over and over and over again.
00:29:23.180 He has sent tweet after tweet after tweet.
00:29:26.340 and and the amazing thing is he deleted them all he thought no one would notice and and this is
00:29:33.580 someone this is someone who wants to represent the state of michigan in the united states senate and
00:29:40.380 and and he won the primary and and among radicals by the way bernie sanders is supporting him elizabeth
00:29:45.320 warren is supporting him aoc is supporting him chuck schumer is supporting the guy the senator
00:29:51.320 from New York is supporting the guy who is mourning the terrorist who carried out the 9-11 attacks.
00:29:57.580 It is astonishing. Let me just take a moment and tell you about an amazing opportunity for not
00:30:04.140 only you, but your family or your grandkids to learn about helping others. If you're going to
00:30:09.280 change someone's life, you want to know it actually lasts. And that's one reason Compassion
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00:30:34.280 That's because sponsorship isn't just temporary relief.
00:30:38.520 It's long-term investment through the local church, meeting the fiscal needs while sharing
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00:30:48.600 For just $43, you can help shape a child's future.
00:30:53.160 So sponsor a child today at Compassion.com.
00:30:57.300 That's Compassion.com.
00:31:00.640 Senator, I want to get into a bigger story, and it continues to get bigger and bigger,
00:31:04.920 and that is the issue of Chinese spying and espionage and the influence in America.
00:31:09.400 We've got a news story this week.
00:31:11.240 we have found out that Chinese container ships have been used.
00:31:15.820 It's a company called Costco.
00:31:18.240 They're owned by the Chinese government.
00:31:20.760 And they apparently have insanely sophisticated listening devices,
00:31:26.280 spying devices, on board of these cargo ships
00:31:29.040 that have been collecting intel for the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing
00:31:33.100 and concealing this equipment like,
00:31:35.680 hey, we're just here offloading equipment in America's ports.
00:31:38.920 that have been doing this apparently for years in the U.S.
00:31:43.940 Well, there are three related stories that have broken in recent days,
00:31:47.940 and they all concern Chinese spying and espionage here in the United States.
00:31:52.520 The first one you just referenced is a Chinese state-owned shipping giant, Costco,
00:31:59.320 and this is how Reuters has reported it,
00:32:01.620 that Costco uses concealed equipment on board its ships
00:32:05.220 to spy on military communications near the coastline of target nations, including the
00:32:10.800 United States, two senior Trump administration officials said. The officials who spoke on
00:32:15.340 conditions of anonymity to discuss U.S. assessment of the Chinese program said Costco has a decades
00:32:22.080 long, decades long, intelligence collection partnership with Beijing. The arrangement
00:32:27.980 allows China to collect communication signals from vessels and aircraft operating across Europe,
00:32:32.900 North America, and Asia. The advanced equipment aboard the ships is intended to enable China to
00:32:38.240 gather information about, quote, military communications, technologies, and encryption
00:32:42.840 developments, one of the officials said. The effort also allows Beijing to monitor key shipping lanes
00:32:48.960 and maritime routes crucial for trade and military navigation, the official added. Costco did not
00:32:54.860 respond to a request for comment, while the Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the U.S.
00:33:00.180 claims. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping planned to meet in Washington for a
00:33:05.620 summit later this month, where they're expected to discuss a range of issues of sensitive security
00:33:10.580 and trade issues. The officials did not detail the type of equipment Costco ships were allegedly
00:33:15.520 using, but said they were, quote, sophisticated signals intelligence collection platforms,
00:33:22.020 not routine communications hardware. They said Beijing uses the information gleaned
00:33:27.820 to bolster its position in territorial disputes and provide maritime reconnaissance and early
00:33:33.300 warning indications of foreign military targets. The Pentagon put Costco on its list of companies
00:33:41.200 linked to China's military in January 2025, and nonetheless, Costco remains one of the top
00:33:48.480 global shipping companies calling at U.S. ports and has several terminal service joint ventures
00:33:54.620 for container ships at u.s ports so these are container ships that they don't look like they're
00:34:00.040 not military vessels they don't say chinese navy they're a container ship filled with spy equipment
00:34:05.620 and and conducting espionage on u.s soil this is another example of the of the bigger threats and
00:34:13.360 we've been talking about this a lot from china it also when you go back in time and you see
00:34:18.240 how long they were they were doing this a lot of this happened under the biden administration
00:34:22.960 and i asked the question who was asleep at the wheel and how were they not doing more at least
00:34:28.060 now we're starting to find and arrest different people that are involved in espionage but it
00:34:32.320 seems like they could get away with whatever they wanted to while the biden administration was in
00:34:35.740 charge look when when biden was in charge the the there was no one no one minding to tell
00:34:42.200 another case that just broke is two men two chinese nationals were arrested you wants chen
00:34:48.640 and Li Ren Rian Lei that were arrested. They were arrested last year, but the news just became
00:34:54.280 public. They were charged with acting as agents of the Chinese government without notifying the
00:35:00.820 U.S. Attorney General. They were working on behalf of China's Foreign Intelligence Service.
00:35:06.380 And according to the Justice Department, their activities included gathering intelligence
00:35:11.320 about U.S. Navy bases and American service members and assisting efforts to recruit people
00:35:17.620 inside the United States military who could potentially become intelligence assets for
00:35:24.160 Beijing. Prosecutors say Chen was directed to visit a U.S. naval installation in Washington
00:35:31.760 State in a Navy recruiting center in San Gabriel, California. At that recruiting center, Chen
00:35:37.500 allegedly obtained personal information about Navy recruits and apparently transmitted that
00:35:43.520 information to a Chinese intelligence officer. According to the criminal complaint, Chinese
00:35:49.120 intelligence allegedly instructed Chen on how to engage and recruit future sailors and how to
00:35:57.100 reduce his chances of getting caught. Federal prosecutors allege Chen and Lai helped facilitate
00:36:03.820 a $10,000 cash dead drop in Livermore, California. This particular payment was compensation for
00:36:12.480 national security information that had previously been provided to Chinese intelligence.
00:36:17.420 He didn't merely communicate remotely with his handlers. He traveled to Guangzhou, China,
00:36:21.780 and met with MSS intelligence officers in April 24, and again in March 25, to discuss compensation
00:36:28.480 and intelligence assignments. Lai, likewise, entered the United States in April 25 on a
00:36:35.060 tourist visa, claiming that his trip was related to his online retail business. But according to
00:36:39.720 prosecutors. Weeks later, he traveled from Houston, our hometown, all the way to Southern California
00:36:45.020 before returning to Texas, and he was arrested in Houston. That's going on, and then there's
00:36:51.460 one more story, because I said there's three, and I got to say the third story hits really close to
00:36:56.780 home. It's an American citizen, Thomas Weir Palkin II, who was sentenced on September 1st to two
00:37:05.440 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government inside
00:37:12.740 the United States. According to the Justice Department, Pauken worked from 2019 until
00:37:17.840 2026 at the direction of people he knew worked for the Chinese government. One of his handlers
00:37:24.880 was a woman identified as Kathy. Prosecutors said Kathy gave Pauken assignments. He was directed to
00:37:30.140 meet potential intelligence assets in America. He provided those potential assets with devices,
00:37:36.360 including laptops and cell phones, so he could communicate with his Chinese handlers.
00:37:41.040 And he passed along assignments telling those individuals one information China wanted.
00:37:46.580 For doing this, prosecutors say Palkin received at least $100,000, while China also paid for
00:37:53.340 several of his trips between China and the United States. Now, I got to say, look, when I read this
00:37:59.860 story i'm like tom pawkin tom pawkin the second he's a texan and there's a reason i paused because
00:38:06.180 his father tom pawkin senior was the chairman of the texas republican party tom pawkin ran for
00:38:15.760 governor in texas you were not living in texas then so so i don't know this name leapt off the
00:38:19.860 page at you ben yeah i didn't but tom pawkin ran for tom pawkin ran for governor of texas in 2014
00:38:27.440 He was the chairman of the Republican Party.
00:38:29.280 He was the chairman of the Workforce Commission.
00:38:32.300 He was the chairman of the Republican Party from 1994 to 1997.
00:38:35.940 So his son just pleaded guilty and was just sentenced to prison for being an agent for the Chinese government, paid more than 100 grand.
00:38:45.500 That is astonishing, and it's deeply disturbing.
00:38:48.540 Yeah, it really is.
00:38:49.400 And this is, again, just how much they're working overtime to get into the United States of America and their tentacles into us.
00:38:57.180 they are china is engaged in a thousand year war against the united states their objective is
00:39:03.560 global dominance their objective is military dominance economic dominance and i've spent my
00:39:08.320 entire tenure in the senate arguing that we need a comprehensive strategy much like we had against
00:39:14.840 the soviet union to win the cold war because they're fighting to win and and far too many
00:39:19.600 americans particularly american politicians are not even aware this battle's going on
00:39:24.240 Yeah, it's a great point.
00:39:25.640 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as a podcast.
00:39:28.560 If you're listening on the radio, we love that you found us.
00:39:31.580 And stay with us all week long.
00:39:33.460 You can download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcasts.
00:39:36.940 And we'll see you there on the podcast all week long.
00:39:38.740 You've been listening to Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:39:40.620 Have a great week.
00:39:41.740 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand?
00:39:45.220 We're not boring.
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00:39:50.040 You don't want to live your life like that.
00:39:52.300 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.
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