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00:01:40.480Union. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz week in review. Here are some of the stories that you
00:01:46.440may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, a Chinese tycoon that is having major
00:01:52.560influence in america now being investigated so what does this mean we explain it up next a big
00:02:00.140meeting at the white house in the oval office talking about the future of ai senator cruz was
00:02:06.180with the president talking about that and he gives us the details and finally major legislation to
00:02:12.260help with children in america with reading yes actual standards before the federal government
00:02:18.040sends your tax dollars so is it bipartisan enough to actually pass we break that down as well
00:02:24.140it's the weekend review and it starts right now senator i want to start off this last segment by
00:02:29.900saying i don't ever want our government to be weaponized against our political adversaries
00:02:35.120notice i didn't even use the word enemy democrats use the word enemy to describe republicans i say
00:02:39.340adversaries but i do want to hold those accountable that are actually doing corrupt things and we now
00:02:46.920know a lot more about the investigation and the Chinese Communist Party tycoon, Neville Roy
00:02:52.780Singham, and it should get a lot more attention than it is right now. Certainly the media,
00:02:57.720they're looking the other way. Well, that's exactly right. And, you know, we ended the
00:03:01.720last segment by talking about the need for accountability of the corruption within the
00:03:06.440Biden administration, that those who broke the law need to be held to account. And on this
00:03:12.700podcast we have talked at great length uh about the need to follow the money that that these
00:03:19.000anti-american efforts look if you look at all of the stories in in today's pod they're interwoven
00:03:23.760the dsa there is clearly a funding stream funding the anti-semitic protests on college campuses0.80
00:03:31.740funding the communists tearing this country apart funding the dsa funding the the black lives matter
00:03:37.500antifa riots across the country funding the open border riots in la and elsewhere the money stream
00:03:43.580and and what i've urged the department of justice what i've urged the fbi from the beginning of this
00:03:48.180second trump administration follow the money the people who are paying for this this is not organic
00:03:54.160when people carry out these acts of violence it's not organic when you look at the anti-semitic
00:03:58.860protests the tents all match follow the money and then uh we in a previous podcast a couple of weeks
00:04:06.400ago talked about the bombshell story that we've all seen the rising sentiment against AI that on
00:04:13.680the left and the right suddenly people are saying gosh I don't like AI shut down data centers Kathy
00:04:18.220Hochul just this past couple of weeks said no data centers in New York and the bombshell story that
00:04:24.540much of that is being paid for by a communist named Neville Roy Singham who has deep ties to
00:04:33.360the Chinese Communist Party. And listen, we're in a race, America and China, to see who will
00:04:39.420develop AI first. If China wins, it will put China in a position to dominate the world economically,
00:04:45.500but also whichever country wins, the values of that country will dominate AI. So if China wins,
00:04:54.440AI will be dominated by Communist Party control and surveillance and propaganda and espionage
00:05:02.640And I think all of us want AI to instead reflect American values, to reflect free speech and individual liberty and free enterprise.
00:05:12.480Well, a bit of good news, which is the Trump Department of Justice is doing exactly that.
00:05:18.700It's following the money and it's holding people to account.
00:13:30.520And so the meeting in the Oval, I was with the president.
00:13:34.020I was with Marsha Blackburn, senator from Tennessee.
00:13:37.740And I was with Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, and Kevin Hassett, the head of the National Economic Council and several other members, the White House staff.
00:13:44.480and we were talking about AI, artificial intelligence, and it was a discussion about
00:13:51.520what to do about it. And listen, Marsha has a package of bills that she's pitching, and it's
00:13:57.940a package of bills. It's kids' safety bills. It's requiring app stores to verify ages. It's a bill
00:14:06.320called No Fakes, which deals with preventing people from pirating and copying people's voices
00:14:14.080and images um and so she was pitching to the president you should support my my package of
00:14:22.000bills and and i'm chairman of the senate committee on commerce science transportation which has
00:14:27.000jurisdiction over a ton of stuff including ai and so we're going to have a markup in the next couple
00:14:32.780of weeks on a bunch of ai bills and marcia wants her bill to be one of them and so she laid it out
00:14:38.700and i gotta say a lot of discussion she's pushing the president back my bill back my bill back my
00:14:43.780bill and i stayed quiet for much of the meeting the meeting was like hour hour and a half long
00:14:48.700and then i said at the end i said listen if marcia introduces the bill i'll mark it up i'll put it up
00:14:55.980on on on the committee for a vote and i said i expect i'll support it all to be honest i'd never
00:15:01.940read the bill until she handed it to me so i like she handed me a hundred page bill and i i didn't
00:15:06.600know what was in it but i said look from what she's described in it i anticipate i'll support it
00:15:10.820uh but i also said it was kind of near the end of the meeting but i said
00:15:15.300because they had handed the president a a truth social post supporting the bill and i said look
00:15:23.620someone needs to tell you this bill has very little if any chance of passing
00:15:30.900and and like trump was surprised and i just said look there are different elements of it right now
00:15:37.740there are no Democrats backing this bill. It's not clear that every Republican on the committee
00:15:43.820will back the bill. Maybe they will. They might. And I said, let me be clear. I'll mark it up and
00:15:48.160I expect to vote for it. So I'm not the opposition here, but I just want you to know
00:15:52.640that at this point there's opposition from Democrats in the Senate. There's opposition
00:15:59.140potentially from some Republicans in the Senate. And there's strong opposition on aspects of the
00:16:03.960bill from republican leadership in the house and and so i just said i i don't want you to be
00:16:09.120surprised you lean in and say let's go pass this bill and then it doesn't pass and so trump said
00:16:14.460all right well well then i'm not going to support it i don't want to support something that doesn't
00:16:17.620have a path to passage and and so we're going to mark up a series of bills i've told marsha if she
00:16:23.580wants me to mark up her bill we will i don't know if she will ask for it or not can i ask a politics
00:16:29.100question on this yeah how much of of of her bill is her pushing because she's running for governor
00:16:35.860and really trying to get tennessee's hands on a lot of ai and ai infrastructure and ai in the state
00:16:42.000not blame you for that but like is that part of this hardcore push where you're in the senate
00:16:46.900you're going i understand both sides of this or am i reading the room wrong so listen there are
00:16:51.320different components of it so let's take the different elements of the bill the first bill
00:16:55.680is COSA, and COSA is a kid's safety bill. It's a good bill. I have supported it. I've voted for
00:17:01.320it. In the last Congress, it passed the Senate 93 to 3. So I'm all for COSA. I'm a yes, I want it to
00:17:07.500pass. Here's the problem. After it passed the Senate 93 to 3, it went to the House,
00:17:14.380and the House refused to take it up. Why? Because the Speaker of the House and Steve Scalise,
00:17:21.660the majority leader oppose the bill and the bill puts what's called a duty of care on the tech
00:17:27.900companies that that that if there's content that harms kids they can be sued and and the house
00:17:34.880leadership doesn't support that and so look frankly what i told marsh a year and a half ago is i said
00:17:39.720listen i'll back coast again we can pass it again i'm fine with that but it will never become law
00:17:45.960until you sit down with Johnson and Scalise
00:18:15.960I want COSA to pass, but right now the house is not going to take it up.
00:18:22.580There's a second component, which is called the App Store Accountability app, which is putting liability on an app store for age verification.
00:18:33.420Now, there are a couple of problems with that.
00:18:35.340Number one, there are tech companies like Meta, like Facebook that support it.
00:18:41.520But Apple and Google hate it because they're the app stores.
00:18:44.640And they're like, wait, you're making me liable.
00:19:13.760I support age verification. I'm pushing for it. But every Democrat opposes age verification.0.99
00:19:19.640So I said, listen, it's a simple math. If you lose all the Democrats and if you're losing some Republicans, I don't see how this passes.
00:19:28.000Like, it's just a math like like I'm not opposed to it. I will vote yes.
00:19:33.480But how do you get to the votes to pass it? There is additionally her bill.
00:19:39.640no fakes now no fakes i'm on the judiciary committee judiciary committee has already
00:19:43.540passed no fakes it was a voice vote i was fine with it no fakes has a lot of good elements to
00:19:49.200it so no fakes is protecting say you have a musician and someone uses ai to create a fake
00:19:55.520song for a musician and makes you liable for that in politics by the way this is coming
00:20:01.380it hasn't really happened yet but it's coming soon you're going to see someone create ai and
00:20:07.160take a video of a politician a fake video and and be like we should eat live kittens
00:20:14.840and and it's going to be you're not going to be able to tell that it's fake like like it's going0.83
00:20:19.980to appear to be the real campaign that has to respond to a ridiculous absurd video right and
00:20:25.960by the way amy klobuchar last year had a video of a hearing where she said a bunch of things
00:20:30.920that were derogatory that she would never have said but it looked entirely real and she had to
00:20:37.340respond to that that's going to explode a lot so finding some protections to say look someone can't
00:20:44.380use your name image and likeness and create a counterfeit that nobody knows is fake i'm quite
00:20:51.480supportive of that when the judiciary passed this bill there were several republicans mike lee eric
00:20:59.160schmidt and myself who raised free speech concerns because the the way the language is written it's
00:21:05.080quite broad so for example trump sent out uh the the the meme of hakeem jeffries and and chuck
00:21:12.060schumer wearing sombreros singing yes now that was parody it wasn't real and i've retweeted it and
00:21:20.580amplified it but there is an argument that under the language of no fakes that could be banned
00:21:28.640Now, there is some language saying bonafide satire is okay, but there's a lot of gray area.
00:21:36.000You think of Spencer Pratt and the hysterical ads he put out with Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass just like doing horrible things to people of California.
00:21:47.240i have a concern that under the language and no fakes the tech platforms would take down those
00:21:56.000ads because they'd say you're using gavin newsom's image in a way that he has not approved and so
00:22:03.040my point was look i'd love to see this get done but i also want to protect free speech
00:22:09.340so my point to the president was hey if you want to endorse this great i've got no problem with it
00:22:15.300But you need to know that I don't see a path that this actually gets to pass in the Senate, take 60 votes, given that I don't know of a single Democrat supporting this bill.
00:22:28.620And there may be Republicans opposing this bill.
00:24:50.180God is about to breathe on your life in a new way.
00:24:53.040Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily Podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
00:24:57.240Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
00:25:01.200This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union
00:25:04.340At Navy Federal, they want you to know that if you need a positive sign towards achieving your goal of home ownership, this is it.
00:25:11.780Because even though today's housing market may seem discouraging, the Home Buyer's Choice Loan offers members down payment options as low as 0% with no required private mortgage insurance.
00:25:29.540Loans subject to approval and eligibility requirements.
00:25:31.800Learn more at NavyFederal.org slash zero down.
00:25:35.200Brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.
00:25:37.660I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:25:42.280Senator, I want to move to this education bill that is so important that you have been working on.
00:25:48.700Explain what this bill is, why it's important right now, and why Americans should be paying attention to it.
00:25:55.560Yeah, look, you talked a minute ago about how one of the reasons why we're having young people, particularly young people who stay in the education system for a long time, get so radicalized, so left-wing, so America-hating, so capitalism-hating, so communism-embracing, is because our education system is broken.
00:26:15.940And that's certainly true at the university level, particularly the so-called elite universities.
00:26:23.600and and one consequence of k-12 getting radicalized is is that it drives the politics crazy left
00:26:30.420but another consequence is they failed in their basic job of teaching and and you know you used
00:26:37.020to go and learn the the the three r's reading writing and arithmetic and i mean that used to
00:26:41.360be like the core of what you were learning yeah if you look what a novel idea by the way what a
00:26:46.880novel idea you go to you go to school to learn to read writing to arithmetic like isn't that amazing
00:26:51.420that someone came up with that curriculum one day and then we just decide to abandon it right
00:26:55.600well and there is a literacy crisis the numbers of students coming out of school who can't read
00:27:02.900yeah who don't have the ability to read is staggering i'm gonna give you some of the stats
00:27:06.560so in 2024 the national assessment of educational progress which what's called the nape the the
00:27:14.560reading assessment showed that 33 percent of eighth graders are reading at a level that is
00:27:22.160quote below basic. 33 percent, a third of eighth graders can't read at even the barest minimum of
00:27:30.520levels. For 12th graders, the average reading scores were three points lower than in 2019
00:27:38.080and 10 points lower than in 1992 so it is a staggering crisis and and and one of the big
00:27:48.460reasons for that it is that you've had left-wing radicals take over teachers colleges education
00:27:55.560programs the teachers unions and and they've moved away from what actually works uh they've
00:28:02.740adopted a a an approach to to reading that is called three cueing so three cueing uh is something
00:28:12.200that uses context and pictures and sentence structures rather than phonics look when i
00:28:17.960learned to read we learned phonics we would diagram sentences phonics works and you know
00:28:23.020what we now know three cueing does not it's a disaster um and it's produced terrible results
00:28:31.400So a number of states, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, have all banned teaching 3QE because the data are terrible.
00:28:44.960What is amazing, though, is a number of schools instead have focused on what's called the science of reading, which is going back to phonics, going back to the basics of teaching reading, and the results have been staggering.
00:29:00.560and and and there's something called all right you're an old miss grad you're gonna like this
00:29:04.740there's something called the mississippi miracle i love this already keep keep keep singing this
00:29:12.280song i'm ready in 2013 mississippi's reading numbers were not good mississippi was 49th in
00:29:20.680the nation yeah on the national assessments and reading they began then going in on the science
00:29:27.900of reading and vigorously teaching phonics, and Mississippi has risen from 49 in the country
00:29:33.660to a top 10 state in the country in fourth grade reading achievement. By the way, it wasn't money
00:29:43.060that did it. It was actually teaching what works. Alabama, by the way, did the same thing. They moved
00:29:49.460from 49th to 34th. Louisiana. Louisiana moved from 49th to 32nd. And here's what the New York
00:29:59.000Times said. You're going to like this. The New York Times said in 2019, blue states had better
00:30:04.540average test scores than red states after adjusting for demographics. Now, red states
00:30:10.040are mostly ahead. That's the New York Times. And so what happened on this legislation is I
00:30:16.480I introduced legislation this week that takes the existing federal grants that go to education.
00:30:21.140There's a pretty big funding stream from the federal government to states for education.
00:30:26.140And the reading funds, the legislation I introduced said if you want to get those reading funds, you have to use the reading methods that are demonstrated empirically to work.
00:30:39.600You have to have what actually works and what the data shows work.
00:30:43.940You can't teach this garbage that results in kids not learning.
00:30:48.380You've got to use the empirically successful methods.0.90
00:31:38.400brian's come out several times and played hoops with me i mean he's and i'm going to say something
00:31:43.340that's going to surprise you this bill was his idea really he came to me he came to me on the
00:31:51.320senate floor and he said ted have you seen the data from mississippi and the mississippi miracle
00:31:57.200and the incredible reading scores that are coming out of mississippi and by the way this doesn't
00:32:01.680happen often democrats don't praise red states that often um and i said yeah i have it's fantastic
00:32:08.240And he said, what do you think about us joining together to draft legislation that would require, if you're going to get the federal funds that are going for literacy, you've got to teach using the reading methods that the data show actually produce results.
00:32:23.180And I said, I think that'd be fantastic.