Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 16, 2024


ABC APOLOGIZES & Pays Trump $15MIL plus Dems Celebrate CEO Murder & Hypocrisy on the Border Cost them the Election


Episode Stats


Length

36 minutes

Words per minute

169.1264

Word count

6,150

Sentence count

398

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

George Stephanopoulos has been forced to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump for comments he made about him on ABC News with George Stephanopoulos. Ted Cruz and Ben Fergus discuss this and more.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.500 Welcome.
00:00:06.320 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.740 And Senator, I can't believe that I'm actually getting to say this because it's just so funny.
00:00:14.420 But it's real.
00:00:16.400 The President of the United States-elect, Donald Trump, is going to get, A, an apology from ABC News and George Stephanopoulos.
00:00:25.380 On top of the fact they're now forced to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. 0.98
00:00:33.840 The fat lady's singing, the pigs are flying, hell's freezing over. 0.99
00:00:38.000 It is truly astonishing. 0.98
00:00:39.720 ABC News apologizing to Donald Trump and ABC News writing a $15 million check to Trump's presidential library.
00:00:48.680 All to settle a defamation case because George Stephanopoulos went on national TV and defamed Donald Trump.
00:00:54.920 And they're writing a check because of it.
00:00:57.060 And if you never thought it would happen, well, we are in a brave and extraordinary new world.
00:01:01.980 We're going to break it down and what it means.
00:01:04.060 We're also going to go back to the amazing and really sad spectacle of leftists celebrating the cold-blooded murder of a health care CEO.
00:01:15.040 Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, AOC all gleefully celebrating it and sadly encouraging more.
00:01:22.000 We're going to break that down as well.
00:01:23.140 And finally, we're going to talk about what may have been the single most decisive factor in the 2024 election.
00:01:31.200 The left's utter hypocrisy on the border and the serious suffering that open borders cause.
00:01:38.820 We're going to break down that hypocrisy and what may have turned the entire election.
00:01:42.800 All of that on today's verdict.
00:01:44.960 Yeah, it's really going to be a good one.
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00:03:31.820 So let's talk about how all this started from the very beginning for people that may not have been following this
00:03:45.080 because this was something that was said by George Stepanopoulos on ABC News,
00:03:49.860 and they realized, I think, pretty quick,
00:03:52.020 okay, we screwed up here because Trump won,
00:03:55.700 so now we've got to deal with the consequences of this.
00:03:58.160 I'm not sure they would have done it the same way if we would have lost,
00:04:00.520 but obviously ABC News now saying, yeah, all right, 0.99
00:04:03.600 we're going to admit that we did something that was really stupid. 0.93
00:04:06.920 Well, this stems back to March of 2024, 0.97
00:04:10.060 and in particular March 10th on ABC News with George Stepanopoulos.
00:04:14.600 And as part of this settlement,
00:04:16.740 ABC News committed to write a $15 million check,
00:04:21.780 a charitable contribution to Trump's presidential library,
00:04:25.100 and also to pay a million dollars in Trump's lawyer's fees.
00:04:28.460 So all told, $16 million is what ABC is out of pocket.
00:04:32.940 And they also had to apologize.
00:04:34.640 They had to issue a statement of, quote, regret.
00:04:37.560 And so they appended to the story from the March 10th online article the following statement,
00:04:44.400 quote, ABC News and George Stepanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump
00:04:49.980 made during an interview by George Stepanopoulos with Representative Nancy Mace
00:04:54.400 on ABC's This Week on March 10th, 2024.
00:04:58.400 And so what were the statements that caused this?
00:05:02.060 Well, George Stepanopoulos repeatedly said Trump was, quote,
00:05:05.980 quote, liable for rape and was found liable for rape in the civil case in New York.
00:05:11.740 And Nancy Mace was on with Stephanopoulos,
00:05:15.200 and Stephanopoulos played a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape.
00:05:20.220 And then Stephanopoulos asked her, quote,
00:05:23.240 how do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?
00:05:28.420 Quote, you've endorsed Donald Trump for president.
00:05:31.340 But judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim
00:05:37.900 of that rape.
00:05:39.100 And he was referencing the lawsuit by by Gene Carroll.
00:05:44.380 Stephanopoulos repeated that claim 10 times, 10 times.
00:05:49.140 He repeated that the jury has determined that Trump was liable for rape.
00:05:54.820 What the jury, in fact, determined is that they found that that that he was not liable for rape,
00:06:00.120 but rather a separate crime under New York law called sexual abuse.
00:06:04.980 And Trump sued ABC News and Trump sued Stephanopoulos for Stephanopoulos repeatedly saying a jury
00:06:11.780 had found he was liable for rape when they explicitly found he was not liable for rape.
00:06:17.820 And at the end of the day, this settlement is is all about that that it is.
00:06:23.600 It is been black letter law for a long time that when you falsely accuse someone of a felony that that that is defamation.
00:06:33.460 And ABC News just repeatedly said he was liable for rape, liable for rape.
00:06:37.960 That's what the jury found. That's what the jury found.
00:06:39.720 And there was one minor problem.
00:06:41.420 It wasn't true.
00:06:42.920 And so, you know, you mentioned they settled this because Trump won.
00:06:46.540 And it's true that Trump won and it's true they settled this.
00:06:49.940 But I guarantee you their lawyers were telling them, listen, when you say over and over again,
00:06:54.860 a jury has found someone guilty of a felony and the jury found the opposite, that's defamation.
00:07:01.520 And you're going to end up writing a much bigger check if you don't settle this this lawsuit.
00:07:07.280 And it happened right after the magistrate judge ordered both Trump and Stephanopoulos on Friday to sit for depositions next week and answer questions under oath.
00:07:20.280 And I think ABC realized they were going to have to sit George Stephanopoulos down.
00:07:25.320 And Trump's lawyers were going to get to ask him, OK, did the jury find him liable for rape?
00:07:30.660 Yes or no.
00:07:31.320 And Stephanopoulos would be forced to say no.
00:07:33.960 Did you say that the jury found him liable for rape?
00:07:36.640 And Stephanopoulos would have to be forced to say yes.
00:07:40.500 Did you say 10 separate times on national TV the jury found him liable for rape?
00:07:45.720 And Stephanopoulos would grumble a lot of times and be forced to say yes.
00:07:50.660 And here's the interesting question.
00:07:52.760 They were going to ask him, did you know at the time that you said 10 separate times the jury found him liable for rape,
00:07:59.040 that the jury explicitly had found him not liable for rape?
00:08:04.060 And I don't know how Stephanopoulos would answer that.
00:08:06.660 My guess is he'd be forced to say yes, but he was either deliberately lying or he was utterly indifferent to what the truth or falsity of what he was saying is.
00:08:17.100 Either way, it is a real problem.
00:08:19.720 And I think they looked at that and they probably had started prepping him for that deposition and realized there is no good answer for him to give because, look, they just hate Trump.
00:08:30.260 And so they were happy to say it.
00:08:31.380 It sounds much more sensationalistic to say that.
00:08:34.760 And truth be damned, I think that's why they ended up writing the check.
00:08:37.740 So can we just talk about the humor of this for a second?
00:08:41.240 The fact that ABC News is going to have to write a check for $15 million to the Trump presidential library?
00:08:47.800 Like, do you name part of the library the ABC Settlement Center?
00:08:52.280 I mean, this is amazing.
00:08:53.560 It is truly astonishing.
00:08:56.460 And by the way, there's some, you know, lefty voices on Twitter saying, oh, free speech is dead.
00:09:02.860 Look, you need to understand defamation has always been part of free speech.
00:09:07.280 You have a right to speak freely, but you don't have a right to defame someone.
00:09:10.500 You don't have a right to say something that is deliberately false and deliberately defamatory.
00:09:15.240 And it has always been the case that you can be held liable for slander or libel.
00:09:21.600 Slander is saying it orally.
00:09:24.560 Libel is saying it in writing.
00:09:25.940 They're both species of defamation.
00:09:29.120 If you deliberately say something false that is harmful to the character of another,
00:09:34.120 and particularly when you're a news organization,
00:09:36.620 there's an expectation that you have some modicum of integrity, some standards.
00:09:40.940 And I think in this case, ABC realized they couldn't defend what they'd done.
00:09:46.260 So let's talk about this administration coming in, you know, January 20th.
00:09:50.780 And look, we know that there was a lot of reporting that was on the Trump administration back in 16 that was a lie.
00:09:57.340 Russia collusion was a great example of that.
00:10:00.040 And then we know that the media lied to us about, for example, Hunter Biden's laptop.
00:10:04.380 That was a lie.
00:10:05.500 And there was a lot of things said that were not true about people in and around Trump.
00:10:09.660 Now, is this a reminder now that we've learned to fight it maybe a little bit differently,
00:10:17.860 that we understand the court system can be used to hold the media accountable when they lie about people in the Trump administration?
00:10:26.120 Is this something that actually could change the game a little bit?
00:10:30.000 Perhaps.
00:10:30.560 Look, this is a situation where it was clear and objective that what ABC said was wrong, that it was false,
00:10:40.880 that ABC repeatedly said a jury had found him liable for rape, and that was explicitly the opposite of what they'd done.
00:10:47.020 I will say most of the examples you've given where the media is saying horrible things about Trump over and over and over again,
00:10:52.980 it's much harder to prove defamation.
00:10:55.300 It's harder to prove that it's objectively false.
00:10:58.260 Like on Russia, Russia, Russia, they will say, well, look, we were just reporting what the allegations were.
00:11:02.780 We were reporting what Bob Mueller said.
00:11:05.120 We were reporting what so-and-so said.
00:11:07.240 You know, they can hide behind he said, she said.
00:11:11.180 In this instance, what gave them particular exposure is there was a jury verdict, and ABC simply reported it wrong and did so somebody knew.
00:11:23.380 Whether Stephanopoulos knew or not, somebody knew.
00:11:26.400 And I will say it is harder to win a defamation case if you're Donald Trump or if you're any public figure,
00:11:34.680 because the Supreme Court, the standard for defamation, they made it much harder for a public figure to win a defamation case.
00:11:43.020 And there's a landmark decision from the Supreme Court called New York Times v. Sullivan.
00:11:47.560 It was 1964, and what the court concluded is that you have to demonstrate, quote,
00:11:53.880 actual malice before you can find defamation if it's against a public figure.
00:12:00.840 And here's the quote from the Supreme Court.
00:12:03.540 Quote,
00:12:04.680 Now, that's a very high standard to prove, and so as a general matter, if someone's a public figure,
00:12:33.700 by the way, if someone is not a public figure, if someone's an ordinary citizen, defamation is much easier to prove.
00:12:40.100 You don't have to prove actual malice.
00:12:41.640 But if you are a public figure and the president of the United States is the quintessential public figure,
00:12:46.620 then you've got to meet that higher threshold.
00:12:48.960 Now, there are at least two arguments that Trump's legal team would make.
00:12:52.960 One was, in this case, the defamation was not relating to his official conduct.
00:12:59.280 He was not president of the United States at the time.
00:13:02.700 The interaction with Gene Carroll did or did not occur.
00:13:05.520 And so it was not a defamatory falsehood related to his official conduct, but rather his personal life before he was president of the United States.
00:13:14.880 So that would certainly be what Trump's lawyers would argue is that the New York Times versus Sullivan standard doesn't doesn't apply.
00:13:20.660 But secondly, even if you had to demonstrate actual malice, notice a second ago when I was saying when they were prepping Stephanopoulos for his deposition,
00:13:28.700 they would have to walk through.
00:13:31.540 Did he know it was false?
00:13:33.380 Well, I wasn't I didn't have in front of me the standard, but it turns out I was quoting the standard back at you.
00:13:38.700 Let me read it again.
00:13:39.920 The Supreme Court defined actual malice as, quote, that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.
00:13:49.160 So one of the two you've got to demonstrate for actual malice.
00:13:53.140 And the problem, I think, that that ABC had is I think it was very clear that they did it with that with actual malice.
00:14:00.560 I think there were certainly a producer or somebody knew for a fact it was false to say he'd been found liable for rape.
00:14:06.880 It wouldn't surprise me if a producer had told Stephanopoulos, don't say liable for rape.
00:14:12.800 And it wouldn't surprise me if Stephanopoulos decided, oh, I'm going to say it anyway.
00:14:16.660 It's close enough for government work and it's much more sensationalistic than to report accurately.
00:14:22.840 And I think when they found themselves trying to defend the lawsuit that it was going to be clear that they either knew what they were saying were false or at a very minimum,
00:14:31.540 they were they were engaged in reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.
00:14:34.980 And so they were going to get popped and they were going to lose.
00:14:37.360 And that's why they're apologizing.
00:14:39.120 That's why they're writing a big, big check.
00:14:40.720 And it also made Stephanopoulos very vulnerable.
00:14:43.740 Right. I think that was part of his preserving their anchor here, because if they went into a deposition and they really got to rough him up,
00:14:51.280 that would hurt his brand and that would hurt the brand of ABC, I think, as well,
00:14:55.480 because he they still want you to believe that he is the most non-biased, hardcore news guy at ABC News.
00:15:02.140 Well, that's right. And look, George Stephanopoulos worked in the Clinton White House.
00:15:06.580 He was a Democrat operative for years before he became an ABC journalist.
00:15:11.640 And I have no doubt that there were going to be lots of questions from Trump lawyers about, OK, Mr. Stephanopoulos,
00:15:18.600 what are your communications with Democrats? What are your communications with the White House?
00:15:22.980 What are your communications with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?
00:15:26.040 What to what extent are you acting as as a Democrat attack dog?
00:15:32.920 And it may well be. I don't know this to be the case.
00:15:35.820 I'm sure they were going to ask those questions. And I suspect that ABC was very nervous about what kind of answer Stephanopoulos would give under oath
00:15:43.300 and and potentially vulnerable and for the world to know the frequency with which he is explicitly reading the talking points from the Democrat Party.
00:15:54.880 One thing's for sure. When the library opens up, it's going to be really fun to see how they make sure that everyone going through the library knows
00:16:01.360 that this part of the library is brought to you by ABC News and George Stephanopoulos.
00:16:05.160 I cannot wait to see the trolling there because I don't believe that Donald Trump is going to let that opportunity pass.
00:16:10.680 I just I don't believe it. It's going to be really fun to see what happens.
00:16:13.620 I think that is a fair prediction. I would not wager on the other side of you on that one.
00:16:18.060 I want to move on to this other big shocking story, and it is the normalization of kill your political enemy, 0.83
00:16:27.600 kill anybody that you don't like, that you think is evil.
00:16:30.960 We'll justify it publicly so we can normalize it. 0.99
00:16:35.000 We've seen this with the assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
00:16:39.300 We have now seen this turn really ugly when it comes to the murder of this CEO in New York City,
00:16:46.740 the cold blooded murder of of this CEO.
00:16:49.300 And people have turned him into some sort of hero.
00:16:52.940 We now have elected officials, Senator, that some that you serve with getting in on this,
00:16:59.860 allowing for this almost justification of, well, we understand why people would want to do this.
00:17:04.620 Well, and we did an entire podcast on this last week, last Wednesday.
00:17:09.600 I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it, because I really think what is happening here,
00:17:13.440 it is dangerous and it is grotesque.
00:17:16.420 This health care CEO was gunned down in broad daylight in New York City,
00:17:21.820 and this deranged killer walked up and shot him multiple times in the back.
00:17:26.120 After a two-day manhunt, he was caught, and the left lost their mind.
00:17:31.680 They have lionized him because, and we did a deep dive, this is because of the cultural Marxism,
00:17:36.820 this is because their ideology says that any time the, quote, oppressor engages in violence,
00:17:44.560 or rather the, quote, victim engages in violence against the, quote, oppressor,
00:17:47.980 that that violence is justified and to be celebrated.
00:17:50.760 And we went through the number of leftists, including Taylor Lorenz, you know, a quote-unquote journalist
00:17:59.160 for both the Washington Post and the New York Times who described how she felt joy,
00:18:05.000 that was her term, joy, at this guy being murdered. 0.98
00:18:08.340 It's sick.
00:18:09.600 And we talked about as well how the view, Joy Behar, unloaded on me because I pointed out
00:18:17.120 that these were leftists just celebrating cold-blooded murder.
00:18:22.020 And she said, it's not leftists, it's not us at all.
00:18:24.000 Well, Joy Behar, guess what?
00:18:26.700 Your message didn't get to Bernie Sanders.
00:18:29.300 Your message didn't get to AOC.
00:18:32.260 Your message didn't get to Elizabeth Warren because all of them in the last few days
00:18:36.900 have been on TV justifying, rationalizing, giving excuses for the cold-blooded murder.
00:18:43.420 I want you to listen to this montage of comments from them, and then we're going to talk about
00:18:47.780 it more.
00:18:48.820 And this is not to say that an act of violence is justified, but I think for anyone who is
00:18:56.400 confused or shocked or appalled, they need to understand that people interpret and feel
00:19:04.600 and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them.
00:19:11.180 People go homeless over the financial devastation of a diagnosis that doesn't get addressed or
00:19:19.960 the amount that they're going to have to cover with a surprise bill and things like that.
00:19:25.300 And when we kind of talk about how systems are violent in this country in this passive way,
00:19:32.680 our privatized health care system is like that for a huge amount of Americans.
00:19:37.120 And look, we'll say it over and over, violence is never the answer.
00:19:40.500 This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth.
00:19:45.900 But you can only push people so far.
00:19:48.460 And then they start to take matters into their own hands.
00:19:52.600 Elizabeth Warren obviously understands killing and murder and shooting somebody in the back 1.00
00:19:58.620 is totally unacceptable.
00:20:01.400 But what I think has happened in the last few months is that what you have seen rising up
00:20:09.420 is people's anger at a health insurance industry, which denies people the health care that they
00:20:17.560 desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit.
00:20:22.540 Anytime you say something's terrible, but it means you're saying, but we understand it.
00:20:30.960 It's OK.
00:20:31.780 We get it.
00:20:32.620 We comprehend it.
00:20:34.080 We see how you got from point A to point B.
00:20:36.020 We have video of a cold blooded murderer who goes up and assassinates an individual and they're
00:20:43.140 justifying the understanding of why he should be why he and others are angry at all these health
00:20:47.740 care CEOs.
00:20:48.680 This is this is dehumanizing people who you don't like the same way they've done it with
00:20:54.780 Trump.
00:20:55.100 It is so dangerous.
00:20:56.660 Look, it's exactly the same as with Trump.
00:20:59.060 It's exactly the same as these leftists have done with Hamas on October 7th, where they'll
00:21:04.160 all say an obligatory violence is wrong.
00:21:07.320 But then they immediately start justifying the violence and they immediately say, well, yes,
00:21:12.140 the rape and murder of 1,200 Israelis, that's wrong.
00:21:15.860 But but the Palestinians are oppressed and we should celebrate the Palestinians. 0.98
00:21:19.400 And is it wonderful?
00:21:20.260 And then that's what the leftists do.
00:21:22.200 You know, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:21:23.640 Murdering the guy was wrong, I suppose.
00:21:25.060 But but you know what? 0.99
00:21:26.120 Every health care CEO needs to be murdered. 1.00
00:21:27.900 Every CEO needs to be murdered. 0.99
00:21:28.960 And they immediately their ideology goes to celebrating violence. 0.99
00:21:34.600 And let me just once.
00:21:37.680 I would like to see someone on the left be clear and unequivocal that violence is wrong.
00:21:42.920 Period.
00:21:43.360 In the end, this murder was grotesque.
00:21:46.040 It was evil.
00:21:46.700 It was wrong.
00:21:47.340 There is no justification for it whatsoever.
00:21:50.020 Even if your political ideology is you've decided you hate this health care CEO that
00:21:55.220 you've never met.
00:21:55.900 You don't know what he's done.
00:21:56.920 You don't know anything about him other than that he was the CEO of a health care company.
00:22:03.340 And because your ideology is so railing against capitalism, you think murder is a great thing.
00:22:10.080 It's it's as I said, it's the same.
00:22:12.060 These are the same people who buy coffee cups that say, you know, I wish wish the guy in
00:22:16.240 Butler, Pennsylvania hadn't missed because violence is OK to them.
00:22:21.300 These are the same people that celebrated the Black Lives Matter Antifa riots. 0.72
00:22:25.980 This is this is Kamala Harris raising money to bail people out of jail who are violent rioters
00:22:32.160 because for today's radical left, the ends justify the means and violence is OK.
00:22:39.620 And I want to be absolutely clear.
00:22:41.580 Violence is never OK.
00:22:43.580 Whether I agree with your ideology or not, nobody should engage in violence against anyone
00:22:49.200 else.
00:22:49.540 And if you do, if you engage in violence, you should face serious consequences.
00:22:54.600 How much do you worry about this becoming normalized?
00:22:57.380 I mean, we got over the Donald Trump first assassination incredibly quick.
00:23:01.260 It was like, OK, it happened, but he's still alive.
00:23:03.160 Let's immediately move on.
00:23:04.500 Then we have another attempted assassination on him down at his golf course and be like,
00:23:08.760 well, I mean, it's Donald Trump.
00:23:09.820 You kind of got to expect this now.
00:23:11.200 That was that.
00:23:11.880 That was the the demeanor of many on the left.
00:23:14.680 And then there was part of the left that is exactly as you described it.
00:23:18.140 They were like, well, the guy should have not missed.
00:23:20.360 And it was almost anger at the at the shooters.
00:23:23.760 I think that's the most shocking part to me is we are dehumanizing people in a way that
00:23:29.120 is now putting other people's lives at risk.
00:23:32.020 Well, and for too many on the left, politics is everything.
00:23:37.360 It is life and death.
00:23:38.360 It is identity.
00:23:39.460 I mean, look, I get to say politics is very different than 12 years ago when I first got
00:23:44.960 elected.
00:23:45.300 It's so nasty and personal.
00:23:49.240 You know, we used to be able to disagree without without hating each other, without demonizing
00:23:53.760 each other, without cheering at violence and the murder of those you may disagree with.
00:24:01.640 And unfortunately, I don't see a whole lot of public Democrats speaking out against this.
00:24:09.040 It I wish we had more that had the courage to speak out and say this is unequivocally wrong.
00:24:17.320 Look, well, this deranged killer, his lawyers are being paid for by leftists who are celebrating
00:24:23.700 what he did. 0.80
00:24:25.100 Yeah.
00:24:25.220 And that's the part I think that when I look at this, I'm like, if you said this 10 years
00:24:31.040 ago, 15 years ago, you'd probably have people calling for you to resign.
00:24:35.780 Of all the people we just played, that's not happening.
00:24:38.540 There would have been like reporters saying, hey, like you need to answer for this.
00:24:42.840 These, you know, these statements that you made.
00:24:45.020 Do you want to clarify them or clean them up?
00:24:48.460 There's none of that this time.
00:24:49.780 It's like, oh, yeah, yeah, of course it makes sense.
00:24:52.740 You know, it is it is the reality of where we are today.
00:24:56.020 It's sad.
00:24:56.800 I pray for this country and I hope that at some point people will start to reject this
00:25:01.980 type of rhetoric and not normalize it like we are like it like it's happened so far.
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00:27:20.240 Finally, Senator, this is another story, and the media is trying to figure this out.
00:27:24.740 The Democratic Party is trying to figure it out.
00:27:26.240 How did we lose this last election?
00:27:27.960 What caused it?
00:27:28.840 Was it really our policy on migrants and illegal immigrants?
00:27:32.620 And there was a very interesting conversation that took place, and people, even on the left,
00:27:37.840 were like, is this an aha moment?
00:27:40.060 And I laugh because it's something that you actually said on this show a couple years ago.
00:27:45.680 Jessica Tarlov and Katie Couric were talking about GOP governors sending illegal immigrants
00:27:51.160 to other parts of the country from border states.
00:27:54.660 And I want to play this clip for people, and specifically, we're talking about Ron DeSantis
00:27:59.400 in Florida, Greg Abbott in Texas.
00:28:02.540 And this is what they said in reaction.
00:28:05.240 On the immigration front, there was a tendency amongst Democrats, and especially Democrats
00:28:11.520 who are discussing the issue, so people who do interviews or are part of the media, to
00:28:16.460 minimize it over the first two and a half years when there were a lot of people coming
00:28:22.520 in here.
00:28:23.360 And I thought that it was a stunt, you know, when they started bussing migrants, they go 1.00
00:28:29.020 to Martha's Vineyards.
00:28:30.220 Yeah.
00:28:31.340 It was the smartest thing they ever did.
00:28:32.820 Well, it's interesting because I have a friend who lives in Florida, and I said, what did you
00:28:36.460 think of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott taking some of these immigrants and moving them to 1.00
00:28:44.360 northern states?
00:28:45.440 And she said, I thought it was great because nobody really was paying attention before that.
00:28:51.700 And I do think that this untold story was the strain on social services and communities,
00:29:00.140 particularly along the border, this influx, huge influx of immigrants was having.
00:29:05.960 And I think the mainstream media, however you define that these days, kind of ignored that
00:29:11.700 story to its peril.
00:29:14.540 I mean, wow, right?
00:29:15.880 Like, at least they're figuring it out.
00:29:17.900 I don't want to say that all the media is figuring it out, but it is pretty funny.
00:29:21.660 They figured it out.
00:29:22.260 The only problem is they were just a couple of years too late.
00:29:24.700 Yeah.
00:29:24.880 Look, it's striking to hear Katie Couric admitting that.
00:29:28.160 Now, as you know, this was an idea that I suggested three years ago.
00:29:32.680 In October of 2021, I introduced a bill called the Surge Act.
00:29:37.580 And the Surge Act was designed to create 13 new ports of entry to send illegal immigrants. 0.57
00:29:47.500 And here's what my press release said at the time.
00:29:50.320 If Washington Democrats had to endure even a fraction of the suffering South Texas families,
00:29:55.120 farmers, ranchers, and small businesses have had to face, our nation's immigration laws
00:29:59.820 would be in force.
00:30:00.980 The wall would be built and remain in Mexico policy would be implemented.
00:30:04.220 And so I introduced legislation to change the points of entry and add 13 new places.
00:30:12.280 Block Island, Rhode Island, Greenwich, Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Cambridge,
00:30:18.300 Massachusetts, Governors Island, New York, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Nantucket, Massachusetts,
00:30:24.500 Newport, Rhode Island, Scarsdale, New York, Palo Alto, California, Yuntville, California,
00:30:30.300 St. Helena, California, and North Hero, Vermont, which is where Bernie Sanders vacations.
00:30:36.840 And the idea was all the places where rich liberals sit and sip Chardonnay and look down
00:30:44.060 on people concerned about the open borders.
00:30:46.880 And it was really striking.
00:30:48.840 At the time I introduced this legislation, the leftist media went crazy.
00:30:54.760 And in fact, the county executive at Martha's Vineyard attacked me, attacked me by name.
00:31:00.060 And he said, Cruz doesn't understand immigration.
00:31:03.600 And he said, we in Martha's Vineyard would welcome illegal immigrants.
00:31:09.240 Well, several months later, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott took me up on what I had suggested.
00:31:15.460 And they did exactly that.
00:31:17.180 They sent 50 illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.
00:31:19.960 And of course, that same county executive within 24 hours declared an emergency
00:31:24.400 and ended up deporting the 50 who had been sent.
00:31:29.020 And I'll tell you, we actually covered this on Verdict several years ago.
00:31:33.320 So I want you to play an old segment from Verdict.
00:31:35.760 This is actually pre the great Ben Ferguson.
00:31:38.880 This is back when Michael Knowles and I were doing it.
00:31:41.460 Our good friend, yeah.
00:31:42.600 Yes, the voice is about to change a little bit, right?
00:31:46.320 But this is us talking about it three years ago.
00:31:49.760 And it had a bit of foreshadowing.
00:31:53.640 So give a listen.
00:31:55.100 They've just sent airplanes full of illegal aliens to Martha's Vineyard. 0.99
00:32:01.440 And I cheered when I saw the headline.
00:32:04.560 And then I had to think, you know, there's a certain podcast hosted by a certain senator from Texas
00:32:10.500 that has been calling exactly for that for many weeks now.
00:32:16.160 And I just can't help but wonder if that may have had some effect on this policy going into effect.
00:32:21.220 I was thrilled when the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, took me up on the idea and began sending illegal immigrants first to D.C., 1.00
00:32:28.800 then to New York, then to Chicago.
00:32:30.740 It's had a fantastic event as these these Democratic mayors have lost their minds and declared national emergencies.
00:32:37.940 The mayor of D.C. declared a national emergency or a city emergency because six thousand illegal immigrants were sent to D.C., of course.
00:32:47.600 We've had since Joe Biden became president, we have had four point two million illegal immigrants cross illegally with Biden as president.
00:32:57.280 It is horrific.
00:32:58.160 That's a crazy number.
00:33:00.200 Four point two million.
00:33:01.500 That is a crazy number.
00:33:03.140 It is larger than many of the states of our union.
00:33:06.000 I mean, four point two million since Joe Biden put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office.
00:33:13.360 That's what's come and it continues to get worse.
00:33:16.560 And what is amazing about when when red state governors, first Texas, now Florida, are shipping to blue strongholds is the Democrats who talk a good game immediately flip tail.
00:33:29.460 So I want to give you a quote on from Martha's Vineyard.
00:33:32.600 When I introduced the legislation, you had Democrats, Democrats in the House of Representatives slam me.
00:33:38.940 But I want to read from the county commissioner of Martha's Vineyard, Keith Chattanova.
00:33:46.900 And here's the quote he said about my legislation.
00:33:50.120 I would love to see Martha's Vineyard, I would love to see Martha's Vineyard become a haven for new immigrants in the country.
00:33:58.480 But Senator Cruz has no idea what he's talking about regarding a border crisis.
00:34:02.720 He went on to say immigrants make our country stronger, as evidenced by immigration from Brazil and other countries to the vineyard.
00:34:10.760 And he is trying to whip up racial anxieties for political gain, which is essentially the entire GOP platform.
00:34:17.940 Anyhow, that's before they arrived.
00:34:20.280 I want to see if after two, three, four, five, six, ten, a hundred plane loads or bus loads, if the county commissioner has the same view.
00:34:31.180 Three years ago, you said that, Senator.
00:34:33.880 And now we're seeing that Democrats are actually saying, man, this is really effective.
00:34:39.800 Like, this was really, really effective.
00:34:41.700 You did this.
00:34:42.780 It stopped the Surge Act in October 2021.
00:34:45.840 And by the way, three years ago, notice that number, 4.2 million illegal immigrants.
00:34:52.300 We're now over 12 million.
00:34:55.020 What has happened at our southern border is an experiment in radicalism that has never been tried in the United States of America.
00:35:03.440 Our country is struggling.
00:35:05.700 The suffering that has occurred, and I will say the actual sending of plane loads and bus loads of illegal immigrants to blue strongholds, 0.99
00:35:14.640 it showed the complete and utter hypocrisy as every Democrat mayor, every Democrat governor, every Democrat county executive completely demonstrated everything they'd been saying was a lie.
00:35:25.920 And it broke through the media freeze out in a way nothing else did.
00:35:33.120 I think Katie Couric's right that that single action of demonstrating Democrat hypocrisy on this issue could well have decided the presidential election last month.
00:35:43.640 Now, I'll say this.
00:35:45.080 Job well done, Senator.
00:35:46.080 That was something you said way beforehand, and it clearly, they're even admitting now, had a massive impact on the outcome of this election.
00:35:52.480 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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