Verdict with Ted Cruz - AOC causes Founding Father Grave Roll Overs, 'WE didnt get our Way' so BYE VA SCOTUS & Trump takes China Week In Review

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00:00:51.920 Welcome.

00:00:52.560 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:54.000 We can review Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:56.180 and here are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:59.560 First up, AOC doesn't understand how America was started,

00:01:03.780 but she put words in the mouths of our founding fathers.

00:01:07.340 The only problem is there's receipts of what they actually believed. 0.69

00:01:11.220 And we fact check her on exactly how ridiculous some of her comments were.

00:01:15.620 Up next, the Virginia SCOTUS gerrymandering reversal that has rocked the entire country.

00:01:22.400 So what does it actually mean and how is this going to affect the midterm elections?

00:01:27.700 And finally, President Trump heads to China.

00:01:30.640 What is coming out of that meeting in Beijing and could we see the releasing of political prisoners from the U.S.?

00:01:37.500 It's the Week in Review and it starts right now.

00:01:40.440 The Declaration of Independence that was the birthday of our nation.

00:01:45.140 And it was Thomas Jefferson who penned the immortal words,

00:01:48.960 we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed

00:01:54.380 by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit

00:01:58.980 of happiness that declaration by the way declaring our independence not from billionaires but from

00:02:05.840 oppressive government from king george that was the beginning of our nation and then some 20 years

00:02:13.160 later the united states constitution which created our democracy i mean if you want to look at the

00:02:18.940 the moment that our democracy was created. It was the delegates in Constitution Hall in Philadelphia

00:02:23.900 who drafted the Constitution, who set up our system of government, and then the states that

00:02:28.860 had to ratify it. And once it was ratified, it went into effect. That is what has created our

00:02:35.440 democracy. Now, if she were speaking precisely, what she could have said is when our democracy

00:02:42.640 was created it was imperfect and we had to travel a journey to move towards greater equality that 0.76

00:02:50.140 statement is unequivocally right it is true yeah accurate when our nation was created african 1.00

00:02:56.220 americans in half the country were slaves they had no right to vote women had no right to vote 0.85

00:03:02.580 on the question of slavery i've said many times slavery is the original sin of america it was a

00:03:09.520 grotesque evil. I will point out, though, that how did we abolish slavery? Look, we abolished

00:03:16.040 slavery. Number one, the person who did it was Abraham Lincoln, the very first Republican

00:03:20.220 president. Our party was created in order to defeat slavery. That was the purpose. That's the

00:03:26.000 origin of the Republican Party. The Democrat Party, by the way, virtually its entire tenure

00:03:31.940 defended slavery and fought ferociously in favor of slavery. But the way the abolitionists in the

00:03:39.300 Republican Party successfully abolished slavery was not by attacking our founding principles,

00:03:46.040 not by attacking the Constitution, not by attacking the Declaration, but rather by appealing

00:03:51.620 to those principles, by saying, we are not living up. When Jefferson wrote the words,

00:03:58.700 all men are created equal. That statement is on its face, completely incompatible with slavery.

00:04:05.400 Jefferson knew that yeah he was brilliant yeah and he was putting into place I believe with I

00:04:12.080 agree with Dr. Martin Luther King who said the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice

00:04:19.660 but AOC and this is true with with the squad and with all of the communists on the left 0.91

00:04:25.580 they're so ignorant that everything I just said there they don't know they're told that the 0.92

00:04:31.320 American revolution was a communist revolution against the billionaires, that the answer is 0.99

00:04:36.400 more government power. And they repeat things like black Americans gave us democracy, which is just 0.99

00:04:43.240 simply not accurate. The civil rights movement was one of the greatest democratic movements in 0.55

00:04:48.100 our nation's history. By the way, she points to the Civil Rights Act. Look, Civil Rights Act,

00:04:53.640 far more Republicans, a much greater percentage of Republicans in Congress voted for the Civil

00:04:58.060 Rights Act than Democrats. Her party opposed the Civil Rights Act, the majority of them. And so

00:05:03.640 yes, we're on a journey, but the left, their ignorance, it is a close battle

00:05:11.920 which predominates ideology or ignorance, but they're both intertwined and they're both

00:05:18.220 fundamentally wrong. And by the way, AOC was not done there. She also had another pretty

00:05:24.300 interesting line she made it very clear uh that she wanted to say something about illegal immigrants

00:05:29.740 and saying through fear-mongering that once they're all deported they're going to come after

00:05:33.920 other groups referring to republicans take a listen to this all of a sudden we now have

00:05:39.760 a paramilitary force we don't have a court system right they don't need they don't think they need

00:05:47.060 judicial warrants so you don't get due process so you start creating this black box system that's 0.58

00:05:53.420 point a finger whether it's like again like we saw in Jim Crow whether you just point a finger

00:06:02.440 and a hundred years ago accuse a little black boy of something you can point a finger right and 0.82

00:06:08.980 accuse someone of that today if you think when once you build that machine that it's only going

00:06:15.840 to be reserved to that. That's right. This eats profit. These things, ICE, it's not just ICE.

00:06:25.260 It's CoreCivic. It's GeoGroup. Those are corporations that run ICE detention centers.

00:06:32.980 They are for profit. They are traded on Wall Street. And what happens is that those companies

00:06:42.880 and this system is that it does not accept anything but growth it's not even good enough

00:06:52.060 to be profitable it's not even good enough to be profitable you have to be more profitable

00:06:57.920 and more profitable and more profitable it's not enough to be a profitable business you have to

00:07:03.200 keep growing those profits and so once they've rounded up every person in this country who do

00:07:07.760 think is next? You know, look, that is both the classic ignorance and misinformation of the left.

00:07:14.940 So they understand AOC supports a open border. So she wants to abolish the police. She wants to

00:07:21.180 abolish ICE. She opposes all law enforcement that actually secures our border against foreign 0.99

00:07:26.900 invaders, against illegal immigrants, against violent murderers, rapists, child molesters and

00:07:32.640 gangbangers. And her position has consistently been let all of them out of jail. But at the 0.93

00:07:37.740 same time, she wants to tell her very ill-informed supporters, if there are detention centers that

00:07:46.280 are used for illegal immigrants, that are used for violent criminals, those will be used by

00:07:51.280 government against you. And part of what is really astonishing is if you look throughout history, 0.98

00:07:59.180 in almost every instance where there have been mass detention centers, it's been the left that

00:08:04.980 has put them in place. You look at whether it is the Soviet gulags, where communists imprisoned

00:08:12.420 millions. You look at Joseph Stalin. You read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and talks about

00:08:19.960 the incredible miseries of communism imprisoning millions in prisons. You look at my father's home

00:08:27.320 country of Cuba and the prisons that are there right now. You look at North Korea. Cuba is

00:08:32.200 communist. Soviet Union was communist. North Korea is communist. You have gulags there.

00:08:38.460 You look at China. China today has over a million Uyghurs who are religious minorities who are in

00:08:45.300 concentration camps. It's the largest instance of human slavery on the face of the planet. That is

00:08:50.660 communist China. And by the way, you look at World War II, the Nazis. So leftists like to 0.75

00:08:57.700 paint the nazis as right but let's be clear nazis were national socialists that was their policy

00:09:03.900 that's what nazi stands for is national socialists the economic policy of the left is what the nazis

00:09:11.340 believed in government control and and i do want to be clear it's not just historical leftists who

00:09:18.080 have imposed concentration camps let me be very clear i think slavery is wrong concentration camps

00:09:25.340 are wrong, detention camps. By the way, in the United States, which president created detention

00:09:31.080 camps and detained American citizens? I'm going to go with it was a Democrat, as I just want to 0.65

00:09:36.060 be clear about this. It is a Democrat. It was FDR who set up internment camps for Japanese Americans

00:09:42.700 who were American citizens and interned thousands of them, forcibly detained them during World War

00:09:48.080 II. That was a Democrat. By the way, she talks about Jim Crow. She probably doesn't know this, 0.77

00:09:53.980 but do you know who wrote the jim crow laws that would be democrats here was that do you know who

00:09:57.780 funded who funded and founded the kkk that would be democrats and and yep and i want to read to

00:10:05.640 give you something recent in 2020 there was an iowa-based field organizer for bernie sanders's

00:10:14.600 campaign who was caught on tape discussing the need for quote re-education camps for people who

00:10:23.100 did not support bernie sanders particularly for trump supporters so aoc it is her side

00:10:30.420 that has advocated we're going to put the people we disagree with in camps

00:10:35.580 in some level that's not shocking because the left has always been willing if you support

00:10:42.400 government power you are willing to use that government power to lock up everyone who disagrees

00:10:48.620 with you and there's something fundamentally different between locking up a violent criminal

00:10:53.560 locking up someone who has violated the law that is protecting the community that's protecting our

00:10:58.060 citizens that is upholding the rule of law there's something fundamentally different between that

00:11:03.880 and rounding up and locking up lawful citizens and in history virtually the only people to have done 0.53

00:11:12.040 so, have been leftists, have been communists like AOC. And yet, look, I do think she studied 0.64

00:11:19.240 Saul Alinsky's rules for radicals. She starts and throughout accuses her opponents of doing

00:11:25.660 that which she would do. And look, these interviews, truth matters. And let me say this

00:11:34.440 as a final point. This is a big part of the reason we do these podcasts, is to actually engage and

00:11:41.400 give you the substance, because if someone is a young person and they're listening to AOC and

00:11:46.640 they're like, oh, oh, yeah, the American Revolution fought to overcome the billionaires. We got to

00:11:52.140 stop those billionaires. This podcast is here to give you the facts and information to push back

00:11:58.040 on on that dishonest and ignorant indoctrination. Now, if you want to hear the rest of this 0.90

00:12:04.500 conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:12:09.000 say hello to your new favorite drinks introducing new mccafe refreshers icy cool undeniably

00:12:16.520 refreshing and available in three flavors strawberry watermelon mango pineapple and

00:12:21.700 blackberry passion fruit only at mcdonald's turn someday into right now with body by jake radio

00:12:28.260 non-stop workout music and expert tips 24 7 hey head over to iheart.com search body by jake radio

00:12:34.460 and stream it for free right now awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day seven days a

00:12:40.040 week remember stick to the fight when your heart is hit it's when things seem worse that you must

00:12:44.100 not quit don't quit body by jake radio where hope meets momentum search body by jake radio

00:12:50.100 and stream it for free have a great day now on to story number two let's move on to virginia

00:13:00.020 real quick and this one is uh also a very interesting story democrats when they tell

00:13:06.060 you they're crazy and they hate this country and they hate our laws and our rules like believe

00:13:10.780 them democrats now are threatening to boot the entire virginia supreme court uh and and let's 0.96

00:13:17.980 explain how we got to this point center because it's this is a warning of us coming with our u.s

00:13:22.820 supreme court they want to get rid of it they want to pack it every time they get a ruling they don't

00:13:26.780 like it doesn't matter there is no law and order anymore in the democratic party they don't get

00:13:31.540 their way we just just just dismantle the supreme court dismantle the constitution get rid of

00:13:36.440 everybody in our way well look the virginia state legislature sadly is democrat the the governor

00:13:43.640 abigail spanberger ran as a moderate she actually ran saying gerrymandering is wrong we should

00:13:49.160 oppose gerrymandering yeah she got elected and by the way abigail spanberger is a object lesson

00:13:56.100 for elections across the country.

00:13:59.300 The Democrats who run as moderates are lying to you.

00:14:02.940 Every word she said on the campaign trail was a lie.

00:14:06.380 She got in as this hard left zealot.

00:14:09.660 She immediately stopped cooperating with federal law enforcement, 0.99

00:14:12.940 started releasing illegal immigrants, violent criminals into Virginia.

00:14:17.440 She began proposing new taxes on just about everything you can imagine.

00:14:21.940 and when it came to redistricting the current map in virginia there are 11 house members in

00:14:28.800 virginia six of them are democrats five of them are republicans that's about right uh virginia

00:14:34.640 is a purple state glenn youngkin a republican was the previous governor uh in the 2024 election

00:14:42.380 kamala harris won virginia but but by just a few points so six five was about right in terms of

00:14:47.980 where the state was divided but the democrats for them power is the number one objective 0.91

00:14:54.560 and so they rammed through an emergency redistricting plan that took the map from

00:15:00.240 six five democrat to ten one democrat and they told the roughly 45 percent of virginians who

00:15:09.560 vote republican you no longer get representation we're going to disenfranchise you because all we

00:15:15.400 care about is power and basically they drew these horrible maps where much of virginia the rural

00:15:22.840 parts are bright red and you've got northern virginia which are basically dc suburbs which

00:15:27.900 are a bunch of government employees many of whom are very liberal and so they drew these maps where

00:15:32.880 most of the districts reached into northern virginia grabbed a bunch of government bureaucrats

00:15:37.380 and used them as left-wing voters to turn the rest of the district blue

00:15:41.480 Well, the problem is they got challenged in court. And initially, a trial judge ruled that the redistricting was illegal under the Virginia state constitution. That got appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. Now, the Virginia Supreme Court, the justices are Democrats. They were put on there by Democrats. They were confirmed by Democrat legislatures.

00:16:05.420 The Virginia Supreme Court last week, shockingly, most observers were astonished,

00:16:10.760 looked at the Virginia state constitution and said, hey, what the legislature did here was illegal,

00:16:16.240 and they struck it down. By the way, the previous attorney general of Virginia, Republican Jason

00:16:21.440 Meares, had written an opinion saying under the Virginia constitution, you can't do this. This

00:16:26.860 is contrary to law. Now, when that happened, Democrats in Washington, their heads exploded

00:16:32.940 because this was critical to their seizing power.

00:16:37.560 Since then, they have called for, number one,

00:16:40.720 they've called for putting a mandatory retirement age in Virginia on the Supreme Court of 54.

00:16:47.140 Their entire purpose is to throw every justice on the Supreme Court off

00:16:52.480 so they could pack them with left-wing activists who will uphold the redistricting.

00:16:57.900 um they have also talked about just fundamentally overturning so mark elias who who is the

00:17:07.720 hardcore left-wing democrat uh lawyer who brings all of these incredibly partisan decisions anytime

00:17:17.040 a republican is elected in close election mark elias files a lawsuit seeking to overturn the

00:17:22.160 voters will. He is one of the most rabid partisans in the country. He tweeted out a quote from the

00:17:28.720 Virginia Constitution, quote, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary

00:17:34.760 to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible

00:17:41.200 right to reform, alter, or abolish it in such a manner as shall be judged most conducive to the

00:17:49.720 public wheel and to be clear what he is saying is i don't like what the virginia supreme court

00:17:57.340 concluded even though they're democrats so abolish the government of the state of virginia that's how

00:18:03.420 radical these zealots are and by the way you combine that with the recent decision of the

00:18:10.420 u.s supreme court that concluded that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional that drawing

00:18:17.440 lines, drawing congressional lines, discriminating, saying we're going to put people of one race in

00:18:22.440 the district, take people of another race out of the district, that that's unconstitutional.

00:18:26.780 It had been an open question whether complying with the Voting Rights Act was essentially an

00:18:34.320 exception to the constitutional prohibition on racial gerrymandering. And the Supreme Court

00:18:38.920 concluded 6-3, no it is not, that the Constitution, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment prohibits

00:18:45.200 discrimination based on race, prohibit voting discrimination based on race. I think that is

00:18:51.640 the right reading of the Constitution. And the Democrats have lost their ever-loving mind.

00:18:57.760 Because understand, look, all right, all of New England, you take the states in New England and

00:19:03.660 the Northeast, which vote anywhere from 60-40 Democrat to 65-35 Democrat, depending on the

00:19:10.940 state how many republicans do you think are elected in all of new england i'm gonna go with

00:19:16.020 zero zero would be right in state after state massachusetts zero maine zero vermont zero new

00:19:24.020 hampshire zero rhode island zero connecticut zero that is they just gerrymandered the heck out of it

00:19:31.700 and they have a hundred percent of the representation democrat in the south democrats have used the

00:19:38.880 Voting Rights Act to insist if you can draw a district that elects an African-American

00:19:47.020 Democrat, you must elect that Democrat. Now, the bizarre thing is we've seen Democrats who

00:19:52.960 also insist, and one of the more absurd things, they've said, well, in light of the Supreme Court

00:19:59.120 decision that discriminating based on race is unconstitutional, you've seen Democrats saying

00:20:04.480 South Carolina will never, ever elect an African-American to Congress.

00:20:11.140 Now, I have to admit, when that happened, I pulled out Twitter. 1.00

00:20:15.760 I like when you get your little snarky tweets out there.

00:20:18.540 I knew as soon as I said I was waiting for a countdown clock until you did what you did.

00:20:22.760 I could have predicted that tweet in a moment's notice.

00:20:26.600 As soon as I saw, I was like, I can't wait.

00:20:28.560 And then you did it.

00:20:29.140 So keep going.

00:20:30.340 Yeah, I said, hey, Grock, who is Tim Scott?

00:20:33.680 Yeah.

00:20:33.920 And why did Democrats believe he's not black?

00:20:37.560 Because he's a Republican.

00:20:38.800 Yeah.

00:20:39.200 Tim Scott is my colleague in the Senate.

00:20:41.920 He's African-American.

00:20:43.480 He was elected to Congress to a House district in South Carolina.

00:20:47.940 Then he became a senator.

00:20:49.160 He's been reelected over and over and over again in South Carolina.

00:20:52.980 And yet, to the Democrats, he does not count as black. 0.68

00:20:57.600 Because if you're a Republican, suddenly you're white. 0.73

00:21:00.340 It doesn't matter. 0.64

00:21:01.160 And mind you, and their view, and by the way, Tennessee, 0.83

00:21:03.920 your home state oh dude this is the best one steve cohen who's like the whitest guy you'll ever see

00:21:09.160 he doesn't like me by the way he was my my congressman for many years he i they were losing 0.63

00:21:14.780 on tv the other day and i got to smack some of them around because they were saying you're taking

00:21:18.020 away this seat that african-americans are being disfringed i'm like hold on a second steve cohen 0.89

00:21:22.500 is like the whitest old cranky white guy you've ever met but he's a liberal democrat so he's a 0.86

00:21:27.500 black democrat but here's what's interesting charlotte bergman who is an african-american 0.98

00:21:31.860 single mother is probably 1.00

00:21:34.100 going to win the seat now. 1.00

00:21:36.100 So wait a second. You're saying as

00:21:37.840 a result of the Supreme Court 0.99

00:21:39.960 decision, a white

00:21:41.900 guy, a Democrat's going to lose 1.00

00:21:43.900 likely to a black woman. 1.00

00:21:46.220 To a black single mother

00:21:47.400 who lost a family

00:21:49.960 member to violent crime in Memphis.

00:21:52.120 And the Democrats' position

00:21:53.800 is defeating a

00:21:56.020 white Democrat guy

00:21:57.220 to elect a black Republican 1.00

00:21:59.740 woman is racist against black 1.00

00:22:01.780 people like yes like how do you say no no this white liberal is blacker than this actual african 1.00

00:22:09.000 american woman that that is their view and understand all of their hysterics come down to 1.00

00:22:15.540 power like if you're saying abolish the virginia supreme court because i don't like what they rule 1.00

00:22:21.080 and by the way we appointed them but we still don't like how they rule so if you don't rule

00:22:26.180 in a way that keeps us in power we will burn down the foundations of our government

00:22:31.780 that is that's just sad as before if you want to hear the rest of this conversation

00:22:39.400 on this topic you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire

00:22:44.380 thing our new mick cafe crafted sodas just drinks or something more like spriteberry bliss creamy

00:22:51.220 strawberry coke and orange dream all swirled with fizzy flavor and topped with silky cold foam

00:22:56.600 only at mcdonald's at participating mcdonald's restaurants in canada turn someday into right now

00:23:02.920 with body by jake radio non-stop workout music and expert tips 24 7 hey head over to iheart.com

00:23:09.060 search body by jake radio and stream it for free right now awesome health and wellness tips 24

00:23:14.540 hours a day seven days a week remember stick to the fight when your heart is hit it's when things

00:23:18.800 seem worse that you must not quit don't quit body by jake radio where hope meets momentum search

00:23:25.100 body by jake radio and stream it for free have a great day i want to get back to the big story

00:23:34.540 number three of the week you may have missed all right senator i want to talk about the president's

00:23:39.340 big trip to china and specifically you add some notes some requests some advocacy for some

00:23:47.900 Americans that are being held, and this was a really big moment that people should be talking

00:23:52.720 about. Yeah, so this was a meaningful legislative week. We've already talked about the two victories

00:23:58.840 we had in the Senate Judiciary Committee passing two bills I authored. We had a third victory on

00:24:03.940 the Senate floor, which is the entire Senate passed a resolution that I authored along with

00:24:09.160 Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, concerning the president's China trip, and in particular

00:24:15.280 urging the president to prioritize the release of political prisoners,

00:24:20.240 the release of people who are wrongfully imprisoned in China,

00:24:23.880 including Jimmy Lai, who's the great democracy activist in Hong Kong.

00:24:28.080 I met Jimmy Lai when I traveled to Hong Kong.

00:24:31.200 I met with him.

00:24:32.200 His health is failing. 0.93

00:24:33.820 He is being imprisoned because the Chinese communist government

00:24:37.040 views him as a threat to their communist oppression.

00:24:40.680 And then also focusing on the Christian pastors,

00:24:43.360 including Pastor Ezra Zinn, who have been targeted, who have been arrested.

00:24:49.140 China has been cracking down on Christian pastors.

00:24:52.580 And so Dick Durbin and I together introduced this resolution.

00:24:55.940 We took it to the Senate floor, and this week it passed 100 to nothing.

00:24:59.680 So the entire Senate, with a bipartisan voice, urged the president,

00:25:05.000 prioritize the releasing of these political prisoners.

00:25:08.060 It matters.

00:25:08.980 How much political, I think, pressure in a positive way does that create for the conversation that happened?

00:25:17.080 Because when you meet with an adversary like China, and if you've ever been around these meetings, 0.60

00:25:22.680 I was around a couple of them in the Bush second term.

00:25:26.640 A lot of it is very much scripted.

00:25:28.740 You have State Department that gets with their equivalent, the State Department,

00:25:31.280 they decide what will and will not be talked about at the table in these meetings.

00:25:34.620 But when you have a 100-0 vote, you have Dick Durbin, you have you,

00:25:38.460 And is that giving the ammo extra to the president saying, hey, you've got all of the United States Congress behind you.

00:25:45.420 It gives you a reason, even if you need to, in essence, to break protocol on what's been agreed to in the meetings and say, hey, this just happened and we got to talk about it.

00:25:54.360 Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

00:25:56.060 And this is something when I put this resolution on the floor, I'm working in coordination with the White House, with the administration.

00:26:03.500 And the president had already indicated an openness to raising these political prisoners.

00:26:10.800 And what this does is give him additional ammunition.

00:26:13.640 It lets him say to Xi, look, the Senate, 100 to nothing.

00:26:19.300 We may have political disagreements in our country and other topics, but not on this.

00:26:23.080 Every single senator, from the most conservative to the most liberal, they're all on the same page.

00:26:28.460 And I'll use an example that's actually a very similar circumstance, which is Mark Swidand.

00:26:33.340 So Mark Suedan is a Texan who was wrongfully imprisoned in China for over 10 years.

00:26:40.940 He was thrown in prison.

00:26:42.640 His health failed badly.

00:26:45.180 And I led the fight in the Senate for years to free Mark Suedan, including sitting down with a Chinese ambassador in a one-on-one, leaning in very hard, urging China to release him, that civilized countries don't keep political prisoners.

00:27:02.760 Joe Biden was president during much of this time.

00:27:05.800 And so I repeatedly pressured President Biden and and and the State Department to raise Mark Swidane.

00:27:14.040 Mark Swidane's mom is it lives in Texas.

00:27:16.720 I talked to her multiple times and I did the same thing.

00:27:20.260 I introduced a resolution calling for the release of Mark Swidane.

00:27:24.580 And it passed the Senate just like this one did 100 to nothing.

00:27:27.620 That gives real force. And it ended up Joe Biden followed through and pressed it.

00:27:34.520 The State Department followed through. And finally, the pressure was enough that China released Mark Swidand.

00:27:39.620 So he is no longer in a Chinese prison. He has been released. He came back.

00:27:43.860 In fact, he came to my office. I had the opportunity to meet him and embrace him.

00:27:48.360 And this is someone who for years I was speaking his name and demanding his release.

00:27:53.420 And it's, you know, often when you're dealing with with with a government like like the Chinese communist government, it's a question of ratcheting up pressure.

00:28:03.440 And and any one step typically is not enough.

00:28:08.240 But the more pressure you put on, the more leverage you put on, the more likely they are to to to comply.

00:28:15.420 So, you know, here's what the resolution said, expressing the sense of the Senate that the president should prioritize securing the release of Pastor James.

00:28:23.420 Jin Mingri, Pastor Guao Guanfu, and his wife Pangju, Jimmy Lai, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, and Ek Parasat

00:28:33.760 detained by the People's Republic of China during future engagements with Chinese President Xi

00:28:38.760 Jinping. Whereas, the government of the People's Republic of China has arrested Chinese, American,

00:28:45.200 and British citizens for the peaceful expression of free speech or religion, or such acts by family

00:28:51.500 members. Whereas such arrests have been widely condemned by the international community and

00:28:56.800 human rights organizations with repeated calls for the release of the detainees. Whereas on May

00:29:03.500 17th, 2025, Pastor Gao Guanfu of the Light of Zion Church in Xi'an City was detained and is

00:29:12.940 being held on charges of, quote, using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of law.

00:29:20.620 In other words, being a Christian is what they're holding him for, and also, quote, fraud.

00:29:26.040 Whereas Pastor Gao's wife, Pang Yu, who was subsequently detained on June 7, 2025, remains held despite holding no official position in the church and has been denied access to critical prescription medication. 0.72

00:29:41.060 Whereas on or about October 10th, 2025, authorities of the People's Republic of Tynan detained Pastor Jen Mingrey, founder of Zion Church, along with other church leaders, on equally dubious charges of, quote, illegal uses of information networks.

00:30:01.160 Whereas Pastor Jin continues to be detained without access to critical medications to treat diabetes

00:30:06.920 or contact with family members in the People's Republic of China and the United States.

00:30:12.640 Whereas on November 7th, 2025, the Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 463,

00:30:20.580 calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained members of Zion Church, including Pastor Jin.

00:30:26.540 and by the way, that was my resolution as well that I introduced and passed last year,

00:30:31.380 and for the government of the People's Republic of China to end harassment and intimidations

00:30:36.920 of the relatives of Zion church members and their relatives.

00:30:41.900 Whereas, in 1995, Jimmy Lai founded the Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong

00:30:48.020 and subsequently faced repeated harassment and arrest,

00:30:51.460 including a 69-month sentence in 2022 on dubious fraud charges

00:30:55.540 that were later overturned and a subsequent 20-year sentence in February 2026 on dubious

00:31:02.840 national security charges. Whereas in December 2025, President Donald Trump said he had asked

00:31:09.220 Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider releasing Jimmy Lai. Whereas on December 4th, 2025,

00:31:16.700 House Resolution 930 was introduced commemorating Jimmy Lai and calling on authorities of the

00:31:21.340 People's Republic of China, to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai and all other

00:31:26.060 Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates in prisons. And it goes on, there are a whole series more of

00:31:32.120 whereas provisions, but then it says, resolved, that the Senate calls upon the President to

00:31:38.840 prioritize securing the humanitarian release of Pastor Jin Mingri, Pastor Gao Quanfu, and his

00:31:46.320 wife Pangu, Jimmy Lai, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, and Ek Parasat, and other wrongfully detained

00:31:53.680 individuals on the agenda for engagements with President Xi Jinping, including the anticipated

00:31:59.600 May 2026 summit, and urges the President to seek verifiable proof of life and access to

00:32:07.500 independent legal counsel, family communication, and medical care for such detainees, and reaffirms

00:32:14.440 the commitment of the united states to defend political and religious freedoms worldwide

00:32:19.220 incredible it really is and look this is a administration as you know that has really

00:32:26.160 been about getting back americans all over the world they've made it a priority with great

00:32:30.600 success president trump is very effective at this and and that's the reason why i think it's

00:32:35.660 going to be very interesting to see what comes out of this quickly your what is your definition

00:32:39.360 of success of overall this big meeting with China? Look, it depends. There are a number of

00:32:45.560 things that President Trump is trying to accomplish. One of the things he's trying to do is to get

00:32:50.060 China to assist with Iran. And China is the main purchaser of Iranian oil. And so China could

00:32:57.200 exert a lot of leverage over Iran. And the president is urging Xi to lean on Iran in

00:33:05.640 particular to to hand over their enriched uranium to stop enriching to stop funding terrorism and

00:33:11.000 to open the Strait of Hormuz secondly I think the president is also working to open the Chinese

00:33:17.140 market so for example it's been reported now that China agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes that's a big

00:33:24.500 deal the president is fighting for farmers and ranchers to get our crops and our livestock in

00:33:29.820 into China and he's fighting for U.S. manufacturers and so he's fighting for American jobs in China

00:33:35.540 He's fighting for American national security in China.

00:33:38.260 And he's also fighting for China to do the right thing and release these wrongfully detained political prisoners.

00:33:44.840 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:33:50.080 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:33:53.760 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:33:57.120 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:34:00.840 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:34:03.240 Turn someday into right now with Body by Jake Radio, nonstop workout music and expert tips 24-7.

00:34:11.140 Hey, head over to iHeart.com, search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free right now.

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00:34:20.220 Remember, stick to the fight.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 16, 2026

AOC causes Founding Father Grave Roll Overs, 'WE didnt get our Way' so BYE VA SCOTUS & Trump takes China Week In Review

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