Verdict with Ted Cruz - Ayatollah Outta Controllah, 401 (K) for your Kids & 'Was' Biden POTUS for 4yrs？ He Can't Remember Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.280 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.240 We can review Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.400 And here are the three big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:13.200 First up, major negotiations with Iran.

00:00:16.260 And it could be the difference between war and peace.

00:00:19.680 So what did Senator Cruz have to say about it?

00:00:21.680 I'll have that for you in just a moment.

00:00:23.740 Also, there is a program that has been introduced.

00:00:26.500 Senator Ted Cruz is the brainchild behind it.

00:00:29.120 And it could change every newborn child's financial future in this country.

00:00:34.540 We'll have that for you as well.

00:00:36.200 And finally, who was running America?

00:00:38.660 Now the media admitting that Joe Biden was not really the president of the United States of America.

00:00:43.780 So who was calling the shots?

00:00:45.660 And who was using the auto pen?

00:00:48.240 It's the Weekend Review.

00:00:49.640 And it starts right now.

00:00:51.640 I want to talk about what we all saw.

00:00:53.720 Some big news that deals with the issue of Iran.

00:00:56.440 You went on Life, Liberty, and Levin.

00:00:58.000 Our good friend Mark Levin's show.

00:01:00.520 And we're talking about Iran right now.

00:01:03.380 And what they are actively trying to do.

00:01:05.780 Fill us in on that for a second.

00:01:07.840 Well, right now there's ongoing negotiation going on with the nation of Iran. 0.99

00:01:13.400 And the Ayatollah is a theocratic lunatic. 0.99

00:01:17.640 He regularly leads mobs chanting death to America and death to Israel. 1.00

00:01:25.100 And by the way, if history teaches us anything, it's that if somebody tells you they want to kill you, believe them. 0.65

00:01:33.060 Yeah.

00:01:33.200 And when it comes to Iran, I'll tell you, there are some voices in Washington and the administration that are pushing for another Iran deal.

00:01:43.080 They really want an Iran deal.

00:01:44.980 And basically, they want...

00:01:45.980 By the way, why?

00:01:46.720 Why did...

00:01:47.300 I got to ask, because there's some of you listening.

00:01:49.180 They're going to say the same thing I'm saying right now is, why on earth would you want an Iran deal if you know that they cheated on the last deal?

00:01:55.800 So, look, I don't know.

00:01:57.140 I'm not Sigmund Freud.

00:01:58.200 I'm not their psychoanalyst.

00:01:59.420 I just know they're advocating for it.

00:02:01.220 If you look at the Obama-Iran nuclear deal, the elements of it, it lifted international sanctions.

00:02:07.780 It allowed Iran to sell oil on the global market, and it allowed Iran to have its nuclear program continue unmolested.

00:02:17.660 There are voices within the administration.

00:02:20.080 And by the way, I led the charge to pull out of that disastrous deal, and President Trump did exactly that.

00:02:26.900 He did the right thing.

00:02:28.100 It was the single most important decision, national security decision of his first term,

00:02:32.860 to pull out of the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal.

00:02:37.740 And right now, there's a battle within the administration, but I agree with the red line that President Trump has drawn.

00:02:43.920 And he has said that any deal must include full dismantlement, dismantling the centrifuges, shutting them down,

00:02:53.060 that anything short of that is unacceptable.

00:02:56.840 When you look at that deal, and I want to play part of what you said on Mark Levin.

00:03:02.860 Because it is more background just on how crazy the Atilla is in Iran, and how big of a threat it is, 1.00

00:03:09.440 and why you shouldn't trust them.

00:03:10.820 Take a listen.

00:03:12.320 It's my understanding that the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate and the House are saying,

00:03:18.380 Iran must dismantle its nuclear program.

00:03:22.260 It's not a joke.

00:03:23.840 We know what it means when people talk about a civil or civilian nuclear program.

00:03:28.420 We're not going to be fooled.

00:03:29.820 They must dismantle their program.

00:03:32.020 Is that what you understand?

00:03:33.680 That is exactly right.

00:03:35.360 And I've got to say, Mark, there's a real contrast between the strength that President Trump has shown with respect to Iran

00:03:41.980 and the weakness and appeasement that Joe Biden showed for four years.

00:03:46.420 The first term, President Trump took on Iran directly, pulled out of the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal.

00:03:54.640 He ended the civilian nuclear waivers.

00:03:57.860 He ended the oil waivers.

00:03:59.700 And the result, maximum pressure put the Iranian economy into freefall.

00:04:06.100 Their oil sales fell from a million barrels a day of oil down all the way down to 300,000 barrels of oil.

00:04:14.060 When Joe Biden came into office, the Iranian economy was in shambles,

00:04:17.880 and the Ayatollah and the mullahs were teetering and near collapse.

00:04:22.220 But sadly, Biden reversed everything.

00:04:25.440 He did complete appeasement.

00:04:27.020 He stopped enforcing the oil sanctions.

00:04:30.020 And as a result, the Ayatollah's oil sales skyrocketed from 300,000 barrels a day to 2 million barrels a day.

00:04:38.960 That's $100 billion that Joe Biden and the Democrats gave the Ayatollah.

00:04:44.320 And the Ayatollah is using it to fund the IRGC, to attack and kill Americans. 0.92

00:04:49.740 The Ayatollah is using that to fund Hamas and Hezbollah.

00:04:53.180 In a very real sense, Joe Biden and the money he gave the Ayatollah funded October 7th.

00:04:59.380 Now that Donald Trump is back in office, he's drawn a clear red line.

00:05:03.940 Iran must dismantle their nuclear capacity. 0.93

00:05:07.580 They must shut down their centrifuges.

00:05:10.200 It is the only thing that is verifiable, is full dismantlement.

00:05:14.380 And I have every confidence the president is going to hold that line.

00:05:18.080 I do. 0.99

00:05:18.820 But I don't have any confidence in the Iranians who lie and cheat and steal and murder. 1.00

00:05:23.540 Yes. 0.99

00:05:24.260 And so the question is,

00:05:27.140 how can we expect a regime that does all those things and is not abided by anything it's agreed to,

00:05:36.220 anything it is promised over the course of the last 15 years?

00:05:39.340 So here we are at the 11th hour.

00:05:41.300 Here we are at the 11th hour trying to deal with this.

00:05:45.020 How can we trust them?

00:05:46.860 Or better put, we're not going to trust them.

00:05:49.220 How do we make sure that they do what we tell them they must do?

00:05:53.600 Well, listen, we can't trust them because we know that they lie and they lie over and over and over again.

00:05:58.800 It's worth noting the Ayatollah right now today is actively trying to murder Donald J. Trump. 0.95

00:06:05.440 Has hired hitmen trying to murder the president of the United States.

00:06:09.080 The Ayatollah is also actively trying to murder the former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo,

00:06:14.000 and the former national security advisor, John Bolton.

00:06:16.360 They have hired hitmen that are targeting former senior U.S. officials and the sitting president of the United States.

00:06:23.520 These are not people who can be trusted, which is why the objective must be full dismantlement,

00:06:30.160 must be the centrifuges disassembled, destroyed, taken out.

00:06:35.320 And as President Trump said recently, we can do that either nicely or not so nicely.

00:06:41.020 Nicely, if they agree and we go in and dismantle them ourselves or not, not so nicely is if Iran refuses to negotiate, 0.80

00:06:49.960 we have the capability to take out these nuclear facilities.

00:06:54.360 And I got to say, Mark, you and I have talked about this.

00:06:57.720 Listen, there are some voices in the Trump administration that are on the isolationist wing of foreign policy that say,

00:07:05.220 let's not worry about Iran.

00:07:07.020 Let's not let's not do anything about Iran.

00:07:10.820 And listen, I am someone who is very reluctant to use military force.

00:07:14.640 But Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons because Iran wants to be able to threaten to use nuclear weapons,

00:07:20.620 and they might even use them.

00:07:22.180 And I believe a nuclear Iran is an unacceptable threat of seeing an atomic bomb detonated in the skies of New York or the skies of Los Angeles. 0.98

00:07:32.540 And so our commander in chief, President Trump, I don't think he's going to allow that risk.

00:07:38.460 We are going to demand the centrifuges, the nuclear capability be dismantled,

00:07:43.740 and they either do so willingly or they'll be dismantled unwillingly.

00:07:48.700 It doesn't seem to be any gray area here from you.

00:07:53.060 Levin there and the president, it seems to be y'all are all in lockstep on the same thing here.

00:07:58.320 You cannot trust Iran at all. 1.00

00:08:00.100 Well, and you asked, why do people oppose this?

00:08:04.140 The rhetoric they use is they say, well, if you're standing up to Iran, you're a warmonger.

00:08:09.580 And let me be clear, as I mentioned to Mark Levin, I have consistently been very reluctant to use military force.

00:08:18.560 You know, you go back to 2016, the presidential race.

00:08:21.680 You had 17 Republicans running for president that year.

00:08:25.140 Or set Rand Paul aside, because Rand's views are unique in the Senate.

00:08:30.300 Of the remaining 16, there were only two of us on that stage who believed and said the Iraq war was a mistake.

00:08:39.020 Donald Trump and me.

00:08:40.560 Both of us said the Iraq war was absolutely a mistake. 0.67

00:08:43.440 I believe it was a mistake because you had a dictator, a cruel dictator, Saddam Hussein, who was killing terrorists.

00:08:51.080 We came in and we toppled that dictator.

00:08:53.640 And the result was the terrorists took over and they began killing Americans.

00:08:57.460 That did not help America.

00:08:59.520 Toppling a dictator and putting the terrorists in charge was a mistake.

00:09:03.720 By the way, we made the same mistake in Libya where you had Gaddafi, another very cruel dictator. 0.95

00:09:09.640 But he was killing terrorists.

00:09:11.440 We came in and toppled him and the terrorists took over and they began killing Americans.

00:09:15.560 I think that's a bad tradeoff.

00:09:17.620 So when I say that we need to focus on American national security, it doesn't mean we should invade other countries.

00:09:29.560 It doesn't mean we should send the Marines.

00:09:31.440 It means we should look at serious, real threats to our national security. 0.91

00:09:35.560 And I think the single most acute threat we face, the urgent threat we face right now, is a nuclear Iran because you've got a theocratic lunatic who has said he wants to murder us. 0.95

00:09:51.200 And by the way, we know that he's willing to hire hit men to try to murder the president already. 0.89

00:09:57.740 And if he had nuclear weapons, I think the odds are unacceptably high he would use them.

00:10:01.920 And so in the first term, what I advocated for and what President Trump agreed with was maximum pressure using sanctions, cut cutting off their financial system.

00:10:13.200 Their economy went into free fall because President Trump stood up against the Ayatollah.

00:10:19.720 And it was incredibly effective until Joe Biden undermined it by embracing appeasement.

00:10:25.040 That was a massive mistake.

00:10:26.820 And I hope and believe President Trump is turning that around right now.

00:10:30.600 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:10:37.600 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:10:44.060 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:10:47.880 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:10:48.980 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:10:50.200 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:10:59.380 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:11:02.920 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:11:08.400 Now on to story number two.

00:11:10.820 So, Ben, let me ask you something.

00:11:12.620 Yeah.

00:11:12.940 Are you excited listening to this?

00:11:15.120 I am because I am.

00:11:17.080 No, I am.

00:11:17.740 And I think this is something that we've been missing.

00:11:19.840 You know, you remember when I was working with the Bush administration, it was on social security reform because it was just a Ponzi scheme, in essence, where I was like, what are we doing?

00:11:30.940 How are we not giving people more with investing?

00:11:34.260 And this is one of those things that for me is about financial freedom.

00:11:38.380 And it allows people a chance to succeed in the greatest country in the world and do it in a way that is just so smart.

00:11:46.180 And I can't imagine what this is going to do for single moms, for people that are working nine to five jobs, two jobs, working hourly jobs. 1.00

00:11:57.000 They say, now I feel like even I can give my kids a better life because that's ultimately, I think, what every parent wants.

00:12:04.120 They want to give their kid a chance to a better life than they live.

00:12:09.280 And this is an example of starting literally at day one of their birth saying, we've got you a nest egg.

00:12:14.640 Now let's go and build on it.

00:12:16.560 So, Ben, one of the things Brad was describing that has me really excited is the accelerator that is built into it.

00:12:23.040 So, seeding every account with $1,000 is valuable.

00:12:27.500 By the way, there are 3.7 million babies born every year.

00:12:31.460 And so, $1,000 for 3.7 million babies is $3.7 billion a year.

00:12:37.780 That means this will cost $37 billion over 10 years.

00:12:42.200 This is a $4 to $5 trillion tax cut.

00:12:44.760 So, $37 billion is a relatively small piece.

00:12:47.920 But you want to talk about how it transforms America.

00:12:50.820 That seed money is important.

00:12:53.040 Even more important is simply creating the account.

00:12:56.520 As Brad noticed, you know, two-thirds of Americans will not have an investment account, will not be invested in the market.

00:13:04.740 And we're creating a world where every child, every single child, from gazillionaire kids to a homeless kid on the street,

00:13:14.420 suddenly has an account invested in the market.

00:13:17.560 That is transformative.

00:13:18.900 But then the accelerator.

00:13:20.120 So, what Brad has worked for several years is he's brought together world-class CEOs, some of the most prominent CEOs in the country.

00:13:28.320 He mentioned Michael Dell.

00:13:29.560 That was not theoretical.

00:13:31.500 Michael is a good friend of mine.

00:13:33.500 He's a Texan, incredible entrepreneur, worth over $100 billion.

00:13:36.720 Michael is the chairman of the CEO Council for Invest America.

00:13:41.640 So, Michael is leaning in hard.

00:13:43.000 He's committed.

00:13:44.180 Dell Computers, when this passes, Dell will help fund the accounts for the kids of their employees.

00:13:52.700 That's powerful.

00:13:53.420 But as Brad said also, Michael is quite interested on the philanthropic side in supporting not just the accounts for the children of his employees,

00:14:02.660 but more broadly, having a bigger impact.

00:14:05.080 I think we will see.

00:14:06.360 Think for a second, Ben, about 401ks.

00:14:09.860 Remember, when we were kids, 401ks didn't exist.

00:14:12.620 Yeah.

00:14:12.720 Now, just about every job at a big company.

00:14:17.940 It's part of the plan.

00:14:19.160 It's part of the plan.

00:14:20.360 And the employer matches 401k contributions, makes their own contributions.

00:14:25.560 It's a really attractive employee benefit.

00:14:28.820 And what I like about this is the accelerator component that I think you will end up having real wealth creation that changes.

00:14:37.480 Look, an 18-year-old kid who's got a single mom, who's not coming from money, who's living in a rough environment,

00:14:45.040 who suddenly got a couple hundred thousand dollars invested in the stock market, that changes their whole life.

00:14:52.620 This is life-changing.

00:14:56.540 Well, this also seems – I go back to the trickle-down effect.

00:15:00.500 And, you know, it's like 401ks.

00:15:02.360 You remember when it was your grandparents and your parents, when you go to get your first job, your first real job,

00:15:07.600 and they're like, do they have a 401k?

00:15:09.400 It's not the 21- to 23-year-old that's asking that question.

00:15:13.940 It's the parents and grandparents.

00:15:15.640 I remember when I got my first job, do they match?

00:15:18.220 What do they match?

00:15:18.860 Do they have a 401k?

00:15:20.380 Imagine if you get that started in the mindset at age literally zero.

00:15:26.140 That can transform an entire nation.

00:15:28.940 So, Brad, let me ask you something.

00:15:30.380 How did you get involved in this to begin with?

00:15:33.480 Because you were passionate in working on this.

00:15:36.120 I got involved with you about a year ago, but you were passionate and involved in this long before that.

00:15:40.380 What was the kernel of the idea that started this?

00:15:43.840 Well, you know, you'll appreciate this, Senator, as a dad yourself.

00:15:48.500 But, you know, I have two boys, Lincoln and Jack, and they're 16 and 14.

00:15:54.420 And one of the things we talk about a lot when we sit around the dinner table is when we see problems, don't complain about them, right?

00:16:04.260 Have a bias to action.

00:16:06.400 Have a bias to action.

00:16:07.880 Do something about it.

00:16:09.160 Don't just sit around and complain.

00:16:10.600 And so, coming out of COVID, I was showing them the investment accounts I set up when they were born.

00:16:19.720 And we're talking about the power of compounding.

00:16:22.540 And they were talking about the stocks that they owned.

00:16:26.220 And I could see their excitement.

00:16:27.740 And they said, Dad, when are we going to be able to, you know, have some control over what we're investing in?

00:16:33.880 We want to learn more.

00:16:35.420 Will you set up a Robinhood account for us, et cetera?

00:16:38.000 And then we started talking about the wealth gap.

00:16:42.280 And we started, you know, my son Lincoln brought me something, you know, that was a headline.

00:16:47.000 And it said, 93% of stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans.

00:16:52.400 And he said, Dad, I feel like, you know, I'm glad you set this up for me when I was a kid.

00:16:58.940 But I kind of feel guilty.

00:17:00.420 Like, why can't everybody, you know, have this, you know, same benefit?

00:17:06.380 And I said, you know, we've got to fix this.

00:17:09.700 And so he said to me, what are you going to do about it?

00:17:12.560 And I turned to him and I said, no, what are we going to do about it?

00:17:16.300 And we made a commitment as a family that we're going to do something about this.

00:17:19.880 And, you know, it's been one of the best parts of the journey.

00:17:24.320 We set up a 501c3 called Invest America.

00:17:28.760 And we literally, you know, just started, you know, making the calls.

00:17:34.760 And it was lining up like-minded thinkers in the private sector and lining up like-minded folks in Washington.

00:17:43.740 And you and I have talked about this.

00:17:45.980 You know, I had the good fortune when I was returning from studying overseas in 1990-91 to show up in Washington and go work for the late and great senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar.

00:17:59.200 Lugar was a Rhodes Scholar.

00:18:01.180 He was a mayor of Indianapolis, became a long-serving senator, incredible senator.

00:18:06.740 At the time, he was working on denuclearizing the nuclear stockpiles coming out of the Cold War with Sam Nunn.

00:18:15.260 And let's just say later in life, I went on to have some success.

00:18:20.000 And when I saw the senator in those later years, he said to me, you know, don't waste it.

00:18:25.600 You know, remember those days.

00:18:26.920 Remember those runs around the mall in Washington and make sure you do something that matters.

00:18:32.640 And so as a family, we want to do something that matters.

00:18:35.320 And I will say, in the House, in the Senate, you know, in the White House, and in a broad bipartisan way.

00:18:43.960 And that was something that was really important to me.

00:18:47.300 We've had incredible support.

00:18:49.240 And I said, I've never seen an idea with a better product market fit.

00:18:53.900 Everybody I talked to in the private sector in Washington was intrigued by the idea.

00:18:59.240 But I remember we were speaking with then-Speaker McCarthy in the House.

00:19:04.620 Lincoln was in the meeting with me.

00:19:06.140 We had an incredible meeting with the Speaker.

00:19:08.880 And we walked out.

00:19:09.760 And I said to him, as we're looking at the rotunda in the House, I said, every single good idea in America has started with a conversation just like that.

00:19:19.620 As an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, nothing happened in Silicon Valley, right?

00:19:24.480 Not Google, not OpenAI, not Facebook, right?

00:19:28.680 Without a conversation on the back of a napkin that starts as an idea.

00:19:32.460 And so I had started a few companies in Silicon Valley.

00:19:35.380 I knew something about starting things.

00:19:37.660 And we just got started.

00:19:39.220 And the snowball started rolling.

00:19:40.960 And here we are, three and a half years later.

00:19:43.060 And I think we're on the precipice of your great leadership, the great leadership in the House, and the White House, of making this happen.

00:19:52.380 And I agree with you.

00:19:53.580 I think we're going to look back in 10 or 20 years, and this is going to be a massive legacy of this moment.

00:19:59.480 You just said a word a moment ago.

00:20:01.240 The word, and it's become a bad word now, is bipartisan.

00:20:04.420 It, like, never happens anymore.

00:20:05.760 So I'm going to ask both of you this.

00:20:07.420 Is there a chance that this can be such a great idea that it is, in fact, bipartisan and that Democrats and Republicans can work together like they used to 20, 30 years ago when there are nonpartisan ideas that are just great ideas that are great for all Americans?

00:20:26.540 And this one, by the way, I would actually argue would skew more to helping those that are poor in this country than anyone else.

00:20:32.860 Unquestionably, and I'll give you some positive signs on this.

00:20:35.680 One, there are significant overlaps between this idea and an idea that Cory Booker had called baby bonds, and his idea was to create bonds and create a savings account for every baby born in America.

00:20:48.160 And when he was running for president, he campaigned on that, and Cory's a friend of mine.

00:20:51.940 Brad knows Cory well.

00:20:53.900 I will say this is different from Cory's baby bonds because I was not a supporter of just the baby bonds of an investment account that is accruing interest.

00:21:03.400 What really sold me on this was making a generation of capitalists, was the fact that this money is not just a savings account, which is easy for Democrats to support, but rather it is investing in the equity markets.

00:21:17.700 It is making children owners of the major companies in America.

00:21:21.900 And that, to me, was really exciting.

00:21:24.180 That being said, I think there's a good chance that we will get Democrats to support this.

00:21:29.660 I'll say Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat whip and very liberal senator, although I've served with him on the Judiciary Committee for 13 years.

00:21:38.480 Dick Durbin, in a press story today, actually praised this idea.

00:21:43.340 And his comment about me, that Dick is wicked smart, but what he said about me is he said, well, a stop clock is right twice a day.

00:21:50.360 And I actually ran into Dick in the hallway, and I said, Dick, you praised me in the press.

00:21:58.720 He said, it must have been a mistake.

00:22:00.180 And I reminded him of the quote, and he laughed.

00:22:02.840 And I said, Dick, it's a good thing you're retiring.

00:22:05.040 They might primary you in the Democrat primary for saying something nice about me.

00:22:08.380 But it's – and I'll tell you, there was another Democrat senator, a freshman who was newly elected, who came and approached me and said, I really like this idea.

00:22:16.100 This is interesting.

00:22:16.920 And I said, well, look, so no Democrat is going to vote for the reconciliation bill.

00:22:21.780 That's going to be a pure party line bill.

00:22:24.020 So the actual bill that passes this, no Democrat will vote for.

00:22:27.880 But what I told this Democrat freshman, I said, well, co-sponsor my Invest America bill so you can make clear you support it.

00:22:35.180 I think we've got a decent chance of getting Democrats on board.

00:22:38.640 Brad did a good job of talking to them.

00:22:40.880 And I will tell you a couple of things.

00:22:44.260 So Brad was describing all the time and energy he put in, and he said quite modestly, he said, well, I've had some success in business.

00:22:52.120 Ben, let me be clear.

00:22:53.440 Brad is a billionaire.

00:22:54.940 Like, he's got a crap ton of money, and he could sit back and play golf all day long and never need to work again, and he'd be fine.

00:23:02.420 And his kids would be fine, and his grandkids would be fine.

00:23:06.080 But he's not doing that.

00:23:07.180 A, he's got a ton of energy, but he has poured so much time and energy and money.

00:23:13.040 So I will tell you, the way this got done is he was relentless.

00:23:16.580 He was talking to everybody in the House.

00:23:18.360 Why is this in the House bill?

00:23:20.100 Because Brad was talking repeatedly to Jason Smith, the chairman of Ways and Means.

00:23:23.860 He was talking repeatedly to Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House.

00:23:26.760 By the way, I was too.

00:23:27.740 I was talking to both of them.

00:23:28.800 They're both good friends.

00:23:29.660 He was talking repeatedly to me and other senators.

00:23:33.380 I sat down with Brad this week with Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Finance Committee, who's drafting the tax portion of the reconciliation in the Senate.

00:23:41.740 He's been talking in the White House to Kevin Hassett, who runs the National Economic Council, over and over and over again.

00:23:46.860 He's been talking to the president.

00:23:48.520 It has been that relentless.

00:23:49.860 Listen, by the way, President Trump weighed in directly with the Speaker of the House and said, I like this idea included.

00:23:57.500 How did this idea get like like a lot of the press is shocked.

00:24:01.280 Why is this in the House bill?

00:24:04.220 A big part of the reason is the president weighed in and said, I really like this idea.

00:24:08.740 And so the House included it.

00:24:11.460 That wouldn't have happened without Brad's efforts and my efforts making the case to the House, to the Senate and to the White House.

00:24:19.460 And I think we will get this done and it will have an impact when all three of us are dead and buried.

00:24:27.620 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

00:24:37.060 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:24:43.400 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:24:47.220 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:24:48.320 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:24:49.520 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers,

00:24:56.580 all at different stages of their journey.

00:24:59.020 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:25:02.020 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:25:08.140 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:25:12.500 Is there going to be any oversight slash investigation?

00:25:16.760 Should there be from Congress?

00:25:18.400 And I know that's a weird question because there's some people like, look, we won.

00:25:21.240 Let's move on.

00:25:22.240 But like, I do actually, as an American citizen, want to know who is running the United States of America.

00:25:26.580 America that was elected by no one.

00:25:29.940 I want to know who was calling the shots.

00:25:32.020 It was elected by no one because whether I win or lose an election, my vote should not be canceled out by by some sort of dictator or tyrant within an administration that no one knows who's running a government.

00:25:42.640 And by the way, there's a related question to that, Ben, which is we've seen the stories that apparently a substantial number of official things that Biden signed were signed by the auto pen.

00:25:51.560 So was he even making the decision to sign them, right?

00:25:53.960 And he didn't even seem to know, like some of the pardons.

00:25:56.560 And I actually think you'll have this litigated.

00:25:58.820 I don't I don't not aware of any court that's ever decided is is a pardon.

00:26:03.640 Does a pardon have to actually be signed by the president?

00:26:06.480 So, look, every elected official has an auto pen.

00:26:08.820 I have an auto pen.

00:26:09.560 And so for things like constituent correspondence, if you write in to your senator, you'll get a response back and we try to respond substantively and the auto pen will sign it.

00:26:18.260 And I get millions of those letters.

00:26:19.500 So I couldn't physically sign them all.

00:26:21.540 All I'm thinking about right now is how where that auto pen is and how much fun I can have.

00:26:24.680 But keep going.

00:26:25.180 But look, it's fine for if something like correspondence, a birthday wish.

00:26:30.440 But the question is for something that has legal force of law.

00:26:34.280 And I actually want to know, did they use the auto pen to sign any legislation?

00:26:37.760 Because it's not clear to me legislation that the president didn't sign has legal force.

00:26:42.820 The auto pen is not the commander in chief and the chief.

00:26:46.140 What about judges, for example, if he did an auto pen, which means he I'm truly convinced that he didn't know what was going on.

00:26:52.880 He didn't know who he's appointing.

00:26:54.000 He probably didn't know who he was pardoning.

00:26:56.180 And if that's happening, then this are where it'll be litigated.

00:26:59.120 OK, and that will why is that so different?

00:27:02.180 Because, look, it's interesting, like a pardon under the Constitution.

00:27:05.960 All you have to have is a document from the president that said, you know, I I pardoned Ben Ferguson.

00:27:12.680 And and and suddenly, actually, only if it's a federal offense.

00:27:15.640 So you can't only only if it's a federal offense.

00:27:17.520 Yeah.

00:27:18.040 The abuse I take the abuse I take.

00:27:20.280 But it literally there's no pomp and circumstance.

00:27:23.980 It doesn't have to have gold leaf on the paper.

00:27:26.700 It doesn't have to be an official.

00:27:28.180 It just a piece of paper with a signature with those words in his signature.

00:27:32.120 That is legally a pardon.

00:27:33.700 But if you don't actually have a signature, listen, I've been in the Oval dozens of times, probably more when when President Trump is signing things and he pulls out.

00:27:43.700 He actually.

00:27:44.720 So have you seen the president?

00:27:46.040 I've got one.

00:27:46.940 Oh, yeah.

00:27:47.300 I've got I've got one of the big Sharpies with a signature on the Sharpie.

00:27:50.720 Like most presidents use like a Sharpie to have a siding pen.

00:27:54.460 But President Trump's it's a marker that's probably, what, 10 inches long and maybe.

00:28:00.120 And it's gold.

00:28:00.560 It has like gold.

00:28:01.380 It's signature and like an inch in diameter.

00:28:03.400 Like it's it is massive.

00:28:05.520 But he signs one after the other, after the other, after the other, because that's what gives it legal force of law. 0.93

00:28:11.760 If you have a president that's mentally incompetent and you have staffers running thing, it makes you wonder. 0.78

00:28:18.480 Dr. Fauci's pardon. 0.96

00:28:20.760 Is it legit?

00:28:21.380 Did Biden sign it?

00:28:21.960 I don't know.

00:28:22.380 Yeah.

00:28:22.680 And if it's the auto pen, which I'm sure they can figure that out.

00:28:26.260 It will be.

00:28:27.580 It's an interesting question.

00:28:29.520 You know, I'll say a few more of these quotes from from the cabinet members.

00:28:32.660 Um, the the cabinet members in this book, uh, described said one said, quote, the staff did him wrong.

00:28:41.240 If you were with him every day and you knew this was going to be a problem, why didn't you go to him and say something?

00:28:46.720 Another said, quote, access dropped off considerably in 2024.

00:28:50.320 And I didn't interact with him as much.

00:28:52.960 Uh, a third said, quote, yes, the president is making the decisions.

00:28:57.180 But if the inner circle is shaking, shaping them in such a way, is it really a decision?

00:29:01.640 And here was another cabinet secretary.

00:29:03.940 I don't think he has dementia, but the thing is, he's an old man.

00:29:07.340 The president can give you four to six good hours a day when he got tired.

00:29:10.680 Sloppy isn't the right word, but his guard was down.

00:29:13.720 That would be the commander in chief of the United States.

00:29:16.000 I want to go back to the last quote, Senator, that you just said about the people around the president.

00:29:22.240 Now that it's over, now that everybody knows the cognitive decline, now that the books are being written,

00:29:27.020 they're telling you they may have only gotten four hours a day out of the president of the United States of America.

00:29:32.120 That is maybe one of the most shocking statements I've ever heard about any president.

00:29:36.120 Yeah, look, it's, he was not mentally capable to do the job.

00:29:40.760 They knew it and they lied about it.

00:29:42.160 And by the way, Jake Tapper's whole premise that, gosh, little old me, Jake, was deceived.

00:29:47.220 They just didn't tell me the truth.

00:29:48.600 I just didn't know.

00:29:49.660 Well, Jake, if you listened to Verdict, we were telling you the facts and we were telling you the facts early on.

00:29:56.800 Here, I want you to go back to January of 2024.

00:29:59.620 I want you to listen to a segment of Ben and me in the podcast back in January of 24 talking about Biden's deterioration.

00:30:07.000 Give a listen.

00:30:08.160 You and I and kind of anyone with eyes and common sense have been observing for a long time that Joe Biden's cognitive decline is massive.

00:30:17.640 But it's easy for some observers to dismiss that and say, you know, these these guys are biased.

00:30:25.060 They're partisans.

00:30:25.840 They don't like Biden.

00:30:26.880 So what they're saying is not true.

00:30:29.100 In this instance, the people speaking are the Biden Department of Justice and not any Department of Justice.

00:30:39.100 This is a Department of Justice that has proven itself the most politicized and partisan Department of Justice in history.

00:30:45.480 And they have argued.

00:30:48.780 So, for example, I'm going to read you a paragraph from the report in his interview with our office.

00:30:54.560 Mr. Biden's memory was worse.

00:30:58.160 He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended.

00:31:05.640 Quote, if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice president and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began.

00:31:16.040 Quote, in 2009.

00:31:18.440 Am I still vice president?

00:31:21.360 He did not remember even within several years when his son Bo died.

00:31:27.920 And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.

00:31:37.140 Among other things, he mistakenly said he, quote, had a real difference of opinion with General Carl Eitkenberry.

00:31:47.180 When, in fact, Eitkenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.

00:31:57.540 All of that was authored by the Biden Department of Justice. 0.71

00:32:01.840 And when they are describing the sitting president as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, the natural question for anyone to say is, holy crap, if he's not competent to stand trial, why is he the commander-in-chief with the authority to send our sons and daughters into harm's way? 0.76

00:32:23.360 Why does he have access to the nuclear codes? 0.95

00:32:26.040 Understand, the description here, they say you couldn't charge him with a crime because he's not aware of enough to have the requisite mental intent.

00:32:35.380 And yet, Joe Biden tonight, if he so desired, could literally exterminate humanity from the face of the planet.

00:32:43.380 As commander-in-chief, if he gave the order, launch the nuclear weapons now,

00:32:48.880 unless the military refused to obey the commander-in-chief, Joe Biden could exterminate every life on this planet.

00:32:58.720 And if he's not mentally competent to stand trial, that is terrifying.

00:33:04.200 So that was a year and a half ago.

00:33:05.820 Yeah, a year and a half ago.

00:33:07.000 On this podcast, and understand the entire basis of Tapper's book is he couldn't possibly know about, known about this mental decline.

00:33:13.600 The Department of Justice, and this would be the Biden Department of Justice, went into court.

00:33:18.740 So the Robert Herr report, remember, they did not prosecute Biden.

00:33:22.500 And when was that?

00:33:23.240 Do you remember the time frame on that?

00:33:24.900 That was early 24.

00:33:26.760 Yeah, early 24.

00:33:27.760 We covered it a lot.

00:33:28.720 And that was them interviewing him in 23.

00:33:31.220 Right.

00:33:31.700 So in 23, when they were interviewing Joe Biden, they then in 24 told America,

00:33:37.380 he's so bad off, we can't even charge him with anything.

00:33:40.540 So they concluded if they charged him, he would be found not competent to be convicted.

00:33:47.340 That is a stunning—look, there's a standard.

00:33:49.140 There are people that are not competent to be tried.

00:33:51.200 If you have dementia, if you're, like, mentally ill, that you're not able—

00:33:55.620 the legal standard is you have to form what's called mens rea, which is intent.

00:33:59.860 And they said, well, he's so old and senile, we can't charge him.

00:34:03.300 So that's why they said, oh, yeah, he clearly violated the law.

00:34:05.960 He committed a felony.

00:34:06.760 Remember, he kept classified materials everywhere, including his garage next to his antique car.

00:34:12.320 Not a joke.

00:34:13.020 That's real.

00:34:14.020 And they said he was guilty of that, but they couldn't charge him because he was incompetent to stand trial.

00:34:19.500 I want you to listen in 2023 to me laying out his mental decline and MSNBC, Morning Joe, making fun of me for it.

00:34:28.500 Give a listen.

00:34:28.800 This is, like, one of their big intros, May 4, 2023.

00:34:31.940 2011, when Republicans in the House stood strong on the debt ceiling, again, because Democrats had had majority of the Congress for two years,

00:34:43.740 had passed trillions in irresponsible spending, and Republicans stood strong and said,

00:34:48.680 we will not raise the debt ceiling without serious fiscal reform.

00:34:52.580 What happened?

00:34:53.100 Then-Vice President Joe Biden came and negotiated a deal, a deal called the Budget Control Act.

00:35:00.900 Vice President Biden sat down with House Republicans and reached a meaningful compromise.

00:35:07.680 President Joe Biden needs to do the same thing.

00:35:10.320 And I'll say, sadly, the reason he hasn't so far, I believe, is because his mental faculties are too diminished right now.

00:35:21.580 You know, you know, hold on, hold on, hold on.

00:35:24.780 What?

00:35:25.660 He has such a point.

00:35:27.120 Yes. 0.67

00:35:27.480 His mental faculties are so diminished.

00:35:30.060 Yeah.

00:35:30.300 That he passed more bipartisan, signed more bipartisan legislation.

00:35:35.500 Didn't even know he was doing it.

00:35:37.020 Last year than any president since LBJ.

00:35:43.400 My God, if he were as cogent as he had been in 2011.

00:35:46.740 Think of what he could have done.

00:35:47.560 He could have been.

00:35:48.980 You could have gone back to FDR. 0.69

00:35:51.300 What else he did without apparently realizing what he was doing?

00:35:55.420 He, like, held NATO together to fight Russian aggression in Ukraine.

00:36:01.860 And my God, I know he only increased the 800-mile border NATO with Russia.

00:36:10.000 Exactly.

00:36:10.160 But I guess he, you know, he thought he was.

00:36:12.360 I hate it when that happens.

00:36:13.340 You know, it reminds me of Ronald Reagan when he was speaking at Harvard, a Eureka College grad.

00:36:18.700 And he's sitting there talking to the grads and he's making fun of his education at the end.

00:36:22.760 And he goes, you know, sometimes I just sit here with a presidential seal in front of him.

00:36:27.580 And I wonder what I could have been with a good education.

00:36:33.100 Tim Cruz, go back and read Reagan.

00:36:36.200 You'll learn a lot.

00:36:37.980 Go back and read Reagan, he says, by golly.

00:36:40.360 I mean, I love this.

00:36:41.560 And by the way, we do know who was doing it now.

00:36:43.160 It was either A and AutoPen or a bunch of old staffers.

00:36:45.820 So I'm curious.

00:36:47.500 I may have missed this, but has Joe Scarborough apologized for lying to America?

00:36:52.080 No.

00:36:52.760 He's probably writing a book about the decline of Joe Biden and how they were all had no idea.

00:36:57.120 Has MSNBC, has NBC, have any of them apologized?

00:36:59.960 They knew he was mentally diminished and they covered it up because they were partisans and they supported his agenda.

00:37:07.380 To heck with whether we had a competent commander in chief or not.

00:37:10.500 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:37:15.580 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:37:19.180 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:37:22.520 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:37:26.360 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:37:29.780 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:37:32.660 Guaranteed human.

00:37:33.320 Thank you.

00:37:34.360 Welcome to Movies in.

00:37:46.360 We'll see you next time.

00:37:47.520 Bye-bye.

00:37:47.680 Bye-bye.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 17, 2025

Ayatollah Outta Controllah, 401 (K) for your Kids & 'Was' Biden POTUS for 4yrs？ He Can't Remember Week In Review

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