Verdict with Ted Cruz - Balloons, 80s Rock, Big Tech, Radicals On The FCC & James Clapper Running Scared

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.620 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:06.960 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.220 Senator, you're in Washington, D.C. right now.

00:00:10.460 And I am going to let people know in advance

00:00:13.380 where we're going on the pod today

00:00:14.760 because we have so much news.

00:00:16.580 So we're going to talk about the balloon

00:00:18.120 and the classified briefing that you just got out of.

00:00:20.580 We're also going to talk about

00:00:21.840 some significant big tech legislation

00:00:23.660 that you are authoring.

00:00:25.180 And then there was an amazing hearing today

00:00:28.140 that deals with the FCC and G.G. Saund

00:00:31.080 and an amazing back and forth.

00:00:33.500 And then we're also, if we have time,

00:00:34.920 we're going to get to this shocking about face

00:00:37.760 from James Clapper dealing with those,

00:00:40.020 the Hunter Biden laptop.

00:00:42.000 But before we get to the rest of that,

00:00:44.200 I want to talk about this classified briefing

00:00:47.060 that you got out of today.

00:00:49.400 What can you tell us about

00:00:51.340 what we've learned about the balloon?

00:00:52.740 We've seen a lot of the headlines.

00:00:54.380 We now are shooting down things left and right.

00:00:57.500 There's even been some people out there,

00:00:59.300 Senator, saying,

00:01:00.220 are we maybe overreacting politically

00:01:02.400 because the White House got the first one so wrong

00:01:04.640 that they're shooting everything down.

00:01:06.100 There's even been people speculating

00:01:07.340 that some of the things we may have shut down

00:01:09.420 may have actually been literal space junk.

00:01:12.800 And this is just to try to show,

00:01:14.840 you know, we're tough on balloons in outer space

00:01:17.160 or, you know, at 60,000 feet.

00:01:19.340 Let's, you know,

00:01:20.160 that's kind of where America is right now.

00:01:21.880 It's very weird.

00:01:23.300 So what can I tell you about it? 0.93

00:01:25.000 Not a damn thing. 0.96

00:01:26.660 So last week on the pod, 0.87

00:01:30.060 we talked about the classified briefing

00:01:31.880 that I went to last week

00:01:33.080 that focused on the first Chinese spy balloon,

00:01:36.300 the one that spent over a week

00:01:37.540 in American airspace conducting espionage

00:01:39.780 that ultimately Biden shot down over the Atlantic

00:01:42.620 after it had traversed the continental United States,

00:01:45.220 after it had completed its espionage mission.

00:01:48.400 Since then,

00:01:49.280 we've had three other objects shot down in space.

00:01:52.100 This morning,

00:01:54.120 I went to a second classified briefing

00:01:56.380 on the new object shut down in space.

00:01:58.200 I have to admit,

00:01:58.760 I was really curious

00:01:59.820 to find out

00:02:01.920 what they were.

00:02:03.820 Now,

00:02:04.380 I can't

00:02:06.320 disclose

00:02:06.820 anything

00:02:07.680 said in the classified briefing,

00:02:10.220 but to be honest,

00:02:12.620 I don't know that there's anything to disclose.

00:02:14.980 It was one of the least

00:02:16.460 satisfying

00:02:17.760 classified briefings

00:02:19.500 I've ever had.

00:02:22.020 Their lips were moving.

00:02:23.480 I'm not sure what they said.

00:02:25.960 I got to say,

00:02:27.720 I think the American people

00:02:29.780 are quite reasonably asking

00:02:32.100 a whole series of questions.

00:02:34.440 What the hell were the things

00:02:35.940 we just shot down?

00:02:37.600 Where did they come from?

00:02:39.100 Did they come from China?

00:02:41.000 Were they spy satellites

00:02:42.620 or spy balloons

00:02:43.560 or spy drones

00:02:44.680 or,

00:02:45.260 I don't know,

00:02:45.760 spy kites?

00:02:49.340 What were they doing?

00:02:50.700 Why did we shoot them down?

00:02:52.140 What was the danger they posed?

00:02:53.920 Those are all really reasonable questions.

00:02:55.700 Those are questions

00:02:56.320 I'm hearing from Texans.

00:02:58.560 Right now,

00:02:59.360 the Biden administration

00:03:00.280 is answering

00:03:01.220 zero of them.

00:03:03.520 It's not telling

00:03:04.620 the American people.

00:03:05.700 Actually,

00:03:05.900 the moment

00:03:06.280 that I thought

00:03:07.700 was most telling

00:03:08.660 was during the classified briefing

00:03:10.200 when a couple of senators

00:03:11.760 chewed out

00:03:12.840 the administration

00:03:13.500 and said,

00:03:14.180 look,

00:03:14.700 you owe it

00:03:15.500 to the American people

00:03:16.540 to be candid on this,

00:03:18.180 to stand up and say,

00:03:19.740 here's what we know.

00:03:20.840 And by the way,

00:03:21.520 if the answer is,

00:03:22.780 we don't know. 0.99

00:03:24.040 We shot some damn thing 0.99

00:03:25.520 down in the sky 0.99

00:03:26.340 and we don't know what it is.

00:03:27.360 We don't know where it came from.

00:03:28.560 It may have been,

00:03:29.260 you know,

00:03:30.200 Jim Bob jettisoned

00:03:31.320 his pickup truck

00:03:32.000 into the sky.

00:03:32.660 We don't know.

00:03:33.660 If that's the answer,

00:03:35.360 say it.

00:03:36.860 But right now,

00:03:37.960 this administration

00:03:38.640 believes

00:03:39.280 it doesn't owe

00:03:40.220 the American people

00:03:41.280 an explanation.

00:03:43.340 And I,

00:03:43.900 all right,

00:03:44.180 I got to ask you something.

00:03:45.360 All right,

00:03:45.600 so Ben,

00:03:46.060 you're 43,

00:03:47.860 is that right?

00:03:48.740 You don't have to age me

00:03:50.060 that much.

00:03:50.780 41,

00:03:51.420 give me a little bit

00:03:52.060 of a break here.

00:03:52.500 41, all right.

00:03:53.120 So I want to test you

00:03:54.640 on something.

00:03:56.200 Did you get the reference

00:03:58.120 from the title

00:03:59.960 of our last podcast?

00:04:01.560 So our last podcast,

00:04:02.620 usually I come up

00:04:03.540 with the titles

00:04:04.120 because Ben,

00:04:05.840 he's very talented,

00:04:06.740 but he writes

00:04:07.160 long paragraph titles

00:04:08.360 and I said,

00:04:08.920 they're too long.

00:04:09.520 I want them punchier.

00:04:10.340 And so I come up 0.86

00:04:11.060 with more smart ass titles.

00:04:13.460 This is true.

00:04:14.420 This is,

00:04:14.780 this is totally accurate.

00:04:16.020 Am I characterizing

00:04:17.200 that too loosely?

00:04:18.220 That is 100% accurate.

00:04:22.400 So the last title

00:04:24.320 started out

00:04:24.980 with 99 Chinese balloons.

00:04:26.880 And my question to you,

00:04:28.400 which I asked several people

00:04:29.360 on my staff today,

00:04:30.900 do you get the reference?

00:04:32.060 And none of the 20 something 0.92

00:04:33.420 year olds on my staff

00:04:34.520 got the reference.

00:04:35.240 So do you get the reference?

00:04:36.220 So when I got it,

00:04:38.160 the first thing

00:04:38.720 that came to my mind

00:04:39.720 was 99 bottles

00:04:40.620 of beer on the wall.

00:04:43.720 I thought that was pretty good.

00:04:45.520 I'm not going to lie.

00:04:46.380 That's it.

00:04:47.400 Immediately I was like,

00:04:48.320 99 bottles of beer

00:04:49.220 on the wall.

00:04:49.600 That's what I thought.

00:04:50.920 Well,

00:04:51.520 then it is the difference.

00:04:53.580 So I'm 52,

00:04:54.600 you're 41.

00:04:55.560 That decade matters. 0.62

00:04:57.320 So what is it

00:04:58.320 in reference to?

00:04:58.940 Some like 80s hair band song

00:05:00.500 I don't know of?

00:05:01.480 Yes.

00:05:02.180 All right.

00:05:02.500 Well,

00:05:02.680 at least see,

00:05:03.380 I can get there quickly.

00:05:04.780 That's exactly what it was.

00:05:06.620 It was a song

00:05:07.320 that came out in 1983

00:05:08.680 by an artist,

00:05:10.040 Nenna,

00:05:10.520 a German artist.

00:05:12.320 And it was 99 Luftballons.

00:05:15.600 And it was 99 Luftballons.

00:05:19.840 Da da da da.

00:05:21.080 And it was interesting.

00:05:22.500 So I actually pulled it up.

00:05:24.420 It was a protest song

00:05:26.560 about 99 red balloons

00:05:29.560 floating in the summer sky.

00:05:30.940 Panic bells,

00:05:31.520 it's red alert.

00:05:32.280 There's something here

00:05:33.060 from somewhere else.

00:05:33.940 The war machine

00:05:35.240 springs to life,

00:05:36.540 opens up one eager eye,

00:05:39.200 focusing it on the sky.

00:05:40.760 The 99 red balloons go by.

00:05:43.080 And it goes on to say,

00:05:45.160 this is it, boys.

00:05:46.040 This is war.

00:05:46.800 The president is on the line

00:05:48.120 as 99 red balloons go by.

00:05:50.060 And it was a German protest song.

00:05:51.900 Everyone's a Captain Kirk

00:05:53.200 with orders to identify,

00:05:55.200 to clarify and classify,

00:05:56.740 scrambling the summer sky.

00:05:58.480 99 red balloons go by.

00:06:00.300 And it was this 80s German protest song

00:06:04.200 against war

00:06:05.020 about this guy and girl

00:06:06.360 that released 99 red balloons

00:06:08.200 into the sky. 0.99

00:06:09.980 And it feels like they're 99 damn Chinese balloons 0.98

00:06:13.080 floating. 0.98

00:06:14.760 All right.

00:06:16.900 I am going to say something.

00:06:18.940 Okay.

00:06:19.180 If I get prosecuted,

00:06:20.520 Ben,

00:06:20.640 I want you to provide my,

00:06:21.960 my defense counsel.

00:06:25.980 Done.

00:06:26.440 I'm going to say something

00:06:27.480 that was said in the classified briefing,

00:06:29.000 but I feel very confident

00:06:30.360 this statement is not classified.

00:06:33.080 One of the generals

00:06:34.100 who was briefing us

00:06:35.180 said that he's been so busy

00:06:37.340 that he woke up this morning

00:06:39.420 and he had forgotten

00:06:41.340 it was Valentine's Day

00:06:42.640 and he didn't understand

00:06:43.540 why his wife 0.93

00:06:44.160 had given him a present

00:06:45.040 and he said he hadn't gotten

00:06:46.300 anything for his wife

00:06:48.140 on Valentine's Day

00:06:49.220 and he was worried.

00:06:50.040 A bunch of us called out,

00:06:51.060 said there's a gift shop

00:06:51.800 in the Capitol.

00:06:53.440 And one of the Democrat senators

00:06:56.080 leaned forward in the mic

00:06:57.240 and said,

00:06:57.700 my only advice is

00:06:58.620 don't get her a balloon. 0.98

00:06:59.500 So that was said in the skiff,

00:07:04.660 but I feel confident

00:07:05.620 there's no classification

00:07:06.660 that attaches to it.

00:07:08.000 That's awesome.

00:07:08.820 I have,

00:07:09.380 I have literally three questions

00:07:11.200 that I know everybody else

00:07:12.660 is asking.

00:07:13.420 So I want to ask you those

00:07:14.780 before I do,

00:07:15.460 I got to tell all of the,

00:07:16.940 everyone listening

00:07:17.540 about our good friends

00:07:18.800 over against his precious metals.

00:07:20.240 And if you've been saving

00:07:21.360 for your retirement

00:07:22.040 for a long time

00:07:22.960 and you know

00:07:24.540 how important it is

00:07:25.760 to protect your money,

00:07:27.840 they can help you do that

00:07:28.920 with a gold IRA.

00:07:30.280 I use Augusta Precious Metals.

00:07:32.920 I have used them

00:07:33.900 for part of my retirement

00:07:35.420 and they are different

00:07:36.580 because not only

00:07:37.500 will they tell you

00:07:38.340 if a gold IRA

00:07:39.180 isn't your answer,

00:07:41.620 they will also give you

00:07:43.060 a lot of facts.

00:07:44.600 They do something

00:07:45.420 that's really cool.

00:07:46.420 They do a web conference

00:07:47.880 with each and every person

00:07:49.380 that wants to learn more

00:07:51.000 about how gold IRAs work

00:07:52.700 and how it can help you

00:07:53.820 with your 401k.

00:07:55.320 So important right now,

00:07:56.640 if you're close to retirement,

00:07:57.880 you want to protect

00:07:59.220 your assets

00:07:59.980 because you don't have

00:08:01.100 the time to make up losses.

00:08:03.140 That is why

00:08:03.700 you should call

00:08:04.260 Augusta Precious Metals.

00:08:05.240 If you've saved

00:08:05.800 $100,000 or more,

00:08:07.900 take a look

00:08:08.420 at their free guide

00:08:09.220 and you can sign up

00:08:10.380 for their web conference.

00:08:12.620 1-877-4-GOLD IRA.

00:08:15.760 That's 1-877-4-GOLD IRA.

00:08:18.760 Or visit

00:08:19.400 AugustaPreciousMetals.com.

00:08:21.760 Say, I sent you

00:08:23.000 and they'll pay your fees

00:08:23.920 for up to 10 years.

00:08:24.740 That's AugustaPreciousMetals.com.

00:08:26.980 All right, Senator,

00:08:27.820 my question for you first is,

00:08:29.900 we've been focusing so much

00:08:31.340 on the 99 balloons, right,

00:08:32.780 to go back to the song here,

00:08:35.300 being from China.

00:08:36.520 And actually,

00:08:37.120 before we get

00:08:37.960 to your substantive question,

00:08:39.540 I want to do something

00:08:41.020 for the cultural enlightenment

00:08:44.140 of Benjamin Ferguson.

00:08:46.120 I know this one.

00:08:55.940 Here's the part

00:09:15.160 everybody's going to know.

00:09:17.960 Ah, there we go.

00:09:19.900 All right, Senator,

00:09:20.680 see,

00:09:20.980 you actually impressed me

00:09:22.740 because you actually

00:09:23.740 went to something

00:09:25.240 in the 80s pop culture

00:09:26.400 that has 23 million views

00:09:29.020 on this video on YouTube.

00:09:31.220 So I have to give you

00:09:32.100 a little street credit for that.

00:09:33.520 And Ben, that came out

00:09:33.540 when you were a year old.

00:09:35.220 Yes.

00:09:36.180 And I will tell you,

00:09:37.420 it was depressing.

00:09:38.400 I asked my staff,

00:09:39.520 and most of my staffers

00:09:40.520 are in their 20s,

00:09:41.380 and they all looked at me

00:09:42.420 and were like,

00:09:42.880 we have no idea what that is.

00:09:44.520 Yeah, we have no idea.

00:09:45.540 I would hope

00:09:46.400 if they heard the song,

00:09:47.240 they would know it, though,

00:09:47.940 at that point.

00:09:48.080 Did you ever see the movie

00:09:48.740 Gross Point Blank?

00:09:49.900 Nope, never saw it.

00:09:50.780 Oh, it's great.

00:09:51.900 It's a movie.

00:09:52.420 John Cusack is a...

00:09:53.480 Is it in black and white?

00:09:55.220 No.

00:09:56.240 John Cusack is a hitman

00:09:57.700 who goes back

00:09:58.480 to his 80s high school reunion,

00:10:00.160 and he's a hitman there.

00:10:01.280 But they play 99 Luftballons.

00:10:02.880 It was sort of a...

00:10:04.400 Anyway,

00:10:04.840 if you are 52 years old,

00:10:07.880 that pulls the nostalgia strings.

00:10:10.640 All right,

00:10:10.880 you had a serious question.

00:10:12.000 Why are you distracting us, man?

00:10:13.200 Get back to substance.

00:10:14.140 Last question on this,

00:10:15.340 just real quick.

00:10:15.960 When you and your family

00:10:16.940 were traveling

00:10:17.700 when you were a young boy,

00:10:18.660 did y'all stop at hotels

00:10:20.180 that said color TV and A.C.?

00:10:21.820 Is that what it was like

00:10:23.640 when you were growing up?

00:10:24.820 I just want to know.

00:10:26.020 It wasn't quite like horse and buggy.

00:10:28.820 Okay, all right.

00:10:29.680 I just want to know.

00:10:30.620 I have a feeling

00:10:31.700 that the dad,

00:10:33.600 your dad pulled over

00:10:34.820 at a hotel with you

00:10:35.940 and it said colored television.

00:10:38.260 All right.

00:10:38.520 I'm just going to...

00:10:39.020 I'm going to go out

00:10:39.680 and a limb on that one.

00:10:40.360 Here's a guess.

00:10:40.640 What do you think I got

00:10:44.320 that I still remember

00:10:46.040 as the coolest Christmas present ever

00:10:48.900 when I was six years old?

00:10:51.220 So I was six years old in 1976.

00:10:53.080 What do you think I got?

00:10:54.200 Anything with batteries?

00:10:56.220 Yes.

00:10:57.260 Okay.

00:10:58.720 I have absolutely no idea

00:11:01.840 because I didn't even know

00:11:03.160 they had battery-operated toys

00:11:04.480 when you were around back then.

00:11:06.100 Actually, technically,

00:11:06.980 it wasn't batteries.

00:11:07.560 It's just so fun hazing you

00:11:07.820 on your age.

00:11:08.680 I know.

00:11:08.980 This is a blast for me.

00:11:10.020 And look,

00:11:10.760 in the Senate,

00:11:11.440 they call me Skippy.

00:11:12.680 They think I wear short shorts

00:11:14.080 and a propeller hat

00:11:14.980 because the average age there

00:11:16.140 is 103.

00:11:17.560 That's true.

00:11:17.960 So it's all relative.

00:11:19.720 But 1976,

00:11:21.960 when I was six years old,

00:11:23.100 for Christmas,

00:11:23.860 I got Pong.

00:11:25.120 It actually didn't use batteries.

00:11:26.100 Oh, yeah.

00:11:26.460 That was a great game.

00:11:27.620 It was the first video game ever.

00:11:29.560 So it was before Atari

00:11:30.600 and I went through

00:11:31.740 the whole berth.

00:11:32.680 I mean, I'm a gamer,

00:11:33.740 but I got Pong

00:11:35.540 for Christmas in 76

00:11:37.460 and it was the coolest thing ever.

00:11:39.600 You hooked it up to your TV.

00:11:41.160 You turned the dial

00:11:42.480 and it was table tennis.

00:11:44.400 It was the first video game

00:11:45.880 that people had at home.

00:11:47.220 Just when I thought

00:11:48.360 we totally lost you,

00:11:49.400 you just redeemed yourself.

00:11:50.600 All right.

00:11:50.940 Back to this question

00:11:51.880 I have to ask you.

00:11:53.500 Everybody that I've talked to

00:11:55.140 has been asking me the same thing.

00:11:57.100 Are all these objects

00:11:58.580 just from China?

00:12:00.460 Are there other people

00:12:01.380 that may have been in on the game

00:12:02.940 that we are just now learning about

00:12:05.380 since his administration

00:12:06.420 really didn't seem to be focused

00:12:07.940 on this at all?

00:12:08.780 And we know for a fact now

00:12:10.340 that the Trump administration

00:12:11.860 was basically left in the dark

00:12:13.660 with balloons that were coming over

00:12:14.880 when he was in office.

00:12:16.780 Yeah.

00:12:16.960 The short answer is 0.90

00:12:18.020 I have no frigging idea.

00:12:19.280 I don't know.

00:12:20.900 I would like to know.

00:12:22.660 I'd like to know

00:12:23.660 what the hell it is we shot down.

00:12:25.980 And I think the administration

00:12:27.440 should stand up

00:12:29.040 and be candid

00:12:30.180 with the American people.

00:12:31.520 That's what a lot of us

00:12:32.500 were urging was

00:12:33.420 look, tell the American people.

00:12:35.220 I think it's a little weird

00:12:36.500 that we've shot four objects down

00:12:39.800 in the last 10 days

00:12:41.120 and Joe Biden hasn't addressed

00:12:43.020 the American people.

00:12:44.660 Like that's an odd dynamic

00:12:46.600 to say, okay,

00:12:47.500 here's what's going on. 0.90

00:12:48.780 We're shooting things

00:12:50.220 out of the sky.

00:12:52.040 I did see on Twitter

00:12:53.460 a picture of a guy

00:12:55.520 in full body cast

00:12:56.840 who said,

00:12:58.320 all I was doing

00:12:59.520 was floating along

00:13:00.480 on my balloon

00:13:01.120 at 40,000 feet

00:13:02.360 and out of nowhere,

00:13:03.540 bam! 0.98

00:13:04.380 Bam, yeah.

00:13:05.900 It is surreal

00:13:07.260 to see them not deal

00:13:08.460 with this publicly

00:13:09.320 like you mentioned.

00:13:10.320 It has disrupted

00:13:11.720 U.S. air travel.

00:13:13.560 A lot of people

00:13:14.180 have not talked about that

00:13:15.360 either in the media.

00:13:16.620 I mean,

00:13:16.780 this is a significant event

00:13:18.380 that's happened

00:13:18.900 over several different states now

00:13:20.540 with shutting down airspace

00:13:22.440 and planes being grounded

00:13:24.560 for several hours.

00:13:25.660 That disrupts people's lives

00:13:26.820 and still not a word

00:13:28.200 from the president.

00:13:29.000 I have to ask you,

00:13:30.180 and again,

00:13:30.660 it's going to be your opinion,

00:13:31.900 obviously,

00:13:32.760 but is this go back

00:13:34.240 to the issue

00:13:34.780 that this president

00:13:35.680 time and time again

00:13:36.960 refuses to stand up to China?

00:13:39.480 At what point

00:13:40.340 does that concern you

00:13:41.480 from a national security standpoint?

00:13:43.560 Well, Ben,

00:13:43.940 I think it's a combination

00:13:45.380 of things.

00:13:46.200 Number one,

00:13:46.920 when it comes to foreign policy

00:13:48.380 and in particular,

00:13:49.360 standing up to the bad guys,

00:13:50.640 standing up to our enemies,

00:13:51.820 whether that means China,

00:13:53.760 whether that means Russia,

00:13:54.780 whether that means Iran,

00:13:55.820 whether that means North Korea,

00:13:56.940 whether that means Venezuela,

00:13:58.100 whether that means Cuba.

00:14:00.060 Joe Biden

00:14:00.740 and his foreign policy team

00:14:02.140 is consistently weak.

00:14:03.680 If you're an enemy

00:14:04.440 of an America,

00:14:05.560 if you're an enemy of America,

00:14:06.580 you can count on weakness

00:14:07.800 and appeasement

00:14:08.480 from Joe Biden.

00:14:09.760 We saw that

00:14:10.640 with balloon number one.

00:14:11.760 balloon number one

00:14:12.800 for over a week,

00:14:14.360 it was allowed

00:14:14.980 to be over U.S. airspace

00:14:16.500 to conduct espionage

00:14:17.880 and they did nothing.

00:14:19.380 That was weakness.

00:14:21.040 But here's the second component.

00:14:22.680 It actually explains

00:14:23.660 this whole thing,

00:14:24.720 which is after weakness,

00:14:27.160 they view all of foreign policy

00:14:29.320 through the lens

00:14:30.280 of public relations.

00:14:32.880 It's a communications battle.

00:14:34.640 It's politics.

00:14:35.240 It's not actually

00:14:36.200 about protecting the country.

00:14:38.060 It's about PR.

00:14:39.520 So what did the administration

00:14:43.120 lean in vigorously on,

00:14:44.500 giving you all of these reasons

00:14:46.240 why it was fantastic

00:14:48.140 that we let the Chinese spy balloon

00:14:50.960 conduct espionage

00:14:52.000 over America

00:14:52.560 for over a week?

00:14:53.740 They said,

00:14:54.200 oh, it's really great

00:14:55.000 because we got to spy on them

00:14:56.460 while they were spying on us. 0.99

00:14:57.980 Well, hock diggity damn, 0.99

00:14:58.960 wouldn't that be great then 0.99

00:14:59.800 if Russia and Iran 0.79

00:15:01.560 and everyone else

00:15:02.180 sent balloons over us?

00:15:03.100 No. 1.00

00:15:04.260 That's idiotic. 1.00

00:15:05.360 But it's a spin. 1.00

00:15:06.260 It's the kind of thing

00:15:08.560 a 26-year-old political staffer

00:15:10.460 types out as a talking point

00:15:11.760 and they lean in vigorously.

00:15:13.480 That also explains

00:15:14.520 the stage they're at now

00:15:16.360 where they're like,

00:15:18.240 you know,

00:15:18.780 Yosemite Sam 0.99

00:15:19.820 just firing at every damn target 0.99

00:15:22.180 in the sky. 0.99

00:15:23.560 And, you know,

00:15:25.280 I said in the last pod

00:15:26.540 that I was glad

00:15:27.560 that Biden finally grew a pair

00:15:29.320 and shot these things down,

00:15:30.580 which is what he should have done

00:15:31.380 with the first one.

00:15:32.640 I'll say I got a little bit

00:15:33.920 of blowback

00:15:34.460 from some of my guys going,

00:15:36.020 well, yeah,

00:15:36.420 but we don't know what it is

00:15:37.280 he shot down.

00:15:38.980 That's a fair point,

00:15:40.100 to be honest.

00:15:41.000 I think there's a...

00:15:41.780 There's a lot of speculation today

00:15:43.560 that's been happening

00:15:44.260 on national news

00:15:45.520 that we may have actually

00:15:46.900 been shooting down

00:15:47.660 some stuff

00:15:48.260 that they referred to

00:15:48.960 as literal space junk.

00:15:53.040 It's...

00:15:53.680 I will say

00:15:54.600 I got a text

00:15:56.500 from a buddy of mine

00:15:58.140 who I was making a joke

00:16:00.040 about this

00:16:00.640 and he said,

00:16:01.100 well,

00:16:01.960 I'm at least comforted

00:16:03.260 that that means

00:16:03.960 it wasn't little green men

00:16:05.300 in UFOs

00:16:06.640 preparing to land

00:16:07.580 and I can't tell you

00:16:09.480 it wasn't little green men

00:16:10.520 in UFOs

00:16:11.060 preparing to land,

00:16:11.760 but I can tell you

00:16:12.360 if it was,

00:16:12.860 I don't know it.

00:16:14.420 So,

00:16:15.500 you know,

00:16:16.700 if that's happening,

00:16:18.940 the Biden administration

00:16:19.700 is keeping that

00:16:20.600 really close to the vest,

00:16:22.300 but it does make you think

00:16:24.760 that this is being driven

00:16:27.320 not by

00:16:28.540 a level-headed view

00:16:31.200 of the national security needs

00:16:32.580 of the United States,

00:16:33.420 but rather by the desire

00:16:35.020 to tell a political PR

00:16:39.140 communications narrative

00:16:40.500 and so right now

00:16:42.280 they're like,

00:16:42.900 uh-oh,

00:16:43.480 we looked weak, 1.00

00:16:45.000 let's shoot a bunch of crap down 1.00

00:16:46.420 to show how tough we are. 1.00

00:16:48.040 Canadian women

00:16:48.900 are looking for more,

00:16:50.240 more to themselves,

00:16:51.300 their businesses,

00:16:52.240 their elected leaders,

00:16:53.180 and the world around them.

00:16:54.420 And that's why we're thrilled

00:16:55.380 to introduce

00:16:56.020 the Honest Talk podcast.

00:16:58.140 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:16:59.060 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:17:00.560 And in this podcast,

00:17:01.700 we interview Canada's

00:17:02.660 most inspiring women,

00:17:04.160 entrepreneurs,

00:17:05.000 artists,

00:17:05.660 athletes,

00:17:06.280 politicians,

00:17:06.920 and newsmakers,

00:17:07.860 all at different stages

00:17:08.920 of their journey.

00:17:10.060 So,

00:17:10.400 if you're looking to connect,

00:17:11.860 then we hope you'll join us.

00:17:13.280 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast

00:17:14.660 on iHeartRadio

00:17:15.660 or wherever you listen

00:17:16.640 to your podcasts.

00:17:18.560 I want to move

00:17:19.600 to something else

00:17:20.420 that's a pretty big deal,

00:17:21.580 and that is the fact

00:17:22.420 that you have launched

00:17:23.340 sweeping big tech

00:17:24.540 oversight investigation.

00:17:27.240 You are the ranking member

00:17:28.640 of the Senate Committee

00:17:29.860 on Commerce,

00:17:31.220 and you've put together

00:17:32.560 this new oversight

00:17:34.560 investigation of big tech.

00:17:36.380 Talk a little bit

00:17:37.320 about what you hope

00:17:38.740 that this will accomplish

00:17:40.280 and how it will hold

00:17:41.540 big tech accountable.

00:17:43.140 So,

00:17:43.820 in this new Congress,

00:17:45.760 I am now the ranking member

00:17:47.460 on the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:17:48.760 What does that mean?

00:17:49.400 I'm the senior Republican

00:17:50.720 on the Committee

00:17:52.500 of Commerce,

00:17:53.700 Science,

00:17:54.240 and Transportation.

00:17:54.740 information.

00:17:55.720 The Commerce Committee

00:17:57.180 has jurisdiction

00:17:58.900 over about half

00:18:00.320 of the U.S. economy.

00:18:02.040 So,

00:18:02.380 it has jurisdiction

00:18:03.060 over all of telecom,

00:18:04.480 it has jurisdiction

00:18:05.140 over the Internet,

00:18:06.260 it has jurisdiction

00:18:07.180 over aviation,

00:18:08.180 it has jurisdiction

00:18:08.780 over transportation,

00:18:09.940 it has jurisdiction

00:18:10.520 over the Federal Trade Commission,

00:18:12.280 it has jurisdiction

00:18:12.960 over the Commerce Department,

00:18:14.880 it has jurisdiction

00:18:15.440 over the Department

00:18:16.060 of Transportation,

00:18:17.560 the FAA,

00:18:18.620 the FCC,

00:18:19.180 it has jurisdiction over the alphabet soup of a whole bunch of different agencies pipelines and

00:18:27.940 trucking and so my role as the ranking member is I'm the senior Republican it means that that I'm

00:18:35.300 in the process right now of hiring staff on the committee and and basically doubling the size of

00:18:42.380 my Washington staff when you're the ranking member of a full committee you have resources to bring

00:18:47.040 in staff and so that's really potent because I'm bringing in very serious lawyers economists policy

00:18:53.740 experts to drive an agenda and and and with more resources we're able to engage in a lot more issues

00:19:00.360 and so the first big thing that I've done is the ranking member of the commerce committee

00:19:06.540 is launched an investigation of big tech censorship and so I sent letters this week

00:19:14.740 to the CEOs of Google and Meta the the parent of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter

00:19:23.060 Google's the parent of YouTube and and and also TikTok and asking a whole series of specific and

00:19:31.200 detailed questions focused on recommendation algorithms the algorithms where they say you're

00:19:37.180 on YouTube and they say hey you might like this next and it drives an enormous amount of traffic

00:19:41.980 where they suggest the content you might want and right now the question of recommendation algorithms

00:19:50.240 and whether it falls within the protections of section 230 of the communications decency act

00:19:56.680 which is the immunity big tech companies get from liability that's a question before the U.S.

00:20:02.680 Supreme Court and so I filed an amicus brief urging the court to to interpret the immunity narrowly

00:20:09.120 uh so as to not give a safe harbor for censorship and instead to encourage free speech

00:20:14.940 so this oversight letter is going in and asking very specific questions about how they determine what

00:20:21.860 to recommend what communications they're having with the federal government with democrats in congress

00:20:26.820 what they elevate what they suppress and over the next two years I'm going to engage in a systematic

00:20:35.180 careful investigation of the wholesale censorship of conservative speech we see on big tech

00:20:42.400 uh last week I spent a half hour on the phone with Elon Musk doing a deep dive into what he's found at

00:20:48.800 Twitter and and I think what he has made public and what he is revealing for me is serving as a

00:20:54.960 roadmap for the investigation for the commerce committee because all of the other big tech companies are going

00:21:00.700 holy crap how can Elon reveal this they had all assumed that they would remain this this all members of

00:21:07.680 the small billionaires club that are masters of the universe they get to decide who to censor and who to 0.97

00:21:12.580 silence and who not to and Elon is spoiling the party by making it all public and and so my hope is that

00:21:21.640 the results of this investigation that we see real and meaningful transparency that will make public

00:21:27.640 to the american people what's going on and that we see real and meaningful accountability and we're

00:21:33.320 going to devote a lot of time and energy to fighting for free speech online because I think

00:21:39.040 big tech censorship is the greatest threat in america to free speech and the greatest threat to free and

00:21:45.060 fair elections are there any democrats in the senate that that are that you're working with right now

00:21:50.760 on this that say they agree or is this a totally partisan issue where democrats say we got what we

00:21:58.440 want we own big tech they work with us we get these communication channels behind the scenes we can tell

00:22:05.260 them who to silence who to censor who to throttle what to you know we can push out like you said in

00:22:09.920 these algorithms things that we want you to see and and make sure that we bury the things of the right

00:22:14.500 or there's some democrats that actually understand how un-american this really is and what a threat this is

00:22:20.440 i i would argue to our freedoms in this country yeah maybe is the answer to that i don't know

00:22:27.880 i was just saying that didn't sound promising listen i'm trying to convince democrats that they should

00:22:33.240 care about this today's democrat party is much more comfortable with censorship than the democrats of

00:22:39.380 yesteryear but i'm trying to convince democrats so some of the arguments i'm giving there are a number

00:22:44.760 of democrats that care about the media and they want free and independent journalists and i've been

00:22:50.500 pointing out to them listen big tech bullies the media you look for example at the hunter biden fiasco

00:22:57.900 where they forced they blocked the new york post they deplatformed the new york post because it shared a

00:23:03.420 story it wrote a story they didn't like they bullied politico reporters who dared talk about the new york

00:23:08.900 post story the degree to which the traditional media is becoming just captive to and obedient to

00:23:17.420 big tech ought to scare you if you want a free and independent media and and what i've said secondly

00:23:23.700 to a number of democrats i've said look i get that right now maybe you agree with the political views

00:23:30.540 of big tech you agree with what the with what they're promoting and you agree you disagree with what

00:23:36.780 they're censoring so you might be happy substantively but the question i asked him i said look are are you

00:23:42.920 sure you want to embrace a system where a handful of silicon valley billionaires have complete and

00:23:51.220 unfettered power over what anyone is allowed to discuss politically in the public square in america i mean

00:23:58.780 today you agree with them but maybe tomorrow you won't and by the way elon musk is there now you've

00:24:04.000 already decided you don't agree with him how would you feel if suddenly they start censoring your

00:24:08.920 views i don't want any billionaires or anybody else to have the power to censor other americans i want

00:24:16.560 free speech i want everybody to be able to speak in the marketplace of ideas to decide and i will say look

00:24:23.380 are democrats persuaded not necessarily but i'll point to last year and you and i talked about this before

00:24:29.440 in the senate judiciary committee amy klobuchar democrat had legislation focused on local media

00:24:36.820 small newspapers small local stations to enable them to collectively bargain with big tech to force

00:24:43.860 big tech to pay for their content and it was in the judiciary committee and i introduced an amendment

00:24:49.200 that was targeted at censorship my laser focus on all of this is censorship and it served to restrict

00:24:56.740 big tech from engaging in political censorship and initially in the judiciary committee my amendment

00:25:02.080 was adopted and klobuchar the democrats pulled down their bill they're like oh crap we can't take it

00:25:08.020 with this amendment it was one of the more surreal moments i've ever seen in a committee where

00:25:13.080 literally i get an amendment in and so the author of the bill pulls it down well afterwards i went to

00:25:19.020 amy's office and we sat there with a notepad and wrote an amendment together and she accepted 0.94

00:25:24.280 a substantially similar amendment from me that was targeted at big tech censorship trying to rein it in

00:25:31.000 and the judiciary committee passed her bill with my amendment now the bill ultimately didn't pass on the

00:25:37.900 senate floor so it's not law but we did get bipartisan agreement to take a step against censorship and i think

00:25:44.260 that's the beginning and i'm going to keep working at it incrementally and and with with ferocious

00:25:51.360 determination because i think the danger to free speech is existential yeah no doubt about it i want

00:25:57.420 to i want to talk about what's happening also in washington as you're there with a very interesting

00:26:02.880 a lot of fireworks today with an scc nominee gg son we're going to deal with that in a moment

00:26:08.820 before i want to tell you though about uh my friends over at chalk we talked a lot about age

00:26:14.760 tonight on the show and um if you are feeling a little bit fatigued there is a great company

00:26:22.240 that can help you i'm talking about helping you feel like a real american man again that you can

00:26:28.020 maximize your masculinity masculinity by boosting your testosterone levels up to 20 over 90 days

00:26:34.480 i'm talking about chalk and the male vitality stack this is something that a lot of people i've i'm taking

00:26:42.960 it jesse kelly several others are taking it and it will help you maximize your testosterone levels

00:26:49.840 and that is something that'll make you feel like you're a good old american man again if you have been

00:26:55.880 feeling a little bit like you're not yourself you used to be check out and maximize it today

00:27:00.800 go to chalk choq.com use the code ben for 35 off any chalk subscriptions for life choq.com

00:27:12.300 and use the code ben for 35 off maximize your masculinity today choq.com senator gg song was uh a nominee for

00:27:24.440 the fcc i am afraid of the fcc because if you do what i do every day on radio you know the power

00:27:30.640 of the fcc uh you understand that they could they have a lot of influence over the airwaves

00:27:35.820 and they're supposed to be a non-partisan non-biased group of individuals that is something

00:27:43.400 that has been fought for years uh with the fcc they have a lot of power a lot of people don't know who's

00:27:49.380 on the fcc uh but this is a new woman who is been nominated and you've called her out for extreme 1.00

00:27:57.260 political bias which is exactly why it should disqualify her whether she's a republican or 0.96

00:28:02.580 democrat you're not supposed to have partisan hacks sitting there on the fcc regulating so many

00:28:08.720 different things that deal with content well that's exactly right gg soan is joe biden's nominee to be on

00:28:15.440 the federal communications commission the fcc has five commissioners three from the majority party who's

00:28:21.180 ever in power ever has the white house and two from the minority party gg soan is biden's nominee

00:28:27.280 she is from the far left she has been a left-wing liberal activist and radical her whole life she's

00:28:34.000 a true believer i'll credit her she believes in what she's doing she is a woman of the left she is

00:28:40.280 passionate uh but her record is extreme you know you talked about you're afraid of the fcc

00:28:46.760 you should be because gg soan has attacked conservative media she says fox news is destroying

00:28:54.680 democracy she describes fox news as state-sponsored propaganda she argued to the fcc they should revoke 0.99

00:29:02.100 sinclair's licenses sinclair is a major conservative uh tv outlet uh she has been vocal in using government

00:29:11.180 power against conservative voices in addition to that she's got enormous conflicts of interest so 0.53

00:29:18.540 so we had today her third confirmation hearing now that's amazing usually people have one confirmation

00:29:24.520 hearing in her instance she had one two years ago at that first confirmation hearing she hid

00:29:33.160 that she had been on the board of directors of a company that was engaged in litigation

00:29:40.220 against the major broadcasters for piracy for stealing their content and the company she was

00:29:46.920 on the board of lost that litigation settled that litigation and she actively misled the commerce 0.99

00:29:53.120 committee into thinking that the settlement was for 32 million dollars in fact the settlement was for

00:29:59.760 seven hundred thousand dollars so it was two percent of what was public she misled the committee about

00:30:06.320 it she misled the white house about it so we had a second hearing last year where that became public

00:30:12.180 how she'd misled the committee and now today with the new congress we had a third hearing she did not

00:30:18.500 get confirmed in the previous congress it was a 50 50 senate and there were a number of democrats who'd

00:30:24.240 expressed concerns a lot of folks thought biden would withdraw this nominee because it's really

00:30:30.460 doubtful she'll get confirmed she may or may not but i think the far left wants her so much they believe

00:30:37.740 she will be so aggressive in attacking conservative speech that they're willing to fight this fight 0.88

00:30:43.920 so as the ranking member on commerce my responsibility was to lead the fight against her and to lay out her

00:30:50.780 record why she's not suitable for the fcc yeah one of the one of the i think shocking moments uh today

00:30:58.880 it was you just calling out uh not only that she was helping organizations and and and individuals

00:31:06.700 that were attacking conservatives but also those on the left uh including joe manchin gary peters uh john

00:31:14.120 tester and kristin cinema and this was part of this exchange with you back and forth i want everybody to

00:31:19.320 hear it because it was just incredible to hear and then by the way all of those senators you mentioned

00:31:24.320 are democrats every one of the ones you listed are all democrat senators yeah and and she's attacking 0.99

00:31:30.340 them as well through these radical groups on on the left and as a broadcaster this is my worst nightmare

00:31:38.660 if she gets confirmed and the biden administration seems to help in on doing it take a listen though to

00:31:44.420 this back and forth from you today i thought it was brilliant mrs soan i think you have a long and

00:31:50.040 consistent career as a zealous partisan advocate there is a role for partisan advocates it just doesn't

00:31:56.680 happen to be on an independent agency charged with overseeing communications in the united states

00:32:02.200 you also have a consistent pattern of being unable to perceive conflicts of interest whether it is

00:32:09.200 deceiving this committee and the white house about the sweetheart settlement that you signed the day

00:32:14.600 after your nomination was announced or whether it is being the only nominee i've seen in a decade

00:32:21.720 to make contributions to senators who are voting on your nomination while your nomination is pending

00:32:28.620 or whether it is bizarrely supporting an extreme group that blasts multiple senators from both parties

00:32:37.280 now i asked you about joe manchin and the group fight for our future where they ran billboards

00:32:42.000 saying joe manchin is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that i asked you whether you agreed with

00:32:47.240 them that john tester is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that i asked you whether you agreed with

00:32:52.460 them that gary peters is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that well i didn't get to finish

00:32:56.600 wait are you gonna go are you gonna go to me oh i am okay because she's attacked you too but

00:33:02.800 that was maria can't well the chair i think an organization the group that that but not just

00:33:08.020 but not even money for to be clear when you said that is maria can't well the chair that's a democrat 1.00

00:33:13.620 am i right yes that's a democrat from washington state who's the chairman of the commerce committee

00:33:18.720 so she jumps in and asks uh are you going to call her out for attacking me and and i said 0.98

00:33:24.200 oh yes i am so so keep playing for so so this group also ran the following billboard it is a

00:33:32.340 picture of senator senator cinema also a member of this committee and it's not subtle in case you want

00:33:38.700 to miss the message they're trying to convey it's in bright red right at the top it says cinema is

00:33:44.240 corrupt do you agree with their sentiment that senator cinema is corrupt of course not of course not okay

00:33:51.880 you say of course not so that billboard went up in 2019 at the end of 2019 what did you do

00:33:59.080 you sent out a fundraising email for this organization at the end of 2019 so after they

00:34:04.900 had put this billboard up did you know about the billboards they put up attacking mansion and peters

00:34:10.800 and testers and cinema i only actually knew the one about senator cinema i didn't know about the

00:34:15.240 other ones okay so you knew they'd called senator cinema corrupt i did and after they called senator

00:34:20.640 cinema corrupt you asked people to contribute to them is that correct i asked people to contribute

00:34:25.780 not because of all that's a yes or no one time yes i did okay so you knew they were calling senator

00:34:31.300 cinema corrupt and you asked them to contribute afterwards and by the way the next year so this

00:34:35.120 is 2019 you know these tactics you don't mind you were aware of them you've testified you knew about

00:34:42.960 them at least with regard to senator cinema and you wanted people to support them you also did it

00:34:47.860 again in in 2020 and chairman cantwell asked if i was going to ask about her i'd like to point out

00:34:53.600 this same group sent a letter to chuck schumer demanding that chuck schumer remove senator cantwell

00:35:02.020 as the chairman of the commerce committee why because this committee hadn't confirmed you yet

00:35:06.020 now i think that's a pretty extreme proposition i gotta say i've never seen a nominee

00:35:12.740 nominee or a group that the nominee fundraisers for demand her own party's chairwoman be fired

00:35:19.780 because you haven't been confirmed yet do you understand why this seems one heck of a conflict of

00:35:29.580 interest i don't see how it's a conflict of interest sir i guess does it seem impartial or does it seem

00:35:35.140 like an extreme partisan willing to burn burn everything down if either party doesn't do what

00:35:42.420 you want senator i don't agree with all the fight for the future's tactics however except you raise

00:35:49.280 money for them you know about them and you raise money for them you send tweets every year asking

00:35:54.020 people to contribute when you ask people to contribute that's called raising money let me i mean senator

00:36:00.740 this woman how in the hell did they even think she had a shot and then the second question is does 0.99

00:36:08.080 she actually have a shot even after you litter up this with the facts the way that you just did

00:36:13.260 um look of course she has a shot she has a shot if democrats decide to support her uh i think there's

00:36:23.260 i think it's quite likely this nomination is going to be defeated uh i think it should be defeated

00:36:29.060 and it's going to come down i i have a high level of confidence that republicans will stand together

00:36:35.880 that we will have 49 no votes the question is where are a handful of democrats going to be where is

00:36:43.720 joe manchin going to be where is kirsten cinema going to be where is john tester going to be

00:36:48.940 uh where is rosen going to be where's cortes masto going to be by the way many of these are the same

00:36:55.340 senators that the group she supported and raised money for has blasted by name and called corrupt

00:37:01.360 so the interesting question is are these democrat senators going to vote for her anyway because

00:37:06.740 she's a darling of the left wing of the democrat party i hope not uh i will say it was i thought

00:37:13.200 fairly remarkable testimony that that she admitted uh admitted on the stand that she knew about

00:37:23.820 their attacks uh on cinema and still raise money for anywhere and and look i i i actually on on some

00:37:31.840 level respect gigi soan she's a left-wing activist like i love her questions are did you know about it

00:37:37.320 oh yeah and did you raise money afterwards for it oh yeah like she's not apologetic about it she's like

00:37:42.760 yeah i'm a left-winger i i like i want to beat the heck out anyone democrat or republican that doesn't

00:37:50.500 embrace left-wing policies listen that's fine if you're an activist it just doesn't give you

00:37:57.320 comfort as someone who's going to be a regulator of communications in this country i will tell you

00:38:02.620 also while i was uh while i was laying that out uh in particular about how the group that she raised

00:38:11.340 money for uh called for maria campwell to be fired maria's sitting next to me and and what you didn't 1.00

00:38:18.840 get in the audio but but if you were listening to it you got is maria's cracking up laughing as i'm

00:38:25.080 laying it out i mean it really is weird i i've never seen a nominee who has this kind of record

00:38:31.920 so i think we have a good shot at defeating this and and actually what i've said is i'm not sure why

00:38:36.840 the biden administration is wasting everyone's time with this nomination because i think in all

00:38:42.880 likelihood she's not going to get 50 votes but the reason they're wasting people's time with it

00:38:49.600 is because they are captive to and care what the radical left wing of the party says

00:38:55.560 and the radical left wing wants gg soan yeah that's what they want and that's and that is

00:39:01.780 obviously concerning but the fact that they would even nominate her just tells you how far gone we are

00:39:07.740 from what the what in their certain positions as you mentioned earlier they're supposed to be

00:39:12.860 non-partisan positions we need those desperately to stay non-partisan and that doesn't mean you find

00:39:18.840 the most extreme partisan person you can get your hands on all right senator before we get into that

00:39:23.440 i do want to tell everybody about patriot mobile if you have not checked out patriot mobile you need to

00:39:28.640 patriot mobile is the only christian conservative cell phone provider in the country and every time

00:39:37.740 you use your phone every time you send a text every time you make a phone call you're making a

00:39:43.420 difference standing up for what you believe in why because they take a portion of your bill every month

00:39:48.500 and they actually give it back to conservative and christian causes that stand for what we believe in

00:39:54.640 i'm talking about protecting the rights of the unborn i'm talking about standing up for first and

00:39:59.060 our second amendment rights i'm talking about helping with adoptions for people that want to adopt

00:40:03.900 especially since the overturning of roe v wade these are the things that when you use your cell phone

00:40:09.260 you're going to be supporting now here's the other great thing for a lot of people listening you're

00:40:14.140 actually going to save money on your cell phone bill over what you're paying right now so why not

00:40:19.600 switch and put your money where your values are and stand with other conservatives as we actually make

00:40:26.680 a huge difference go online to patriot mobile.com slash verdict that's patriot mobile.com slash verdict

00:40:36.120 you can keep your same cell phone you can keep your same cell phone number as well you can also call

00:40:43.080 them use promo code verdict and you can make the switch if you have a small business they can switch

00:40:47.920 all of your lines over and again you'll probably end up saving money over what you pay right now

00:40:52.760 while standing up for values you believe in as they make donations every month of portion of your

00:40:59.340 bill 878 patriots the number 878 patriot that's 878 patriot lastly uh very quickly i do want to get

00:41:08.200 your reaction to james clapper he's making a lot of headlines james clapper is now angry the x intel chief

00:41:17.080 uh has uh has uh has has basically come out and said that the reporting on his letter that he signed

00:41:23.260 with 50 plus other top intelligence officials right before the elections presidential election

00:41:29.560 claiming that the hunter biden laptop was story from the new york post was actually russian disinformation

00:41:36.760 he's now saying that it was well taken out of context uh to use his words

00:41:44.360 he's he said that politico who was the one that first got the leak letter that they all signed

00:41:50.820 clearly leaked on purpose otherwise why would you sign the letter he says that politico deliberately

00:41:55.940 distorted the letter that he signed he characterized the post reporting on hunter biden's laptop as part

00:42:01.680 of a russian disinformation operation now clapper is in trouble now i think uh it's fair to say he's

00:42:10.400 trying to cover his tracks republicans are looking into him and the other top people that were on

00:42:15.980 this letter and they are all going to apparently be subpoenaed to come before congress with these hearings

00:42:21.500 on the house side and he said quote all we were trying to do was raise a yellow flag that this quote could

00:42:30.060 be russian disinformation and then he said politico deliberately distorted what we said

00:42:34.940 it was clear he said quote in paragraph five of his letter now almost everybody even moderates to

00:42:44.080 liberals in the media basically turned on him in the last 24 hours saying you don't get to rewrite this

00:42:49.320 i want to get your reaction to it well first of all it's worth noting that everyone understood

00:42:58.140 that the letter that that clapper and the other so-called intelligence committee uh the intelligence

00:43:08.260 community members signed was arguing that the hunter biden laptop was russian disinformation what clapper's

00:43:17.480 saying now is obviously spin and it's spin to try to cover his own rear end because he is now

00:43:27.400 subject to uh subject to uh subject to scrutiny from the house majority and okay so the headline

00:43:38.520 here's the headline politico ran about clapper's lower uh letter quote hunter biden's story

00:43:46.060 is russian disinfo dozens of former intel officials say so that was the story politico wrote

00:43:54.720 because they leaked the letter to politico and then lots of other media outlets cnn and others

00:44:01.160 covered the politico story now clapper at the time did he issue a clarification this story is false no

00:44:08.860 did he go on tv and say this is not true i didn't say it was russian disinformation no the reason they

00:44:16.000 wrote the letter the reason they leaked the letter is they intended politico to write exactly what they 0.96

00:44:22.380 wrote they intended they intended the useful idiots in the press the corrupt corporate media to go forth 0.96

00:44:28.480 with their lie and we now know it was a lie that it wasn't russian disinformation the laptop was true 0.99

00:44:35.400 and real but james clapper wanted that story written two weeks before the election because he didn't want

00:44:41.900 anyone to focus on what was in uh in the the the hunter biden laptop well and he even claimed

00:44:49.380 senator in the last 24 hours that he was quote unaware that biden brought up the letter in his 0.75

00:44:55.440 final debate with former president donald trump and called the post story a bunch of garbage he said

00:45:02.700 also uh you know he said that i didn't know about it that i don't believe him i think he is lying to us

00:45:09.280 well and let me be clear so clapper was the head of the department of national intelligence under barack

00:45:16.920 clapper has been a partisan his entire life he's an extreme partisan and he has a record of dishonesty

00:45:24.920 in march of 2013 clapper was testifying under oath and senator ron wyden a democrat asked clapper

00:45:32.540 whether the united states government was collecting quote any type of data at all on millions or hundreds

00:45:40.460 of millions of americans clapper paused and said no sir not wittingly three months later edward snowden

00:45:52.140 leaked documents revealing that the national security agency was in fact collecting bulk domestic call

00:45:58.320 records on millions of americans so clapper under oath to congress flat out lied that lie became public

00:46:07.020 it prompted legislation that i co-sponsored and and helped write along with with senator mike lee

00:46:13.940 uh called the usa freedom act that significantly restricted the ability of the federal government

00:46:19.460 to intercept the communications of law-abiding american citizens but clapper was never held accountable

00:46:26.020 he lied to congress under oath and he's had a pattern of lying when it advances partisan interest i would

00:46:33.240 point out that clapper's partner in crime the director of the cia under barack obama was a guy named john

00:46:40.660 brennan john brennan is such a partisan he makes james clapper look moderate john brennan

00:46:47.660 has famously told the story of when he was interviewing uh with the cia they asked him a question during his

00:46:57.260 polygraph have you ever associated with anyone who's called for the violent overthrow of the government

00:47:01.420 of the united states and he described how he panicked because he realized that the truthful

00:47:06.880 answer to that was yes so in 1976 john brennan was a young college student fresh out of college

00:47:14.300 and there was a presidential election a presidential election

00:47:18.280 between jimmy carter and gerald ford

00:47:22.280 and young john brennan looked at jimmy carter and gerald ford and decided

00:47:27.260 jimmy carter is not liberal enough to for me i need someone more liberal than jimmy carter so what

00:47:36.040 did john brennan do in 1976 he cast a vote for gus hall who was the candidate for president of the

00:47:43.800 united states of the communist party of the united states of america so he went in and voted for the

00:47:50.180 communist to be president of the united states because he thought jimmy carter was too conservative

00:47:56.140 that's who barack obama named as his head of cia that was james clapper's compatriot clapper had lied

00:48:04.780 previously under oath to congress so it should be no surprise that in the 2020 election these same

00:48:12.160 partisan players are comfortable lying and they continue doing so well i hope that they are terrified

00:48:18.760 and i hope that the house republicans hold them accountable for this they're obviously especially 0.98

00:48:25.360 james clapper trying to cover his ass now before he has to come in and testify uh because they said 0.92

00:48:30.560 they're going to give these subpoenas these top people in this letter and they deserve the american 0.97

00:48:34.800 people deserve to get these answers and now him trying to rewrite history before he gets there i think

00:48:39.580 is a good sign the republicans are making headway there senator uh always a pleasure want to remind

00:48:44.680 people we do this podcast three days a week make sure that you hit that subscriber auto download button

00:48:50.480 wherever you're listening to this podcast please take our episodes hit that little forward button

00:48:55.240 uh and share this podcast wherever uh you are on social media and don't forget if you can write us

00:49:02.080 a five-star review to help us reach more people uh and we will see you back here in a couple of days

00:49:06.420 this is an iheart podcast guaranteed human

00:49:10.280 so

00:49:10.500 this is an iheart podcast

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 15, 2023

Balloons, 80s Rock, Big Tech, Radicals On The FCC & James Clapper Running Scared

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript