Verdict with Ted Cruz - Biden Admin Expands Access for Illegal Immigrants, Gold Star Families Defend Trump & CNN Calls Out Harris on Border Wall Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.560 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.920 Week in Review.

00:00:09.220 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.400 And this week there were some major stories that you may have missed that I want to make sure you know about.

00:00:16.620 First up, in a shocking move, Biden and Harris have expanded access for illegal immigrants in Mexico

00:00:23.620 trying to come into the United States of America.

00:00:26.320 This is they lie and tell you now they want a border wall and a secure border after claiming it was already secure.

00:00:34.060 We're going to break that down for you.

00:00:36.240 Also, there was an attack on Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery.

00:00:41.960 Now, I'm talking about a political attack for him sitting down to honor their loved ones that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

00:00:49.200 In the exit from Afghanistan, well, the Gold Star families have come together to attack the media 1.00

00:00:55.880 and their lies.

00:00:57.280 We'll have that for you.

00:00:58.340 And finally, CNN doing something we haven't seen in years.

00:01:03.120 Holding Harris to account on her lies on the border wall footage.

00:01:07.720 Now using Trump's wall in her own campaign ads.

00:01:11.540 It's the Week in Review and it starts right now.

00:01:15.220 Senator, we have had so much news that's been breaking and we've been covering it on the show.

00:01:20.260 But there is a story that it combines with a story from a little over a week ago.

00:01:25.980 And there was an announcement that happened about a week ago that the U.S. government,

00:01:31.200 specifically under Biden and Harris, have decided to expand access to the Customs and Border Patrol

00:01:37.620 one application into southern Mexico.

00:01:42.280 So in other words, we're expanding a program to bring more immigrants into the United States of America.

00:01:48.640 This happening while Kamala is also making a move to accelerate the overall invasion at our southern border.

00:01:59.120 At the same time, trying to act like she's in favor of building a wall.

00:02:04.240 Understand Joe Biden wants more illegal immigrants in America.

00:02:10.480 Kamala Harris wants more illegal immigrants in America. 1.00

00:02:13.960 Just about every single congressional Democrat in the Senate and the House,

00:02:18.820 they want more illegal immigrants in America.

00:02:22.700 They are actively encouraging, facilitating, and accelerating the invasion at our southern border.

00:02:29.220 They look at the 11.5 million illegal immigrants that they have invited into this country, 1.00

00:02:33.480 and they view them as future Democrat voters.

00:02:36.180 Even so, even with all of that,

00:02:37.880 the story that broke this week,

00:02:40.280 but, and by the way, I'm sure you didn't see this on CNN.

00:02:42.980 I'm sure you didn't see this on ABC, NBC, or CBS.

00:02:46.160 But let me read a headline, and the headline actually is from the AP.

00:02:50.920 Quote,

00:02:52.300 Mexico offers escorted rides north from southern Mexico

00:02:57.800 for migrants with U.S. asylum appointments.

00:03:01.400 And here's the article.

00:03:02.240 Mexico will offer escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border

00:03:07.200 for non-Mexican migrants who have received a United States asylum appointment,

00:03:11.540 the government announced Saturday.

00:03:13.240 The National Immigration Institute said the buses will leave from the southern cities

00:03:17.020 of Villahermosa and Tapachula.

00:03:21.520 It appeared to be an attempt to make applying for asylum appointments from southern Mexico

00:03:26.740 more attractive to migrants who otherwise would push north to Mexico City or the border.

00:03:33.960 And here's the nut graph.

00:03:37.560 The announcement came one week after the U.S. government expanded access

00:03:44.020 to the CBP-1 application in southern Mexico.

00:03:48.160 Access to the app, which allows asylum seekers to register and await an appointment,

00:03:52.980 had previously been restricted to central and northern Mexico.

00:03:56.040 So now, the government of Mexico is actively aiding and assisting the human traffickers.

00:04:02.800 They will provide bus rides throughout Mexico,

00:04:07.780 along with armed escorts from police and soldiers

00:04:13.080 to bring illegal immigrants to the border to invade this country. 0.96

00:04:18.040 And they're doing this because Kamala Harris wants them to do this.

00:04:22.260 This is right after, by the way, Kamala Harris is claiming she's going to secure the border,

00:04:27.980 but they just changed the CBP-1 app to invite even more illegal aliens.

00:04:33.440 They want 11.5 million to be 20 million, to be 30 million, to be 40 million,

00:04:38.160 because in their view, if that happens, Democrats win every election forever and ever.

00:04:42.660 You also look at this, you know, idea that Kamala Harris now is trying to be tougher on the border, 0.56

00:04:49.760 advocating for policies that Donald Trump has had.

00:04:53.800 This is just look at what they actually do.

00:04:57.200 Look at what they're actually saying.

00:04:59.580 And then you understand the game plan.

00:05:02.080 In fact, I think part of what Mexico's response here is, hey, they're hedging their bets, are they not,

00:05:08.560 that Donald Trump could win and then we could actually have go back to the border conditions we had when he was the president.

00:05:13.800 So let's really accelerate and get as many people across the border as we can.

00:05:18.680 That seems to be their prerogative.

00:05:20.100 But it also seems that their number one person that's working to facilitate this

00:05:25.000 is the Biden-Harris administration by expanding this program.

00:05:28.360 And they're going, hey, you expand it and we'll pay for the busing, we'll pay for the escorts, we'll pay for the trip.

00:05:34.860 This doesn't happen without the two countries working hand in hand.

00:05:38.280 Am I wrong?

00:05:39.380 They both have mutual interests.

00:05:43.100 AMLO, the president of Mexico, wants as much illegal immigration as possible to go into America.

00:05:49.180 And Kamala Harris wants as much illegal immigration as possible to go into America. 1.00

00:05:54.060 Both for the same reason, which is to fundamentally shift the policies of the United States of America

00:06:01.180 and to move them dramatically to the left.

00:06:04.280 Let's also remind people of what Kamala Harris said during the 2020 presidential debate.

00:06:09.920 This was technically in 2019.

00:06:13.000 Take a listen.

00:06:13.920 Being incarcerated for a couple of days is traumatic.

00:06:16.740 Much less the weeks, months and years that we're seeing that happen.

00:06:20.120 And so part of my plan is also a reduction of that.

00:06:22.740 And then also, again, what we need to do about taking, demilitarizing our schools and taking police officers out of schools.

00:06:33.840 We need to deal with the reality and speak the truth about the inequities around school discipline.

00:06:42.180 I mean, this is a woman, and I play this because I think it's an important point.

00:06:46.240 She says she wants to pull officers out of our schools. 1.00

00:06:49.320 She wants to, you know, have a wide open southern border. 1.00

00:06:51.960 She doesn't believe that illegal immigrants are criminals.

00:06:55.200 This is a defund the police woman who says wide open borders, no law and order anywhere. 0.99

00:07:01.860 Whether it's our schools or the border or illegals coming across, it doesn't matter. 0.99

00:07:07.100 This is what she's in favor of.

00:07:09.520 And by the way, it is difficult to imagine a policy that would endanger children more than pulling police officers out of schools.

00:07:17.740 Look, you and I are both parents.

00:07:19.480 We certainly don't want our kids.

00:07:21.040 Like, we would like police officers protecting our children, protecting schools, keeping kids safe.

00:07:27.740 The number one way you prevent someone from committing an act of violence is you have a police officer there to protect them.

00:07:36.400 And yet, to the radical left, if we just take all the cops away, then suddenly give peace a chance, violence goes away.

00:07:44.040 That's truly radical.

00:07:45.960 Yeah.

00:07:46.120 Over the holiday weekend, there was also a story, and it's sad because it had to be broken basically outside the U.S.

00:07:52.160 with the Daily Mail, of a migrant gang that took over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.

00:07:59.700 This is a Venezuelan migrant gang that took over the apartment complex. 0.97

00:08:03.740 It's interesting that it was a Venezuelan migrant gang that did this.

00:08:07.100 And the video that we witnessed that went viral on social media, them knocking on doors with guns.

00:08:12.680 These are people that aren't supposed to have guns.

00:08:14.640 And then, if you go back just a few weeks ago, there was warnings that in Venezuela, they had started to empty out some of their prisons as long as the people they were letting out decided to go to America.

00:08:27.420 So, hey, we'll let you out of our system being a drain on us, but you can't stay in Venezuela. 1.00

00:08:32.220 You've got to go to another country.

00:08:34.220 And sure enough, there are consequences for allowing the members of society that are in prison in another country to come to America and think that they're going to be law-abiding citizens.

00:08:43.380 The Daily Mail helped expose a lot of this.

00:08:46.580 Well, Maduro, I believe, is absolutely doing that.

00:08:49.680 He is deliberately sending criminals to the United States. 0.99

00:08:52.540 He's sending murderers and rapists and child molesters. 0.97

00:08:55.520 He's sending gang members.

00:08:57.180 And it's the same thing Fidel Castro did in the Mario Boatlift coming from Cuba, where he emptied out his jails and he emptied out his lunatic asylums and he sent dangerous people to the United States. 0.79

00:09:06.700 These are enemies of America that want to undermine America.

00:09:10.560 The question you have to ask yourself is, why is Kamala Harris aligned with them?

00:09:15.760 Why does Kamala Harris, when they send Venezuelan murderers to America and the Biden-Harris administration has them in custody, why does Kamala Harris release the murderers? 1.00

00:09:28.120 And I think there's no more important question in this election than that question.

00:09:36.280 You mentioned a moment ago, Senator, that the media doesn't like to cover these stories that are affecting Americans.

00:09:42.560 I want to end with this one.

00:09:44.640 And it was a group of illegal immigrants in San Diego County, California, that actually tried to hijack not one, but two school buses full of elementary and middle school students.

00:10:00.740 The local media, not the national media, covered the story.

00:10:05.040 Here's what they said.

00:10:07.020 A group of migrants tried to board a school bus this morning while it was traveling to a school.

00:10:11.900 The superintendent for the Humboldt-el-Zura Union School District informed parents of that incident earlier today.

00:10:18.080 It happened at one of the stops on the school district's bus route that heads to Oak Grove Middle School and Humboldt Primary.

00:10:24.580 Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon, in a similar area along another route, the superintendent says that a group of migrants tried to stop another bus.

00:10:32.660 Border Patrol, CHP and the sheriff's office have now been informed of these incidents.

00:10:36.660 The superintendent says that for the safety of everyone, if a driver sees a group of migrants at a bus stop, they will drive past it on and move on to the next.

00:10:48.600 This is a story that should be national news.

00:10:51.820 It's sad that we're the ones that are having to turn it into national news center.

00:10:56.100 But I don't want to live in a world where we got to have armed guards on every school bus because illegal immigrants might try to take over a school bus for whatever their nefarious reason may be. 1.00

00:11:06.680 Look, our families are in danger because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have chosen to allow violent criminals into this country.

00:11:19.640 Eleven and a half million people.

00:11:21.160 It is a profound threat to public safety.

00:11:25.080 I mean, at some point, you can't make it up trying to kidnap school buses full of school kids.

00:11:32.960 That is it underscores the level of the threat.

00:11:38.700 And it also underscores, look, as you noted, the national media completely ignores the threat.

00:11:47.260 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.

00:11:53.280 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:12:00.320 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:12:04.040 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:12:05.240 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:12:06.180 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:12:15.940 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:12:19.180 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:12:23.240 Senator, I also want to talk about another story, and it may be one of the most pathetic, vile attacks that we have seen from the Harris campaign so far.

00:12:40.080 And it was a fake story, a fictitious story that was clearly, I think, drawn up a play by the Harris campaign to, hey, let's make people not like Donald Trump.

00:12:53.380 Let's attack Donald Trump for standing at Arlington Cemetery with the family members of those that lost loved ones on the pullout from Afghanistan.

00:13:04.000 On that arbitrary date that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wanted to say, we ended America's longest roar.

00:13:10.060 We don't care when we're pulling out who dies or how many people that helped America are left behind to be attacked and tortured by the terrorists.

00:13:17.340 We were literally taking orders from the Taliban at the very end.

00:13:21.320 And Afghanistan Gold Star family members have come forward united in an incredible way.

00:13:28.160 And I think it's sad that they had to come forward.

00:13:30.640 They just wanted to honor their loved ones that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

00:13:36.560 They asked Donald Trump to come and be with them.

00:13:40.540 The Harris campaign accused Donald Trump in a direct tweet that Kamala Harris put out of using this as a basically a publicity stunt. 0.74

00:13:51.780 And these Gold Star families came forward and said, no, that's not true.

00:13:56.620 We're not going to let you do this to Donald Trump.

00:13:58.780 We're not going to allow the media to do this and drag him through the mud.

00:14:02.400 He was our guest.

00:14:03.600 We asked him to come.

00:14:05.280 This was not a publicity stunt.

00:14:07.060 And not only that, they said he knows our family members names.

00:14:11.360 That's more than we can say for you, Kamala, who have not talked to us, don't know our kids names and have not reached out.

00:14:17.560 Well, I have to say this whole thing has been utterly disgraceful how Kamala Harris and her campaign has handled it. 1.00

00:14:25.260 It started with Donald Trump went to Arlington Memorial Cemetery to honor the 13 servicemen and women who were murdered, who were murdered in Afghanistan.

00:14:35.220 He went and laid a wreath at their tombs to honor their death.

00:14:40.320 And he did so at the invitation of the Gold Star families who wanted him there.

00:14:44.440 They also invited Kamala Harris.

00:14:46.120 Kamala Harris declined to come.

00:14:47.780 Kamala Harris was in D.C. 0.71

00:14:49.660 She was at a residence.

00:14:50.700 She was just a few miles away, but she was not willing to come to Arlington Cemetery to acknowledge their deaths.

00:14:56.060 And to be clear, that's consistent with the pattern of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden of ignoring these 13 fallen servicemen and women.

00:15:04.680 In fact, Joe Biden claimed that no servicemen and women had fallen under under his presidency, which is just a brazen lie.

00:15:13.840 And and so instead of look, Kamala can't defend the absolute incompetence, the disaster that was the withdrawal from Afghanistan. 0.54

00:15:23.880 So she wants to change the subject.

00:15:26.080 And so she immediately blasted Trump because while he was there, he took photographs with the families of the fallen servicemen and women.

00:15:36.120 And he did so at their request.

00:15:37.480 And she tried to say this is a political stunt because he took photographs with the families.

00:15:42.060 Now, to be clear, the families asked him to take photographs.

00:15:45.000 I guess in her view, you should tell the grieving mother of a soldier who was killed.

00:15:53.020 No, I'm not willing to take a picture with you.

00:15:55.220 That would have been insane.

00:15:57.640 In response, families of seven of the 13 fallen servicemen and women put out a joint statement.

00:16:05.680 And this joint statement powerful doesn't begin to cover it.

00:16:09.800 Let me just read it.

00:16:10.580 It's not very long.

00:16:11.280 Quote, we, the families of the brave service members who were tragically killed in the Abbey Gate bombing are appalled by Vice President Kamala Harris's recent attempts to politicize President Trump's visit to the Arlington National Cemetery.

00:16:27.260 President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three year anniversary of our children's death.

00:16:36.700 He was there to honor their sacrifice.

00:16:40.360 Yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.

00:16:48.260 Vice President Harris bears responsibility for the deaths of our sons and daughters.

00:16:53.200 Let me read that again.

00:16:54.800 Vice President Harris bears responsibility for the deaths of our sons and daughters.

00:17:02.300 Her administration's catastrophic mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal directly led to the murder of 13 service members, including our children.

00:17:14.760 Despite our multiple requests for a meeting to discuss the loss of our loved ones, Vice President Harris has repeatedly ignored us, showing a complete lack of empathy and accountability.

00:17:28.360 This refusal to face the consequences of her administration's decisions is a deep betrayal to us as Gold Star families.

00:17:39.060 President Trump, on the other hand, has been the only commander in chief to consistently recognize the heroism of our children.

00:17:47.460 His attendance at Arlington was not for political gain, but to stand with us, to grieve with us, and to honor the legacy of those who gave everything for this nation.

00:18:00.160 His leadership during his time in office was strong, and we have no doubt that if he were still commander in chief, our children would be alive today.

00:18:10.720 Vice President Harris has proven herself unfit to serve as commander in chief.

00:18:17.720 Her actions, both in the failure of the Afghanistan withdrawal and in her disgraceful politicization of this anniversary, have shown that she lacks the judgment, compassion, and leadership required for the position.

00:18:34.360 We will continue to hold her accountable for the role she played in the deaths of our children, and we will not stand by as she disrespects their memory.

00:18:47.080 America deserves better.

00:18:49.500 Our children deserved better.

00:18:52.880 You see these families come together, and this is not a fight they asked for.

00:18:57.940 This was not publicity they asked for.

00:18:59.920 This was not a moment they asked for.

00:19:01.520 These Gold Star families have also now come out saying that Kamala's attack on Trump made us a target for a lot of hate.

00:19:09.360 They weren't wanting this hate.

00:19:11.720 And all because when you're the vice president, your words have power.

00:19:19.280 And when you have Vice President Harris, who's the leading candidate, right, for the Democratic Party that, by the way, no one's ever voted for, but she's the nominee, attacking Trump, accusing him of playing politics by going to a cemetery to honor the 13 fallen service members who lost their lives.

00:19:34.680 As a result, as you just read there, Biden's administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

00:19:41.680 But they say, yes, this has made us a target of a lot of hate because now people are hating them for defending Trump.

00:19:52.620 Say, oh, well, they're just Trump supporters.

00:19:54.500 You know, the heck with them and attacking them on social media, all because they were trying to honor the memory of their sons and daughters, their husbands and their wives, their family members that were killed.

00:20:08.040 And Vice President Harris, I think it's important to read part of what she put out on X, which started all of this.

00:20:15.320 And clearly, this is my opinion.

00:20:17.400 I want to know what you think about this, Senator.

00:20:19.960 I think this was written by a campaign staff who said, let's let's start this thing.

00:20:24.480 And she said, quote, as Vice President, I've had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times.

00:20:30.880 It is a solemn place, a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.

00:20:38.280 It is not a place for politics.

00:20:41.820 And yet, as we reported this week, Donald Trump's team chose to film a video there resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff that apparently never happened.

00:20:53.200 Let me be clear.

00:20:54.400 She writes the former president disrespected sacred ground all for the sake of a political stunt.

00:21:01.480 So a woman who says this is not supposed to be about politics literally makes it a political stunt on her behalf to try to make people hate Donald Trump, which then in turn brought in these families. 1.00

00:21:13.720 And now they're hating on them as well.

00:21:15.680 Look, this was just a cynical attempt from the Kamala Harris campaign to shift the attention to one of the most egregious and catastrophic foreign policy failures of Joe Biden and her leadership.

00:21:30.660 And this is a failure that led directly to the deaths of 13 servicemen and women.

00:21:36.240 And let me make clear, that joint statement that I read a minute ago, it didn't just come from one or two family members.

00:21:43.240 It came from Misty Fiocco, who is the sister of Sergeant Nicole L.G.

00:21:48.280 It came from Cheryl Jules, who is the aunt of Sergeant Nicole L.G.

00:21:54.720 It came from Christy Shamblin, who is the mother-in-law of Sergeant Nicole L.G.

00:22:00.140 It came from Mark Schmitz, who is the father of Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz.

00:22:05.600 It came from Jacqueline Schmitz, who is the stepmother of Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz.

00:22:11.440 It came from Herman Lopez, who is the father of Corporal Hunter Lopez.

00:22:16.120 It came from Jim McCullum, who is the father of Lance Corporal Riley J. McCullum.

00:22:23.140 It came from Steve Nikui, who is the father of Lance Corporal Kareem M. Nikui.

00:22:30.160 It came from Coral Doolittle, who is the mother of Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez.

00:22:37.680 It came from Darren Hoover, who is the father of Staff Sergeant Darren T. Hoover.

00:22:43.380 And it came from Kelly Barnett, who is the mother of Staff Sergeant Darren T. Hoover.

00:22:50.800 Now, you want to talk about people who have moral gravity.

00:22:54.740 They've given the ultimate sacrifice of their own children who died.

00:23:01.540 And yet, you know what they also have said?

00:23:04.820 So, Christy Shamblin, who was one of the people who signed it, she is the mother-in-law of Sergeant Nicole L.G.

00:23:12.600 She has said that Kamala Harris's behavior shows that she believes, quote, service members are disposable.

00:23:22.720 And it is striking.

00:23:27.860 Here's what she said.

00:23:29.680 She said, quote,

00:23:30.640 I think it shows that she believes our service members are disposable.

00:23:34.940 And that's exactly the feeling that we've got from the White House, is that our heroes, our children, my daughter-in-law, was disposable and replaceable and not important.

00:23:48.200 And I can't live with that.

00:23:50.260 It's not acceptable.

00:23:51.400 Our service members are the most important people in our society.

00:23:55.700 And Nakui, another one of the Gold Star family members, said, not hearing from Harris is, quote, just typical from this whole administration.

00:24:07.880 You know, they want to sweep this under the rug, never talk about it again, never honest.

00:24:13.120 For them to honor and recognize the sacrifice of our children would force them to recognize that there was a mistake.

00:24:20.500 And so they won't bring it up, you know.

00:24:22.780 They'll keep it under the rug.

00:24:24.420 And we're, I'm pretty much used to it, but I'm going to, I'm going to fight it, you know.

00:24:28.960 I'm going to call that out every step of the way.

00:24:33.780 And McCollum added that Harris utterly ignored them, never gave them a call.

00:24:39.900 And here's what McCollum said, quote,

00:24:41.180 Complete lack thereof, to just abandon the 13, to never reach out, no condolences, no I'm sorry, no explanation, just absolutely ignore us and basically shut us up.

00:24:56.520 She's lacking character. 1.00

00:24:58.980 She has no respect.

00:25:00.820 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

00:25:18.500 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk Podcast.

00:25:22.320 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:25:23.600 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:25:24.820 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:25:28.460 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:25:34.320 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:25:37.560 Listen to the Honest Talk Podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:25:41.620 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:25:48.280 Senator, there was also something else that happened, and it was just weird.

00:25:52.760 When I say weird, like a next-level weird.

00:25:56.620 CNN, and I've got two theories I want your take on this, came out and did a three-and-a-half-minute segment

00:26:04.340 attacking Kamala Harris in prime time,

00:26:07.980 attacking her for using Trump's wall in her new border ads.

00:26:13.360 They actually went back years, all the way back to 2017.

00:26:18.460 And they were proud of themselves, patting themselves on their back

00:26:21.740 for finding more than 50 instances of Harris slamming Trump's border wall.

00:26:27.340 And they put this story together.

00:26:28.800 Now, I want to play it, but there's two things here that I think could be a possibility.

00:26:33.380 A, CNN has become so irrelevant with no one watching and the ratings back up that point

00:26:38.960 that they're desperate to get their ratings back.

00:26:42.480 Having Trump in office delivers that to them.

00:26:46.100 The highest ratings that CNN's had in years was when Donald Trump was in office

00:26:50.040 and they were attacking him 24-7, and that brought the crazies in to watch them.

00:26:54.820 That's option number one.

00:26:56.540 Option number two is, are they doing this, Senator, because they're realizing that Harris

00:27:02.880 and this big bump she was supposed to have from the convention didn't actually happen?

00:27:07.600 Are they hedging their bets that they think she might lose,

00:27:10.600 and so they want to look like they're actual journalists?

00:27:13.560 Or could both of those be true at the same time?

00:27:15.920 Well, let's play this first, because it really is a stunning piece,

00:27:21.800 and it simply takes the fact that she's spending millions of dollars advertising 1.00

00:27:25.820 and featuring the border wall as something she now supports,

00:27:28.940 and it contrasts that with her record for years and years and years,

00:27:34.000 viciously, passionately, emphatically opposing the border wall.

00:27:38.240 And I'll tell you, the contrast is striking.

00:27:40.440 Give a listen, and remember, this is CNN.

00:27:42.200 Tonight, K-File investigates.

00:27:46.660 In a new report you'll see first out front,

00:27:48.920 the K-File team scoured Kamala Harris' tweets and statements going all the way back to 2017.

00:27:54.780 And what they found was more than 50 instances of Harris slamming Trump's border wall.

00:28:00.820 But now, new Harris campaign ads actually showcase that very wall.

00:28:06.780 As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels 0.91

00:28:10.200 and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border.

00:28:14.620 And on top of critical tweets, Harris also wrote in her 2019 book, quote,

00:28:21.380 there was a bigger reason to oppose the border wall.

00:28:23.640 A useless wall on the southern border would be nothing more than a symbol,

00:28:26.760 a monument standing in opposition to not just everything I value,

00:28:30.100 but to the fundamental values upon which this country was built.

00:28:32.920 How could I vote to build what would be little more than a monument

00:28:35.940 designed to send the cold, hard message, keep out?

00:28:38.940 Well, K-File's Andrew Kaczynski joins me now.

00:28:42.360 So, Andrew, I mean, you and you all have gone through, I mean, scoured an incredible amount of material.

00:28:49.280 Tell me more about what you found.

00:28:50.520 Yeah, that's right.

00:28:51.280 We found more than 50 of those tweets criticizing the border wall before she used that in her ad.

00:28:56.320 And I want people to take a look at just a few of what she said here.

00:29:00.380 She called it wasteful, useless, a waste of taxpayer money, a vanity wall project, a wasteful border wall, 1.00

00:29:07.760 a stupid wall, a medieval vanity project, and an unnecessary wall. 1.00

00:29:13.420 And those are really just, I mean, there were more of this, just like 10 or like 50. 1.00

00:29:17.460 But there was really, there was really a lot of this was the common refrain during the campaign.

00:29:21.640 You read that quote where she said it was against everything that not only she stood for,

00:29:25.360 everything America stood aboard.

00:29:27.760 And she brought this up a lot.

00:29:29.220 Take a listen to just one instance of that in 2019.

00:29:33.960 It's the president's vanity project.

00:29:35.880 His multi-billion dollar vanity project called a wall is nothing more than a distraction

00:29:42.700 from the fact that he actually hasn't focused on working people in America.

00:29:48.140 He contrived a national crisis around his big distraction.

00:29:55.240 All right.

00:29:55.940 So you go through all of that.

00:29:57.620 You've got all the tweets, and yet all of a sudden in the ads, there's pictures of the wall.

00:30:01.820 And then you went through to look at that wall.

00:30:03.920 Like, what is that specific wall that's in her campaign ads now?

00:30:07.580 And you found something very interesting about this specific portion of the wall.

00:30:11.260 And what's, I think what's also really remarkable, this is like, I mean, you heard her talking about it there,

00:30:15.600 that with Trump's wall in his campaign during his presidency, there was really no greater symbol of Trump's presidency than the wall

00:30:21.700 and the way that Democrats were attacking him over the wall and his restrictive immigration policies.

00:30:26.240 So we looked in that ad, and if you look at it, that exact area of wall is in Sasabe, Arizona, and that is a portion of wall that was actually built by Donald Trump.

00:30:37.440 It was built in an area where there was not previous wall.

00:30:41.500 It was actually pretty controversial when they were building it at the time.

00:30:45.040 So just to see that, and then there are other images.

00:30:47.400 She's using his wall that he built to say, look at what I did, basically.

00:30:51.160 And the other images of the wall, we weren't able to pinpoint, but there's telltale signs that that was a Trump wall

00:30:57.560 because there's an anti-climbing plate on top that became popularized during the Trump years.

00:31:02.540 It's really incredible reporting and important, right?

00:31:05.400 Andrew Kaczynski and Kay Fowle, thank you very much.

00:31:08.360 Now, there's also another theory, Senator, and that could be they were just so embarrassed.

00:31:12.040 Hold on, before the theories, before the theories, I do want to take the very end, the comment, it's really incredible reporting.

00:31:18.660 So, actually, no, it's not.

00:31:20.200 It's not incredible reporting.

00:31:23.200 To say one nominee for president is spending millions of dollars running ads,

00:31:30.980 claiming to support something that she spent her entire professional career denouncing over and over and over again,

00:31:39.400 like, that's not incredible reporting.

00:31:41.200 That's called just actually doing your job.

00:31:43.240 That is, in fact, what reporters are supposed to do.

00:31:46.780 And this is a story that illustrates that her campaign is built on deception. 0.99

00:31:52.940 It's built on lying.

00:31:54.020 Understand.

00:31:55.640 This goes back to why is it in the six weeks since Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democrat nominee,

00:32:02.120 she's done precisely one media interview, actually, with CNN, the fake interview she did with Dana Bash that we broke down.

00:32:09.420 If you didn't listen to the podcast analyzing the Dana Bash interview, you ought to, because it was not an interview.

00:32:14.000 It was a campaign commercial that protected her.

00:32:19.040 But other than that, she's done no media interview.

00:32:22.440 She's done zero press conferences.

00:32:23.920 And it's because her strategy is to hide from everything she's ever said, everything she's ever done, every vote she's ever cast,

00:32:32.300 to hide from her record and instead to claim that she supports things she does not support.

00:32:42.280 Now, listen, her left-wing supporters are not upset that she is running ads picturing the border wall.

00:32:49.420 Why?

00:32:49.880 Because they know she's lying.

00:32:51.220 Everyone knows she's lying.

00:32:53.020 But CNN called her out.

00:32:56.260 And that is, in fact, the job of journalism to call people out when their record is directly contrary to what they're saying on the campaign trail.

00:33:06.900 You look at the CNN interview that you mentioned, and that was my third possibility, is it really seemed to do some damage to CNN.

00:33:18.180 They were embarrassed at how much they were called out for just propaganda that night, even from putting live.

00:33:25.780 You and I talked about this, putting up live on the screen when the interview was taped.

00:33:32.820 So let me ask you something, Ben.

00:33:34.600 So, Ben, you spent a lot of years as a paid CNN employee.

00:33:39.640 Yes.

00:33:40.180 Seven years in hell is what I call it.

00:33:42.480 Yeah.

00:33:43.060 You said they were embarrassed.

00:33:44.580 Do you think they actually were embarrassed?

00:33:46.080 I'm not sure they can be embarrassed, so I'm actually curious about your thoughts on this.

00:33:49.720 So I actually think they were because they were just ridiculed.

00:33:53.260 It was daylight outside.

00:33:54.960 It was prime time at night when they aired it.

00:33:57.460 It was obvious that it wasn't live.

00:34:00.240 And when you do something that egregious, I think even people that are left of center are like, come on.

00:34:09.240 Like, really?

00:34:10.100 Like, you think we're dumb enough to believe that it's daytime right now while we're watching it at nighttime? 0.97

00:34:15.800 And we're dumb enough to believe it's live when we've already we already know it's been taped and has been well publicized. 0.97

00:34:21.500 It was taped. 0.73

00:34:22.000 But I also think the other part that hurt them and embarrass them was the interview was incredibly short compared to what normal interviews of this magnitude are.

00:34:31.600 I mean, you look at the town hall last night that that happened with Trump and Hannity.

00:34:36.920 I mean, it's solid hour plus on these things.

00:34:40.300 And her interview taped, edited in the daytime and then, you know, claiming it's live at night.

00:34:47.080 I think that that is a point where they're like, OK, maybe we have to bring the pendulum back here a little bit because we look so much like we are a mouthpiece for a campaign.

00:34:55.520 And if she loses, that puts us in a really bad situation.

00:34:59.580 Look, that's possible.

00:35:01.240 And you asked a minute ago if they're trying to cover their bases.

00:35:04.600 You know, I actually, you know, I'm I'm a believer in Occam's razor that sometimes the simplest explanation is is the best.

00:35:11.960 I actually think in this instance, the dissonance, the the the contrast between what Kamala Harris is campaigning on and what she has said for her entire career.

00:35:27.480 It is so massive that I think they just ended up saying, all right, let's let's say it.

00:35:34.480 I actually think even though they're propagandists, it's to see her embracing.

00:35:43.560 Trump's border wall is a level at which, you know, I asked a minute ago if they could get embarrassed.

00:35:49.740 I think for a brief moment in time, they actually wanted to be journalists.

00:35:56.920 And I have a and by the way, let's be clear.

00:36:00.020 This is a remarkable podcast.

00:36:01.420 It may be the only podcast we've ever done, where twice now I praise CNN.

00:36:07.040 I praise CNN at the beginning of the podcast for Jake Tapper's question of Kamala Harris.

00:36:11.960 That was a real question.

00:36:12.960 It was a good question, Jake.

00:36:14.400 It was a question a journalist would and should ask.

00:36:18.640 And listen, this story, this story is a question a journalist would and should cover.

00:36:23.820 By the way, has ABC run the story?

00:36:27.580 No.

00:36:28.000 NBC?

00:36:28.820 CBS?

00:36:29.640 No.

00:36:30.100 MSNBC?

00:36:30.960 Nope.

00:36:31.280 Like, wait, they say they're journalists.

00:36:33.980 I mean, CNN doesn't have an exclusive.

00:36:36.540 Do you think MSNBC knows that she's lying when she runs an ad saying, look at this border wall?

00:36:44.660 Yeah.

00:36:44.940 Well, look, there's also another possibility that you and I have been having this discussion.

00:36:48.880 It could be this is their way of slapping Kamala on the hand for not being radical enough.

00:36:54.220 Like, oh, no, no, no.

00:36:55.100 We don't go to border wall.

00:36:56.400 And if you do it, we're going to embarrass you.

00:36:58.720 You're supposed to hate the border wall.

00:37:02.000 That's who you are.

00:37:02.960 We're going to remind you of who you are.

00:37:04.760 And we're going to make you look bad when you pander this way on an issue we disagree with.

00:37:09.260 That also could be part of what the executive producers at CNN were so mad about.

00:37:14.380 Yeah, look, maybe.

00:37:16.580 You know, I years ago, one of my very first bosses had had a bit of advice for me that I think was really insightful and is about government.

00:37:26.660 And it was never ascribed to malice what can be explained with incompetence.

00:37:33.500 In this instance, at least to me, I'm not reading a whole lot of Machiavellian, you know, positioning in CNN doing this. 0.98

00:37:44.740 I think it was just there were like, holy crap, this is BS. 0.98

00:37:48.960 I hope that is. 0.94

00:37:52.920 I mean, that's actually a human instinct.

00:37:56.540 And it is an instinct a journalist is supposed to have.

00:37:59.760 Now, maybe I'm being naive.

00:38:01.180 I mean, Ben, maybe you're you are more cynical than I am on this.

00:38:04.400 And maybe I'm not cynical enough.

00:38:06.400 But 100 percent.

00:38:07.720 I would say this way.

00:38:09.720 I wish that I thought the way you thought on this.

00:38:13.220 I just think this is too big of a 180 from them sucking up to Kamala Harris a week ago.

00:38:20.080 Like, it's like, what happened?

00:38:21.680 Yes, but to be clear, it is different.

00:38:24.200 OK, it is different.

00:38:26.040 Listen, one of the reasons that we didn't talk about this, I think, in in our podcast analyzing the Dana Bash fake interview.

00:38:34.320 But I do think a component is CNN desperately wanted that interview.

00:38:42.100 Like the Kamala Harris campaign put it out there. 0.99

00:38:45.080 Hey, we're going to do an interview with someone and we want to see who will kiss our ass the most. 0.97

00:38:50.900 If you're just doing it a little. 0.98

00:38:52.140 No, that's not enough.

00:38:53.300 We want both lips full pucker. 0.86

00:38:55.440 We want enthusiasm.

00:38:56.720 And I do think there was a level of just corporate servility that we want this interview and we will abase ourselves.

00:39:08.140 We will we will abandon any pretense of journalistic ethics.

00:39:13.260 We'll do anything we can to to to get this interview.

00:39:17.560 And so I think it's easier in a story where you don't have Kamala Harris and in particular the context where they won't give anyone an interview with Kamala Harris when you don't have her there.

00:39:28.820 It is easier to actually run one real story for three minutes out of the 24 hours a day you're on TV.

00:39:36.140 As always, thank you for listening to verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:39:41.500 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:39:45.100 You're not listening to verdict or each day when you listen to verdict afterwards.

00:39:48.360 I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcast and we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:39:55.780 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:39:58.660 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 07, 2024

Biden Admin Expands Access for Illegal Immigrants, Gold Star Families Defend Trump & CNN Calls Out Harris on Border Wall Week In Review

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