Verdict with Ted Cruz - Bondi Rocks, Newsom Doubles Down on Policies Hurting Californians & Dems Demagogue Entrepreneurs

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.200 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as always.

00:00:09.780 Senator, this will be our last show before there is a inauguration that's going to be taking place next week,

00:00:17.500 which is really fun, but it's already started on Capitol Hill with confirmation hearings.

00:00:22.380 And I think it's pretty fair to say if Democrats were hoping for fireworks

00:00:26.600 and they were hoping to derail some of the nominees this week, they failed miserably.

00:00:32.120 We're kicking tail and taking names.

00:00:35.040 So, Ben, I love you, but I got to say somebody needs to buy you a calendar.

00:00:38.940 So inauguration is on Monday, which means we will have a Monday morning podcast,

00:00:43.460 which means you and I will record it on Sunday.

00:00:46.300 So this is our second to last podcast before inauguration.

00:00:50.480 Okay, fine. So we're going to have one more show technically on the day of the inauguration.

00:00:55.000 I understand when Monday occurs is a difficult thing to figure out.

00:00:59.860 So I'm going to give you that.

00:01:02.020 But right now, this is Friday's podcast.

00:01:04.900 And so we're going to talk about what happened this week.

00:01:07.140 And what happened this week, it's real simple.

00:01:09.900 We had confirmation hearings for half of the Trump cabinet.

00:01:13.600 And the Democrats came out pouncing.

00:01:16.340 I mean, that's what the New York Times says Republicans do all the time.

00:01:19.200 They pounced and they pounced and they pounced.

00:01:21.320 And the bottom line is they utterly failed.

00:01:24.340 If you're a Democrat trying to think you're going to defeat the Trump cabinet,

00:01:28.360 you are despondent right now because they shot at everybody and they failed everywhere.

00:01:36.120 Here's the spoiler alert.

00:01:38.180 I believe every single Trump cabinet nominee will be confirmed.

00:01:42.780 We're going to talk about, so I participated in a number of them.

00:01:45.420 We're going to talk about in particular Pam Bondi because Pam Bondi is attorney general. 0.99

00:01:49.400 I think is the most important Trump nominee.

00:01:52.600 She will be confirmed as attorney general.

00:01:54.740 But we're going to break down the issues that we talked about because it really went to the core

00:01:59.420 of restoring integrity to the Department of Justice.

00:02:02.680 So that's number one we're going to talk about.

00:02:04.920 Number two, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California.

00:02:08.620 He's facing horrific wildfires that sadly his own misguided policies played a significant part

00:02:17.720 in increasing the likelihood of in limiting the ability of California to fight against.

00:02:23.640 What is Gavin Newsom doing?

00:02:26.160 He's not focused on we need more fire mitigation.

00:02:28.800 We need more sensible public lands management.

00:02:31.080 No, he's not doing that.

00:02:32.300 He's not focusing on we need more sensible water management.

00:02:35.420 We need to stop having empty reservoir.

00:02:37.080 We need to have fire hydrants full. 0.75

00:02:39.760 No, he's not saying that.

00:02:41.440 And he's also not saying, all right, enough with woke firefighter policies.

00:02:46.760 Enough with DEI.

00:02:47.720 We need to actually hire firefighters devoted to fighting fires.

00:02:51.400 Nope, he's not saying that.

00:02:52.380 Gavin Newsom, instead, he rolled out a proposal and he said, if anyone offers to buy somebody's

00:03:00.660 home, somebody's property that's been burned to the ground, that is devastated, and I, Gavin

00:03:06.460 Newsom, think the offer is too low, I'll criminally prosecute you.

00:03:09.900 I will throw you in jail.

00:03:11.800 It is, again, if Saturday Night Live made fun of leftists, they couldn't come up with a 0.88

00:03:18.760 better skit than this.

00:03:20.200 And so I pointed that out.

00:03:22.040 He went back at me.

00:03:23.400 Gavin Newsom and I went back and forth.

00:03:25.180 And finally, Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders in the confirmation of Scott Besson to be Treasury

00:03:30.700 Secretary.

00:03:31.520 He came out with the bold new Democrat policy.

00:03:36.020 They hate, hate, hate billionaires.

00:03:39.380 Well, except for leftist communist billionaires who fund the Democrat Party.

00:03:43.220 But other than that, they're against them all.

00:03:46.280 That, at the end of the day, I got to say, Scott Besson popped it back and showed the utter 0.90

00:03:51.760 and complete hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders.

00:03:54.140 That's what we're covering on today's pod.

00:03:55.720 Yeah, it was.

00:03:56.780 That's going to be really fun audio.

00:03:58.100 You do not want to miss that in a second.

00:03:59.520 So let's go back to the confirmations.

00:04:02.700 And this was just, I think, an exciting time for many Trump supporters.

00:04:08.460 There was worry early on that there could be some derailing of some nominees here.

00:04:13.360 You're up against the media.

00:04:15.100 You're up against the Dems.

00:04:16.260 They work together and they try to, you know, derail in any way they can.

00:04:21.280 That just does not seem to be what's going to happen here.

00:04:24.200 As you said, you believe everyone's going to get confirmed.

00:04:27.280 I do.

00:04:27.940 So, so look, we talked about in the last pod, Pete Hegseth.

00:04:31.420 Pete Hegseth is clearly the one they're targeting the most.

00:04:34.300 They went after Hegseth hard.

00:04:35.940 But I got to say, Pete did a fantastic job at his confirmation hearing.

00:04:39.620 I think he's going to make it through.

00:04:41.160 If you look at Pam Bondi as the nominee for attorney general, she did a spectacular job

00:04:49.840 in her hearing, a master class.

00:04:52.400 And I want you to listen to right now my questioning of Pam Bondi.

00:04:56.220 So I went right after Maisie Hirono, Democrat from Hawaii, who gave this long screed about 1.00

00:05:02.820 how Pam Bondi and Trump was going to politicize the Department of Justice. 1.00

00:05:07.960 Why?

00:05:08.700 And here's what Maisie asked her.

00:05:10.000 She said, well, because Trump is going to ask you to prosecute his opponents and you're

00:05:16.680 going to do it because you're a political hack.

00:05:18.580 And so I went right after this.

00:05:20.200 Give a listen to my questioning of Pam Bondi in the hearing this week.

00:05:24.040 General Bondi, welcome.

00:05:25.660 Thank you for your long career in public service.

00:05:28.460 And thank you for your willingness to take on this incredibly important office.

00:05:34.420 You know, I have to say, I don't know that there is a more important position in this

00:05:39.840 new administration than the position to which you have been nominated, Attorney General of

00:05:44.080 the United States.

00:05:45.160 I thought the exchange just a moment ago with Senator Hirono was illustrative.

00:05:49.980 She asked you how you would respond if the president asked you to target his political enemies.

00:05:56.300 It's rather striking because it's not a hypothetical.

00:05:59.460 It has happened over the last four years.

00:06:02.060 And I think perhaps the most tragic legacy of the Biden-Harris administration has been the

00:06:07.460 politicization and the weaponization of the United States Department of Justice.

00:06:11.380 And we don't need to ask hypothetically because Joe Biden publicly mused and allowed the New York

00:06:16.020 Times to report it, calling on Merrick Garland, why will he not prosecute Trump more quickly?

00:06:22.060 And Merrick Garland, sadly, he sat in that chair and promised to be apolitical, and he broke that

00:06:27.020 promise almost the instant he walked into the Department of Justice.

00:06:30.540 If you look on the west pediment of the Supreme Court of the United States, just above the entrance,

00:06:35.860 there's a simple yet profound forward phrase, equal justice under law.

00:06:40.480 We have seen over the last four years a Department of Justice that systematically targeted the

00:06:47.040 political opponents of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and that systematically protected his

00:06:52.880 friends and allies.

00:06:54.320 And it is tragic to see the loss of confidence in the American people, in the Department of

00:07:00.540 Justice and in the FBI.

00:07:02.040 I would note I don't think there's an institution in America who has lost more respect from the

00:07:07.600 American people than the FBI has in the last four years.

00:07:11.860 That is a grotesque violation of the obligation of the Department of Justice and the FBI.

00:07:17.460 So I want to start with just a very simple question.

00:07:20.440 If you are confirmed as Attorney General, will you pledge to fairly and faithfully uphold the

00:07:26.800 law regardless of party?

00:07:29.120 So help me God.

00:07:30.680 Amen.

00:07:31.540 Look, I want to be clear for folks at home.

00:07:33.540 I don't want a Republican Department of Justice.

00:07:37.400 I don't want a Democrat Department of Justice. 0.99

00:07:39.760 I want a Department of Justice that follows the damn law. 1.00

00:07:43.180 And I think the American people do, too. 0.99

00:07:44.940 That shouldn't be too much to expect.

00:07:47.300 Now, I'm grateful to President Trump for nominating you.

00:07:51.160 I think on any objective level, you're clearly qualified for this position.

00:07:55.780 You have been a prosecutor for decades.

00:07:58.440 You have been the elected Attorney General of the state of Florida, the third largest state

00:08:03.580 in America, for eight years.

00:08:05.500 Let me ask you, in terms of your practice, how many criminal cases over the course of

00:08:12.860 your career have you personally handled?

00:08:15.600 Handled thousands.

00:08:17.480 How many of those were before a jury?

00:08:20.660 Hundreds.

00:08:21.820 I don't want to overstate the hundreds.

00:08:24.020 I was in a courtroom for many years.

00:08:27.260 I tried four when I was an intern, jury trials.

00:08:30.640 I think you had to try at least 20 in misdemeanor before you went to felony.

00:08:35.200 Then you were in court every day.

00:08:37.400 And I was also lead trial attorney for many years, trying many cases.

00:08:41.920 And how many of those cases would have been before a judge?

00:08:45.340 Oh, hundreds and hundreds as well.

00:08:47.540 But hundreds before a jury, I would assume.

00:08:49.360 And as Attorney General of Florida, how many lawyers did you supervise, roughly?

00:08:54.880 Approximately 400, Senator.

00:08:56.960 Now, I also want to clarify something.

00:08:59.300 During the course of this hearing, several Democrat senators have referred to you as President

00:09:04.020 Trump's, quote, personal lawyer.

00:09:07.100 Now, I don't believe that is an accurate characterization.

00:09:10.080 As I understand it, you represented President Trump as a White House special advisor during

00:09:17.020 his first impeachment trial.

00:09:18.900 Is that correct?

00:09:20.240 Within Office of White House Counsel, yes, Senator.

00:09:23.440 And is working within the White House Counsel's office different than representing Donald J.

00:09:31.180 Trump individually as his personal lawyer?

00:09:33.880 Absolutely.

00:09:35.020 How is it different?

00:09:36.320 You're working for the government.

00:09:37.700 You're working for the Office of White House Counsel.

00:09:40.840 You're not representing him in his personal capacity.

00:09:44.260 And so you have not represented him in his business affairs, in his personal life, or

00:09:48.480 in any of the criminal trials he has faced?

00:09:50.440 No, Senator.

00:09:52.280 And, you know, when it comes to weaponization, it's worth noting that in more than two centuries

00:09:56.460 of our nation's history, no president had previously been indicted.

00:10:00.480 No president had previously been prosecuted until the Biden-Harris White House came along.

00:10:07.160 And in the last four years, we've seen Donald Trump indicted and prosecuted, not once, not

00:10:12.560 twice, not three times, but four separate times.

00:10:16.080 And two assassination attempts, Senator.

00:10:19.440 I have to say, Javert from Les Mis would be chagrined at the efforts of Democrats to do

00:10:25.960 anything possible to take him down.

00:10:28.380 And I believe the real target in this was not President Trump, but it was the American

00:10:32.960 people, that these prosecutions were brought because partisan prosecutors were terrified

00:10:39.740 that the American people would do exactly what they did in November of 2024 and vote to reelect

00:10:45.460 Donald J. Trump.

00:10:46.760 By 77.3 percent, million Americans, 77.3 million Americans.

00:10:53.920 Will you commit every day as Attorney General to follow the law, to follow the Constitution,

00:11:02.600 to uphold the rule of law without favor and without regard to the partisan position of any criminal defendant?

00:11:12.040 Yes, Senator.

00:11:12.680 Senator, that's what we should all expect from an Attorney General.

00:11:15.600 Thank you.

00:11:16.280 Senator, I love the way that you laid that out to explain just so many of the attacks and fallacies,

00:11:21.540 but also what our job is and the fact, and you've said this before, and I think it's a great point

00:11:27.560 to make, again, you don't want a Republican Department of DOJ or a Democrat.

00:11:32.160 You want it to be nonpartisan because that's what got us into this mess with legal warfare

00:11:37.560 against every conservative, anyone around Trump, and the list is long of people that have been

00:11:42.740 persecuted by this DOJ.

00:11:44.620 Well, and the Democrats have been screaming at her.

00:11:47.400 What will you do if Trump demands go prosecute Democrats?

00:11:51.280 And the point I try to make is, listen, that's not a hypothetical.

00:11:55.600 That's not some abstract question.

00:11:58.400 Joe Biden did that.

00:11:59.980 He did that with Merrick Garland.

00:12:01.560 And by the way, Merrick Garland saluted and said, sir, yes, sir, and went and indicted Donald Trump

00:12:06.780 over and over again.

00:12:08.040 So we know what that looks like.

00:12:10.620 And I don't believe Pam Bondi will do that. 0.99

00:12:12.420 By the way, I don't believe Donald Trump will demand that.

00:12:15.420 Now, I will say we had a second round of questioning with Pam Bondi. 0.83

00:12:18.740 And in the second round, I focused on a different aspect of politicization.

00:12:23.740 One aspect of it is using the machinery of justice to go after your enemies,

00:12:29.080 using the machinery of justice to protect the political friends of the president.

00:12:33.940 But there's a different aspect of politicization, and that is refusing to follow the law for an

00:12:39.640 overarching political agenda.

00:12:41.480 In this case, the radical open borders agenda.

00:12:44.240 So listen to this short round of questioning that I had with Pam Bondi later in the day.

00:12:49.660 Excellent job at this hearing.

00:12:51.460 And I want to go back to the topic you and I discussed before, which is the politicization

00:12:56.260 of the Department of Justice.

00:12:57.540 I want to focus on a different aspect of it.

00:12:59.860 We talked about the Department of Justice under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being used

00:13:05.100 to target the president's political enemies.

00:13:07.120 We talked about it being used to protect the political friends and allies of the White House.

00:13:12.080 But there's another aspect of politicization and lawlessness, and that is refusing to follow

00:13:17.200 the law, utterly defying federal statutory law.

00:13:21.560 And I think there's no area where this has been more egregious than as it concerns our immigration

00:13:27.580 laws.

00:13:28.320 We have had four years of a wide open southern border.

00:13:32.560 My state, Texas, has borne a disproportionate burden as a consequence of that, as 12 million

00:13:38.520 illegal aliens have flooded into this country. 0.98

00:13:40.860 And what the Biden administration has done, no other president in the history of America

00:13:45.760 has done.

00:13:46.660 The Biden administration has simply ignored the law.

00:13:49.680 And when illegal aliens are apprehended, they release them. 0.91

00:13:52.280 Federal law says they shall be detained, says they shall be deported.

00:13:56.020 And frankly, our constitutional system is not meant to deal with a president who defies the

00:14:02.800 law.

00:14:03.380 Article 2 says the president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

00:14:07.340 This administration utterly defied the law.

00:14:11.300 I have said somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Joe Biden did something I previously thought was

00:14:15.560 impossible.

00:14:16.760 He made me miss Barack Obama.

00:14:18.680 Because Barack Obama, for all my disagreements with him, when it came to illegal immigration,

00:14:23.340 he by and large followed the law.

00:14:24.660 Barack Obama deported millions of people.

00:14:26.760 The left got mad at him and called him the deporter-in-chief.

00:14:30.040 No administration has ever done what this administration has done, which has said, we are going to facilitate

00:14:35.080 the invasion of this country.

00:14:36.740 We're going to release 12 million people. 1.00

00:14:39.000 And we are going to see Americans murdered, women raped, children abused and murdered. 0.84

00:14:45.000 We're going to see drugs flood into this country, fentanyl flood into this country.

00:14:49.240 And so I want to ask you several things on this.

00:14:52.380 First of all, in your experience, what are the consequences of open borders?

00:14:58.100 And who pays the price when illegal immigrants, and in particular, violent criminal illegal immigrants 1.00

00:15:05.820 are released in this country?

00:15:07.480 American citizens, Senator.

00:15:09.860 And I think they're paying, I know, they're paying the price every single day.

00:15:13.860 We're seeing it.

00:15:14.900 We're watching it.

00:15:15.940 We've talked about Lake and Riley, of course, multiple times.

00:15:19.240 But there are multiple victims, violent crime in all of our states.

00:15:24.240 And as we say now, every state is a border state.

00:15:27.560 I was at the border, not in your state, but in Yuma, Arizona, several months ago.

00:15:33.540 And I saw firsthand, I saw the Border Patrol agents and customs showed us IDs and driver's

00:15:41.500 license.

00:15:42.200 Venezuela, from all of these countries, IDs just thrown on the ground.

00:15:47.600 And people were allowed to walk freely into our country.

00:15:51.240 Senator, I never knew the definition of a disposable child.

00:15:55.040 I never heard that term in my entire career until I was there.

00:15:58.580 A disposable child, the agents kept recognizing a little boy coming over and over.

00:16:04.740 You're familiar with it, I'm sure.

00:16:06.480 Same little boy.

00:16:07.320 And let me ask, because my time has expired, and the issue you're raising is so incredibly

00:16:13.500 important.

00:16:14.820 One statistic that every American should know is the number 300,000.

00:16:18.540 There are over 300,000 children that this administration has lost.

00:16:23.840 Little girls and little boys who came here unaccompanied were in this administration's

00:16:27.740 custody.

00:16:28.500 They handed them over to adults, many of them not blood relatives, and they don't know where

00:16:32.540 they are.

00:16:32.960 I've never seen a single Democrat in this committee ask one question about the 300,000 children.

00:16:37.960 I want to ask you a commitment.

00:16:39.320 Will you, as Attorney General, investigate and make every effort to find those children?

00:16:44.340 And if they are subject to abuse, get them out of those abusive situations that the federal

00:16:49.460 government has put them into.

00:16:50.940 Yes, Senator.

00:16:52.020 Thank you.

00:16:53.020 Senator, this goes back to, I think, one of the things we talked about and highlighted on

00:16:57.660 this show, and that was just the abuse of power by Mayorkas and not even knowing about,

00:17:04.400 for example, the wristbands, which you've described on this show, that were found at the border.

00:17:08.740 And so many people that are trafficked had to wear those, including kids.

00:17:13.160 You look at how we've lost all these kids and hearing her commit to actually using the

00:17:19.300 DOJ for this reason, which should be a nonpolitical reason, saving kids from sex slavery, for goodness

00:17:25.560 sakes.

00:17:26.300 That was encouraging to hear.

00:17:28.700 It was very encouraging.

00:17:29.740 That commitment was very important.

00:17:31.640 Look, you and I, in our last podcast two days ago, we talked about the horrific scandal in

00:17:37.200 the United Kingdom of thousands of girls subject to repeated child rape for decades, and how the

00:17:45.500 government turned its back on them, refused to prosecute, refused to investigate, all in the name of

00:17:51.700 multiculturalism.

00:17:52.600 By the way, if you did not listen to Wednesday's podcast, you ought to listen to it, because it

00:17:56.700 really is, there are among the stories that really bother me, that horrify me, that's really

00:18:03.540 at the top of the list.

00:18:05.020 But you and I talked about on Wednesday how it's easy to say as Americans, well, gosh,

00:18:10.140 it's a shame the Brits did that, but we're somehow better than that.

00:18:14.260 No, we're not.

00:18:15.420 300,000 kids in America have been lost, and the Biden administration doesn't care.

00:18:20.740 Democrats in Congress don't care.

00:18:22.500 The media doesn't care.

00:18:24.200 I am very, very glad this week that Pam Bondi committed to me on the record that as attorney

00:18:30.260 general, she's going to investigate, I hope she's going to create a task force in the

00:18:33.920 Department of Justice to go and find those 300,000 kids, to go figure out, are these children

00:18:40.160 being abused, are they being physically abused, are they being sexually abused, what happened,

00:18:44.400 that it's not okay for the federal government to lose 300,000 little boys and little girls.

00:18:50.320 This week I sat down with Bobby Kennedy, and when I sat down with him, I asked him the same

00:18:56.020 question. He's going to be the next secretary of HHS. Will HHS investigate and fought those

00:19:04.040 children and make sure they're not being abused? And I'll tell you, he committed to be in my office

00:19:07.800 the same thing. That's a big deal, and it's one of the many things that makes me very excited about

00:19:14.060 this new cabinet coming in.

00:19:16.140 Let's talk about timing, because there's a lot of people worried that there's going to be, you know,

00:19:20.100 delays with cabinet members. You mentioned half of the cabinet you guys have had

00:19:25.640 up in front of you this week. There are 20 attorney generals that are calling for what

00:19:30.560 they described as swift Senate confirmations of Chrissy Noem, Pam Bondi, Cash Patel. Are there

00:19:36.200 going to be shenanigans that try to delay this? Are you concerned about that? Because there have

00:19:40.280 been a lot of articles written about that the last couple days. You know, I'm not really concerned,

00:19:44.560 so we have had hearings already for about half of the cabinet nominees. Now, I'm going to point out,

00:19:50.240 January 20th has not happened yet, so it's before Donald Trump has become president again.

00:19:56.040 None of these nominees have been nominated, so nobody can be nominated to a cabinet position

00:20:01.180 until the president is in office. He will not be in office until noon on January 20th.

00:20:06.240 So the Senate is holding confirmation hearings on a whole bunch of nominees who haven't been

00:20:11.700 nominated yet, and that's a good thing. I think on January 20th, Trump will take the oath of office

00:20:17.800 at noon. That day will confirm, I think, probably a couple of Trump cabinet nominees. My guess is

00:20:24.740 Marco Rubio will be confirmed as Secretary of State. I think it will be an overwhelming vote.

00:20:30.000 I think he'll get north of 90 votes. He might even get north of 95 votes. It will be

00:20:34.180 all the Republicans and most of the Democrats. I think there's a good chance John Ratcliffe,

00:20:40.480 who's been nominated to be director of CIA, I think he'll be confirmed on January 20th.

00:20:45.060 And I think the rest of the cabinet will be confirmed in the next 30 days.

00:20:49.860 So will it be instantaneous? Will it be in 10 minutes? No. But I think within 30 days,

00:20:56.240 we'll move the cabinet through and we'll move expeditiously. And this week's been a very good

00:21:01.380 week for that because the cabinet nominees have performed exceptionally, and I think they're all

00:21:07.100 going to get confirmed.

00:21:07.800 So let's talk about and go back to something you said a moment ago, and that's, you know,

00:21:12.540 what are you focusing on? It's very clear that the Republicans are focused on moving forward,

00:21:17.340 getting things done for the people. And you look at what Democrats are doing, whether and we're

00:21:22.540 going to get to this part in a minute, but whether it's them saying, oh, we don't like people that

00:21:26.140 aren't our fans right now. So we're going to call them oligarchs. We're going to attack people

00:21:30.400 that are rich. And then you look out in California where the wildfires, unfortunately,

00:21:34.140 are still burning. And it seems to be pure politics right now for the governor out there

00:21:40.320 who had enough time to, while these wildfires are going on, to get in a back and forth with you.

00:21:46.560 Yeah. So Gavin Newsom, you and I did a podcast last week, and it was another podcast, which if

00:21:52.720 y'all didn't listen to, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to. It laid out the specific policies

00:21:58.720 policies that California had put in place that increased the chances of disastrous and

00:22:06.020 catastrophic wildfires and that reduced the ability of California to fight those wildfires.

00:22:11.940 Now, look, what is happening in California is horrific. And as you know, Heidi's a native

00:22:18.360 Californian. A lot of her family is out in California. My heart is breaking for these

00:22:22.900 Americans who are seeing their homes burned to the ground, the people being killed. It is an

00:22:27.340 absolute tragedy. And I am grateful for the firefighters, for the police officers, for the

00:22:33.520 first responders who are risking their lives to save people. Even at the time we are rallying

00:22:41.460 around protecting people in harm's way, I think it is valuable to ask, are there policies that

00:22:49.160 California enacted that made this worse? And the answer is yes. And then I got to say,

00:22:53.780 this week, Gavin Newsom jumped out. We're going to play the audio in a second. And here's what he

00:23:01.200 tweeted. He said, quote, today, I signed an executive order prohibiting greedy land developers from

00:23:07.960 ripping off L.A. wildfire victims with unsolicited, undervalued offers to buy their destroyed property.

00:23:14.840 Make no mistake. This is a prosecutable crime. So play Gavin Newsom saying this.

00:23:23.260 Altadena, I just signed an executive order with community leaders to deal with the issue that is

00:23:27.760 becoming a bigger and bigger issue every day. And that's land developers that are engaging in

00:23:33.660 predatory efforts to make unsolicited offers for properties at significantly below market value.

00:23:41.340 This predatory behavior is disgusting in the best of times. And of course, here in the midst of this

00:23:47.520 tragedy at scale, it's disgraceful. So we're going to hold those folks accountable. I'm very grateful

00:23:52.760 for the leadership here in the community that promoted this approach and this executive order's

00:23:58.400 reflection of their direction and their commitment to preserving the unique character of this community

00:24:03.920 for generations to come.

00:24:05.180 Make no mistake. This is a prosecutable crime is what he put out there in his tweet saying, I'm signing this

00:24:11.480 executive order prohibiting the greedy land developers from ripping off L.A. wildfire victims with unsolicited

00:24:18.100 offers.

00:24:20.040 So I responded. I responded on Twitter and I sent back the following tweet.

00:24:26.080 Misguided California policies. Number one, limited fire mitigation efforts.

00:24:31.180 Number two, produced water shortages. And number three, underfunded firefighters. And by the way,

00:24:37.640 that's what we discussed at depth in our podcast last week. The tweet continued. Now, Democrat politicians

00:24:47.420 are making it harder for those devastated by the wildfires to sell their destroyed properties.

00:24:54.760 This will only hurt the victims. So that was my response. And then I got to say, it's interesting, you know,

00:25:05.220 Newsom is in the middle of a crisis. And yet somehow he found time to tweet back against me. He was mad at what

00:25:12.500 I had to say. So here's what Gavin Newsom tweeted back. He said, quote,

00:25:17.280 Openly shilling for scammers and bottom feeder land speculators is a weird play. Even for you, Ted,

00:25:29.240 our executive order doesn't prevent anyone from selling their property. It prohibits scammers

00:25:35.460 from making unsolicited offers to buy property for pennies on the dollar. And then I got to say,

00:25:43.120 I responded to that. And I said, leftists, ignorant of basic economics, have played a major role in the 0.95

00:25:54.160 exodus of millions from California. Now, Newsom brags that he will criminally prosecute anyone making a

00:26:03.260 quote, unquote, low offer to purchase a fire devastated property. The result? Many Californians

00:26:14.500 won't get offers. And I got to say, this back and forth, I think it actually reveals a lot.

00:26:23.780 The left today, they don't understand basic economics. They don't understand economics 101.

00:26:29.660 Let's say you're a person in L.A. and let's say your home has been tragically destroyed. Let's say

00:26:35.360 you're in tragedy. You're in crisis. You don't know what to do. It's burned to a crisp. You can't

00:26:40.780 afford to rebuild. You don't know what to do. And you know what? Maybe someone comes in and makes an

00:26:48.080 offer and says, hey, Ben, your property that has been burned down, whether it's your home or commercial

00:26:52.920 property where you have, I'll pay you X dollars for that. Now, before the fire, you probably wouldn't

00:27:00.000 have taken X dollars because your property wasn't burned to the ground. It was worth more.

00:27:04.720 But after the fire, you might well say, holy cow, I'm in panic. I need help. That is a lifesaver to me.

00:27:16.160 So thank you. I will take X dollars because I can't afford it if I don't don't get some help right

00:27:21.540 now. What is Gavin Newsom saying? Nope. If you make an offer, damn it. I'm going to prosecute you

00:27:28.800 and throw you in jail. What that means is let's say, Ben, your home's burned to a crisp. You know

00:27:33.520 what? People aren't going to make you offers because if they're worried, wait, if I offer to buy Ben

00:27:38.480 Ferguson's home, the lunatics in California are going to come prosecute me and put me in jail.

00:27:44.520 You know what? I ain't making an offer. So you know what you're going to get for your property? 0.94

00:27:48.140 Zero. Because numbskull politicians are focused on demagoguing someone who would offer to buy

00:27:58.780 a fire destroyed property rather than focusing on stopping these wired fires, preventing them

00:28:05.320 and supporting the firefighters to stop them if and when they occur. There's also a family aspect of

00:28:11.940 this that is concerning. And you and I saw this with the massive flooding that happened in Houston.

00:28:19.020 My in-law's house got flooded out. They had no intent of moving. But after they got flooded, it was the

00:28:25.100 right time for them to leave that house and sell that house, that lot basically, and move closer to

00:28:32.440 where the rest of the family was. That was a family decision. And if someone knocked on the door

00:28:38.000 and was like, hey, I don't know if you want to rebuild this, maybe you should, you know, this is

00:28:43.980 a lot value that is worth a lot. And here's the economics of this. There were many people that

00:28:49.680 made that decision as well. You just took that away from them. Yeah, look, it's not complicated. In a free

00:28:56.100 society, I have a right to offer you if I see something, if I see your house, if I see your car,

00:29:03.560 if I see anything, and I say, hey, I'll give you $100,000 for that. I'll give you a million dollars

00:29:10.800 for that. I'll give you $1,000 for that. Whatever. Like, like, we have a free society where I can tell

00:29:16.580 you, Ben, you have something. Do you want to sell it? I'll offer you this price. By the way, no one's

00:29:21.320 forcing you to say yes. Like, if someone makes an offer, you could say, go pound sand. No, I don't want

00:29:27.680 to sell it. And that's perfectly fine. If you remember the movie Bugsy, great movie about the beginning of LA

00:29:33.300 and Warren Beatty is playing Bugsy Siegel, and he's in Beverly Hills, and he sees this gorgeous

00:29:38.120 mansion, and he walks up to the door, knocks on the door, and he says, I want to buy your house.

00:29:42.860 The guy says, it's not for sale. And he says, nonsense, everything's for sale. How much do you

00:29:46.560 want? And he says, it's not for sale. And then he offers some massive amount. And 30 seconds later,

00:29:52.660 the guy leaves his house, and Bugsy Siegel moves into his house. Like, at some level, the right to offer,

00:29:57.660 I will pay you X for what you have. That's the basic conduct of free people. And so,

00:30:05.400 but the point on this, and this is Economics 101, when Gavin Newsom says, I'm going to come and lock

00:30:14.120 you up and put you in jail if you make an offer to people in crisis. Well, you know what? People are

00:30:20.460 not going to make offers. So people are sitting there who are trapped and hopeless, and their

00:30:25.500 insurance was canceled. They can't get insurance. They can't pay their property taxes. They can't,

00:30:30.000 they don't know what to do. They're all going to be worse off because, listen, if someone makes an

00:30:37.000 offer to buy it, maybe you say, no, I don't want that offer. It's not enough. I don't want it. Okay,

00:30:40.700 you're not any worse off. Have you been hurt because someone called and said, I'll give you

00:30:45.220 this amount for your property? You're not hurt. But for people who are in crisis,

00:30:50.700 that offer may be the, the, the, the, the life preserver they need. And Gavin Newsom said,

00:30:57.840 nope, nope, nope. You ain't getting offers. Guess what? You're just going under because we,

00:31:04.820 the, the, the, the California socialists, we're not going to focus on, on, on protecting you.

00:31:09.980 We're going to focus on demagoguing the big, bad, rich person who would offer to buy your property

00:31:15.760 instead. It is also goes back to this other narrative and we heard it from the president

00:31:20.180 of the United States of America the other night. He was obsessed with this idea of oligarchs. I

00:31:24.640 actually think this was a little bit different. Uh, and Bernie Sanders started naming names when he

00:31:30.840 was, uh, doing the confirmation hearing for the man who's up for, for treasury secretary. And I want

00:31:37.400 to get your take and we're going to play Bernie. But one of the things I, I felt was really kind of

00:31:42.900 icky about this was the fact that it's like, Hey, we're warning some of you that have stepped out

00:31:49.540 of line from the democratic party that we're coming after you. When we get our power back,

00:31:56.020 if you do, if you step out too far into the conservative side of things, and that's why we're

00:32:02.440 warning you that if we name you as a, an oligarch, then if we get our, when we get our power back,

00:32:09.140 there's going to be some sort of hell to pay. And you better be careful how much you work with

00:32:14.480 Donald Trump and you support freedom of speech and you support freedom of expression online and the

00:32:20.080 able, the ability to post things. And that's what it was boiling down to. And it was, I think even

00:32:25.900 more weird, it was in a back and forth of the guy for treasury secretary. It's like, wait, are you

00:32:31.160 trying to weaponize treasury to say, Hey, your job is to now make sure there's no billionaires in

00:32:36.420 America? Well, look, it's, it's worth giving a listen. So, so listen to this back and forth.

00:32:41.620 And in terms of the demagogic, uh, language of, of the Democrat party, this is a great example.

00:32:48.460 Give a listen. When you have a small number of multi billionaires who have enormous economic

00:32:56.360 media and political power, would you agree, uh, with president Biden who last night stated,

00:33:05.420 and I quote, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence

00:33:12.620 that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms. End of quote. That's what

00:33:18.820 president Biden said last night. I agree with him. Do you? I enjoyed our visit and I hope you got my,

00:33:26.180 my followup materials that we've on the discussions, my previous writings on the, uh, terrorists and

00:33:32.660 China. Uh, and look, the, the three, uh, billionaires who you listed that all made the money themselves.

00:33:44.340 The Mr. Musk came to the country as an immigrant. I understand that. But what I'm asking you

00:33:50.820 is when you have a handful of people like Musk, who will soon be part of the Trump administration

00:33:59.140 and others, when you have three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society,

00:34:04.980 when these people have enormous influence over the media, when they spend huge amounts of money

00:34:10.420 in both political parties to elect candidates, what Biden said last night is we're moving toward

00:34:15.940 an oligarchy. I'm asking you that question. Do you think, forget how they made their money. Do you

00:34:21.460 think that when so few people have so much wealth and so much economic and political power that that

00:34:27.220 is an oligarchic form society? Well, I, I, I wouldn't note that the president Biden gave the presidential

00:34:34.980 medal of freedom to two people who I think would qualify for his oligarchs. So this is not a condemnation

00:34:42.820 of any one individual. I'm just asking you, when so few people have so much wealth and power,

00:34:50.500 but do you think that that is an oligarchic form of society? Uh, Senator, I, I think it depends on

00:34:58.020 the, the, the, the ability to move up and down the, and no, that's not really the answer. I mean,

00:35:04.100 even if you had that mobility, no matter who those individuals might be. All right,

00:35:08.100 but let me ask you another question. I love there how he's like, all right,

00:35:10.980 I'm going to move on. Cause this isn't landing. You just threw it back in my face that we just

00:35:14.340 gave medals, uh, of, of the, the highest level of metal you can give to a, a civilian to two of

00:35:21.460 the people that would be categorized oligarchs. One of them, by the way, is a hard core radical by

00:35:27.780 the name of George Soros. Yeah. George, George Soros just got the medal of freedom from Joe Biden.

00:35:33.700 He celebrated. He also gave it to Hillary Clinton. And, and by the way, before that,

00:35:38.100 Barack, uh, Barack Obama gave the medal of freedom to Bill Gates. And, and listen,

00:35:43.300 the position of Bernie Sanders is we hate billionaires, unless you're billionaires who

00:35:47.740 support socialists and the Democrat party, then, then you're okay. But to be clear,

00:35:52.420 you're only okay. If you're buying absolution, the instant you stop buying absolution,

00:35:57.540 we will demonize you and we, we, we will burn you an effigy in the streets. And, and, and I gotta 0.99

00:36:03.020 say, I like Scott Besson's point. He's like, wait, you're attacking these people.

00:36:06.740 None of these three people you're attacking, none of them inherited wealth. You know, Elon Musk came

00:36:13.200 as an immigrant from Africa, like, like he built amazing companies and, and to a socialist, they

00:36:19.940 don't care what you did to build wealth. They're going to demonize you. They're going to attack you.

00:36:26.220 And, and, and it's an example of, and, and by the way, it's, it's why you get so many incredibly

00:36:33.100 rich, so many billionaires who backed the Democrat party because they're basically paying for protection

00:36:39.300 from Robespierre, from, from, from the guillotine in the French revolution. And, and I gotta say that

00:36:48.300 that is where the Democrat party is, but I'll, I'll give Scott Besson a shout out. He responded

00:36:53.620 with fantastic answers, which is why Bernie ran, ran to the hills and ran away because he realized

00:37:01.440 it wasn't going the way he wanted. Scott Besson's going to get confirmed. Every Trump cabinet member

00:37:06.300 is going to get confirmed. That might be the best thing we've heard all day. Every member is going

00:37:11.800 to get confirmed in Trump's cabinet. And that's incredible. Don't forget, we do the show Monday,

00:37:15.780 Wednesday, Friday, and we've got one more show. I just saw the center wants to remind everybody,

00:37:19.760 one more show Monday morning. No, no, I thought, I thought you told me this was the last one before

00:37:23.360 inauguration. I was listening to you at the beginning of the show. You said that.

00:37:28.260 Right. I, you know, I'm changing here. I'm just moving with the calendar. I'm moving with the times

00:37:33.160 here, Senator. Uh, so we'll have that final one for you before inauguration that will air on Monday

00:37:39.040 on inauguration day. Don't forget our weekend review will be on Saturday as well. Hit that subscribe or auto

00:37:44.520 download button. Uh, and, uh, we'll see you back here on Saturday and then for one more show on

00:37:50.120 Monday as well. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 17, 2025

Bondi Rocks, Newsom Doubles Down on Policies Hurting Californians & Dems Demagogue Entrepreneurs

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