Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 17, 2025


BONUS POD： Autopen-Gate begins as White House Opens Probe plus Are Illegal Immigrants Getting Benefits in New York？


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00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.440 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.580 And yet we heard from White House aide Nera Tannen reportedly testifying she had no idea
00:00:11.700 who in Biden's inner circle gave her permission to use the autopilot.
00:00:16.660 If there is this underlying plot to hide Biden's mental condition so that others could
00:00:22.360 arrogate his power in that way, that's a conspiracy crime.
00:00:27.100 So it's no wonder two people have already taken the fifth.
00:00:30.380 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:34.240 Good Thursday morning.
00:00:35.160 It's so nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:37.660 And we've got some really big breaking news.
00:00:39.940 Representative James Comer now explaining exactly what's at stake in the investigation
00:00:45.060 to Biden's autopilot.
00:00:46.100 And yes, the White House is now opening an investigation into that autopilot.
00:00:52.660 Who was using it?
00:00:54.280 And did Joe Biden even know it was happening?
00:00:57.100 Also, you may have heard the big lie.
00:00:59.900 Democrats saying that illegal immigrants are not on Medicaid.
00:01:04.140 Well, Representative Wesley Hunt is now asking New York about their 670,000 illegal immigrants
00:01:10.500 and, quote, how many of them are actually on Medicaid.
00:01:14.980 But first, I want to talk to you about starting my day.
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00:03:05.400 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:03:08.760 Story number one.
00:03:09.940 It is official.
00:03:10.940 The White House now confirming they are opening the auto-pin Biden investigation.
00:03:17.860 Yes, you can smile.
00:03:19.520 We may actually get some answers about just how bad the cognitive decline of Joe Biden was
00:03:25.100 and who was actually running the White House.
00:03:27.480 It was clearly an auto-pin, and somebody was directing that auto-pin to do things and sign
00:03:33.140 things and give out pardons, and it wasn't the sitting president, Joe Biden.
00:03:37.880 The White House Counsel's Office has officially opened this investigation on former President
00:03:43.060 Joe Biden's White House abuse of the presidential auto-pin to sign those pardons, executive orders,
00:03:49.240 and other laws and actions, potentially without the former president's knowledge.
00:03:54.840 This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest political scandals in all of American history.
00:04:01.060 Sources confirming the opening of the investigation within the Trump White House.
00:04:06.080 And the press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, issued a statement that the administration is, quote,
00:04:10.280 committed to finding the answers.
00:04:13.080 Joe Biden was the worst, the most incompetent, and senile president in our country's history,
00:04:18.740 is what Caroline Leavitt wrote in a statement responding to the press request for a comment.
00:04:23.540 It has been widely reported that Joe Biden handed the power of the presidency
00:04:27.860 to an auto-pin that was controlled by unelected leftist staffers who were allowed to make terrible
00:04:34.860 decisions that destroyed our country.
00:04:37.300 The Trump White House is committed to finding the answers to many outstanding questions the
00:04:42.880 American people still have about how business in the Biden White House was conducted, Leavitt's
00:04:48.140 statement added.
00:04:49.240 President Trump also had something to say at the White House in an unrelated sitting in the
00:04:54.020 Oval Office.
00:04:54.780 Here's what he had to say about this scandal as well.
00:04:58.000 Whoever operated the auto-pin had a policy, which is, by the way, I think the biggest scandal.
00:05:03.460 That's the scandal they should be talking about, not Jeffrey Epstein.
00:05:07.720 The scandal you should be talking about is the auto-pin, because I think it's the biggest
00:05:12.220 scandal, one of them in American history.
00:05:15.360 Now let's talk about what the investigation is going to look like.
00:05:18.900 I'm being told that this investigation will include the review of tens of thousands of
00:05:24.480 documents turned over to the National Archives, as well as Records Administration.
00:05:29.400 And those documents, as the New York Times first reported early over the weekend, will
00:05:34.360 potentially provide direct evidence of whether Biden was aware of the actions that were being
00:05:40.760 signed by the auto-pin.
00:05:43.220 That would be his signature.
00:05:44.400 Now Biden potentially absolved his senior officials that acted on his behalf by auto-pin by telling
00:05:50.920 the Times in a blanket statement that could whitewash complicity, saying, quote, I conscientiously
00:05:57.020 made all those decisions, is what Biden's staff said to the Times.
00:06:02.080 I made every decision.
00:06:03.460 Quote unquote is Biden's quote.
00:06:05.160 Now, the American people, you can decide to believe Joe Biden, but I think it's pretty
00:06:10.200 clear the White House is not going to take the former president at his word.
00:06:14.160 Which brings me to another story, a very important one as well.
00:06:18.680 There's a guy by the name of Anthony Bernal.
00:06:21.960 He is the former chief of staff for the First Lady Jill Biden, often dubbed her work husband.
00:06:28.600 He was before Congress and invoked his Fifth Amendment right during a deposition by the
00:06:35.080 House Oversight Committee.
00:06:36.520 In fact, he refused to answer any questions related to President Joe Biden's cognitive
00:06:42.020 fitness, whether he was ever asked to lie about the president's health or about the use
00:06:47.300 of the presidential auto-pin.
00:06:49.640 Now, he is the second former aide to do so, following the president's physician, Dr.
00:06:55.960 Kevin O'Connor, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, emphasized the seriousness of
00:07:01.900 this refusal, saying it raises concerns that unelected staff may have assumed presidential
00:07:08.380 level decision-making responsibilities.
00:07:11.540 Now, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who also pled the Fifth, Biden's longtime White House physician,
00:07:17.600 invoked it the same way at a closed-door deposition before the same committee.
00:07:21.820 The committee pressed him on whether he was ever instructed to misrepresent Biden's health
00:07:27.220 or believe the president to be unfit to serve.
00:07:30.920 He would not answer that question.
00:07:33.200 Now, Republicans have obviously highlighted this as an extraordinary cover-up and suggestive
00:07:39.160 of a concealed cover-up that was planned by top-level people in the White House.
00:07:43.640 The Democrats would have been involved.
00:07:45.640 And the doctor's legal team stressed that exercising the right does not imply wrongdoing.
00:07:50.960 It simply protects self-incrimination.
00:07:53.920 So here's the bigger picture.
00:07:55.780 The House Oversight Committee, led by James Comer, is actively investigating the allegations
00:08:01.040 that Biden's health issues were so secretive, were so concealed, that aides may have used
00:08:07.260 the autopin to sign official documents, possibly circumventing presidential authority.
00:08:12.400 And they may have signed documents that Joe Biden never intended to sign, didn't even
00:08:16.680 know existed, and invoked policy decisions that he didn't even know about.
00:08:21.360 Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat from Texas, a committee Democrat, has defended
00:08:26.820 President Biden, asserting that occasional verbal missteps are not, quote, evidence of cognitive
00:08:33.200 failure.
00:08:34.100 The investigation into Biden's cognitive fitness and potential misuse of the autopin is clearly
00:08:39.440 intensifying.
00:08:40.500 With Bernal and O'Connor both invoking their Fifth Amendment rights, House Republicans view
00:08:45.900 this as evidence of internal concealment, while Democrats are maintaining the lie, saying
00:08:52.180 this is no big deal at all and it doesn't prove any wrongdoing.
00:08:56.440 Now, at the end of the day, this is going to come down to what the White House finds, what
00:09:00.580 they see in the records.
00:09:01.920 And I wouldn't be shocked to see more people invoke the Fifth Amendment so they don't incriminate
00:09:06.680 themselves or lie under oath to Congress.
00:09:09.540 Now, story number two.
00:09:11.220 There has been a question that many Republicans have been asking.
00:09:14.820 How many illegal immigrants are actually receiving access to Medicaid benefits?
00:09:21.160 Now, if you ask the Democratic Party, they will tell you that there isn't a single illegal
00:09:26.500 immigrant that is receiving Medicaid benefits.
00:09:29.980 Insert a brilliant move by Texas Representative Wesley Hunt.
00:09:34.480 He's now demanding data from the New York governor over how many of the state's estimated 670,000
00:09:42.640 illegal immigrants are actually receiving access to those Medicaid benefits that Democrats say,
00:09:48.820 well, it's not happening at all.
00:09:50.640 Hunt, a Republican, decided to just straight up ask the question directly to the governor on
00:09:55.860 Monday, raising questions about how the Empire State has leveraged waivers to actually allow
00:10:02.280 its Medicaid program to operate differently from federal standards and mandates.
00:10:08.460 Governor Hochul is required to report this information to the federal government.
00:10:13.180 So the question is simple.
00:10:15.040 Will she comply or continue to harbor lawbreakers while putting the health care of law-abiding
00:10:21.120 citizens at risk?
00:10:23.160 Hunt said in a statement to the New York Post.
00:10:25.720 This is what Democratic leadership looks like.
00:10:29.380 Open borders, benefits for illegal aliens, and betrayal of the people they're supposed to
00:10:35.020 be representing, the American people.
00:10:37.580 Now, there is an estimated 1.4 million people, quote, whose citizenship, nationality, or satisfactory
00:10:45.280 immigration status is not, quote, verified.
00:10:49.520 And they are potentially being covered by Medicaid programs in various states.
00:10:55.880 That coming now from the Congressional Budget Office.
00:10:59.700 I'll have more on that in a moment.
00:11:01.560 But one study from the Liberal-Leaning Fiscal Policy Institute, cited by Congressman Hunt,
00:11:08.040 found that there are some 670,000 illegal immigrants in the Empire State.
00:11:13.440 In fact, it is now about 5% of the population.
00:11:17.400 New York has benefited from Section 1115 waivers, which allows it to experiment and deviate from
00:11:27.520 federal standards in its implementation of Medicaid, a program that provides health insurance
00:11:33.540 to 70 million low-income Americans.
00:11:37.000 And now the question is, how many illegals?
00:11:39.780 A spokesperson for the governor quickly fired back at Congressman Hunt and argued that he should
00:11:46.100 have focused on opposing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act over its Medicaid reforms instead of
00:11:53.000 targeting New York, saying this, if Representative Hunt were truly concerned about the health and
00:11:59.140 well-being of his constituents, he should have directed his focus to voting against the Big
00:12:04.520 Ugly Bill, which will invoke irreparable damage to Medicaid programs nationwide, including in his
00:12:11.180 home state of Texas.
00:12:12.320 Yet again, you may notice that the spokesperson for the governor did not answer the question,
00:12:18.120 how many illegal immigrants are receiving benefits?
00:12:21.440 This is just another pitiful attempt, the governor's office went on to say, to divert attention from
00:12:27.000 Republican actions to eliminate health care for 1.5 million New Yorkers and deny food security
00:12:34.600 access to millions of seniors and children.
00:12:37.100 You'll notice in that statement, yet again, the governor of New York refusing to answer
00:12:41.580 the question, how many illegal immigrants are taking government benefits?
00:12:46.700 Now, state officials have told the New York Post that, quote, most undocumented individuals
00:12:52.520 are not eligible for full Medicaid coverage.
00:12:57.000 Now, notice the words they used.
00:12:58.980 Most undocumented individuals are not eligible for, quote, full Medicaid coverage.
00:13:04.800 By the way, that statement would also be true for most American citizens are not eligible
00:13:11.320 for full Medicaid coverage and that the small group that is enrolled in the state's program
00:13:18.260 has not benefited, they claim, from federal dollars.
00:13:22.160 Now, New York also claimed that spending was unrelated to the 1-1-1-5 waivers.
00:13:28.580 Well, then why would the governor of New York not answer the simple question that was put
00:13:33.220 to her by Wesley Hunt.
00:13:34.740 Now, Hunt noted that the Biden administration had rejected the use of those waivers for states
00:13:40.820 like South Carolina, Arizona, and other states.
00:13:44.240 The Texas Republicans stress that the waivers were not intended to allow illegal immigrants
00:13:49.200 to benefit American tax dollars going for their health care coverage.
00:13:54.100 Now, the Biden administration allowed and even encouraged the use of these 1-1-1-5 waivers
00:13:59.880 to extend Medicaid to undocumented immigrants, something that Democrats are now claiming
00:14:04.560 never happened.
00:14:05.740 And despite federal law actually prohibiting them from receiving these benefits, Hunt wrote
00:14:10.440 in a letter to Hochul on Monday.
00:14:12.680 Now, back in February, President Trump also signed an executive order that directed his administration
00:14:18.200 to ensure, and to maximum extent possible, that, quote, no taxpayer-funded benefits go to
00:14:25.400 unqualified aliens.
00:14:27.220 That order pointed to existing law, such as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
00:14:32.980 Reconciliation Act of 1996, which generally blocks illegal immigrants from getting federal
00:14:38.740 benefits from taxpayers.
00:14:40.180 The Texas Republican also cited concerns about New York's Green Light Law, which permits all
00:14:46.900 state residents, regardless of immigration status, to get driver's licenses.
00:14:52.300 Now, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against that law, arguing that it hamstrings
00:14:57.380 federal enforcement of immigration law.
00:14:59.840 Hunt argued it could help illegal immigrants get access to taxpayer-funded benefits, using
00:15:05.360 the driver's license to gain that access.
00:15:08.240 And to address these concerns, Hunt now demanded that Hochul conduct a review of its Medicaid
00:15:13.600 enrollment base on Social Security numbers and release those findings to the public, saying
00:15:18.540 this, New Yorkers deserve transparency, accountability, and adherence to law and the administration of
00:15:25.680 public health programs.
00:15:27.320 Policies that divert limited resources away from lawful recipients, American citizens, not
00:15:34.300 only violates federal standards, they also destroy public trust and threaten the sustainability
00:15:39.440 of programs designed to serve our most vulnerable American citizens.
00:15:43.720 Now, Hunt has also drawn speculation over recent weeks that he may vie for Senator John Cornyn's
00:15:50.340 seat in the Senate in Texas in the 2026 midterms.
00:15:54.320 And this could very well be one of those points that he would campaign on.
00:15:58.440 Now, let me say one other thing about this.
00:16:00.900 We deserve answers.
00:16:02.320 The American people, as taxpayers, deserve to know where their money is going.
00:16:05.800 And if it is being diverted to 670,000 illegal immigrants in the Empire State, yes, about
00:16:11.760 four and a half percent of its population.
00:16:14.640 One other thing that I think is also a point that needs to be made.
00:16:17.980 You notice that Democrats did not deny in any of the statements coming from the governor's
00:16:22.700 office that illegal immigrants are receiving benefits.
00:16:25.840 And they worded it carefully to say, well, some may, but most aren't.
00:16:29.420 And most aren't receiving full benefits.
00:16:31.640 Well, that also goes for the same with the American citizen base that are eligible for
00:16:36.580 Medicaid benefits as well.
00:16:38.480 It is supposed to help the weakest, the least, the poorest, and those that are the most in
00:16:42.840 need.
00:16:43.340 Yet, many Americans do not qualify for full benefits.
00:16:47.200 So why are we giving those benefits to illegal immigrants?
00:16:50.580 That's the question every American should be asking.
00:16:53.760 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
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00:17:11.180 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:17:14.080 Guaranteed human.