Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 07, 2025


BONUS POD： China’s 'New' Viral Outbreak Echoes COVID-Era Measures plus Democrats Face Removal Over Quorum Walkout

Topics
chikungunya outbreak in China
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Greg Abbott Mark Levin Ben Ferguson Will Durant Ken Paxton J.B. Pritzker Donald Trump COVID-19 Patriot Brett
Trump Revokes Student Visas for Chinese Nationals, Transgender Athlete Policy Shift in CA, Take It Down Act Targeting Deepfakes Signed & ABA Barred from Judicial Nominations Media’s Role in Biden’s Decline ＂Only Good Four Hours a Day＂

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

167.71

Word count

3,191

Sentence count

212

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ben Ferguson talks about a viral outbreak in China spread by mosquito bites, the Texas Supreme Court ruling against the governor and Supreme Court, and why you should switch your cell phone service provider to one that supports your First Amendment rights and opposes abortion.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.800 The term that I use now to describe the Democrats,
00:00:09.000 these Marxists and Islamists, is authoritarian Democrats.
00:00:12.840 In other words, they'll go through the voting process as long as they win,
00:00:15.580 but if they don't win, they'll try and sabotage, you know, a Trump or a Republican.
00:00:19.640 They don't really care about the electorate except if it gives them power.
00:00:22.600 They don't really care about the well-being of the average person
00:00:25.480 unless they can persuade them to support them.
00:00:27.800 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:31.920 Good Thursday morning.
00:00:32.960 It's nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update,
00:00:35.720 and we've got a couple of major stories for you this morning.
00:00:39.420 This one is a story I hope I never have to talk about again,
00:00:43.480 but it needs to be on your radar screen.
00:00:45.740 The CDC has now issued a travel warning over a viral outbreak in China
00:00:52.460 that is spread by mosquito bites.
00:00:55.300 It is very eerie how close this is to the initial warnings we got with COVID-19.
00:01:01.580 I'll have that story for you in just a moment.
00:01:04.480 Also, it is ratcheting up in Texas as Democrats refuse to come back to work.
00:01:10.420 Now it's involving the state Supreme Court,
00:01:13.260 the governor, and the governor of Illinois.
00:01:16.600 I'll also talk with Mark Levin, the great one,
00:01:19.820 about his new book on power and how it relates to everything that's going on in Texas.
00:01:26.560 But first, I've got to ask you a question.
00:01:28.920 Are you one of those that is just so tired of giving your money to radical left,
00:01:32.900 woke companies that actually are fighting against your values every day?
00:01:37.420 Well, there are certain bills that you pay every month
00:01:40.420 that if you can go with a conservative company, why not do it?
00:01:44.460 In fact, why not go with a conservative company that actually takes part of your bill every month
00:01:49.220 that you're going to pay to somebody,
00:01:50.800 and they give it back to organizations that support your First and your Second Amendment rights,
00:01:55.980 that support the rights of unborn children,
00:01:58.580 that stand with our military, our first responders,
00:02:02.740 and so many wounded warriors that need help.
00:02:06.420 Well, that bill I'm talking about is your cell phone bill.
00:02:10.100 And I've been telling you for a long time about Patriot Mobile,
00:02:13.640 but there's no better time to switch than right now.
00:02:16.520 Not only does Patriot Mobile operate on all three major networks in this country.
00:02:21.540 Yeah, all three.
00:02:22.300 That means you get the same great coverage you're used to right now.
00:02:25.460 But you also make a difference with every call you make and every text you make.
00:02:29.460 And why would you want to give your money to Big Mobile?
00:02:32.040 Big Mobile has been giving big donations to democratic causes,
00:02:36.280 democratic candidates, and radical left organizations.
00:02:39.480 I'm talking about organizations that actually support abortion.
00:02:44.340 That is why I want you to switch right now to Patriot Mobile.
00:02:48.980 Go ahead and make the switch, and it's so easy.
00:02:52.500 All you have to do is simply call Patriot Mobile's 100% U.S.-based team
00:02:57.520 from the comfort of your home or your office,
00:02:59.800 and they'll have you activated in minutes.
00:03:02.240 And if you're still locked in a contract, not a problem.
00:03:05.080 Patriot's Mobile contract buyout program covers up to $500
00:03:08.200 per device.
00:03:10.380 Keep your same number.
00:03:11.500 Keep your phone or upgrade to a new one.
00:03:13.620 So back to my point.
00:03:14.760 What are you waiting for?
00:03:16.140 Call Patriot Mobile today and make a difference every single day
00:03:19.940 with every call you make.
00:03:21.920 PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson.
00:03:24.840 That's PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson.
00:03:28.160 Or 972-PATRIOT.
00:03:30.980 And if you use the promo code FERGUSON,
00:03:32.940 you're going to get a free month of service on top of that.
00:03:36.220 PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson.
00:03:38.260 Or 972-PATRIOT.
00:03:40.980 That's PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson.
00:03:43.260 Or 972-PATRIOT.
00:03:45.060 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:03:48.840 Story number one.
00:03:49.960 There is a major story that needs to be on your radar,
00:03:53.100 and it's one that concerns now China yet again,
00:03:57.240 and the CDC issuing a travel warning over a viral outbreak in China
00:04:02.720 that is spread by mosquito bites.
00:04:05.940 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
00:04:09.100 issuing a level two travel notice.
00:04:12.320 This is much like what we witness with the coronavirus
00:04:15.820 for a province in China due to a, quote, major outbreak.
00:04:20.980 The agency is recommending travelers practice enhanced precautions.
00:04:25.860 As of August the 6th, if you believe the numbers coming out of China,
00:04:29.980 over 7,000 confirmed cases of chikungunya have been reported
00:04:35.820 with the outbreak spreading to Hong Kong and other provinces.
00:04:40.780 Now, what is this disease?
00:04:42.960 Well, symptoms typically appear, they say, three to seven days after a mosquito bite.
00:04:47.920 And while most recover within a week, there are major problems that can happen
00:04:52.560 because of this mosquito-borne viral disease,
00:04:56.280 characterized as being major issues with fever,
00:05:00.240 severe joint pain, severe headaches, muscle aches, joint swelling, and a rash.
00:05:06.700 There is also a concern over death, even though it's being categorized as rare.
00:05:11.880 Infants, they're very concerned about.
00:05:13.600 Older adults and people with certain health conditions will also face high risk of severe symptoms
00:05:20.460 and possibly death.
00:05:22.360 Yet again, another concern of the similarities we're talking about here
00:05:26.000 because of what happened last time when it came out of China.
00:05:29.580 Now, in 2025, this strand has affected approximately 240,000 people across 16 countries,
00:05:36.920 resulting, they say, in around 90 deaths.
00:05:39.840 Chinese authorities have mobilized intense containment strategies,
00:05:43.840 including drones, to locate standing water, insecticide spraying,
00:05:48.820 even targeting individuals before entering buildings,
00:05:52.600 deployment of mosquito-eating fish, fines or penalties for stagnant water accumulation,
00:05:58.200 and hospital isolation under mosquito netting.
00:06:01.600 Here is more from Fox News Channel about the CDC putting out the warning for Americans.
00:06:07.060 Tonight, a viral outbreak in China prompts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
00:06:12.740 the CDC, to issue a travel warning.
00:06:15.380 More than 7,000 cases of this disease have been reported so far.
00:06:19.640 State Department correspondent Jillian Turner has details tonight live from the State Department.
00:06:23.560 Good evening, Jillian.
00:06:24.320 Good evening, Brett.
00:06:25.120 The CDC, as you mentioned, is warning Americans traveling to China about chikungunya.
00:06:29.720 It is a virus that spreads to humans through infected mosquito bites.
00:06:33.320 It can cause severe illness, with symptoms that mimic pretty closely dengue fever and Zika virus,
00:06:39.680 mostly found in Africa.
00:06:41.260 Here's what the CDC says about it.
00:06:43.640 They say most people infected get better within a week.
00:06:45.880 However, some can have severe joint pain for months to years.
00:06:49.840 Other symptoms include severe fever and fatigue.
00:06:52.820 The outbreak now is in the Chinese province Guangdong.
00:06:55.460 It's near Hong Kong, with more than 7,000 cases reported so far,
00:06:59.360 prompting some pretty dramatic measures to contain the spread,
00:07:03.680 like mandatory insect repellent blasts for people entering the area,
00:07:07.640 mandatory property checks for stagnant water, which attracts mosquitoes,
00:07:11.400 and when found, is now punishable by fines or even arrests.
00:07:15.000 If you happen to get this, they're quarantining you in hospitals with mosquito netting
00:07:20.060 and not letting you out for a week.
00:07:21.680 These are the kind of draconian responses we saw with COVID.
00:07:25.760 We're seeing it again.
00:07:26.900 The CDC says Americans traveling to eight other countries are also at elevated risk of exposure
00:07:33.100 to the virus, even if there is no current outbreak there.
00:07:37.040 People at risk for more severe cases of chikungunya include newborns,
00:07:41.440 seniors 65 years and up, as well as people with diabetes or heart disease.
00:07:47.300 Now, the good news is that unlike COVID, deaths from this disease are exceedingly rare.
00:07:52.720 You can also protect yourself by getting vaccinated against it
00:07:55.940 or by preventing mosquito bites in the first place through all the usual mechanisms,
00:08:00.420 insect repellent netting, wearing long sleeves, and staying in air conditioning.
00:08:04.620 You listened to this warning, and there's a couple of points here that need to be made clear.
00:08:08.760 Number one, there's no specific treatment for this.
00:08:11.780 So management focuses on symptom relief, rest, hydration, over-the-counter pain relief,
00:08:18.020 and vaccines, as they mentioned, are available in the U.S.
00:08:21.040 and recommended for travelers that are going to the outbreak regions.
00:08:24.940 But then the question also comes up, and this is why I want it on your radar screen.
00:08:29.900 Why are they treating this in China very much the same way they treated COVID?
00:08:35.380 And are they telling us the truth?
00:08:37.540 Now, they're saying to minimize the risk of exposure, the CDC advises the use of insect repellent,
00:08:42.920 wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, staying in screened or air-conditioned accommodation.
00:08:48.720 They also have a warning for pregnant travelers, especially near delivery.
00:08:52.620 They're encouraged now to, quote, reconsider travel, as infection near childbirth can pass to newborns.
00:08:58.880 Vaccination should be discussed with a health care provider, the CDC is also saying.
00:09:02.820 So this is a story that I hope I don't have to talk about again with you.
00:09:07.340 But when you're dealing with China and what they're doing right now, you have to wonder, what are they hiding?
00:09:12.980 Now, story number two.
00:09:14.440 I want to move on to another major story, and it deals with what's happening in Texas.
00:09:19.760 The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has now filed a lawsuit to start the removal for dereliction of duty.
00:09:27.200 Derelict Democrats and saying, you're not showing up for work. 0.51
00:09:31.560 You fled the state to block redistricting bill, and now we're going to hold you accountable for exactly that.
00:09:37.480 Governor Abbott filing the lawsuit Tuesday night with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to begin the process
00:09:43.040 for the removal of House Democratic Caucus Chairman Liu and others.
00:09:47.900 The chairman, along with most of his Democrat House colleagues, fled the state to block a quorum in protest of the GOP's efforts
00:09:55.960 to carry out their duty of congressional seat redistricting.
00:10:00.620 Today, I took emergency action, the governor said, to begin the removal from office of derelict Democrat Texas House members.
00:10:08.620 He refused to show up for special session.
00:10:11.120 Governor Abbott writing this, saying, quote,
00:10:13.560 I filed the suit directly with the Texas Supreme Court to quickly make clear the authority I have to bring the lawsuit
00:10:20.600 for removal of legislators from their office.
00:10:24.520 Now, on Sunday, Abbott ordered the House Democrats, who fled the state, to break quorum to return to work,
00:10:30.640 or he would take action to vacate their legislative seats and appoint replacements.
00:10:35.160 This truancy ends now, Governor Abbott said in a Sunday night statement.
00:10:39.300 The derelict Democratic House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3 p.m. on Monday, August 4th.
00:10:47.660 The governor said he will invoke the Texas Attorney General opinion to remove the absent Democrats from their elected office.
00:10:54.340 The governor stated, quote,
00:10:55.840 In that opinion, the attorney general considered whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office
00:11:04.340 if they intentionally break quorum.
00:11:07.780 The attorney general concluded that whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred
00:11:16.320 will be a fact question for a court, quote, unquote.
00:11:20.740 Sunday afternoon, Texas House Democrats fled the state to Illinois to stop the state legislature from moving forward
00:11:27.680 on plans to redistrict Texas congressional districts.
00:11:31.140 Democratic caucus chairman Wu, a Democrat from Houston, said the governor is using an intentionally racist map
00:11:38.100 to steal the voices of millions of black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal. 0.87
00:11:44.740 The derelict Texas House members ignored the governor's order and did not return to the Capitol.
00:11:50.560 Insert Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
00:11:53.160 Filed a notice with the Texas Supreme Court in support of the governor's lawsuit saying this,
00:11:59.220 Texas is taking every available avenue to force runaway Democrats to return to Texas
00:12:05.860 and hold them accountable for breaking quorum.
00:12:08.580 That's what the attorney general Ken Paxton said in the statement saying, quote,
00:12:12.180 Under the Texas Constitution and Texas law, the office of the attorney general has the legal authority
00:12:17.840 to bring these cases against the renegade House members.
00:12:21.600 I have alerted the Texas Supreme Court that I will be making additional filings on Friday
00:12:26.840 if the Democrats continued to abandon their legislative duties.
00:12:31.700 Abbott also wrote a letter to the Texas Supreme Court about his action of filing directly with the state's top course,
00:12:38.280 bypassing the district and appellate court system.
00:12:41.180 The governor cited Section 22 of the Texas Constitution and court precedent for those actions.
00:12:47.200 And that's where we go to late Tuesday night.
00:12:49.580 The Supreme Court requests a response from the respondent.
00:12:52.760 Chairman Wu, the Democrat, no later than Friday, August 8th at 5 p.m.
00:12:58.100 The case number for the emergency petition is 25-0674.
00:13:04.520 Translation, it's getting very real now for Democrats that there is a chance that if they do not come back to Texas,
00:13:11.440 they can lose their jobs.
00:13:14.120 Texas Tribune reporter, by the way, posting comments from Chairman Wu in response to the governor's latest action to remove him
00:13:21.140 and fellow Democratic legislators, saying, quote,
00:13:24.340 I took an oath to the Constitution, not a politician's agenda.
00:13:28.060 Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office.
00:13:31.680 It was a fulfillment of my oath.
00:13:34.420 That is the latest from the Democrats.
00:13:36.540 He said, I took that oath to the Constitution, not the political agenda.
00:13:40.220 And he's hoping the American people will go along with him.
00:13:42.900 One person, by the way, that definitely is going along with him is the governor of Illinois,
00:13:48.260 trying to turn this into his own political moment.
00:13:51.300 J.B. Pritzker firing back at Trump's threat to arrest runaway Texas Democrats, saying,
00:13:57.440 bring it on.
00:13:58.680 He's more than happy to fight Donald Trump.
00:14:01.280 And here's the governor in his own words.
00:14:03.440 Is that, you know, our local law enforcement protect everybody in Illinois.
00:14:07.320 Our state troopers protect everybody in Illinois and anybody who's here in Illinois.
00:14:12.080 And so whether it's federal agents coming to Illinois or state rangers from Texas,
00:14:20.800 if you haven't broken federal law, you're, you know, you're basically unwelcome.
00:14:26.180 And there's no way that they can be, that our state legislators here,
00:14:31.200 the Texas state legislators, can be arrested.
00:14:33.680 So there's the governor of Illinois saying, hey, I stand up for illegal immigrants that are in my state
00:14:39.440 and protect them all the time.
00:14:41.100 Why not go ahead and protect some hardcore liberal Democrats from Texas as well?
00:14:46.100 Now, governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, he has a very simple response to J.D. Pritzker
00:14:51.500 and anybody else that's criticizing him.
00:14:54.000 He says it's all about doing your job.
00:14:56.560 And that's what the Democrats have abandoned.
00:14:58.560 So the Democrats, when they return, they're going to be accountable for certain legal violations,
00:15:04.160 but also for violations of Texas House rules.
00:15:07.320 And so it's going to be a bad day for them.
00:15:08.960 And the sooner they get back, maybe the lesser the consequences.
00:15:13.040 But the longer they stay, the greater the consequences.
00:15:16.200 The greater the consequences.
00:15:18.520 So now here we are at the Texas Supreme Court.
00:15:21.360 And there's a very good chance that the governors got this one right.
00:15:25.060 And Democrats may lose their jobs over all of this,
00:15:28.800 refusing to come back to the state that they said they were representing
00:15:32.760 and instead hanging out in Chicago.
00:15:35.840 I also sat down and had a very interesting conversation with a dear friend of mine,
00:15:40.460 a mentor, Mark Levin.
00:15:42.560 He has a new book out called On Power, a book that I hope all of you will buy.
00:15:47.520 And I asked him about what was happening in Texas and how his book relates to what we're witnessing.
00:15:54.340 I want you to take a listen to what Mark Levin, the great one, had to say.
00:15:58.520 Speaking of power, I want to get your take on what Democrats have just decided to do in Texas,
00:16:03.980 flee the state.
00:16:04.860 They have run to other states that are basically advocating for socialism and communism and Marxism.
00:16:10.860 You've got the governor of Illinois saying,
00:16:12.500 come on over, we'll house you, we'll love on you, yada, yada, yada.
00:16:17.500 And they say this is what power now looks like to the left.
00:16:20.860 How dangerous is that?
00:16:22.380 Well, this gerrymandering, is that what you're talking about pretty much?
00:16:25.500 Yeah.
00:16:25.940 Yeah, it's very dangerous.
00:16:27.560 But let's point out, I have a whole chapter on language in there,
00:16:30.960 and they're proving the point in the chapter, and I'll let people read it themselves.
00:16:34.040 But take a look at this.
00:16:35.200 The 2020 census, they had quote-unquote mathematical errors,
00:16:38.720 which resulted in Democrats having five more seats than they should have had.
00:16:42.440 And the census admits it made a mistake.
00:16:44.420 So let's start at that baseline.
00:16:45.920 Then you look at Massachusetts.
00:16:47.720 They don't have a single Republican member of the House of Representatives.
00:16:51.140 Then you look at Maryland.
00:16:52.460 They have one Republican out of eight in the state of Maryland.
00:16:55.620 Then you look at California.
00:16:57.080 52 seats.
00:16:58.440 43 Democrats and nine Republicans.
00:17:01.600 Then you look at Illinois, 14 Democrats and three Republicans.
00:17:06.040 And I could go on and on and on.
00:17:07.620 So this party, the Democrat Party, it embraces Marxism.
00:17:11.780 It embraces the Islamists against the Israelis. 0.92
00:17:14.320 It embraces propaganda of the worst sort.
00:17:17.640 Again, I discuss this in the chapter in the book.
00:17:20.020 And their purpose is what?
00:17:21.260 They corrupt the public debate so people don't even know what to debate.
00:17:25.540 They come up with slogans and repetition, which is a big deal for them,
00:17:29.600 like any other authoritarians do.
00:17:31.980 So people get in their minds that it's the Republicans are trying to steal the midterm
00:17:35.740 elections.
00:17:36.360 They have a media behind them.
00:17:37.940 And so, so many people who don't focus on this day in and day out have no idea what's
00:17:42.960 actually going on, except the drumbeat that they hear over and over and over again.
00:17:47.640 So it is very dangerous what these people are doing, but it has to be countered.
00:17:51.800 We can't just wring our hands about it.
00:17:53.980 What was me?
00:17:54.640 What was me?
00:17:55.480 And the way we counter it is, again, we go to the core of this book.
00:17:58.580 And rather than making superficial arguments, we say they want to grab power.
00:18:03.420 This is why they want to grab it.
00:18:04.940 And the book explains why and how they do it and how to respond to it.
00:18:08.440 I hope all of you, by the way, will grab Mark Levin's new book,
00:18:11.100 On Power, as it exposes the nature of power, its historical uses, and its impact on liberty.
00:18:17.300 The book argues that while power can be used for oppression, it is also essential for a
00:18:23.220 thriving society when it's structured with checks and balances.
00:18:26.420 The left, by the way, has bastardized power, and, well, now we're witnessing it in real
00:18:31.620 time with the Democrats in Texas.
00:18:34.740 And this is exactly why I hope all of you will grab Mark Levin's new book, On Power.
00:18:40.320 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:18:44.560 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:18:49.760 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you
00:18:55.220 back here tomorrow.
00:18:58.300 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:19:00.860 Guaranteed Human.