Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 16, 2025


BONUS POD： DC Police Chief accused of ‘Cooking the Books’ on Crime plus Trump Classifies Fentanyl as a WMD


Episode Stats

Length

16 minutes

Words per Minute

152.95953

Word Count

2,517

Sentence Count

209

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.840 I'm Brown University, Mr. President.
00:00:08.440 Do you know what the motive of the shooter was?
00:00:10.860 Is it clip-on?
00:00:11.960 No, we don't.
00:00:13.860 It's moving along now.
00:00:16.100 And we don't.
00:00:17.320 And we're going to see what happens.
00:00:20.240 Hopefully they're going to capture this animal.
00:00:23.120 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:26.840 Good Tuesday morning.
00:00:27.720 It's so nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:30.500 And we've got two big stories for you that are not being covered by the mainstream media.
00:00:35.280 First up, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Jeanine,
00:00:39.560 said that her office has an investigation into the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C.
00:00:45.820 and it has revealed a widespread misclassification deliberately of crime stats
00:00:52.040 that made Washington, D.C.'s crime levels appear lower than they actually were.
00:00:57.300 How did they do it and how bad was the fraud?
00:01:00.500 We'll expose it all for you.
00:01:02.600 Also, the President of the United States of America taking a major step to save many American lives,
00:01:09.480 classifying fentanyl now as a weapon of mass destruction.
00:01:14.400 So what does this mean for what he can do now to narco-terrorists?
00:01:18.640 It's going to give the President even more power to go after them.
00:01:21.920 And we'll break it down for you.
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00:03:32.640 It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now.
00:03:36.220 Story number one.
00:03:37.420 What's easier than actually fighting crime?
00:03:39.920 Well, if you're a Democrat, apparently lying about the crime stats
00:03:43.980 to make it look like you're fighting crime is more important than actually saving American lives.
00:03:49.200 We now know that is exactly what was happening in Washington, D.C.
00:03:55.240 The U.S. Attorney, Judge Jeanine, said that D.C. authorities were literally artificially deflating crime stats
00:04:03.440 to manipulate the numbers to make it look like D.C. was safer than it actually was.
00:04:10.540 That's right.
00:04:11.400 The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia saying that her office's investigation
00:04:16.300 into the Metropolitan Police Department revealed widespread misclassification of crime reports
00:04:24.020 that made D.C. crime levels appear lower than they actually were, meaning fewer victims.
00:04:30.840 The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia revealed in a statement posted to her official ex-account
00:04:36.220 that in August of 2025, the United States Attorney's Office in D.C. began an investigation
00:04:43.540 into the Metropolitan Police Department's reported deflation of crime statistics.
00:04:50.260 The need for accurate information to fight crime, she went on to say, is essential.
00:04:55.360 But that wasn't what Democrats were doing at all in D.C.
00:04:59.080 They just wanted to lie to the people while crime was out of control, saying it's not as bad as you think it is.
00:05:05.940 She went on to say this, after a review of almost 6,000 reports and the interview of over 50 witnesses,
00:05:15.300 it is evident that a significant number of reports had straight up been misclassified,
00:05:21.980 making crime appear artificially lower than reality.
00:05:26.540 Now, the uncovering of these manipulated crime statistics make clear that President Trump
00:05:31.780 has reduced crime even more than originally thought, since crimes were actually higher than reported.
00:05:39.140 His crime-fighting efforts have delivered even more safety to the people of the District of Columbia.
00:05:44.600 Judge Jeanine concluded that, quote,
00:05:47.000 while the conduct did not rise to the level of a criminal charge,
00:05:51.220 it is up to the MPD to take steps to internally address these underlying issues.
00:05:57.880 Even more about this has broken since then.
00:06:01.400 And the jaw-dropping report has just come out from the House
00:06:04.800 just to confirm what we all knew.
00:06:08.020 The left-wing D.C. police chief falsified crime statistics cooking the books
00:06:15.300 to make her city seem much safer than it actually was.
00:06:19.780 Take a listen to this from Fox.
00:06:22.180 The House Oversight Committee now releasing a report
00:06:24.860 accusing the outgoing D.C. police chief
00:06:27.480 of manipulating data to artificially lower crime statistics.
00:06:32.280 Bill Malusian, looking at the numbers, he's live on the Hill with this.
00:06:35.440 Bill, what'd you find out?
00:06:37.380 Bill, good morning to you.
00:06:38.640 Those House Oversight Committee Republicans say
00:06:40.640 the bottom line of what their investigation found
00:06:43.320 is that the outgoing D.C. police chief
00:06:46.220 was essentially cooking the books on crime data
00:06:48.820 and trying to make the city seem a whole lot safer than it really was.
00:06:52.780 Now, those House Republicans say what their investigation consisted of
00:06:55.720 was interviewing all seven commanders of D.C. Metro Police's patrol districts,
00:07:00.720 including a former commander who is currently suspended
00:07:03.220 for allegedly tampering with crime stats in his own district.
00:07:06.480 And these are some of the conclusions they've made in their report.
00:07:09.600 They allege that D.C. Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith pressured commanders
00:07:13.600 to report lower crime stats by any means necessary.
00:07:17.700 The commanders testified that Chief Smith even pushed them to pursue lesser charges
00:07:21.860 that aren't publicly reported, even for serious crimes.
00:07:25.440 And she required certain crimes to be reviewed by her office.
00:07:29.700 Now, the report also says police commanders testified that Chief Smith punished them
00:07:34.040 and retaliated against them if they tried to report accurate rising crime data,
00:07:39.240 even berating them in meetings and individually to pressure them
00:07:43.700 into reporting those lower crime figures.
00:07:45.780 Now, in a statement on the report, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says,
00:07:49.820 in part, quote, Chief Pamela Smith coerced staff to report artificially low crime data
00:07:54.780 and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda.
00:07:57.940 A culture of fear to attain her agenda.
00:08:03.340 The D.C. police chief rigged the data.
00:08:07.480 She didn't actually fight crime.
00:08:09.380 She just lied about the crime stats, pressuring the commanders to report lower crime statistics,
00:08:18.160 push them to pursue lesser charges for serious crimes,
00:08:23.060 required certain crimes to actually be reviewed by her office,
00:08:26.980 not because she was afraid of what was happening on the streets in the District of Columbia.
00:08:32.180 No, no, no, no, no, no.
00:08:33.060 So that she could misclassify them.
00:08:35.820 So it wouldn't seem as dangerous.
00:08:39.100 And retaliated and punished individuals if they reported crimes accurately.
00:08:44.960 You look at this data and you hear what I just played for you.
00:08:50.240 It is shocking to know that this was how things are being run.
00:08:55.880 We found out even more from Fox News Channel about all of this in a later report in the afternoon.
00:09:03.980 Take a listen.
00:09:04.680 All right.
00:09:05.820 And moments ago, U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro here in Washington, D.C.,
00:09:09.780 responding to allegations that D.C. crime data was manipulated by the outgoing police chief, Pamela Smith.
00:09:17.060 That claim coming from a new House Oversight Committee report.
00:09:20.380 Our congressional correspondent, Bill Maloja, with the latest on Capitol Hill.
00:09:23.640 Bill?
00:09:24.720 Well, John, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee say their investigation concluded that this outgoing D.C.
00:09:30.980 police chief was trying to make the city seem a whole lot safer than it really was.
00:09:34.940 And she was doing it by allegedly cooking the books on crime statistics.
00:09:40.160 So the Republicans on the committee say their investigation consisted of interviewing seven different D.C.
00:09:46.020 Metro police commanders who represent all of the patrol districts out here.
00:09:50.000 That included a former commander who's currently suspended for allegedly tampering with crime stats in his own district.
00:09:56.900 And these are some of the conclusions they've made in their report.
00:10:00.140 Number one, they allege that D.C.
00:10:02.060 Metro police chief Pamela Smith pressured commanders to report lower crime stats by any means necessary.
00:10:08.780 Commanders testified that Chief Smith pushed them to pursue lesser charges that aren't publicly reported, even for serious crimes.
00:10:16.680 And she also required certain crimes to be reviewed by her office in a statement on this report.
00:10:22.200 House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer says in part, quote, Chief Pamela Smith coerced staff to report artificially low crime data and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda.
00:10:32.840 Chief Smith's decision to mislead the public by manipulating crime stats is dangerous and undermines trust in both local leadership and law enforcement.
00:10:40.940 Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked to respond to the House Oversight Committee Republicans findings earlier this morning.
00:10:47.700 Take a listen.
00:10:48.860 I don't see any evidence of that.
00:10:50.840 If the claim is, and I don't think anybody has demonstrated that the police chief directed anybody to change numbers.
00:10:58.400 When those when the committee provides me their backup information, which they haven't, when the committee provided the report to The Washington Post before they provided it to us.
00:11:09.820 It's highly unusual when you're talking about an audit of numbers.
00:11:15.780 And John, just moments ago, the U.S. attorney here in D.C., Jeanine Pirro, responded to this report.
00:11:21.720 She put out a statement on X, which essentially says that, yes, these crime stats were manipulated.
00:11:26.940 And the manipulation of that data shows that President Trump has reduced crime here in D.C. a whole lot more than initially thought.
00:11:34.620 She went on to say that what happened here with the crime stats does not rise to the level of any criminal charges or a crime, but that the D.C.
00:11:42.640 Police Department has to change their practices moving forward.
00:11:46.180 We'll send it back to you.
00:11:47.120 Yeah, I know that before everything changed in the summer, we were all hearing, well, the crime is down in D.C.
00:11:51.700 And none of us had anything to peg that to.
00:11:54.880 None of us had any of that to peg it to.
00:11:57.880 So the D.C. police chief manipulating the crime data, artificially lowering the crime stats and coerced staff to report low data and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda and didn't punish the criminals.
00:12:12.760 She punished the D.C. police officers to pursue lesser charges for serious crimes.
00:12:21.840 This is the Democratic Party, and it's exactly why Donald Trump won the election.
00:12:27.100 It's also exactly why he's fighting crime all over the country and sending in the National Guard, because even in cities where Democrats claim crime was dropping, they were flat out lying and cooking the books.
00:12:39.700 Now, story number two.
00:12:40.720 President Trump has made it very clear that he believes that fentanyl is a national security threat.
00:12:47.580 It is killing, in essence, a plane of Americans every single day.
00:12:53.360 No one in this country would stand for a plane crash every day of innocent Americans crashing to the ground.
00:13:00.460 But that's the equivalent of what is happening at the hands of narco terrorists.
00:13:04.460 Now, Donald Trump is moving forward with an idea of classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
00:13:12.880 That's right.
00:13:13.980 President Trump saying on Monday that he was classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, ramping up his administration's campaign against drug cartels in Latin America.
00:13:24.200 Quote, no bomb does what this is doing.
00:13:28.440 200,000 to 300,000 people die every year.
00:13:32.220 That we know of, Trump said at the signing of an executive order that placed fentanyl in the same category as nuclear and chemical weapons.
00:13:39.740 In 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an estimated total of about 80,000 overdose deaths in the country, with some 48,000 of those due to synthetic opioids.
00:13:53.960 The executive order said illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic and that it threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders.
00:14:07.340 The fentanyl classification ties in with the Trump administration's war against alleged narco terrorists, which has included a military campaign targeting drug smuggling boats with strikes that have left nearly 90 people dead since early September.
00:14:24.260 While Trump argues that destroying each of the more than 20 intercepted vessels saves 25,000 American lives.
00:14:32.020 The left is furious that the president would actually go after boats carrying cocaine and fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, driving the overdose crisis.
00:14:43.520 Leave it to the Democratic Party to defend the terrorists instead of protecting American citizens.
00:14:49.940 Trump is a company that strikes with a massive military buildup as well in the Caribbean.
00:14:54.000 That includes the world's largest aircraft carrier and a slew of other warships, while a string of U.S. military aircraft have flown along Venezuela's coast in recent weeks.
00:15:06.180 Now, while Trump and his administration say the target of the military buildup is drug trafficking, Venezuela is a radical narco-terrorist leader.
00:15:15.340 Maduro is accusing Washington of using narcotic smuggling as a pretext for what he says is regime change in Caracas.
00:15:24.000 The United States has sought to link the two issues, and Donald Trump is leading on it, accusing Maduro of leading the alleged cartel of the Suns, which has declared a narco-terrorist organization, and now offering a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro's capture.
00:15:42.820 So this is yet again another campaign promise that has now turned into reality.
00:15:47.980 President Trump said he was going to do everything he could to keep Americans safe from fentanyl.
00:15:52.860 And this is one step forward in classifying the drug in a way that now allows him even more authority to go after those that are selling it, those that are shipping it, and those that are producing it.
00:16:06.040 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:16:10.200 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:16:15.100 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:16:23.540 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:16:26.440 Guaranteed Human.