Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 13, 2025


Bonus Pod： Democrats hold Government Hostage plus Trump vs the Department of Education


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

172.19977

Word Count

2,201

Sentence Count

120

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.720 We have a dream, and you know what the dream is?
00:00:07.960 We're going to move the Department of Education,
00:00:10.000 we're going to move education into the states,
00:00:12.440 so that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington,
00:00:15.800 so that the states can run education.
00:00:18.180 You're listening to a 47 Morning Update,
00:00:20.640 special government shutdown edition with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:23.380 Good Thursday morning, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:25.340 It's nice to have you on the 47 Morning Update,
00:00:27.460 as we have a special show for you this morning.
00:00:30.240 So many of you that listen to the show want to know the facts
00:00:32.660 about what the president's actually accomplishing.
00:00:35.120 This is one of those special shows that I hope you will share everywhere on social media.
00:00:39.920 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:00:43.240 Story number one.
00:00:44.420 A government shutdown is now likely after Chuck Schumer says
00:00:48.320 the Senate Democrats will block a GOP funding bill.
00:00:53.000 The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson,
00:00:55.000 making it very clear that the same Democrats who've always said,
00:00:58.400 we can never shut down the government,
00:01:00.220 and it hurts Americans and poor people,
00:01:02.340 and the world is going to end.
00:01:04.260 Now that Donald Trump is in charge,
00:01:06.260 they've decided, nah, we'll just throw that all out the window
00:01:08.560 and go with a government shutdown just to try to hurt Donald Trump.
00:01:12.560 Take a listen to the Speaker in his own words.
00:01:14.560 They're planning to vote down the simple bill.
00:01:16.620 They are going to try to shut the government down.
00:01:18.780 Every House Democrat will participate in this, it looks like.
00:01:21.800 That would be a shame if it's true.
00:01:23.340 I hope some of them will have a moment of clarity themselves and do the right thing,
00:01:26.840 but it looks like they're going to try to shut down the government.
00:01:29.540 It's a striking new posture for Democrats,
00:01:32.120 who have always said they've just been apoplectic
00:01:34.660 about the prospect of government shutdowns.
00:01:36.760 So just think for a second about what the Speaker just said.
00:01:39.920 It's very clear that Democrats are solely doing this for political reasons,
00:01:43.900 and they want America to suffer.
00:01:46.440 They want Americans to suffer,
00:01:48.020 because they want you to blame Donald Trump
00:01:50.820 for any inconvenience or real pain that comes from a government shutdown.
00:01:56.900 You can also look at it this way.
00:01:58.400 They're advocating for tanking the American economy,
00:02:01.320 because they don't actually care about Americans.
00:02:03.280 In fact, listen to the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
00:02:07.440 in his own words about why they're doing it.
00:02:10.560 Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort,
00:02:13.840 but Republicans chose a partisan path,
00:02:16.940 drafting their continuing resolution without any input,
00:02:20.320 any input from congressional Democrats.
00:02:23.320 Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate
00:02:27.380 to invoke cloture on the House CR.
00:02:30.240 Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11th CR
00:02:35.180 that will keep the government open
00:02:37.220 and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass.
00:02:42.960 We should vote on that.
00:02:44.760 I hope, I hope, our Republican colleagues will join us
00:02:48.520 to avoid a shutdown on Friday.
00:02:51.120 Translation, Chuck Schumer saying,
00:02:53.060 we, the Democratic Party, are holding Congress
00:02:55.420 and the American people hostage.
00:02:57.840 Because of that, as he said, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate
00:03:01.500 to invoke cloture on the House continuing the resolution.
00:03:05.240 So now, it is a government shutdown
00:03:07.540 that will be created solely by the Democrats,
00:03:11.280 with Republicans holding a 53 to 47 advantage in the Senate.
00:03:15.260 Chuck Schumer also understands that, guess what?
00:03:17.560 You don't always work together with the other side.
00:03:19.780 Because when the American people voted in Donald Trump
00:03:22.320 and gave the Senate back to the Republicans
00:03:24.780 and the House control in the hands of the Republicans,
00:03:28.160 they didn't ask Donald Trump to, quote,
00:03:30.340 compromise with Democrats.
00:03:32.440 They said to Donald Trump,
00:03:33.840 go to Washington, save us money,
00:03:36.420 and go with a mandate to do what we're sending you there to do.
00:03:40.360 Now, the question is, how long could this last?
00:03:43.980 Only the Democrats can answer that question
00:03:45.960 as they're holding all of us hostage.
00:03:48.440 Next, story number two.
00:03:49.760 Donald Trump ran on an issue that actually saw incredible engagement
00:03:54.780 in the presidential election cycle.
00:03:56.940 It was the issue of education.
00:03:59.100 American schools are failing.
00:04:00.940 In fact, we are the lowest in many categories
00:04:03.720 with the rest of the world in reading and writing and arithmetic.
00:04:07.280 There are quite a few failing schools
00:04:09.360 virtually everywhere you go in the country.
00:04:12.140 And public education has been a disaster.
00:04:14.600 We've continued to throw more money at it.
00:04:16.380 And we've seen no increase on test scores
00:04:19.120 or a return on our investment
00:04:21.020 where students are getting better at the basics
00:04:23.160 like reading, writing, and arithmetic.
00:04:25.700 The president has made it clear he believes
00:04:27.380 that the federal Department of Education
00:04:29.620 is a disaster, something that you cannot fix.
00:04:33.200 Now, let's be clear.
00:04:34.240 The president has not said that we can't fix education.
00:04:37.180 And he believes it should be going back to the states.
00:04:39.760 Well, the president was in an Oval Office meeting
00:04:42.440 and the conversation came up about education.
00:04:45.160 And here's what the president said.
00:04:47.220 They're not doing a good job.
00:04:49.180 And if you take a look at our education process
00:04:53.480 and if you look at the charts,
00:04:55.260 because they have numerous charts
00:04:56.640 where they do the top 40,
00:04:58.780 we're at number 37, 38, 39, and 40.
00:05:02.400 And recently they hit,
00:05:03.980 during Biden's last few days, they hit last.
00:05:06.980 So they were number 40
00:05:08.120 and yet we're number one in cost per pupil.
00:05:12.100 So it's pretty bad.
00:05:12.880 But we have a dream.
00:05:15.220 And you know what the dream is?
00:05:16.200 We're going to move the Department of Education,
00:05:18.080 we're going to move education into the states
00:05:20.780 so that the states,
00:05:22.300 instead of bureaucrats working in Washington,
00:05:24.860 so that the states can run education.
00:05:27.040 Now, this goes back to a basic promise
00:05:29.000 that Donald Trump had made during the campaign.
00:05:31.480 He believes that on the local and state level,
00:05:33.880 they can run education in a much more efficient way
00:05:36.820 than the federal government can
00:05:38.160 with all of the corruption in Washington, D.C.
00:05:41.500 Which brings me to something else.
00:05:43.960 Linda McMahon, the education secretary,
00:05:46.320 has now come out and had a major round of layoffs,
00:05:49.960 gutting the civil rights office as well.
00:05:52.340 The education department's civil rights branch
00:05:54.660 is losing nearly half of its staff
00:05:56.620 in the Trump administration's layoff round one,
00:05:59.420 effectively gutting an office
00:06:00.700 that already faced a backlog
00:06:02.000 of thousands of complaints
00:06:03.740 from students and families,
00:06:05.300 they say, from across the nation.
00:06:07.000 Among a total of more than 1,300 layoffs
00:06:10.340 that were announced this week,
00:06:11.960 roughly 240 in the department's office
00:06:14.240 for civil rights were in that group.
00:06:17.920 That, according to a list obtained
00:06:19.500 and verified by the Associated Press,
00:06:22.000 seven of the civil rights agency's
00:06:23.900 12 regional offices were entirely laid off,
00:06:27.340 including busy hubs in New York,
00:06:29.580 Chicago, and Dallas.
00:06:31.060 Despite assurances that the department's work
00:06:33.180 will continue unaffected,
00:06:34.760 huge numbers of cases,
00:06:35.980 as Democrats now say,
00:06:37.580 appear to quote-unquote be in limbo.
00:06:40.220 Insert fear-mongering right here.
00:06:42.440 What Democrats do well.
00:06:44.020 Now, the Trump administration
00:06:45.160 has not said how it will proceed
00:06:47.840 with these cases being handled
00:06:49.460 by its staff and many of those around them
00:06:51.880 that have been eliminated.
00:06:53.080 The cases will involve families
00:06:54.660 trying to get school services
00:06:56.240 for students with disabilities,
00:06:58.040 and that is something
00:06:58.940 the Trump administration has said
00:07:00.280 is important.
00:07:00.920 We also know, though,
00:07:02.280 that the entire Department of Education
00:07:04.160 is, well, bloated,
00:07:06.660 and it's time to dismantle it piece by piece
00:07:09.560 so that the President of the United States
00:07:11.340 of America can then hand control
00:07:13.180 back to the states.
00:07:14.460 It's exactly what he said
00:07:15.860 about Martin Luther King
00:07:17.060 and his dream now,
00:07:18.420 which is to give every kid
00:07:19.860 a quality education,
00:07:22.040 and an education they can be proud of,
00:07:24.320 and an education that has a return
00:07:25.900 on our investment,
00:07:26.780 and an education that prepares kids
00:07:28.860 for college and the future.
00:07:31.260 We have far too many public schools
00:07:33.000 in America,
00:07:34.040 and the President's made this clear,
00:07:35.820 that are handing out
00:07:36.580 basically worthless pieces of paper
00:07:39.140 after you, quote,
00:07:40.520 graduate the 12th grade,
00:07:42.340 even though you're not reading
00:07:43.640 at that level,
00:07:44.600 writing at that level,
00:07:45.680 or doing math and science
00:07:47.280 at that level.
00:07:48.340 So for Donald Trump,
00:07:49.680 this is another step
00:07:51.200 in that promise from his campaign,
00:07:53.540 and a step that many parents
00:07:55.820 will be happy about in states
00:07:57.660 when they actually get back control
00:07:59.860 of their public school system.
00:08:01.740 And finally, story number three.
00:08:03.560 I want to take you back to 2016.
00:08:06.340 It was the very first time
00:08:07.680 that the media and Democrats
00:08:09.080 used Russia to try to attack Donald Trump.
00:08:12.860 You may remember the Russian collusion,
00:08:14.860 Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,
00:08:16.560 as Donald Trump has said
00:08:17.560 countless times with good reason.
00:08:19.940 Well, now the Democratic Party
00:08:22.500 is trying to use Russia again
00:08:24.560 to undermine Donald Trump
00:08:26.260 and his popularity,
00:08:27.160 all because he wants to see
00:08:29.140 a ridiculous war be ended
00:08:31.840 between Russia and Ukraine.
00:08:33.880 They're trying to drive a wedge
00:08:35.640 between the President
00:08:36.940 and the American people,
00:08:38.860 claiming that Donald Trump
00:08:40.220 favors Vladimir Putin
00:08:41.940 and that there's some sort of
00:08:43.580 shady, corrupt business
00:08:45.500 going on between the two men,
00:08:47.380 which we all know
00:08:48.680 is obviously a massive lie,
00:08:50.700 a lie that's been orchestrated
00:08:52.120 by the Democratic Party.
00:08:53.540 Well, there's a new story
00:08:54.860 that you probably haven't heard about,
00:08:56.920 and I hope you'll take this show
00:08:58.500 and share it everywhere
00:08:59.820 because what I'm about to tell you
00:09:01.720 is something that literally
00:09:03.120 no one is covering.
00:09:05.040 Donald Trump has threatened
00:09:06.980 devastating financial penalties now
00:09:10.180 for Russia.
00:09:12.040 I didn't say Ukraine.
00:09:13.640 I said for Russia
00:09:16.020 and Vladimir Putin.
00:09:17.820 President Trump on Wednesday
00:09:19.260 threatened the, quote,
00:09:20.640 devastating financial penalties
00:09:22.220 for Russia
00:09:22.840 if the President Vladimir Putin
00:09:24.820 does not agree to a ceasefire
00:09:26.640 with Ukraine
00:09:27.720 that Ukraine has agreed to.
00:09:30.060 Quote,
00:09:30.620 there are things
00:09:31.360 that wouldn't be pleasant
00:09:32.580 in a financial sense.
00:09:34.640 I can do things financially
00:09:36.440 that would be very bad for Russia.
00:09:38.880 I don't want to do that
00:09:40.260 because I want to get peace.
00:09:42.660 That is what Donald Trump
00:09:44.060 told reporters in the Oval Office.
00:09:47.140 Quote,
00:09:47.500 in a financial sense,
00:09:49.000 yes,
00:09:49.520 we could do things
00:09:50.660 that would be very bad for Russia,
00:09:52.680 that would be devastating for Russia.
00:09:54.560 But I don't want to do that
00:09:55.980 because I want to see peace
00:09:57.620 and we're getting close
00:09:58.920 to maybe getting something done.
00:10:01.220 We got Ukraine done.
00:10:03.580 And as you know,
00:10:04.680 Ukraine might have been
00:10:06.040 the more difficult party here.
00:10:08.320 You were here a week ago
00:10:09.580 when some interesting things happened,
00:10:11.460 referring to the Zelensky meeting
00:10:13.200 in the Oval Office.
00:10:14.680 Trump went on to say,
00:10:15.580 I had somebody
00:10:16.920 who didn't seem to want peace.
00:10:19.500 Now he's agreed to peace.
00:10:22.140 Trump also said,
00:10:23.460 people are going to Russia right now
00:10:25.420 as we speak
00:10:26.600 and hopefully we can get
00:10:27.900 a ceasefire from Russia.
00:10:29.880 If we do,
00:10:31.020 I think that would be
00:10:32.100 80% of the way
00:10:33.420 to getting this horrible bloodbath
00:10:35.460 to end.
00:10:36.560 So the question
00:10:37.420 that all of us
00:10:38.440 should be looking at
00:10:39.380 and asking now is this.
00:10:41.040 Why is the media
00:10:42.020 not reporting this story,
00:10:43.400 number one?
00:10:44.320 And number two,
00:10:45.560 a president is trying
00:10:46.640 to bring peace.
00:10:47.860 Why aren't they celebrating this?
00:10:50.040 Why is the world media
00:10:51.680 not celebrating this?
00:10:53.380 And why is it
00:10:54.480 that this isn't
00:10:55.140 the number one leading story
00:10:57.060 on every news channel
00:10:58.840 right now?
00:11:00.000 That the president
00:11:00.840 got Zelensky
00:11:01.880 to agree to peace
00:11:02.940 after one week
00:11:04.500 of him being
00:11:05.400 in the White House
00:11:06.480 angry and yelling
00:11:08.080 and arguing
00:11:08.900 with Donald Trump.
00:11:09.780 And then the other
00:11:10.720 question is this.
00:11:12.300 Why aren't Democrats
00:11:13.460 if you really want to talk
00:11:14.780 about Russian collusion?
00:11:16.580 Why?
00:11:17.000 And this may be
00:11:17.540 the most important part.
00:11:19.260 Why are they not
00:11:20.100 demanding peace
00:11:21.100 from Vladimir Putin?
00:11:22.720 Why are world leaders
00:11:23.760 not demanding peace
00:11:25.760 from Vladimir Putin?
00:11:27.580 Let's be clear.
00:11:28.620 There is now
00:11:29.160 an official deal
00:11:30.040 on the table.
00:11:31.500 Why is it
00:11:32.000 that foreign leaders
00:11:32.880 aren't walking out
00:11:34.080 in front of microphones
00:11:35.160 and demanding
00:11:36.380 that Vladimir Putin
00:11:37.560 agree to the ceasefire deal
00:11:38.960 which Zelensky
00:11:39.840 and Ukraine
00:11:40.460 have agreed to?
00:11:41.980 And why aren't
00:11:42.700 any of them
00:11:43.320 talking about
00:11:44.100 how quickly
00:11:44.680 this deal was done
00:11:45.760 by Donald Trump?
00:11:47.240 Now look,
00:11:47.900 I expect the media
00:11:49.340 to hate Donald Trump.
00:11:50.820 I expect many world leaders
00:11:52.000 to, well,
00:11:52.800 be jealous of him.
00:11:54.040 But this should be
00:11:54.980 bigger than that.
00:11:56.380 This is about
00:11:57.080 saving countless lives
00:11:59.280 and so many families
00:12:00.720 that have been destroyed
00:12:01.700 in Russia
00:12:02.320 and Ukraine
00:12:03.260 in a senseless war
00:12:04.880 from the very beginning.
00:12:06.420 This is what leaders
00:12:07.720 do.
00:12:08.120 they lead.
00:12:09.480 And the sad thing is
00:12:10.540 apparently in this country
00:12:11.860 right now with our media,
00:12:13.540 if his name is Donald Trump
00:12:15.140 and he does something
00:12:16.100 incredible like
00:12:17.060 work for a peace deal,
00:12:18.800 they will at best
00:12:20.240 say something negative
00:12:21.480 about him
00:12:22.060 or maybe just
00:12:23.280 not tell you the story
00:12:24.420 at all.
00:12:25.140 Thank you for listening
00:12:25.840 to the 47 Morning Update
00:12:27.560 with Ben Ferguson.
00:12:29.200 Please make sure
00:12:30.120 you hit subscribe
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00:12:32.500 to this podcast
00:12:33.340 right now.
00:12:34.300 And for more
00:12:35.060 in-depth news,
00:12:35.900 also subscribe
00:12:37.060 to the Ben Ferguson
00:12:38.060 podcast
00:12:38.600 and we will see you
00:12:39.920 back here tomorrow.
00:12:43.320 This is an iHeart podcast.
00:12:46.180 Guaranteed human.