Verdict with Ted Cruz - BONUS POD： Trump Allies were Labeled ‘Russian Assets’ plus Can Iran Wait Out Trump？

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.000 It seems to me this is pretty good news.

00:00:06.980 It is good news.

00:00:07.820 And I could not help but note that the annual rate of core CPI inflation,

00:00:12.800 that's excluding food and energy. 0.96

00:00:14.960 We want energy out of it because of the matter in Iran.

00:00:18.480 Take that out 2.5 percent in July.

00:00:21.880 That's back to where it was prior to the start of the Iran conflict.

00:00:25.880 This tells me that inflation is not spreading out beyond energy, beyond gasoline prices. 0.89

00:00:32.320 Good news.

00:00:32.940 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.

00:00:37.000 Good Thursday morning.

00:00:38.220 Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.

00:00:40.680 And we've got two major stories coming out of the White House.

00:00:43.940 The deep state we are now learning.

00:00:45.920 And the FBI labeled the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Attorney General Bill Barr as, quote, conduits of Russian disinformation.

00:00:58.640 Just how corrupt was the deep state? We expose it all.

00:01:03.240 Also, we have news coming out of Iran that the IRGC is now saying they want to prolong the war to outlast Donald Trump in office.

00:01:13.280 So what does that mean for America's play?

00:01:15.920 we'll have that for you as well. All right. Now, before we get to that, I got to talk to you about

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00:02:55.400 It's the 47 morning update and it starts right now. Story number one. In a shocking report,

00:03:01.680 the Federal Bureau of Investigations allegedly labeled people such as the former Secretary of

00:03:07.700 state, Mike Pompeo, and the former attorney general, Bill Barr, that would be the boss of

00:03:14.740 the FBI, as conduits, quote unquote, of Russian disinformation, according to this recent report.

00:03:22.980 The report from Just the News revealed that a spreadsheet that was recovered from the U.S.

00:03:28.720 Intelligence Agency files and that the White House Government Transparency Task Force made

00:03:35.160 public, quote-unquote, contained names such as the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

00:03:40.820 and former President Barack Obama, along with Pompeo and Barr. While people like Barr and

00:03:47.840 Pompeo were labeled as, quote, conduits of Russian disinformation, people such as Hillary Clinton

00:03:54.640 and Barack Obama were labeled as targets. This is not a joke. A spreadsheet that was recovered

00:04:02.420 from U.S. intelligence agency files and has now been made public Wednesday by the White House

00:04:08.520 Government Transparency Task Force shows that spy agencies and the FBI created a list of more than

00:04:16.660 six dozen prominent organizations, Americans or foreigners, who became figures in the Biden

00:04:25.260 family Ukraine scandal and that the 2019 impeachment proceedings against President

00:04:31.500 Donald Trump as well. Now, the spreadsheet, and again, this is not a joke, neatly divided figures

00:04:39.700 along one issue. You ready for it? Political affiliations. In other words, political party

00:04:48.520 lines. They had the Democrats, like the Bidens, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama,

00:04:56.740 George Soros, listed as victimized, quote-unquote, targets of Russian disinformation.

00:05:04.960 And then the other side, the conservatives, the Republicans, groups like Fox News,

00:05:11.240 One America News, even filmmaker Michael Caputo and Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as, quote, conduits for disinformation.

00:05:23.540 Even the late Senator Lindsey Graham and Representative Jim Jordan were also labeled, quote, conduits.

00:05:31.920 An administration official explained to the outlet that the labeling of people as either a conduit or a target of disinformation

00:05:40.060 was reportedly part of a secret counterintelligence operation codename Round River.

00:05:48.360 It was launched apparently during the 2020 election cycle.

00:05:52.820 Now, the report from the outlet also noted that an FBI letter that's now been made public

00:05:58.240 showed that the FBI had identified at least 14 different informants

00:06:04.560 who were, quote, providing derogatory information on the Biden.

00:06:10.060 In other words, this was a political hit list, a political enemies list, a list of Republicans that the deep state wanted to target and silence.

00:06:21.820 Now, in the letter to the White House Government Transparency Task Force, the FBI Director Cash Patel also stated that the FBI was, quote, investigating whether the Foreign Influence Task Force, known as FITF, used information learned from the Round River assessment to undermine or influence ongoing investigations.

00:06:46.580 The FBI Director Patel also said the task force was terminated on his watch.

00:06:53.700 Now, there were also other internal reviews of the FITF, and they're not yet complete, we've been told.

00:07:01.540 We know that the investigation used information learned from the Round River Assessment.

00:07:07.100 And the real question that everyone needs to be asking now is this.

00:07:10.800 was the FITF using information that was learned from the Round River assessment

00:07:17.220 to then undermine or then influence ongoing investigations

00:07:21.800 by only focusing on the subset of confidential human sources involving the Bidens.

00:07:30.020 That is what Patel reportedly has said in the letter.

00:07:33.960 Now, if you take a step back and you say, okay, so what does this actually mean?

00:07:38.460 What it means is that our government apparently was having lists that were put together

00:07:45.520 One list to say that if you're a Democrat, we automatically are going to treat you like you are a victim

00:07:52.820 And then our job is to protect you

00:07:55.960 And the other list, which is if you were a conservative or a Republican

00:07:59.960 Including a news organization like Fox News

00:08:02.680 Then you were the target

00:08:05.440 you were the one that was pushing the propaganda against the quote Democrats and so therefore

00:08:13.660 you should be investigated this is the most shocking list that we've seen to date because

00:08:19.840 it showed as those they believed were friends of Russia those that were advocates of what they

00:08:26.680 described as Russian disinformation campaigns to influence America the people on that list

00:08:32.800 that the deep state was going after were people like the Secretary of State and the man who was

00:08:39.240 the Attorney General Bill Barr of the United States of America. And what's even more shocking

00:08:43.820 than that is the people that were, quote, doing the investigation, who were putting these people

00:08:49.880 on the list, were supposed to be serving the people that were on this list. You talk about

00:08:57.040 the deep state. You talk about the swamp. You talk about those that were fighting against Donald

00:09:02.760 Trump and other conservatives. This is exactly what we thought was happening. And now we have

00:09:09.580 the data, the receipts, the emails, the lists that are being made public. The question now is

00:09:18.440 who is creating the list? Are those people still in our government? And will there be accountability

00:09:24.700 for this? That is the question so many Americans are asking. And based on this being released now,

00:09:32.340 there's a very good chance that we're headed towards that type of accountability. Next,

00:09:37.440 story number two. We now have some breaking news that a top advisor to the commander of Iran's

00:09:42.940 Islamic Revolutionary Guard is now saying that Tehran could deliberately prolong its war with

00:09:49.260 the United States of America in an effort to outlast President Donald Trump as Washington

00:09:55.340 now doubles down on a, quote, wall of steel naval blockade that the U.S. and Israeli officials say

00:10:01.840 is officials say is steadily worsening the Islamic Republic's economic crisis. Quote,

00:10:08.280 one way is to prolong the war until we get the next term of the presidency and cause attrition

00:10:15.640 so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost.

00:10:21.140 That is what the Brigadier General told PBS in a rare interview that was published on Tuesday.

00:10:28.440 Now, the longtime senior IRGC figure who served as the force's coordinating deputy from 19 to 2025

00:10:35.580 and now serves as a senior advisor to its commander

00:10:39.300 laid out the potential strategy as Iran's newly reshuffled military leadership,

00:10:44.580 increasingly prepares for a prolonged confrontation as they described it with Washington and

00:10:51.100 specifically with Donald Trump. Quote, we have to obtain deterrence so that the enemy never

00:10:56.360 dares to attack us so we can live with security. Now, this general went on to argue that time

00:11:04.020 would favor Tehran, claiming the conflict has given Iran valuable experience fighting the

00:11:09.040 United States, while exposing the American military as, quote, weaker than what we perceived.

00:11:15.420 The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain, is what the IRGC official said.

00:11:21.560 He added that Iran had never previously experienced a war that allowed it to learn

00:11:27.180 firsthand how to fight the United States, but claimed that in these five months,

00:11:32.120 we have learned how. Yet again, clearly showing that this is something they're using as

00:11:38.840 massive propaganda. Here's more of that interview. No, we have not yet reached our final objective.

00:11:45.420 This is clear. Up until now, we are victorious. In the future, we will continue to be victorious.

00:11:52.040 The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. We had never seen a real war to gain

00:11:57.600 real experience, to learn how to fight with America. In these five months, we have learned

00:12:02.780 how. We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived.

00:12:07.400 Now, this is clearly not only propaganda that's going to the people in Iran, but also to the

00:12:14.180 world. The White House, by the way, answered the proposed attrition strategy with a blunt

00:12:19.880 warning to Tehran, saying, quote, it would be wise for Iran to agree to a deal. The White

00:12:26.100 House told PBS in response to their interview, saying, quote, otherwise they know what will

00:12:31.980 happen. Now, this proposal to try to outlast Trump runs directly against the strategy that

00:12:37.120 President Trump has increasingly embraced, maintain overwhelming military leverage around

00:12:43.220 Iran while allowing the blockade, frozen assets, sanctions, and Tehran's mounting economic

00:12:49.440 problems to steadily tighten the pressure.

00:12:53.080 Quote, the USA has total control over the Strait of Hormuz.

00:12:57.060 I think we will keep it, Donald Trump declared on True Social, saying our naval blockade

00:13:03.260 is being called by everyone a wall of steel.

00:13:06.380 And there is nothing Iran can do about it

00:13:09.920 Now, President Trump was not finished there

00:13:12.400 He went on to say

00:13:13.520 They have no Navy

00:13:14.760 They have no Air Force

00:13:16.260 Their remaining soldiers are unpaid

00:13:18.400 The IRGC is decimated and fleeing

00:13:21.760 And their leadership, quote-unquote, is uncertain at best

00:13:25.700 They have no money

00:13:27.780 Their country is shot

00:13:29.280 All they have is fake news and 300% inflation

00:13:34.060 And getting worse 1.00

00:13:35.600 Iran is all talk and no action 0.93

00:13:39.280 The bully of the Middle East is no longer

00:13:42.020 Praise be to Allah, President Donald J. Trump 0.87

00:13:45.600 That was his latest true social tweet

00:13:48.360 Now all of this rhetoric coming from the IRGC commander who did this interview

00:13:54.640 Comes after we learned the bigger story

00:13:57.560 That the Iranian government was apparently trying to assassinate Donald Trump yet again

00:14:01.940 and there was a major threat against the president on Air Force One.

00:14:06.160 Now that story was obviously one that was breaking

00:14:09.160 while they were deciding to do this interview with PBS.

00:14:12.220 And let me remind you of some of those details

00:14:13.980 that the reporting came in from Fox.

00:14:16.560 ...with the very latest. Hey, Trey.

00:14:19.740 Yeah, hey guys, good morning.

00:14:21.100 It's a story that has captured the world's attention this week.

00:14:24.280 A threat by the Iranian regime on President Trump's life in Turkey last month.

00:14:29.540 The Wall Street Journal reports it was actually Israeli intelligence that tipped off the administration to a specific danger.

00:14:36.760 The report explains the sourcing on this information, saying the U.S. official said Israel briefed the Trump administration on the intelligence,

00:14:43.500 which included a threat to use shoulder-to-air missiles to target Air Force One.

00:14:47.900 Ultimately, the president was reportedly moved from Air Force One to another plane using a catering truck.

00:14:53.180 Fox has not independently confirmed that detail.

00:14:55.680 sir president can you tell us about your ride on the airport catering truck in turkey why did

00:15:03.040 you need to do that well it's only up to secret service i just follow what they'd like to do

00:15:07.400 so uh i go by secret service and the military they wanted me to go on a different flight a

00:15:14.100 different plane uh equal safety but they wanted me to do it so i do it i do what they say

00:15:21.000 President Trump yet again there saying, hey, I'm not giving you the exact story that you want me to confirm,

00:15:27.440 but stating, yes, he did go on a different plane.

00:15:31.040 So you look at all of this and you see where we are now.

00:15:34.720 It is very clear the president's putting maximum pressure on Iran, doing everything he can to chokehold their economy.

00:15:41.400 Inflation is now at 300 percent or more.

00:15:44.120 And the Iranian IRGC radicals are saying they want to try to wait out the president.

00:15:49.080 That would be a very long two-plus years.

00:15:52.160 The president's saying he wants to get this deal done, 0.78

00:15:54.640 but he will continue to use maximum pressure to do everything he can to have Iran's leadership full. 0.61

00:16:01.780 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.

00:16:05.980 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.

00:16:11.240 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast,

00:16:15.740 and we will see you back here tomorrow.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 13, 2026

BONUS POD： Trump Allies were Labeled ‘Russian Assets’ plus Can Iran Wait Out Trump？

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