Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 24, 2024


CBS Cans Journalist Following Biden Crime Family, Behind the Death of Alexei Navalny, & the Headlines Turn on Joe Biden Week In Review

Topics
Catherine Herridge layoffs and criticism Navalny poisoning and consequences Nord Stream 2 pipeline press scrutiny
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Joe Biden Vladimir Putin Donald Trump Catherine Herridge Alexei Navalny John McCain Carl Hart Verdict Ben Ferguson Ingrid Cyprian Matthews Jennifer Stewart Caitlin Clark Michelle Obama Rush Limbaugh Chuck Schumer Gavin Newsom Sarah Huckabee Sanders Winston Churchill Jonathan Turley Walter Cronkite and 5 more
Not Just Hunter-Cascading Evidence of Biden Family Corruption, plus Media Turns on Biden & Attack Real Journalism How Democrats Abandoned Black & Hispanic Communities๏ผš One-on-One with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson

Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

160.56

Word count

6,291

Sentence count

501

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

16

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz reacts to the firing of reporter Catherine Herridge and the seizure of her documents from CBS News. Also, what's going on in Russia and will Vladimir Putin be held accountable for the assassination of Hillary Clinton? And, is the media turning on Joe Biden?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
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.
00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.560 Welcome.
00:00:06.380 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.500 We can review live from Austin.
00:00:11.340 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:12.760 And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:16.640 First up, Catherine Heritage was let go from NBC News.
00:00:22.500 And the most shocking part is apparently her notes were seized by the network.
00:00:26.740 What was behind that shocking decision?
00:00:30.000 Also, what's going on in Russia?
00:00:33.120 And will there be accountability for Vladimir Putin for killing his top political opponent?
00:00:37.880 We're going to break that down for you.
00:00:39.740 And finally, the media turning on Joe Biden this week in the headlines that we never thought they would ever write.
00:00:47.440 So will this continue?
00:00:49.080 Or is this just going to be a bad week for Biden that will go back to the media praising him?
00:00:54.280 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:00:57.480 There's also another shocking story, and I want to make sure we spend some time on this.
00:01:02.700 Many people may know the name Catherine Heritage.
00:01:06.300 She is a phenomenal reporter.
00:01:08.080 She was at Fox for a long time.
00:01:09.800 She then moved to CBS News.
00:01:12.440 She did incredible reporting on tough issues and stories, including what's been happening with the Biden crime family.
00:01:21.160 She was let go slash fired, whatever you want to call it, laid off with some other people as CBS is having financial issues and downsizing.
00:01:30.860 But it was shocking that she was let go in that because she's basically one of their best and only tough investigative reporters, certainly in Washington, D.C.
00:01:40.920 Now we have found out that CBS News went full communist after, quote, seizing her journalistic files.
00:01:52.540 That is not what's supposed to happen in America in journalism.
00:01:56.900 And yet now we're finding out not only they get rid of her, but the question is, what was she what did she have?
00:02:02.540 What was she about to report on?
00:02:04.000 I would say this, Senator.
00:02:05.180 I know you love her reporting.
00:02:07.180 I think we should try to get her on verdict because I would love to hear what she has to say about everything she uncovered that maybe she hasn't been able to tell us yet.
00:02:15.440 So I agree with you that we should have Catherine Herridge as a guest on verdict.
00:02:19.980 We're going to try to make that happen.
00:02:21.980 And I will say, look, in many ways, Catherine Herridge is a unicorn because the corporate media is so utterly corrupt that they do not report on news that is inconvenient to the regime. 1.00
00:02:35.940 And Catherine Herridge was a rebel in that. 0.88
00:02:38.260 She actually reported on things the Biden White House didn't like.
00:02:41.480 And so CBS was engaged in layoffs. 0.98
00:02:46.080 And I get, look, the media are a bunch of dishonest, lying hacks. 0.97
00:02:51.080 I understand that they're firing people because people don't want to purchase their goods anymore because it is useless. 0.99
00:02:57.680 They are no longer journalists. 0.99
00:02:58.980 They're liars.
00:03:00.440 That being said, if you're laying off people, somebody in some corporate suit in a court or office made a decision. 0.66
00:03:09.920 Who do we want to lay off?
00:03:11.020 Let's lay off the person who actually is criticizing the White House.
00:03:15.860 And so Catherine Herridge, they laid off. 1.00
00:03:18.380 That was shocking in and of itself because she is such a unicorn.
00:03:21.980 But then the news broke this week that not only did they lay her off, but CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, her computers, her records, including her information on privileged sources.
00:03:41.720 And that I've got to say so.
00:03:44.820 Explain people, privileged sources, so people understand why that's such a shocking, in my opinion, abuse of power by CBS.
00:03:52.640 Well, listen, reporters have sources that give information under promises of confidentiality.
00:03:59.720 And those promises are that their name will be held secret.
00:04:05.140 They will not be outed.
00:04:06.340 And that is right at the heart, the essence of journalism, of free press.
00:04:12.720 Well, CBS, the corporate suits have said, we want to know who your sources are.
00:04:19.280 And the problem is that nobody rational with their head not inserted in a bodily orifice believes that the corporate suits want that for any reason other than bad purposes.
00:04:35.140 Look, I'm going to read from an article in The Hill.
00:04:40.960 So in The Hill, this is something written by Jonathan Turley, who has been really terrific on a lot of these issues.
00:04:47.580 But here's what he wrote.
00:04:49.820 Quote, I've spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before.
00:05:01.360 One former CBS journalist said that many employees, quote, are confused why Herridge was laid off as one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting.
00:05:15.820 This has led to concerns about the source of the pressure.
00:05:19.260 He added that there he has never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist and that the move has sent a chilling signal to the ranks of CBS.
00:05:34.480 And that is deeply, deeply disturbing.
00:05:39.260 By the way, there have been reports that when Catherine Herridge published stories that were critical of the Biden White House, that CBS executives push back, including someone, CBS News President Ingrid Cyprian Matthews, who I don't know.
00:06:01.320 But good God, her name sounds like something out of a science fiction movie about some overlord in the star chamber who wants to silence all dissent.
00:06:11.980 Ingrid Cyprian Matthews, let's fire the reporter that dares report anything of substance because we are propagandists.
00:06:21.360 Listen, I got to say, there was a time when CBS actually had a reputation as being real journalists.
00:06:32.540 How many?
00:06:34.260 Walter Cronkite is rolling over in his grave at what has happened to CBS today.
00:06:41.800 I want to just talk about the quality of Catherine's reporting for a moment.
00:06:47.980 There are reporters that you don't talk to.
00:06:50.940 There's reporters that I don't talk to.
00:06:52.560 You see them.
00:06:53.580 You roll their eyes.
00:06:54.460 You deal with it a lot more than I do.
00:06:56.060 There's certain reporters on Capitol Hill.
00:06:57.500 You're like, really, you again?
00:06:58.800 Give me a break because, you know, they're hacks.
00:07:01.060 When you when you saw Catherine and others like there seemed to be mutual respect from both sides of the aisle because she wasn't partisan.
00:07:10.280 She just was a truth teller in investigative journalism.
00:07:14.220 It's something that we've lost in this country.
00:07:16.680 And that's what ultimately, I think, made her lose her job at CBS.
00:07:22.880 Look, sadly, what Catherine Herridge does used to be the norm in journalism. 1.00
00:07:31.380 Yeah.
00:07:31.620 You would have journalists who would actually investigate stories.
00:07:35.680 They would follow the facts.
00:07:38.000 They would report on the substance.
00:07:39.560 That used to be how the entire enterprise worked.
00:07:44.420 Now, and I really think this is post-Trump.
00:07:48.540 Trump broke the corporate media.
00:07:51.780 They hate him so much that they've abandoned any effort at truth telling, any effort at reporting facts, any effort at being even handed, any effort at reporting both sides.
00:08:03.500 Instead, look, if you go back a decade ago, if you go back to 2014, 2015, you would have people at CBS, you'd have people at CNN, MSNBC, even MSNBC that would claim they're trying to be journalists and report both sides.
00:08:23.740 What has changed is Trump convinced a lot of the so-called journalists and all of the corporate brass that reporting fairly was no longer acceptable.
00:08:40.780 That Trump was the devil, their mission was no longer present both sides.
00:08:49.440 Their mission, and this is the way they framed it, was to save democracy.
00:08:54.180 And what they mean by save democracy is elect left-wing Democrats in every election, no matter what, which means never, ever, ever report on anything harmful to left-wing Democrats and only be propagandists for the left wing of the party.
00:09:12.000 Now, listen, I don't like the New York Times. 0.98
00:09:16.220 I think they're a bunch of friggin' communists. 0.98
00:09:18.840 I don't particularly like the Washington Post. 0.99
00:09:21.280 I don't like much of the media.
00:09:24.500 But bizarrely, Ben, I think they're valuable.
00:09:27.840 How many years were you an employee of CNN?
00:09:30.460 Seven years in hell is how long I was there fighting the good fight.
00:09:34.240 Okay, but compare CNN.
00:09:36.780 All right, you're a former employee.
00:09:38.400 You were an employee there from when to when?
00:09:40.020 Gosh, it was, I mean, go back, what, two years ago and then add seven on to there.
00:09:45.920 So in the middle of that, right before Trump was elected, when it wasn't that bad.
00:09:51.400 I was there for, I guess, about two years before the 16 election when Trump was elected, and then the wills came on.
00:09:57.180 So give your perspective, because you were a paid employee of CNN.
00:10:02.000 Give your perspective of CNN before 2016 and the Trump election and after.
00:10:07.780 Because, look, what I'm describing is real, but you experienced it from the inside.
00:10:13.840 Yeah, when I first got hired, it was funny.
00:10:16.440 When I got hired by CNN, the call came in and they said, look, we want real and genuine conservatives on the air.
00:10:23.620 I got hired, I think it was on the same day with Newt Gingrich.
00:10:27.000 And they said, we want to have a robust debate.
00:10:29.660 And that's exactly what it started out as.
00:10:32.540 And even when they were covering Donald Trump in 16, remember, CNN would go wall to wall with him, campaign event after campaign event.
00:10:41.180 And it was huge.
00:10:42.260 I remember well.
00:10:42.900 Yeah, it was huge for their ratings.
00:10:44.420 You remember, you were running against him.
00:10:45.980 It was like CNN was giving, it was almost like the Trump News Network during the primary.
00:10:50.540 And then once he got the nomination, and then once he actually looked like he might have a chance of winning, they started to turn a little bit.
00:11:00.760 It wasn't until the night.
00:11:02.760 And I was at CNN that night, all night long on election night.
00:11:07.000 And you could see the shock and the anger because everyone there from the highest up people assumed Hillary was going to win. 0.97
00:11:16.940 So this was basically just great TV drama until he won.
00:11:21.460 And then when he won, they basically, and once he started saying they were fake news and he was in there going after them as the president and going after them in the White House press briefing room
00:11:32.560 and allowing Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others to fight back, they couldn't take it out on Trump enough. 0.74
00:11:38.640 So they started taking it out on the commentators that were left.
00:11:41.900 I was one of the last, I think, real conservatives left at CNN.
00:11:45.720 I actually begged them to not re-sign me at the end.
00:11:48.920 They had a right to sign and a right to match.
00:11:51.780 And they did it anyway.
00:11:53.020 And in my last year, they signed me to silence me.
00:11:56.520 I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly, actually.
00:11:58.800 In my last year, I asked them not to, and they said, no, we're going to re-sign you.
00:12:04.060 And I had another offer, and they were going to match.
00:12:06.240 And that was it.
00:12:07.960 I can say this, and you'll laugh.
00:12:10.840 I will go down in history as being the highest paid CNN contributor in history if you count it per appearance.
00:12:18.680 Because in the last year of my contract, when they extended it,
00:12:21.420 they signed me to bench me just to say they had a pro-Trump commentator on the payroll.
00:12:28.560 And I did a total of two appearances in 12 months under contract.
00:12:35.120 Yes.
00:12:35.620 What?
00:12:36.160 Two appearances.
00:12:36.600 Yes.
00:12:37.520 I've never really talked about this publicly.
00:12:39.760 So they re-signed me, and I said, please don't.
00:12:43.280 And they did it anyway.
00:12:44.820 And they didn't have me on for like three and a half, four months.
00:12:49.180 All right, Ben.
00:12:49.840 I don't want to out your personal finances, but I kind of do.
00:12:53.380 How much does CNN pay someone?
00:12:56.040 I mean, look, if you don't want to answer that, don't answer that.
00:12:58.180 But I'm kind of curious.
00:12:59.400 Yeah, it all depends on if you're hosting, what your past resume was, how long you've been there.
00:13:06.940 And so I made, I mean, low six figures when I was there.
00:13:11.700 So 100 grand, 100 plus?
00:13:13.500 Yeah, 100 plus, I think is what it was.
00:13:16.360 And you did two appearances in a year?
00:13:19.000 In a year, in a year.
00:13:20.160 So they paid you $50,000 per appearance?
00:13:23.520 A little more than that.
00:13:24.820 That's why I said, I go down in history as the highest paid CNN contributor in history per appearance.
00:13:30.740 But they benched me, and the Hollywood Reporter noticed that there was like two or three of us that were pro-Trump, and we vanished from the screen.
00:13:40.280 Because a normal week when I was there in the first, you know, six years, I would probably average four to six appearances a week.
00:13:47.780 Some weeks would be 11, 12, 13 during the political campaigns.
00:13:51.980 I did so many appearances in my first contract.
00:13:55.420 Wait, wait, I'm doing some quick math.
00:13:56.960 Let's say five appearances a week, 52 weeks, that's over 250 appearances a year.
00:14:01.960 That's what you used to be.
00:14:04.100 And you went from 250 appearances a year to two?
00:14:07.920 To two in my last year.
00:14:09.600 Two.
00:14:10.380 And it was only, I did one appearance where they tried to, I think it was actually to try to get rid of me. 0.50
00:14:16.300 They had me come on to defend Rush Limbaugh, and they tried to turn me into a racist bigot that was defending Rush Limbaugh that was anti-gay.
00:14:24.580 And I didn't take the bait, and I was, you could see I was very angry when I was on TV because I knew what they were trying to do. 0.96
00:14:31.660 And it didn't work, and I didn't take the bait, and I fought back, and then there was a bunch of articles from, you know, scumbags in the media that were trying to imply that I said something I didn't say.
00:14:40.480 And then Hollywood Reporter noticed that the pro-Trump surrogates, in essence, these conservatives at CNN, had vanished from the air.
00:14:52.580 And they wrote an article.
00:14:53.680 So I say this seriously, and look, I don't watch CNN, so, but I can't recall a single pro-Trump surrogate in years they've had.
00:15:04.140 Yeah.
00:15:04.520 I can tell you, I used to do CNN.
00:15:06.960 I didn't do it five times a week because they paid me zero, and in my entire life I've been paid zero by CNN.
00:15:12.780 And, you know, I feel it was a fair trade.
00:15:16.720 But I used to do CNN once a week consistently.
00:15:20.920 I haven't done them in years.
00:15:22.740 Years.
00:15:23.120 Because they're not interested in a fair discussion.
00:15:30.620 They are propagandists.
00:15:33.300 And they're not even Democrat propagandists.
00:15:35.740 They are the left wing of the Democrat Party.
00:15:38.380 And it's not just CNN.
00:15:39.880 CNN, why did CBS seize Catherine Herridge's confidential source notes?
00:15:50.040 That is extremely unusual, but it is a manifestation of the complete corruption of the corporate media.
00:15:58.600 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
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00:16:36.900 Now on to story number two.
00:16:39.360 Let's talk about what's happening also with this adversary to Vladimir Putin.
00:16:44.580 And give a little context here so people understand.
00:16:48.460 The Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei for now years.
00:16:53.860 You go back to Joe Biden and he even went on the record in Geneva, Switzerland, back on June the 16th of 2021, saying that there would be major consequences if he died in captivity by the Russians, by Putin.
00:17:12.720 I want to play this from June 16th, 2021.
00:17:16.260 Mr. President, just a quick follow on the same theme of consequences.
00:17:18.860 You said just now that you spoke to him a lot about human rights.
00:17:22.060 What did you say would happen if opposition later, Alexei Navalny dies?
00:17:25.000 I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia.
00:17:33.420 I'll go back to the same point.
00:17:35.540 What do you think happens when he's saying it's not about hurting Navalny?
00:17:40.240 It's all the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny.
00:17:44.720 I mean, Senator, that was 2021.
00:17:57.860 What changed?
00:18:00.000 Well, actually, nothing changed.
00:18:02.860 And I'm going to explain in a minute that he didn't believe what he was saying then. 0.99
00:18:06.060 But before I explain that, let's play what Biden is saying now, because even he is admitting today that what he said then was full of crap. 0.97
00:18:15.240 Listen to what he's saying right now. 0.96
00:18:16.860 Now is the time for even greater unity among our NATO allies to stand up to the threat that Putin's Russia poses.
00:18:23.460 You know, I send my deepest condolences to Alexei's staff and supporters who are going to continue his work despite this loss,
00:18:30.420 despite all of Putin's desperate attempts to stamp out the opposition and most of all to his family.
00:18:36.060 Especially to his wife, his daughter and his son have already sacrificed so much for their family and a shared dream for a better future for Russia.
00:18:46.400 Now, that was him making his first statement at the White House.
00:18:51.440 But then the media asked him that question.
00:18:54.820 Hey, what happened to what you said three years ago?
00:18:57.660 First, was this an assassination?
00:18:59.300 The answer is that we don't know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.
00:19:12.800 And to be clear, you warned Vladimir Putin when he were in Geneva of devastating consequences if Navalny died in Russian custody.
00:19:22.440 What consequences should he and Russia face? 0.86
00:19:25.800 That was three years ago.
00:19:26.840 In the meantime, they faced a hell of a lot of consequences.
00:19:29.200 They've lost and or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers.
00:19:33.920 I mean, Senator, he doesn't answer the questions.
00:19:37.300 He says, that was three years ago.
00:19:38.860 And now because the war with Ukraine, well, they've had some somehow some consequences that have nothing to do with killing this individual.
00:19:46.920 Well, he did answer the question, actually.
00:19:49.420 And his answer is nothing that that he's so weak, that he's so ineffective, that he's not going to do anything.
00:19:54.660 And Putin knows that everybody else knows that Navalny knew that.
00:19:58.560 So last week, when when when the news of Navalny's death broke, here's the statement that I put out, quote, the Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei Navalny for years to stop his criticism of Vladimir Putin's corruption and autocracy and to intimidate the Russian people from similar criminal criticism.
00:20:19.060 Tragically, they appear to have finally succeeded in murdering him.
00:20:23.740 We must ensure that they will never succeed in silencing him.
00:20:28.560 The regime interprets weakness from the United States as appeasement and has only escalated its oppression in recent years.
00:20:37.540 The Russian people are entitled to express their views peacefully without fear of retribution.
00:20:43.240 And I will work with my colleagues to hold accountable those in the Russian regime responsible for this atrocity.
00:20:51.180 So that's what I put out.
00:20:52.220 But I want to go back because I said that that Biden didn't mean the tough consequences when he said that.
00:21:01.000 How do I know that?
00:21:02.200 Because if you go back to 2021, you go back to the beginning of the Biden administration where Vladimir Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny, actually poisoned him in August of 2020.
00:21:14.060 And he was poisoned with a Novichok class nerve agent, which is the same class that was used by Russia in the 2018 assassination attempt against a former British intelligence agency.
00:21:30.580 It's a strategy of murder that that the Russians are fond of poisoning. 1.00
00:21:36.560 And at the time, Biden announced really mild sanctions on Russia, said, OK, we're going to slap your hand.
00:21:45.540 And what I called for at the time was sanctioning and shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
00:21:53.760 Now, remember, Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a pipeline that Putin was building that went straight from Russia to Germany.
00:22:00.600 It circumvented Ukraine.
00:22:02.000 The entire point of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was to enable Russia to get its natural gas to Europe without needing to go through the pipelines in Ukraine.
00:22:10.920 Why did Putin want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline?
00:22:13.880 So he could invade Ukraine. 0.93
00:22:16.920 I authored the sanctions that shut Nord Stream 2 down.
00:22:21.780 I passed them into law in December of 2019.
00:22:26.140 Got overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate.
00:22:29.200 Got overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.
00:22:31.880 Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.
00:22:35.440 And listen to this.
00:22:38.180 Putin stopped building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
00:22:42.240 Literally the day, the very same day that Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation.
00:22:49.200 The pipeline was done.
00:22:51.480 That was December of 2019.
00:22:53.980 December of 2020, I passed another set of sanctions legislation on Nord Stream 2, again with overwhelming bipartisan support.
00:23:01.840 Again, Donald Trump signed it into law.
00:23:03.800 The pipeline remained dead.
00:23:06.000 Now, fast forward to January 2021.
00:23:08.080 On January 20th, Joe Biden takes the oath of office.
00:23:12.940 He becomes president.
00:23:14.320 Four days later, four.
00:23:17.340 January 24th, 2021.
00:23:20.320 Putin resumes deep sea construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
00:23:24.460 Literally four days into the Biden presidency.
00:23:27.840 Why?
00:23:28.400 Because Biden was already showing weakness.
00:23:30.820 Putin understood Biden was weak.
00:23:33.000 And by the way, that foreshadowing of weakness was true.
00:23:36.440 It was accurate. 0.89
00:23:37.380 Why do we know that?
00:23:38.240 Because several months later, Biden formally waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
00:23:44.260 He gave Vladimir Putin a multi-billion dollar gift.
00:23:47.920 He let him complete that pipeline.
00:23:50.900 And that pipeline, waiving those sanctions, is why Putin invaded Ukraine.
00:23:56.060 It is Biden's fault.
00:23:57.680 But when Navalny, when Putin went after Navalny, I called on Biden.
00:24:01.960 I said, all right, you gave Biden this gift of Nord Stream 2.
00:24:05.920 How about now?
00:24:06.920 When Navalny's in jail, how about now?
00:24:09.560 Impose the sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
00:24:11.720 How about now?
00:24:13.120 Grow a backbone and stand up to Putin.
00:24:17.460 And Biden refused to do so.
00:24:20.840 Instead, put little slap of the wrist sanctions on it.
00:24:23.580 And so when he said severe consequences, he didn't mean it in 2021.
00:24:28.460 And he's admitted it now.
00:24:30.400 The consequences he has in mind are nothing.
00:24:33.040 And you know what?
00:24:34.240 Putin will continue to behave worse, will continue to be more oppressive,
00:24:37.720 will continue to be more of a threat.
00:24:40.560 China, Xi, will continue to behave worse, to be more oppressive, to be more of a threat.
00:24:45.020 North Korea will. 0.98
00:24:46.200 Venezuela will.
00:24:47.140 Iran will. 0.99
00:24:48.220 Every enemy of America.
00:24:49.760 Hamas will. 1.00
00:24:50.580 Hezbollah will. 0.99
00:24:51.300 All of them, when we have a weak commander-in-chief, America is at greater peril,
00:24:57.180 and every one of our allies is at greater peril.
00:25:00.060 Senator, final question for you on sanctions.
00:25:02.960 What is the point of having sanctions?
00:25:05.340 And you mentioned multiple countries there.
00:25:07.880 That we have sanctions on, that we're not doing anything, we're not enforcing the sanctions.
00:25:11.760 And if the president and his administration will not enforce the sanctions,
00:25:16.200 is there any checks and balances that can come into play on the House, the Senate, congressional oversight?
00:25:23.520 Because if you've got the sanctions and they're worthless because you don't enforce them,
00:25:28.680 who does that fall on and can it change?
00:25:30.740 Well, it certainly can change, and Congress can force the president to do it.
00:25:35.120 And the best example of that, let's go back to Nord Stream 2, and I'll finish the story.
00:25:40.420 When Biden waived the sanctions, my response is I put a hold on every single nominee at the State Department.
00:25:46.640 I block them in the Senate.
00:25:47.900 And it caused the Biden administration to go nuts.
00:25:50.280 It caused Senate Democrats to go nuts.
00:25:52.040 And I said, listen, Joe Biden is handing a massive gift to Vladimir Putin.
00:25:58.680 He is causing war in Europe.
00:26:00.600 He is causing Russia to prepare to invade Ukraine.
00:26:03.960 This makes no sense, and it is endangering Europe, our allies, and it's endangering America.
00:26:09.420 For all of 2021, I had those holds in place.
00:26:13.340 In December of 2021, I cut a deal with Chuck Schumer.
00:26:17.760 I let, I think it was 34 of those holds go, in exchange for scheduling a vote on new sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in January of 2022.
00:26:29.720 Schumer agreed, so I forced the vote on the Senate floor.
00:26:32.920 Now, when the vote came up in January of 2022, the week before the vote,
00:26:38.740 President Zelensky in Ukraine publicly begged the United States Senate,
00:26:43.860 please, please, please, please pass Cruz's sanctions legislation.
00:26:49.000 This legislation is the last best hope to stop Russia from invading Ukraine to avoid war. 0.78
00:26:58.100 That same week, the government of Poland put out a formal statement pleading with the United States Senate to pass my sanctions legislation.
00:27:08.380 Poland said, if you do not do so, Russia will invade Ukraine.
00:27:13.120 Now, Ben, that is highly unusual.
00:27:15.380 Foreign countries generally do not put out statements on particular votes in the Senate asking the Senate to do something.
00:27:22.440 In this case, both Ukraine and Poland put out those statements.
00:27:25.940 The day of the vote, Joe Biden came 16 blocks from the White House down to Capitol Hill,
00:27:32.260 and he went to the Democratic Senate lunch,
00:27:36.640 and he personally lobbied the Democrat senators.
00:27:39.700 This was the first time he had done so since he became president.
00:27:47.620 And he came there to lobby them.
00:27:50.160 His request was, please, please, please vote against Cruz's sanctions legislation.
00:27:57.960 Please vote for Russia and Putin. 0.54
00:27:59.920 So twice when I had introduced my legislation and passed it to law,
00:28:06.800 all the Democrats had come together and supported it.
00:28:09.760 So they were on record twice supporting my sanctions.
00:28:14.680 In January 2022, because of Biden's personal lobbying,
00:28:19.440 44 Democrat senators flipped their votes.
00:28:22.000 They voted against sanctions.
00:28:24.600 They voted in favor of Russia.
00:28:26.240 They voted in favor of Putin.
00:28:28.840 And as a result, a month later, Russia invaded Ukraine,
00:28:34.600 and we have still today the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
00:28:40.100 Look, I'm someone who hates war.
00:28:44.520 I am very reluctant to go to war, but I agree with Ronald Reagan.
00:28:50.620 I agree with Winston Churchill.
00:28:52.080 I agree with Donald Trump in the philosophy of peace through strength,
00:28:55.800 that the best way you avoid war is being strong enough your enemies don't want to mess with you.
00:29:00.580 And sanctions can be a very powerful tool for avoiding war.
00:29:04.920 What the Biden White House is all about when it comes to our enemies is weakness and appeasement.
00:29:10.820 And waiving these sanctions directly caused the war.
00:29:16.440 Once the pipeline was complete, Putin's view was he could invade because he could still get his gas to Europe,
00:29:24.220 even if the pipelines in Ukraine were destroyed.
00:29:27.660 But as before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,
00:29:32.180 you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:29:37.560 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:29:39.500 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:29:43.640 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:29:47.380 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:29:48.560 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:29:49.780 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:29:53.480 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:29:56.820 All at different stages of their journey.
00:29:59.300 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:30:02.500 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:30:08.220 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:30:12.880 Senator, I want to move lastly to this other issue, and that is, it is weird.
00:30:18.060 The media seems to be turning on Joe Biden.
00:30:22.200 Headlines now coming from major news organizations.
00:30:25.580 The Washington Post, for example, had this headline.
00:30:28.940 What happens if Trump or Biden can no longer run for president?
00:30:33.680 Obviously, they're trying to act like Donald Trump is in cognitive decline.
00:30:37.160 It's not happening, and we know it's different with Joe Biden.
00:30:40.580 The New York Times even said this.
00:30:43.020 How old is too old to be president?
00:30:45.260 An uncomfortable question arises again.
00:30:47.960 And now the New York Times taking heat for that headline.
00:30:52.240 I want to get your reaction to this moment on Fox News Channel as they describe this turning on the president.
00:31:00.260 On the story.
00:31:00.840 Thanks for being here this afternoon with us, everybody.
00:31:02.660 When you take a look at a theme that seems to be emerging in the coverage of this campaign, this presidential race, right?
00:31:14.280 Check out some of these recent headlines.
00:31:16.860 Quote, what we know about cognitive decline.
00:31:20.980 Quote, what happens if Trump or Biden can no longer run for president?
00:31:25.100 How old is too old to be president?
00:31:28.760 These are not your typical election year headlines, but this is clearly not a typical election year matchup if it turns out to be these two presumed nominees.
00:31:38.680 So the publisher of The New York Times is standing by his papers reporting on the president's, quote, unpopularity and his age, but says that the White House is not happy.
00:31:49.680 In fact, he says they're extremely upset about the coverage that they're getting at The New York Times.
00:31:53.880 And take a listen to this exchange just a short time ago as President Biden left for a fundraising trip to California.
00:32:01.580 Watch.
00:32:02.980 I'm going to California.
00:32:04.460 This is about coming up with a free and fee for 2024.
00:32:07.120 Does Gavin need to stand by?
00:32:08.900 Are you ready?
00:32:10.040 Yes, sir.
00:32:10.800 Well, I'm looking for it.
00:32:11.620 I'm looking at you.
00:32:12.400 We're looking at you.
00:32:14.260 OK.
00:32:15.000 With that, we bring in our paper.
00:32:16.380 I mean, he didn't even know what they were talking about, Senator.
00:32:19.260 And you can see the media flipping on him.
00:32:22.100 Is this the beginning of the end of his presidency with the Democratic Party figuring out how to offload him?
00:32:28.640 Yeah, look, that was weird.
00:32:30.900 That exchange at the end being asked, are you going to California for a plan B to talk to Gavin Newsom?
00:32:36.900 Look, that was a nasty little question.
00:32:38.800 But his answer was bizarre.
00:32:41.120 It was a non sequitur.
00:32:42.300 It made no sense.
00:32:43.160 And, you know, those three headlines that the Fox story just read, the first one was from the Wall Street Journal.
00:32:50.340 The second one was from the Washington Post.
00:32:52.040 The third one was from the New York Times.
00:32:53.920 And I do think we are seeing the corporate media starting to turn on Joe Biden.
00:32:59.840 And we've talked at length.
00:33:01.780 Listen, it was this podcast that drove news and drove news across the country when we said months ago that I believe there was a very significant chance the Democrat Party would pull the cord on Joe Biden,
00:33:14.620 and yank him out, and replace him with Michelle Obama. 1.00
00:33:18.520 And I think if they do that, they're likely to do it either at the Democrat Convention this summer or shortly thereafter.
00:33:24.820 And we're seeing the corporate media, which is one in the same with the Democrat Party, but in many ways they're the left wing of the Democrat Party.
00:33:35.380 They're starting to get nervous. 0.76
00:33:37.140 They're starting to realize, crap, if it's Biden against Trump, we think Trump's going to win. 0.96
00:33:41.980 And so they're hitting the panic button. 0.94
00:33:44.480 And I think we're going to see more of these stories as the media turns on them.
00:33:48.540 I do think you're seeing both Democrats and the media getting very, very worried about Joe Biden's ability to win in November.
00:33:56.180 When you are running for president, you've done this before, and you see something this significant of a change in the news cycle.
00:34:04.940 Joe Biden has had three years of basically a media that's been covering for him.
00:34:09.480 I think that's why he was so shocked when he had the report that came out about his cognitive decline and couldn't answer basic questions.
00:34:17.360 And then he came out with that very angry, really dysfunctional press conference at night.
00:34:23.360 And the media didn't get back in line since then.
00:34:26.540 So when you see this, who is moving the needle?
00:34:29.580 Is it donors who are saying we're not going to give money anymore?
00:34:32.740 Or is it the leadership of the Democratic Party saying we've got to figure something out, we've got to figure it out fast?
00:34:38.560 Or could it even be both?
00:34:40.720 So I don't think it's donors, and I don't think it's anyone cutting off money.
00:34:44.240 And understand, the Democrats and the media would be perfectly happy if they could wave a wand and put Joe Biden there four years or more.
00:34:52.780 They're not worried that he's incompetent to be president.
00:34:55.480 They're not worried that the Department of Justice says he's not competent to stand trial.
00:34:59.260 They're not worried that he's such a weak commander-in-chief that our enemies are attacking our allies and threatening America.
00:35:06.760 They're not worried that he lacks the competence to do the job.
00:35:12.100 There's only one thing they're worried about, that he would lose.
00:35:15.760 If they believed he would win, they'd be perfectly fine to weaken at Bernie's him, to stand him up as a corpse and say, Joe Biden's there, and let's keep pulling the puppet strings.
00:35:29.060 Their concern is they're worried he's going to lose.
00:35:32.820 And that is a very real and acute concern on their part.
00:35:38.460 It's also worth noting, you were talking about the press turning on him.
00:35:42.800 You know, there's a real difference between Republicans and Democrats.
00:35:46.180 Look, on my end, the press has always turned on me.
00:35:49.420 They're always hostile.
00:35:50.460 Every question they're asking, they're looking to screw me nine ways to Sunday.
00:35:54.560 That's just when you're โ€“ and by the way, and you've been in the Capitol with me, Ben.
00:35:58.820 And as you know, when I walk from my office to the Senate floor, and I do so repeatedly, whether it is to vote or to go to meetings or to go to committee hearings, I'm walking back and forth through the Capitol.
00:36:08.680 And there's a cluster of reporters that surround you, and they ask you hostile question after hostile question on every topic under the sun.
00:36:16.400 And if you're a Republican, especially a conservative Republican, you're used to just getting constant barrages of attacks.
00:36:24.680 The Democrats don't get that.
00:36:26.380 They get the kind of questions.
00:36:27.580 Remember Joe Biden, in his first year in the White House, the reporters would ask him things like, Mr. President, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
00:36:35.260 I mean, that was โ€“
00:36:35.760 They still ask him that, right?
00:36:36.940 What are you eating, Mr. President?
00:36:38.320 I mean, it's embarrassing.
00:36:41.660 It's โ€“ they're like groupies chasing the Beatles, throwing their panties at him, and that's just the guys.
00:36:47.120 I mean, it is โ€“ it's pitiful.
00:36:50.440 And so he is really startled because he's not used to any scrutiny.
00:36:55.980 He's not used to journalists actually being journalists.
00:36:59.140 By the way, there is this phenomenon for Republicans as well.
00:37:02.040 If you remember John McCain.
00:37:03.880 John McCain used to get lots of adoring press coverage because when he was a Republican senator, he would often attack other Republicans.
00:37:12.720 And the press โ€“ and he would attack them from the left.
00:37:15.240 And the press loves it when a Republican attacks other Republicans from the left.
00:37:20.100 It's the best way to get good press.
00:37:22.420 You get called a bipartisan statesman when you agree with the Democrats and attack your fellow Republicans.
00:37:27.840 Well, when John McCain got the Republican nomination โ€“ and you and I both supported John McCain once he was our nominee.
00:37:36.260 Yeah.
00:37:36.640 But the press turned on him and turned viciously on him.
00:37:40.440 If you remember, McCain made a comment something like, I don't understand.
00:37:43.620 I thought you guys were my base.
00:37:45.840 Yeah.
00:37:46.020 And he was completely startled because โ€“ and it's the same sentiment Biden's having โ€“ when you're used to just getting your hindquarters kissed by the media, when they start biting, you don't know how to handle it.
00:38:02.320 And one of two things is going to happen when it comes to this, Senator.
00:38:05.440 They're either going to get back in line after trying to step out and see, will others follow us, right, and test the waters, or they're going to keep going.
00:38:14.880 What's your prediction?
00:38:16.920 Well, if he stays the nominee, they'll get back in line, and they'll immediately begin saying it's ageist and racist and horrible to even ask these questions.
00:38:24.780 And they have no shame.
00:38:26.460 So this is the moment where they're trying to see if they can push him out and replace him with Michelle Obama.
00:38:32.540 If they can't, if he doesn't go, if we get to September and Biden's the nominee, the media will suddenly be completely silent on this front
00:38:42.940 and will attack anyone who dares raise the same questions they're raising right now.
00:38:48.160 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:38:52.980 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:39:00.020 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:39:03.740 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:39:06.160 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:39:09.840 Guaranteed Human.