Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 24, 2024


China Buying Farmland NEXT to U.S. Military Bases to Spy on us, plus Alvin Bragg RELEASED the anti-Israel Protestors who Took Over Columbia


Episode Stats


Length

46 minutes

Words per minute

174.31245

Word count

8,172

Sentence count

649

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is joined by Ben Ferguson (D-NJ) to discuss the alarming amount of Chinese spying on U.S. military bases and the lack of action by the Obama administration to stop it.

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 .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.580 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.220 Senator, this is going to be a very interesting show today.
00:00:12.140 And one of the most shocking topics is the Biden administration has been asleep at the wheel,
00:00:16.540 apparently, as China is buying up farmland at alarming rates,
00:00:21.080 not just in the country in general, but specifically around military bases.
00:00:25.560 Well, that's exactly right.
00:00:26.480 We're seeing a pattern across the country of China systematically buying farmland next to military bases,
00:00:32.820 19 military bases across the country.
00:00:35.440 China has acquired farmland.
00:00:37.540 That makes us vulnerable to espionage.
00:00:40.040 It makes us vulnerable to all sorts of surveillance.
00:00:44.100 It should be completely unacceptable.
00:00:45.900 We need to do a lot more to stop it.
00:00:47.820 We're also going to get into what has happened in New York City. 0.77
00:00:50.580 Alvin Bragg made his name by bringing this ridiculous, bogus case against Donald Trump.
00:00:55.480 Well, now he's making his name again by taking the violently anti-Israel pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia,
00:01:03.300 the protesters who broke into the building, who seized the building, who was arrested.
00:01:07.280 Well, he just announced he's not going to prosecute them.
00:01:09.960 He dismissed the charges against them.
00:01:12.180 I have to say that should surprise virtually nobody.
00:01:16.240 Alvin Bragg is a George Soros prosecutor who was elected to let criminals go.
00:01:21.760 And unless your name happens to be Donald Trump, he's in the business of letting criminals go.
00:01:26.340 Finally, we're going to talk about the hearing that is coming up in the federal court in Florida
00:01:32.220 on the case against Donald Trump for possession of classified documents.
00:01:37.380 And in particular, the judge has scheduled a hearing on whether Jack Smith, the special prosecutor,
00:01:43.140 is legally appointed, whether it is constitutional for him to serve as special counsel.
00:01:49.040 There's a serious legal argument here.
00:01:51.060 We're going to break it down.
00:01:52.240 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with that case.
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00:03:39.680 Senator, we had a warning earlier this past year on China and the threat of China.
00:03:46.060 It came in the unorthodox way of a really big balloon that was traveling across this country.
00:03:52.540 The Biden administration allowed it to sit, hover, even back up, use our cell towers to
00:03:57.960 then send data back to the communist Chinese government.
00:04:01.760 And then we shut it down after it finished its mission.
00:04:04.600 That was a big concern of many Americans.
00:04:06.740 But now we find out about all of this farmland.
00:04:09.320 Well, and to be clear, there were multiple Chinese spy balloons, and the Biden administration
00:04:14.240 didn't bother to tell anyone about them until finally some ranchers in Montana spotted this
00:04:20.020 one and they got outed on the Internet.
00:04:21.980 Were it not for that, we wouldn't even know about this one.
00:04:24.120 They kept it secret that the Chinese had been sending spy balloons over U.S. airspace,
00:04:29.440 over U.S. military bases.
00:04:31.220 They're engaged in active espionage against us.
00:04:34.520 Well, this pattern is a second pattern.
00:04:37.220 It's one I've been focused on for a long time, and it is a real national security threat.
00:04:41.340 Here, I want you to take a look at this map.
00:04:44.020 You pull up this map.
00:04:45.300 This shows the Chinese farmland that they have purchased around military bases, 19 bases
00:04:52.380 across this country.
00:04:53.660 That includes Fort Liberty, which is what used to be Fort Bragg, in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
00:04:59.580 That includes Fort Cavazos, which is what used to be Fort Hood, here in Texas.
00:05:04.940 That includes Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.
00:05:10.600 And it includes MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
00:05:14.900 All of those, the Chinese are buying up land, and they're claiming they're buying it up for 0.98
00:05:20.020 farming or ranching, but it allows them to set up reconnaissance sites.
00:05:24.680 It allows them to install tracking technology, to use radar, to use infrared scanning, and
00:05:30.760 to view the bases, and from there, to attempt to fly drones over the bases and engage in
00:05:36.860 surveillance.
00:05:37.580 And I've got to say, it is insane that we are allowing the Chinese to do this. 1.00
00:05:43.740 This should be illegal.
00:05:46.360 We should not allow the Chinese communists to buy land anywhere near our bases. 0.99
00:05:52.380 And this is an issue I've been fighting on a long time in the Senate, and at least so
00:05:57.920 far, the Democrats have resisted doing anything meaningful to stop this problem.
00:06:05.220 Let me ask you this.
00:06:06.340 When did this become a problem that was put on your radar screen?
00:06:10.480 Because it's not like they went and bought all this land up at the exact same day at the
00:06:14.460 exact same time.
00:06:15.780 There should have been some warnings that went off for people in their government that like,
00:06:21.340 hey, there's a trend now.
00:06:23.000 We're seeing these Chinese companies coming in or individuals coming in, and they're specifically
00:06:27.640 buying up farmland right around our military installations.
00:06:31.260 You would think with an FBI that can find grandma from January 6th, they would be paying
00:06:35.820 attention to things like this, or even the CIA.
00:06:38.120 You would think there'd be somebody at the DOD that would have been raising the red flag
00:06:42.500 here going, we've got a major problem.
00:06:44.900 We've got to make sure this is stopped.
00:06:46.400 Now we look at the entire U.S. map and all of our biggest military installations, and
00:06:51.440 there is literally farmland surrounding.
00:06:53.900 I mean, I look at Fort Liberty, and I was actually there and went on base last year.
00:06:58.280 This area around, it's not like it's a little sliver.
00:07:01.340 It's almost encompassing the entire Fort Liberty base, which is a massive base with farmland all
00:07:08.540 around it.
00:07:09.540 Now, look, it's an enormous problem.
00:07:11.580 And you've got to remember, you've got to overlap this with the consequence of our open
00:07:15.640 borders, our open borders on the southern border due to Joe Biden and the Democrats.
00:07:19.440 We've seen an explosion of illegal aliens, over 11 million illegal aliens since Biden
00:07:24.480 became president.
00:07:25.420 But we've also seen an explosion of Chinese nationals.
00:07:29.760 In 2021, how many Chinese nationals do you think crossed illegally into this country?
00:07:34.860 2021?
00:07:36.500 I don't, not that many, I would assume.
00:07:38.600 342.
00:07:39.920 Wow.
00:07:40.240 How many this past year?
00:07:42.620 I'm going to guess 10x because it's Biden.
00:07:45.080 So 342, 10x would be 3,420?
00:07:48.660 Yeah.
00:07:49.460 No, 24,125.
00:07:52.920 Good grief.
00:07:53.740 24,000.
00:07:54.960 Now, the last I checked, 24,000 military-aged Chinese men marching over our border in any
00:08:01.100 normal world, that would be called an invasion.
00:08:03.240 That's in one year.
00:08:04.740 And they're almost all military-aged men.
00:08:07.380 And let's talk about some of the specific people investing.
00:08:10.240 Here are some of the known investors with ties to communist China.
00:08:13.760 One of the biggest investors in Texas is a billionaire named Sun Guangxian.
00:08:19.740 He has very deep ties to the Communist Party.
00:08:22.700 And he spent an estimated $110 million buying up land next to Laughlin Air Force Base in Valverde
00:08:32.740 County, Texas, a training ground for military pilots.
00:08:36.740 I've been down to that Air Force Base.
00:08:38.740 When this issue really came on my radar screen was when I was down at Laughlin Air Force Base
00:08:43.760 and was meeting with the leadership there.
00:08:46.640 And they were expressing.
00:08:47.880 So what the Chinese have done is they bought a lot of the land surrounding that base.
00:08:52.460 And they put windmills up on it.
00:08:54.860 Now, why is that a problem?
00:08:56.320 Because Laughlin uses that to train our pilots.
00:08:59.380 And you can't train flying through windmills.
00:09:01.780 It's a hazard.
00:09:02.960 And what they're doing is they're chopping off major routes that are available for training
00:09:07.840 our pilots.
00:09:08.540 They're limiting the ability to train our pilot.
00:09:11.140 And they're doing it in the name of, quote, let's build some windmills here. 0.94
00:09:14.120 So not only is it interfering with our military readiness and training, but then there's the
00:09:18.900 other part that we discussed, which is espionage.
00:09:20.860 And look, the FBI director, we talked about this on verdict a couple months ago.
00:09:24.620 He came before Congress and put a very clear warning to Congress that he was very concerned
00:09:29.880 about China.
00:09:30.600 He was very concerned about what they're doing inside the United States of America, espionage
00:09:37.160 and also what they're stealing using, you know, hacking, etc.
00:09:41.220 But he says they're opening up cases against Chinese individuals and having to basically
00:09:48.900 monitor all of these people in this country at alarming rates that he said they can't even
00:09:53.340 keep up with.
00:09:54.180 Yeah, look, remember when Trump was president and Mike Pompeo was secretary of state, where
00:09:59.120 the FBI came in and shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, where you and I are right
00:10:03.960 now, because the Chinese consulate they were using for espionage.
00:10:07.300 It was basically a spy ring that they had cells that they were detaining and imprisoning
00:10:12.820 Chinese nationals who live in Texas within the consulate.
00:10:16.040 It was apparently filled with rats. 0.99
00:10:19.500 It was a nasty, nasty place. 0.86
00:10:22.040 But it's where they were running spies right here out of Houston, Texas.
00:10:26.520 It was shut down.
00:10:28.420 You know, I'll tell you, following the problem with Laughlin Air Force Base in 2020, I wrote
00:10:34.300 a letter to then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin calling on the Treasury Department to step
00:10:39.500 in and put more protections in place. 0.74
00:10:42.300 And I'll tell you, since then, the Department of Treasury has increased the protections against
00:10:47.780 foreign adversaries acquiring real estate for both Laughlin Air Force Base and Lackland
00:10:53.280 Air Force Base in San Antonio.
00:10:55.300 So we've made some progress.
00:10:57.680 But here's another group of investors.
00:10:59.600 The Fufeng Group, which is a Shandong China-based company that specializes in flavor enhancers and
00:11:06.700 sugar substitutes, purchased 300 acres of farmland 40 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base
00:11:15.040 in North Dakota in 2022.
00:11:18.760 Chen Tianquiao, I'm sorry, my pronunciation is not great on that.
00:11:24.460 I'm doing the best I can.
00:11:25.940 He's a billionaire.
00:11:26.860 He's a Chinese Communist Party member, is the second largest foreign owner of farmland in
00:11:32.920 the United States.
00:11:33.720 He bought nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 at about $430 an acre.
00:11:42.140 His purchase of the acreage didn't even appear in government records of land ownership by
00:11:46.840 foreign investors until it was first revealed in January.
00:11:50.440 And another one, Mine One Partners, a firm partially backed by Chinese nationals, was told to move
00:11:56.960 equipment from less than one mile from F.E.
00:12:00.040 Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, saying it was a national security risk per the
00:12:06.800 Air Force Times.
00:12:08.040 Here, listen to a Navy admiral describe the scope of the problem.
00:12:12.900 You know, this thing of our military base is getting penetrated by foreign nationals is 1.00
00:12:17.780 happening more and more.
00:12:18.800 You know, this is something we see probably two or three times a week where we're stopping
00:12:22.960 these folks at the gate with a week, a week at least.
00:12:27.520 And this is just Navy alone where we're seeing folks try to come in.
00:12:31.440 And usually the cover story is and I'm a student, you know, I'm here.
00:12:35.440 I'm an enthusiast.
00:12:36.260 I want to see the ships, that type of thing.
00:12:38.020 We have to turn them around.
00:12:39.380 And typically we get NCIS involved with those and we get biometrics when possible.
00:12:43.880 But yes, there's been an uptick in that.
00:12:45.500 Do they have passports?
00:12:47.320 Do they have?
00:12:47.700 A lot of times they have passports.
00:12:49.340 They have papers, yes.
00:12:50.620 But they're in no way, shape or form authorized to be on our base.
00:12:54.520 And it's really hard for us to tell the underlying motive for these type of cases.
00:12:57.940 Wow, that's stunning.
00:12:59.500 It is.
00:13:00.260 It's got to be a concern.
00:13:01.260 This is Russian, Chinese.
00:13:03.520 It comes from all these different nations.
00:13:06.100 We're seeing an uptick in it.
00:13:07.420 I mean, this sounds a lot like a dry run.
00:13:11.060 That's what's probably so concerning.
00:13:13.080 But you combine that with what they could be picking up with surveillance technology being on these bases.
00:13:20.300 What they could be learning about how we fly missions.
00:13:23.500 How we're doing our drops with men.
00:13:25.700 If you look at 82nd Airborne, I mean, it's kind of important.
00:13:29.700 It's right there at Freedom, Fort Bragg.
00:13:32.420 And they could be watching, monitoring, seeing everything they need to know about the U.S. military because they're buying up farmland.
00:13:39.780 And no one seems to be paying attention to the Biden administration.
00:13:43.540 And they're sending Chinese nationals day after day after day to these bases trying to make incursions. 1.00
00:13:48.820 Here, listen to Admiral Caudill discuss that as well.
00:13:51.020 How do you overcome that?
00:13:52.240 Well, you know, we are improving our capabilities to detect that, to defend against that, to make sure that our folks are trained to actually counter that.
00:14:00.860 I do this under my authorities from U.S. Northern Command as the component commander for that.
00:14:06.060 And so I have great reporting on it.
00:14:07.960 And generally, in general, we believe it's mostly just folks with drones that you buy them commercially, you know, from Amazon or whatever the case may be.
00:14:16.140 But it's hard to differentiate between that and a nation state trying to do U.S. being honest.
00:14:20.120 I'm sure.
00:14:20.420 And you've got to do a lot of investigative work to figure out that answer.
00:14:23.560 I mean, you listen to the drone issue.
00:14:24.880 We've all seen drones.
00:14:26.040 We've seen how popular they become.
00:14:28.220 But this is great cover for the Chinese, right? 0.99
00:14:31.140 Oh, there's a bunch of people just flying around drones.
00:14:32.960 Maybe we can sneak one out every 20 in and we can claim ignorance here.
00:14:37.600 Yet, in reality, we're getting incredible intelligence.
00:14:40.540 So my question for you is this.
00:14:42.760 Is it the job of the president to change or advocate or support laws that say you can't buy up, you know, land around military bases?
00:14:52.240 Or does this fall to the states?
00:14:53.860 We've seen that happen in Arkansas, for example, with Governor Huckabee there.
00:14:57.700 She has now said you can't buy up land.
00:14:59.940 Chinese can't come in here and buy up a bunch of land. 0.96
00:15:02.120 Or is it a two-pronged approach that we need?
00:15:04.820 So it's principally the federal government that has the responsibility here to safeguard our federal military bases.
00:15:10.440 We need to do much more.
00:15:11.700 I think the most effective method would be expanding the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
00:15:18.380 It's what's called CFIUS.
00:15:20.100 And CFIUS jurisdiction right now over real estate investments is very limited.
00:15:25.200 And what it was – the CFIUS regime was designed to counter foreign investments in U.S. businesses.
00:15:32.980 And so for certain critical U.S. businesses, a foreign actor has to get approval from the CFIUS committee to be able to make that investment.
00:15:40.520 Currently, CFIUS jurisdiction for real estate purchases depends on the proximity of that land to sensitive facilities.
00:15:49.240 And that proximity varies depending on the category of sensitivity for each facility.
00:15:53.240 So, for example, last year, CFIUS reviewed a controversial purchase of 370 acres near a North Dakota Air Force base by a Chinese company.
00:16:04.240 And CFIUS found that it didn't have jurisdiction because the land was 12 miles out from the base,
00:16:10.880 and the base sensitivity was too low to provide jurisdiction 12 miles out.
00:16:15.760 I've introduced legislation called the Protecting Military Installation and Ranges Act that would expand CFIUS jurisdiction for real estate investments by foreign persons out to 100 miles from any military installation.
00:16:31.160 And by the way, America is a pretty big country.
00:16:34.260 100 miles does not seem that extreme.
00:16:36.180 No, it really –
00:16:36.960 When you're dealing with national security.
00:16:38.160 I think this is a common-sense provision.
00:16:41.000 We need to get Democrats who are willing to work together on this, who recognize this is a national security threat.
00:16:48.280 You know, I'll point out that – so I've introduced that bill in the last three Congresses.
00:16:53.480 I fought for that bill to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act.
00:16:58.880 So far, unsuccessfully, I've not been able to get the votes.
00:17:01.200 Have you had any Democrats in any of these states where this has happened?
00:17:03.500 They've said, hey, Senator Cruz, we're on the same page here?
00:17:07.080 So what I was able to get in was in the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, I drafted legislation that empowered the site clearinghouse to conduct a more thorough review of wind farm construction near bases.
00:17:24.860 As I said, we have this problem.
00:17:26.820 We have this problem with Laughlin at Air Force Base.
00:17:29.140 We have the problem at Corpus Christi.
00:17:31.480 And pilot training operations at Laughlin, at Dias, at Goodfellow, at Kingsville, and Corpus Christi have all been threatened by a growing number of wind farms in South Texas and West Texas.
00:17:42.600 So I drafted legislation that was passed into law to put added protections to say, look, you're not going to put windmills up in a way that significantly harm the ability of training our pilots.
00:17:54.360 That if you're taking away major routes that we're using for training, that's not an appropriate place to put a windmill.
00:18:01.660 And so we've had some progress in that regard, but frankly, we need to do a lot more.
00:18:06.320 If the president wasn't AWOL, a president should lead on this.
00:18:11.680 I feel confident if Trump is reelected, I'll work directly with President Trump and we will get legislation enacted to address and stop this problem.
00:18:21.360 But with Biden, the Biden administration is just completely disengaged from it.
00:18:26.080 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:18:32.400 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:18:35.740 How much of this is just their ignorance to the issue and not caring?
00:19:00.500 How much of this could be compromised because of all the deals they've done and the millions have come into the Biden family?
00:19:05.740 Directly from China.
00:19:07.320 How much of this is us just asleep at the wheel with a pre-9-11-S mentality, right?
00:19:12.740 Where you don't think that really anything bad is going to happen and then all of a sudden you trace it back and it's like, yeah, they surrounded all of our bases.
00:19:20.180 They knew what we were doing.
00:19:21.120 They understood our technology.
00:19:22.220 They were stealing it from us.
00:19:23.780 This is the stuff that keeps me up at night thinking about we're seeing the warning.
00:19:29.320 We're witnessing the land being purchased and we're still not doing anything.
00:19:33.780 So it's some of all of that.
00:19:35.460 And there's an element of just apathy and ignorance.
00:19:41.280 But there's also, we've talked before about how I think today's Democrat Party is structurally pro-China.
00:19:48.320 That there are major stakeholders, big business, big tech, big Hollywood, big universities.
00:19:53.660 They're all in bed with China. 1.00
00:19:55.440 So today's Democrat Party is not focused on standing up to China.
00:19:59.480 And this is one of the consequences, I think, really of having a Democrat majority in the Senate is that you're unable to drive an agenda.
00:20:07.020 With a Republican majority in the Senate, we can drive an agenda far more effectively.
00:20:11.580 And listen, it is hard for Democrats to vote no on common sense protections that would stand up on this.
00:20:18.660 But as long as the Democrats are in charge, they just avoid the votes altogether.
00:20:22.280 So I think this is one of the real consequences.
00:20:24.880 I believe if in November we have a Republican president, Senate, and House, we will pass legislation, hopefully my legislation, that I've introduced the last three Congresses, we get that passed, which would be a big, big step to solving this problem.
00:20:38.520 Final question.
00:20:39.260 We have a presidential debate coming up this week.
00:20:41.340 Yeah.
00:20:42.060 I have no doubt in my mind seeing it's not going to bring up this type of issue.
00:20:45.840 Is this where a candidate should take the opportunity to bring it up?
00:20:50.360 Is this where Donald Trump should take a moment and talk about, hey, Mr. President, we've got this problem.
00:20:56.220 We have bases that are being surrounded.
00:20:58.700 Is that a moment that he should take and bring this issue to the people?
00:21:02.900 You know, he could.
00:21:03.820 I would be surprised if Trump puts a lot of time and energy into this, because, frankly, this was a problem when Trump was president, too.
00:21:10.900 So Biden could push back and say, well, you didn't stop it.
00:21:15.080 And he's right.
00:21:15.960 Trump didn't stop it.
00:21:17.280 It's gotten worse under Biden.
00:21:19.160 And I'm confident Trump will stop it the next time around.
00:21:22.800 But of all of the national security areas to draw distinction, I don't know that I would put this at the top of the list.
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00:23:03.880 Senator, I want to move on to another subject, and it's also a really important one.
00:23:08.060 And it deals with Alvin Bragg.
00:23:10.660 We saw the radicals shut down universities, occupy universities, become violent, storm buildings, and take them over.
00:23:19.520 We saw some of them actually be drug out and be held accountable for their actions.
00:23:26.160 Alvin Bragg, we now find out, I'm not surprised.
00:23:29.060 You said it earlier.
00:23:29.900 You're not surprised at all.
00:23:31.200 He's now basically walked in and cleaned the slate for these criminals.
00:23:35.240 He's dropped the criminal charges against these pro-Hamas extremists.
00:23:39.020 Is there going to be any accountability for this, or is this just the Democratic Party?
00:23:43.680 This is Alvin Bragg.
00:23:45.100 This is the Soros agenda.
00:23:46.360 Look, sadly, this is the base of today's Democrat Party. 0.97
00:23:50.160 When you look at those vicious anti-Semites, those angry young people on college campuses that hate Israel, that love Hamas, that are threatening Jewish students, that are chanting horrible Nazi slogans, telling Jews literally, as they said in the University of Washington, go back to the ovens. 0.82
00:24:08.900 That was a verbatim quote, chanting, we love Hamas, as they did at Columbia. 0.97
00:24:14.160 That was a verbatim quote.
00:24:17.400 We're living in an environment where today's Democrat Party wants the votes of these radicals.
00:24:22.060 And so at Columbia, it got so bad that the NYPD went in and arrested a number of people, arrested 46 defendants.
00:24:29.880 Well, this week, 31 of them had their charges dropped and dropped by Alvin Bragg.
00:24:34.600 That same hard left George Soros DA, Soros put millions behind electing Alvin Bragg.
00:24:41.380 Alvin Bragg came in on an agenda, a two-part agenda.
00:24:44.080 Number one, I will get Donald Trump.
00:24:46.340 That's what he campaigned on.
00:24:47.960 And number two, I will let criminals go.
00:24:50.300 Now, George Soros DAs across the country come in on the promise to let murderers go, to let rapists go, not to lock violent criminals up to let them go.
00:25:00.520 And you know what?
00:25:01.760 I'll say this.
00:25:02.500 Bragg is honoring his promises.
00:25:04.960 It's the promises that he made.
00:25:07.080 But I even think many Americans saw this.
00:25:09.420 And in New York, you're seeing crime out of control.
00:25:11.780 You were just there.
00:25:12.480 I was there.
00:25:13.300 It is starting to feel like a different city than it did four, five, six years ago.
00:25:17.420 And you can see it in areas that are very populated.
00:25:20.300 You can see it in the crimes that we've seen committed, even at Times Square.
00:25:24.420 You see so many problems that are happening.
00:25:27.500 And at what point do the American people turn and say enough is enough?
00:25:30.620 Like, if you look at what they were doing on these college campuses in New York City and the violence and taking over, I would assume a lot of New Yorkers would say this is not OK.
00:25:42.200 You would assume that.
00:25:43.620 But there are consequences when you elect Democrats.
00:25:46.040 I will say one of the talking points you see among some Democrats is, well, this is terrible what's happening at campuses, but there's nothing we can do about it.
00:25:54.680 And let's be clear.
00:25:56.440 This is happening in New York.
00:25:58.080 This is happening in Connecticut.
00:25:59.800 This is happening in Pennsylvania.
00:26:01.740 This is happening in New Jersey.
00:26:03.280 This is happening in Massachusetts.
00:26:05.800 This is happening in Illinois.
00:26:07.760 This is happening in Washington State.
00:26:09.840 This is happening in California.
00:26:12.260 This happens in blue states that elect Democrats and put Democrats in charge.
00:26:17.760 And when you elect Democrats and put Democrats in charge, when there are radicals who hate Israel, who are threatening Jewish students and chanting for Hamas, the Democrats you elected and put in charge, they support the radicals and they refuse to prosecute them.
00:26:32.160 You know what?
00:26:33.280 You do that in Texas.
00:26:35.300 You do that in Florida.
00:26:36.700 You do that in Georgia.
00:26:38.240 You do that in Alabama.
00:26:40.140 You will be arrested and you will be prosecuted.
00:26:42.760 There is a consequence if you elect Republicans who actually believe in prosecuting criminals.
00:26:50.120 You're not seeing Jewish students being threatened.
00:26:52.740 You're not seeing Jewish students afraid to go to class.
00:26:56.920 You know, Texas A&M.
00:26:58.140 I was just at Texas A&M a week ago for the George Strait concert, which was phenomenal, by the way.
00:27:03.040 What an amazing concert.
00:27:04.400 Broken attendance record, which is pretty cool.
00:27:05.980 And you were one of them.
00:27:06.920 It was the largest concert in America in U.S. history.
00:27:11.040 A hundred and ten thousand nine hundred and five people.
00:27:14.780 It was phenomenal.
00:27:16.000 It's also the largest crowd ever at Kyle Field, because you think about it, a football game, they don't have people on the field.
00:27:22.160 So you had the field full of chairs also.
00:27:24.580 It was a packed crowd.
00:27:26.320 You know what?
00:27:26.800 Jewish students at A&M aren't afraid for their safety.
00:27:29.200 Yeah, great point.
00:27:29.900 Because if there's a pro-Hamas terrorist who threatens them, they'll arrest him and they'll throw him out of school.
00:27:35.400 When you look at what this prosecutor has done here and the others, part of it goes even to a bigger plan from Soros.
00:27:43.560 And I think Americans need to understand this.
00:27:45.480 It's about bail reform, prison reform, which means letting out violent criminals who are currently in prison.
00:27:51.500 And it's about driving the police insane.
00:27:55.520 If you can't defund the police, you at least drive them to insanity where they just quit.
00:28:00.080 Major cities now are watching experienced police officers walk off the job, leave and go to other departments,
00:28:07.220 or get out of the field altogether because they're risking their lives to lock people up.
00:28:11.000 And then Alvin Bragg immediately sets them free before they've even finished the paperwork.
00:28:14.520 That's part of the bigger world of Alvin Bragg and Soros that they're trying to create,
00:28:20.100 which is chaos organized and designed to make the police just say, I'm done.
00:28:25.220 There are two ways you abolish the police.
00:28:28.520 One, you do it directly.
00:28:29.720 You take over the city government.
00:28:31.080 You take over whoever the controlling governmental entity is.
00:28:34.460 And you defund the police.
00:28:36.020 You cut off the money.
00:28:37.120 You fire the police officers.
00:28:38.420 That's what we've seen the radical left do.
00:28:40.280 We saw the NYPD cut over a billion dollars from their budget.
00:28:44.400 Sadly, we saw the Austin Police Department here in Texas cut $150 million from its police budget.
00:28:50.880 We saw Minneapolis do that.
00:28:52.300 By the way, every time they do that, the crime rates go up.
00:28:54.960 The murder rates go up.
00:28:56.140 Amazing.
00:28:56.700 When you pull cops off the street, more people die.
00:28:59.780 But the other way you abolish the police is you go after the DAs.
00:29:03.160 You elect a George Soros DA, and the cops can do anything they want.
00:29:06.800 They can catch the murderers.
00:29:07.860 They can catch the rapists.
00:29:08.920 And the DA turns around and says, nope, I'm going to let them go.
00:29:13.200 And that is functionally the same thing.
00:29:16.720 The cops cannot do their jobs without a DA who will prosecute.
00:29:21.260 By the way, just this past week, we had actually, we talked about it in this last podcast,
00:29:27.160 a judicial nominee from Joe Biden nominated to the Federal Court of Appeals
00:29:31.720 who had done volunteer work for a communist organization in Tennessee that had vocally called
00:29:39.240 for abolishing ICE, abolishing the police.
00:29:42.060 And the Biden administration wants her to be a court of appeals judge. 1.00
00:29:45.720 Because, by the way, another way to abolish the police is put judges on the bench that just
00:29:50.820 order criminals released free.
00:29:52.280 This is all about, at the end of the day, this is about expanding chaos.
00:29:58.960 This is about destroying American society.
00:30:02.440 Law and order.
00:30:03.380 I genuinely do not understand.
00:30:05.640 I don't know how to, you know, look, in any debate, one tries to stand in the shoes of the
00:30:12.520 person you're arguing.
00:30:13.420 You try to understand, okay, why would someone think that?
00:30:17.840 Look, you and I are both pro-life.
00:30:20.060 We can both understand why someone would be pro-choice.
00:30:22.920 There are arguments you can understand why, in good faith, someone would get there.
00:30:27.220 There are lots of arguments.
00:30:28.460 You and I both think we should have low taxes.
00:30:30.740 We can understand the arguments why you want the rich to pay a bigger chunk.
00:30:35.300 Like, those arguments are not irrational.
00:30:38.940 I am genuinely incapable of articulating the reasons why anyone would want to release more
00:30:47.340 murderers, to say, the world would be better if more murderers, more rapists, more child 0.66
00:30:54.480 molesters were on the street and out there murdering more people, raping more people, 1.00
00:30:59.580 molesting more kids. 0.53
00:31:02.540 I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt, but I know of no reason to support that other
00:31:07.220 than that you want to destroy society.
00:31:09.500 Yeah.
00:31:10.200 Am I wrong?
00:31:11.180 No, no.
00:31:11.900 I mean, play devil's advocate for a minute.
00:31:13.620 Give me the argument why you're Alvin Bragg and you think the world would be better with
00:31:18.740 more murderers on the street.
00:31:20.040 There's not a logical argument there, and I think this is where it's about remaking this
00:31:24.060 country, and it's about fundamentally changing this country, changing what law and order is.
00:31:29.800 There's no longer right and wrong.
00:31:31.140 There's no longer good and evil.
00:31:32.760 There's no longer a society that's ruled by laws that are applied equally.
00:31:38.060 This is about some sort of new type of country I think they want to develop.
00:31:43.180 But I also think some of this is just, I think they look at it as revenge.
00:31:46.740 Well, and listen, all law enforcement becomes political.
00:31:50.200 And here, I want you to watch and listen to a really extraordinary exchange that just happened.
00:31:55.240 And it's an exchange between Bill Maher and Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York, former
00:32:05.440 attorney general of New York.
00:32:06.960 Here, give a listen.
00:32:07.660 Give a watch.
00:32:08.500 The trial in New York, the one he got convicted for, was the greatest fundraising bonanza ever.
00:32:15.640 He is now, he was lagging behind Biden, and now he's pulled quite a bit ahead.
00:32:19.520 That trial was the greatest reason people had to send their checks for $5, $10, $25, whatever dollars to Donald Trump.
00:32:29.120 So I was always with you on the one in New York, the hush money trial.
00:32:33.040 I don't think they should have brought that one.
00:32:34.700 It was just always going to look like a sex case, and people were always just going to look at it that way.
00:32:40.440 So, anyway.
00:32:40.920 That case, the attorney general's case in New York, frankly, should have never been brought.
00:32:45.380 And if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn't running for president, I'm the former AG in New York,
00:32:51.420 I'm telling you, that case would have never been brought.
00:32:53.760 And that's what is offensive to people.
00:32:56.620 And it should be.
00:32:58.080 Because if there's anything left, it's belief in the justice system.
00:33:02.220 Go after Trump, but everyone else that's an actual hardcore criminal in New York City, let him walk.
00:33:07.620 Look, I've got to say, that is the first time in my life that I've ever been quoted by Andrew Cuomo.
00:33:14.720 Because on this podcast, I've said multiple times, this case would never have been brought if his name were not Donald Trump.
00:33:21.120 And it's indisputably correct.
00:33:23.820 And look, Cuomo was governor.
00:33:25.320 He was attorney general.
00:33:26.460 He is obviously a partisan Democrat.
00:33:28.560 And interestingly enough, he was not just addressing, he was addressing the Alvin Bragg case,
00:33:32.260 but he was also addressing the Letitia James case.
00:33:34.460 The case, the ridiculous case with the wildly partisan judge who went after and is trying to get a half billion dollars out of Trump to destroy his business.
00:33:45.120 Both of those cases were vindictive.
00:33:47.500 Both of those cases are legally frivolous.
00:33:49.880 Both of those cases will be overturned on appeal.
00:33:52.440 And they were all about the weaponization of justice.
00:33:55.660 Look, I'm going to say I'm going to give credit to both Bill Maher and Cuomo.
00:34:00.440 They're both Democrats.
00:34:01.460 They're both outspoken Democrats, and they are among the very first to actually have the guts to call this out for what it is.
00:34:09.500 That's a big deal.
00:34:11.340 Listen, if Cuomo is willing to say it, you know what?
00:34:13.720 There are a lot of other people who see it. 0.99
00:34:15.960 Even if they're scared to say it out loud, they can tell just how political, just how much garbage this is. 0.94
00:34:22.120 It brings us to story number three. 0.92
00:34:23.740 It's an important one.
00:34:24.520 And that's the unlawful appointment argument that's been made about the special counsel, Jack Smith.
00:34:30.980 I want you to walk us through this because it is complicated.
00:34:35.380 And I want you to make the argument that is why is there a possibility that this may work for Trump's legal team?
00:34:44.000 They're the ones that are basically raising the argument about this special, the unlawful appointment of Jack Smith.
00:34:50.620 Walk us through the argument that his legal team is making and why they're making it now.
00:34:55.660 Well, let me start by watch and listen to how it was laid out in a TV interview with Andy McCarthy,
00:35:03.360 and then we'll talk about it as soon as we listen to this.
00:35:05.780 Well, Jackie, I think it's deceptive coverage.
00:35:08.300 The difference between the issue about Smith's status that's been raised in this case that distinguishes it from other cases
00:35:16.820 is that prior independent counsels were appointed under a congressional statute.
00:35:22.760 This independent counsel, Jack Smith, has been appointed under a Justice Department regulation.
00:35:28.680 And what the Constitution says is that when you're talking about an officer of the United States carrying out these kinds of duties,
00:35:34.980 either the person has to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate
00:35:41.380 or has to occupy a position that Congress has established by law.
00:35:45.800 So this actually is a pretty novel and important argument,
00:35:50.900 which is why people like former attorneys general Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey
00:35:55.760 have filed briefs saying that Smith doesn't have adequate legal constitutional basis to proceed with this case.
00:36:03.140 It's not at all a frivolous argument. 0.62
00:36:06.300 And I think the rap on Judge Cannon is just ridiculous. 0.52
00:36:10.620 This is a classified information case. 0.53
00:36:12.940 They're very hard to get to trial.
00:36:15.420 She could have satisfied the media and said, you know, we'll have an August 1st trial date
00:36:19.860 that everyone would have known was illusory.
00:36:23.040 Instead, she's trying to move through a mass of pretrial work that has to be done 0.91
00:36:27.120 so that she can set a realistic trial date.
00:36:29.840 And for that, she's being accused, I think, falsely of postponing the case
00:36:34.720 because she's trying to help Trump's electoral effort. 1.00
00:36:37.880 I want to ask you about Meese and these others that have filed these amicus briefs.
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00:38:29.460 Senator, I want to get your reaction to the point he said about these briefs that were filed.
00:38:34.760 They're important briefs that are being filed.
00:38:37.300 And yet, for many Americans, they can still sound very overwhelming to understand.
00:38:43.380 So what's the goal here?
00:38:45.080 Yeah, and let me say, by the way, we just played a clip from Andy McCarthy.
00:38:47.740 Andy's a good friend of mine.
00:38:49.640 One question I'd be interested from verdict listeners.
00:38:53.440 We could certainly have Andy as a guest on this podcast.
00:38:56.280 We could also have law professor Jonathan Turley as a guest on this podcast.
00:39:00.260 Both of them I know very well.
00:39:01.960 So if y'all think those would be good guests to have a detailed discussion about these issues,
00:39:07.160 let us know on Twitter.
00:39:08.500 Let us know.
00:39:09.520 Reach out to Ben and me and let us know.
00:39:11.300 And either or both of them we could have on, and it could be a very interesting discussion.
00:39:16.160 Listen, so the judge in Florida has set an oral argument on the question of whether Jack Smith's appointment
00:39:22.140 is legal and constitutional.
00:39:24.080 And that's going to be argued by Gene Scherr and Josh Blackman.
00:39:27.840 Josh Blackman is a law professor.
00:39:29.600 Gene Scherr is a very, very well-respected Supreme Court litigator.
00:39:35.460 Scherr is the name partner in Scherr Jaffe.
00:39:38.040 Jaffe is Eric Jaffe, who clerked with me.
00:39:40.640 He was a Clarence Thomas clerk the same year I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist.
00:39:44.600 I've known both of them a very, very long time.
00:39:47.680 Ed Meese, former attorney general, who has brought this argument and has filed an amicus brief,
00:39:54.100 arguing that Jack Smith is not appointed legally.
00:39:57.520 And the argument, first of all, they say there's no federal statute that establishes an office of special counsel in the Department of Justice.
00:40:06.240 So there's not a statutory basis for creating this role.
00:40:09.920 Secondly, they argue that even if you ignore ignore that there isn't a statute,
00:40:16.640 there is also no statute authorizing the attorney general rather than the president with the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint such a special counsel.
00:40:25.340 The special counsel, the way it's structured right now, has more power than any of the 94 U.S.
00:40:32.960 attorneys who prosecute cases across the country.
00:40:35.600 So all across the country, there are 94 U.S.
00:40:37.780 attorneys.
00:40:38.160 Every single one of them has been nominated by the president of the United States,
00:40:42.420 and every single one of them has been confirmed by the Senate.
00:40:45.780 That's the structure.
00:40:47.060 When you have a prosecutor with that level of power, you go through the checks and balances.
00:40:51.420 Well, Jack Smith was not confirmed by the Senate, and their authority is limited to the jurisdictions where they're appointed.
00:40:59.240 So if you are confirmed to be the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, you can't prosecute someone in California.
00:41:05.360 You don't have the authority to bring any case outside of whatever district you're confirmed to.
00:41:12.540 Jack Smith has nationwide authority to pursue his prosecutions anywhere in the country he wants.
00:41:18.140 And he's indicted Trump in two separate jurisdictions, in D.C. and in Florida.
00:41:23.580 He was not nominated by the president.
00:41:25.880 He was not confirmed by the Senate.
00:41:28.320 And that, the amicus brief argues, violates the requirements of the Constitution.
00:41:33.940 General Meese also acknowledges, quote,
00:41:36.240 There are times when the appointment of a special counsel is appropriate.
00:41:42.280 But federal statutes in the Constitution only allow such appointments through the use of existing United States attorneys.
00:41:50.000 So it's worth noting there have been other special counsels, but they were sitting U.S. attorneys.
00:41:54.260 So, for example, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed as a special counsel.
00:41:58.920 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.
00:42:00.880 Rod Rosenstein was appointed as a special counsel.
00:42:03.560 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.
00:42:04.800 John Huber was appointed as a special counsel.
00:42:07.460 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.
00:42:08.960 John Durham was appointed as a special counsel.
00:42:11.740 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.
00:42:13.080 Every one of them had been nominated by the president, had been confirmed by the Senate at the time of their appointments.
00:42:20.700 And so what they argue is you can't just make an appointment as attorney general
00:42:25.060 and create a roving U.S. attorney with national authority greater than any U.S. attorney without the Senate having the right to engage in advice and consent.
00:42:38.560 That argument.
00:42:39.400 Is that a legitimate argument?
00:42:41.320 I mean, you're obviously a guy that did this for a very long time in that role as a lawyer.
00:42:46.720 So the question I ask you is when you hear this argument, you see names like Meese and others that are getting involved and you hear the argument they're making.
00:42:54.740 Is it a legitimate one?
00:42:55.820 It's a real argument and a serious argument.
00:42:58.800 It doesn't mean it will necessarily prevail.
00:43:00.580 It doesn't mean it will be a slam dunk.
00:43:02.560 There are real arguments on the other side.
00:43:04.920 But look, I think there is a possibility this argument prevails.
00:43:09.640 There's a long history dealing with special counsels.
00:43:12.660 And before that, there was something called the Independent Council.
00:43:16.120 There was a statute that allowed independent counsels to be appointed.
00:43:19.540 And that was created by Congress.
00:43:20.880 So you'll recall Ken Starr was appointed as an independent counsel to prosecute Bill Clinton.
00:43:28.000 Yeah.
00:43:29.020 And at the time, so there was a case that was brought challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Council statute.
00:43:36.240 It was a case called Morrison v. Olson.
00:43:38.900 The Olson was Ted Olson, who at the time was the head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice.
00:43:45.220 He later became the Solicitor General of the United States under George W. Bush.
00:43:49.980 Ted is a good friend.
00:43:52.060 That case went to the Supreme Court.
00:43:54.280 And eight to one, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Independent Council statute.
00:44:00.340 The dissent was authored by Justice Scalia.
00:44:02.940 And Justice Scalia laid out an argument why having an independent counsel who is not subject to the authority of the attorney general,
00:44:11.600 not subject to the authority of the president, is contrary to Article 2 of the Constitution and exceptionally dangerous.
00:44:17.200 What's interesting is the view of Scalia's dissent, a lone dissent 8-1, I think has been vindicated over the years and over the decades.
00:44:28.000 More and more people realize Scalia made some very effective points, so much so that when the Independent Council statute expired,
00:44:36.160 so it was written so it would expire, I don't remember if it was 10 years or 20 years, but it had a date certain where it expired.
00:44:43.220 When it expired, Congress didn't reauthorize it.
00:44:47.460 So it is no longer the law.
00:44:49.260 The Independent Council statute is no longer the law.
00:44:51.720 And neither Democrats nor Republicans wanted to authorize it.
00:44:55.120 I think Democrats were really unhappy with the job Ken Starr had done going after Bill Clinton, so they didn't want that to happen again.
00:45:02.860 Republicans had seen it abused going after Republicans.
00:45:06.260 And so both parties said, let's let this statute expire, which means you don't have a special statute authorizing Jack Smith the way you would otherwise.
00:45:16.240 So I think this is a real argument.
00:45:18.340 We'll see what Judge Cannon does, but these are serious arguments that deserve to be considered seriously on the merits.
00:45:24.520 How quickly will we find out?
00:45:25.580 I think we'll get a decision relatively quickly.
00:45:27.900 My suspicion is that we'll get it within the next few months.
00:45:31.460 Best case scenario for Trump, what would that look like?
00:45:34.420 Well, if Judge Cannon rules that Jack Smith is illegally appointed, that he does not have the authority to bring the case, that decision presumably would be appealed.
00:45:46.920 But that would permanently put on hold the case in Florida, but it would naturally have an implication on the D.C. case because Jack Smith is the prosecutor who's brought the D.C. case as well.
00:46:00.480 Now, technically speaking, the D.C. judge would not be bound by the decision of the Florida judge.
00:46:07.520 Nonetheless, how those two interact, it would become a major issue in every case, both cases being brought by Jack Smith.
00:46:14.400 It's going to be very interesting.
00:46:15.440 We're going to cover it here.
00:46:16.260 We'll keep you updated.
00:46:17.480 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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00:46:43.980 I will keep you updated on the latest breaking news.
00:46:46.040 And the Senate and I will see you back here in a couple of days.
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