Verdict with Ted Cruz - Chinese Illegal Fishing Decimates the Oceans, DSA Lunatics Grow Stronger & the DNC is Broke

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.100 Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus

00:00:08.720 from $94 a month.

00:00:10.160 Price guaranteed for two years on internet

00:00:12.040 with a two-year term and auto-pay credit.

00:00:14.400 Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability.

00:00:17.180 Bell. Connection is everything.

00:00:19.560 The Joel Osteen Daily Podcast.

00:00:21.980 God's plans for you are for good.

00:00:24.200 Be inspired.

00:00:25.420 Get ready. God is about to exceed your expectations.

00:00:28.440 Joel Osteen Daily Podcast.

00:00:31.120 You are coming out of that dry place into more than enough.

00:00:34.340 Daily encouragement right when you need it.

00:00:36.660 There are opportunities in your future bigger than you can imagine.

00:00:41.000 Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily Podcast on the iHeartRadio app,

00:00:45.180 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

00:00:49.540 This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

00:00:53.160 At Navy Federal, they want you to know that if you need a positive sign

00:00:57.260 towards achieving your goal of home ownership this is it because even though today's housing

00:01:02.060 market may seem discouraging the home buyer's choice loan offers members down payment options

00:01:06.720 as low as zero percent with no required private mortgage insurance look for your sign today

00:01:12.120 navy federal credit union navy federal is insured by ncua equal housing lender terms and conditions

00:01:17.700 apply loans subject to approval and eligibility requirements learn more at navyfederal.org

00:01:22.660 slash zero down brought to you by navy federal credit union welcome it is verdict with senator

00:01:28.020 ted cruz ben ferguson with you it's so nice to have you with us wherever you are listening to

00:01:32.380 us around the country and senator we've got a big show today including china yet again being accused

00:01:37.780 of not playing by the rules having a shadow fleet of fishing boats that are not a few a lot that are

00:01:44.520 destroying international waters and hurting so many other countries well on today's podcast we're

00:01:49.960 going to talk to you about Chinese communists. We're going to talk to you about American 0.96

00:01:53.560 communists. And then we're going to talk to you about the Democratic National Committee.

00:01:57.560 And you will notice there is a thread that connects them all. But let's start with the

00:02:02.360 Chai Cops. Let's start with the Chinese Communist Party. We all know the horrible things they do.

00:02:06.860 We know the murders, the tortures, the concentration camps, the genocide, the lying, 0.91

00:02:12.920 the producing COVID virus and causing massive damage to the world and covering it up. 0.52

00:02:19.960 all of those are a given. But you know what you maybe didn't know? That China is responsible for

00:02:27.240 one of the greatest ecological disasters across the globe and a systemic theft in the oceans. 0.86

00:02:35.920 And it's something that's called illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. IUU is

00:02:42.100 the acronym. Now, the Chinese Communist Party has a distant water fishing fleet. How big do you

00:02:51.040 think their fleet is that does distant water fishing? In other words, not around China. It's

00:02:54.720 not fishing around China. It's fishing on the other side of the world. How big do you think

00:02:58.240 their fleet is? I mean, 50 ships, 60 ships would be my guess. It is somewhere between 2,000 vessels

00:03:04.680 and 16,000 vessels.

00:03:10.320 Wow.

00:03:10.500 And by the way, the fact we don't know, as you just mentioned,

00:03:13.680 tells you how big the fleet is.

00:03:15.680 It is a massive number.

00:03:17.560 It's engaged in theft, but it's illegal fishing at a scale

00:03:22.060 that constitutes ecocide combined with gross human rights violations.

00:03:29.840 And so this is an issue I've been involved with a long time

00:03:33.540 and trying to urge the federal government to use the tools we have to stop this massive illegal

00:03:41.380 fishing. By the way, this illegal fishing, it happens in the Gulf of America. It happens in

00:03:46.000 the Atlantic Ocean. It happens all around Africa, does massive damages to Africa. It happens in and

00:03:52.220 around South America. It happens in the Indian Ocean. It happens all over the globe. And the

00:03:58.300 consequence of it, it is subsidized by billions of dollars from the People's Republic of China.

00:04:08.300 Between 2022 and 2024, Chinese illegal fishing accounted for 44% of global fishing

00:04:19.360 all over the world, 44%, nearly half. You just said illegal. So that's outside of their quote

00:04:25.220 legal fishing they're doing in and around China. Yes. Measuring at least 110 million hours of

00:04:33.360 fishing in more than 90 countries. And by the way, not only do they engage in illegal fishing,

00:04:40.280 they also kill hundreds of critically endangered animals, including sharks, whales, dolphins.

00:04:48.480 they've destroyed tens of thousands of acres of coral reefs, and they use forced labor. So they've

00:04:56.460 got slave labor that they put on the boats. That's who's doing the illegal fishing are people who are

00:05:03.220 enslaved and they're subjected to physical abuse, malnutrition, overwork, and withheld pay in many

00:05:11.600 instances for years. And so it is an enormous challenge and one that I've had real progress

00:05:21.000 fighting, but there's a lot more that we can and need to do. It's incredible. We're going to talk

00:05:25.900 about that. We're also going to talk about the craziness happening with the Democratic Socialists

00:05:29.680 of America, 100 days out from the midterms. And also the DNC, Democratic National Committee,

00:05:34.240 they're broke. We're going to have all that for you coming up in a moment. Before we get to that,

00:05:37.860 I want to talk to you a moment about what you can do in simply praying for the people right now that are under attack in Israel.

00:05:45.480 The headlines move on, but the heartache and terror they do not.

00:05:48.700 Iran and its terrorist proxies are continuing to target Israel.

00:05:52.300 And Hezbollah continues its attacks in the north, forcing families to live under constant threat.

00:05:57.860 Israel is not only defending her people.

00:06:00.100 She is standing on the front lines against terror that literally threatens all of us.

00:06:04.840 Now, even when the news crews leave Israel, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they remain.

00:06:11.320 Every day, they are on the ground providing life-saving aid and near Israel's border with Lebanon.

00:06:17.280 A Hezbollah drone recently struck the home of Yelena.

00:06:20.360 She was widowed earlier this year, living alone, and she was trapped inside by that blast.

00:06:25.700 Now, thankfully, she was not injured, but she remained displaced.

00:06:29.540 It's hard these days, she said, but I don't want to leave.

00:06:32.780 And honestly, why should she have to leave her home?

00:06:35.540 As Christians, we're called to stand with God's people and pray for those defending Israel

00:06:39.760 and protecting the freedoms we hold dear.

00:06:43.260 I want you to join the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in praying for the

00:06:47.720 peace of Jerusalem and for the soldiers, the families, and civilians carrying the burden

00:06:52.860 of this fight right now.

00:06:54.880 You can go right now and help and learn who you can pray for by visiting prayifcj.org.

00:07:02.160 That is Prey, I-F-C-J dot org, Prey, I-F-C-J dot org. 0.73

00:07:08.400 Senator, I want to go back to, you mentioned Africa a moment ago,

00:07:11.500 and this is one of the things that's really come out of this story is 0.86

00:07:14.800 when you have a fleet that is this large as the Chinese Communist Party does, 0.55

00:07:19.560 and they're all over the world, and they're doing all this illegal fishing 24-7 0.90

00:07:23.200 and using slave labor to do it,

00:07:25.300 they're also destroying the fishing around many people

00:07:29.300 who desperately need it for survival.

00:07:31.460 And when I say survival, I'm talking about life and death. 0.57

00:07:34.260 Africa is one of the countries they've targeted off their shoreline, 0.94

00:07:39.680 and it's decimating their local fishing, which is survival not only for the food, right,

00:07:45.840 because that food's not going to Africa when they catch those fish.

00:07:48.320 They're going back to the international market.

00:07:49.860 They're not taking them back to shore like the local fishermen do.

00:07:53.000 But also it's putting countless fishermen out of work.

00:07:55.800 Yeah, look, it's a huge problem from food supply, especially in Africa,

00:07:59.540 where you have many countries that are struggling, have significant problems with food insecurity

00:08:03.880 and hunger. It also means the jobs of the local African fishermen are imperiled because you have

00:08:10.340 the Chinese stealing their fish. They overfish it, so they destroy the fishing population. So not only 1.00

00:08:16.320 are they denying them food and denying them jobs now, but if you responsibly fish, it's a sustainable

00:08:22.060 harvest and you can keep on fishing and keep on fishing. The Chinese don't give a damn and they 1.00

00:08:26.860 will fish a population out of existence and they'll just move on. I mean, it's almost like 1.00

00:08:32.000 locusts descending and just consuming everything. So they don't engage in responsible fishing. Look,

00:08:38.220 you and I both live in Texas. There are a lot of Texans who are fishermen. There's a

00:08:41.680 big commercial fishing operation in Texas, whether it's shrimpers or red snapper.

00:08:47.320 It's an important part of our economy, but it is understandably unnecessarily regulated because if

00:08:54.600 you overfish a population, it goes away and you destroy the ability to keep going back and fishing

00:09:01.800 it. We have this problem in the Gulf of America with Mexicans, many of whom are funded by the 1.00

00:09:08.900 Mexican drug cartels using illegal launches to come up and fish Red Snapper. And in fact, 1.00

00:09:14.160 they fish Snapper from the Gulf of America. They do it illegally. They steal it. They take it back

00:09:19.240 down to Mexico. They smuggle it into the United States and they sell it here and pretend it's

00:09:24.320 domestic cot and so it is another form of theft uh that tends to be more the mexican drug cartels

00:09:30.720 where they'll get local mexican fishermen and literally put a gun to their head and say okay

00:09:34.180 go get us some snapper in violation of the laws uh the chinese provide funds for that as well but 0.81

00:09:41.180 look in and around the united states we have the coast guard we have our military we're able to do

00:09:47.020 a a pretty good job of guarding our our waters uh in in a continent like africa that the nation's

00:09:53.900 there, their Coast Guards and Navy are just much, much smaller. So they have very limited ability

00:10:00.220 to counteract it. And the same is true around South America, where you see the Chinese taking 1.00

00:10:06.740 advantage again. And let me talk about the mechanics of how you fight this, because it's 1.00

00:10:12.760 interesting and complicated. Look, normally, if you deal with a fleet that is doing something

00:10:18.460 illegal, you would sanction them out of existence. So to run a fleet, you need flagging, you need

00:10:25.980 financing, you need insurance, you need fuel, you need port services, you need customers willing to

00:10:30.740 purchase goods, you need crews, and the crews themselves need food and medical care. So you

00:10:36.860 could impose sanctions on an illegal fleet and shut them down. Now, how does a Chinese fleet get 1.00

00:10:42.700 around that well ordinarily when it when a ship is is is out at sea they keep what what's called

00:10:48.620 their ais their their automatic identification system turned on it's essentially the way

00:10:54.000 everyone else can spot them so that you know if an illegal ship if the uss ben ferguson is is out

00:11:00.440 fishing illegally you can go see the ais and you can go interdict them well what the chinese do is 0.64

00:11:06.720 they turn their AIS off. 1.00

00:11:08.340 Yeah.

00:11:08.720 And so you're not able to spot them.

00:11:11.660 And you look at the capacity, 16,000 ships with their AIS off so you can't spot them.

00:11:17.740 And the way they make this operate is they have an elaborate hub-and-spoke system.

00:11:23.360 So they have fishing vessels that are out fishing.

00:11:27.420 They have their AIS off so you can't see them.

00:11:29.580 but then to to make the the fleet operate they have refrigerated reefers that collect the catches

00:11:39.000 at sea and sell them in bulk and they have to keep their AIS on because the illegal fishing

00:11:43.940 vessels all have to know where to go to drop off their catch they also have tankers that refuel the

00:11:51.200 fishing vessels so they have a big tanker and the illegal fishing vessels will get up refill and go

00:11:55.960 back to fish and on top of that they have floating bases which provide the crews with their medical

00:12:02.520 care and other services and so what i have been leading the fight to do is to go after the

00:12:07.580 refrigerated reefers the tankers and the floating bases with medical care because those support

00:12:14.100 vessels can be sanctions they have to keep their ais on or the the 16 000 vessels can't figure out

00:12:20.920 where they are. And they're limited in number. So 55 reefers accounted for nearly half of the

00:12:30.580 shipping. 10 tankers represented 61% of all global bunkering activities. And so we have the ability

00:12:39.600 by targeting those support vessels to cripple the illegal fishing. Now, here's where it gets

00:12:45.180 frustrating. Last year, when we were passing the working families tax cut, as we talked about in

00:12:52.160 this podcast before, the way a big reconciliation bill works is each committee chairman is

00:12:58.560 responsible for writing the portion of the bill that is within your committee's jurisdiction.

00:13:03.580 So I'm the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. We have

00:13:07.780 jurisdiction over about 40 percent of the U.S. economy. That includes the Coast Guard. So I wrote

00:13:14.720 the entire title on the Coast Guard that is within the reconciliation bill. And we ended up providing

00:13:20.520 $20.5 billion in funding for the Coast Guard. That is the single largest investment in the

00:13:29.920 Coast Guard in American history. And it is having massive positive benefits, including we are now

00:13:35.580 bringing shipmaking back to America. I was at the groundbreaking for Davies Shipbuilding in

00:13:41.760 Galveston, Texas, a billion and a half dollars, where they're going to build Arctic ice cutters

00:13:47.540 so that we can compete with China and compete with the Russians in the Arctic. We're right now

00:13:51.840 getting our tails whipped. But the funding stream that we put in place for the Coast Guard enables

00:13:58.480 us to sign contracts. By the way, we also had a huge announcement, Ben, just last week. Sironic,

00:14:05.260 which we've talked about before, Sironic is the drone company based in Austin that builds

00:14:10.860 naval drones that builds drones from little ones to big ones. Remember, we covered on this podcast

00:14:16.340 how Saronic sent drones to rescue the two Apache pilots who were shot down over Iran,

00:14:23.760 and also Saronic drones were used militarily to attack Iranian facilities. Well, Saronic was just

00:14:32.160 in the middle of a big decision about where to build their brand new shipyard, and the choice

00:14:38.320 was texas or california and they were going back and forth back and forth they have significant

00:14:42.620 facilities in california too you will not be surprised to know number one i weighed in

00:14:48.020 vigorously on that question uh and and my views were not subtle or difficult to understand

00:14:54.580 and i'm very glad to say they made exactly the right choice so saronic is building a brand new

00:15:00.740 shipyard in brownsville texas right on the water it's three and a half billion dollars so

00:15:07.120 So all of this shipbuilding is coming to Texas, and it's a direct result of what we did in the

00:15:13.040 working families tax cut that I was able to write in the funding to provide for this.

00:15:16.800 Well, also as a part of that, I specifically allocated to the Coast Guard

00:15:22.800 $170 million for marine domain awareness. That was to fight this Chinese illegal fishing so that 0.98

00:15:32.240 we would know where the reefers are, know where the tankers are, know where the medical ships are. 0.93

00:15:37.120 that $170 million would have given the Coast Guard the tools to shut much of this down.

00:15:43.900 Now, this is where the story gets frustrating.

00:15:47.400 We wrote that in law.

00:15:49.040 It was specifically designated to go to Marine Domain Awareness.

00:15:52.820 You know what happened?

00:15:54.120 What happened?

00:15:54.700 Let me guess.

00:15:55.540 Somebody took it from you.

00:15:57.300 DHS took the money and allocated it to the World Cup instead.

00:16:04.220 And they can do that, right?

00:16:05.580 no no actually they can't the law was very clear they can't do that they did it and listen world

00:16:12.820 cup security is important i don't dispute that having security at the world cup was important

00:16:17.680 but the law was very clear that that money was designated for marine domain awareness to fight

00:16:23.700 a very real problem of chinese illegal fishing that is destroying entire fish populations that

00:16:30.200 is doing massive damage to the environment, that is hurting jobs, and that is continuing

00:16:35.860 completely unabated right now. So listen, my commitment, I just this week wrote this letter

00:16:43.460 here, joined by nine other senators to the Treasury Secretary, calling on the Treasury

00:16:51.380 Secretary to sanction these vessels. And you can actually see in the letter, I identify quite a

00:16:58.620 Quite a few of these vessels by name, I give their their specifics.

00:17:03.860 And so the known Chinese supply vessels, I lay out where their flag, their name and all their information.

00:17:09.620 And I'm calling on on Treasury to sanction them. 0.82

00:17:13.140 We're also going to get that one hundred and seventy million back.

00:17:15.760 And so I'm irritated DHS did that.

00:17:18.440 But we're going to get that money and make sure it goes where it belongs, which is to maritime domain awareness.

00:17:23.740 Final question on this.

00:17:24.900 I took the boys fishing up, and if you've ever watched the TV show Wicked Tuna, we went to the same port where a lot of those ships come out of.

00:17:33.100 And one of the things that was interesting was the guy that took us out fishing for summer vacation said that the tuna have moved, and it's much harder for them to fish compared to what it used to be.

00:17:44.000 Is that possibly because they just said things have changed and there's not as much fish there used to be?

00:17:49.120 Is part of that because of what we're witnessing?

00:17:51.220 I mean, it's not just Africa that's being affected.

00:17:52.980 It also is the United States of America.

00:17:54.900 It is the Atlantic and Pacific as well.

00:17:57.260 And it absolutely, this is a worldwide problem.

00:17:59.980 You're looking at roughly half of fishing that's occurring in the world is Chinese illegal fishing.

00:18:05.500 And it's doing massive damage. 0.97

00:18:08.080 And it's not only illegal, but it's deliberately irresponsible.

00:18:13.020 You know, this goes back to the principle, look, do you know who cares the most about preserving fish population?

00:18:20.140 I would assume fishermen because they don't want to have a job next year.

00:18:24.100 Right, right.

00:18:24.460 And the principle is the same, like when it comes to conserving wildlife species, hunters are among the most vigorous conservationists.

00:18:34.140 You know, I'm friends with Ted Nugent.

00:18:35.720 Ted lights up my phone texting all of these stories about, look, hunters want to preserve biodiversity.

00:18:44.180 They like to hunt the animals.

00:18:46.200 but that means, look, if there is a hunting market, there is incentive to preserve and

00:18:52.660 protect the species and grow the population. You actually see this in different African countries.

00:18:57.780 The African countries that have prohibited safari hunting, they end up having their

00:19:02.700 populations dwindle mightily because there's no economic value in preserving the species,

00:19:08.400 whereas those African countries that allow safari hunting, that they regulate it, they sell,

00:19:14.100 you've got to buy a tag to hunt a particular species. Suddenly, that species has economic 0.97

00:19:19.880 value. And so the park or preserve where they are, they invest real money in stopping poachers and

00:19:26.240 protecting the animals. And you see the population grow. It's a basic principle that if you have a

00:19:32.200 property rights system that allocates value to something, then there's an incentive to protect

00:19:37.940 it. If nobody has value on something, then you end up having what the Chinese are doing, which 0.99

00:19:43.660 is just they would fish it till there were no more fish in the world and they just don't give 1.00

00:19:48.640 a damn and then they would move on to something else like they wouldn't care they don't care if

00:19:51.880 they extinct tuna or any other fish they just say move on next what can we do what can we destroy 0.99

00:19:56.120 and capture now for our personal gain it is incredible and by the way these are the same

00:20:01.560 fishermen that also do shark finning which is a particularly grotesque process where you catch a

00:20:07.260 shark and you pull it up and you just cut the fin, the dorsal fin off. And in Chinese cuisine,

00:20:13.680 that's considered a delicacy. I think it's supposed to be an aphrodisiac and have all

00:20:18.180 sorts of medicinal qualities, but they cut the fin off and then throw the shark back

00:20:22.940 and the shark dies. Like without the fin, the shark bleeds and dies and they don't care about

00:20:27.960 how many animals they kill. Same with whaling. They have no problem with whaling. Illegal whaling

00:20:32.900 is huge for china it is a massive problem and and and so i i am fighting hard to end it because it's

00:20:41.100 the responsible thing to do from the environment from from preserving wildlife populations from 0.95

00:20:47.940 jobs and and and from food security across the globe yeah it's a great point we're going to keep

00:20:54.140 you updated on the story because it's an important one i want to move we are 100 days out from the

00:20:58.520 midterms. And if you thought the Democratic Party was going to make a course correction with the

00:21:03.240 Democratic Socialists of America, you would be wrong. We are now witnessing this midterm election

00:21:09.500 center. The best way I can describe it, it is a Democratic Socialist midterm. And the Democratic

00:21:15.760 Party is a part of it. They are involved in it, but they're not calling the shots at this point.

00:21:21.060 It is the Democratic Socialists and the candidates. That is the midterms.

00:21:24.180 Yeah, here, listen to left-wing journalist Steve Kornacki describe the current state of affairs.

00:21:29.980 We've been seeing it in the primary season.

00:21:32.300 Socialists winning Democratic primaries, candidates from the far left.

00:21:36.320 And look at this here.

00:21:37.460 Among Democrats, this is that Fox poll, a majority have a favorable view of socialism.

00:21:42.600 Step outside the Democratic Party.

00:21:44.340 It's a totally different world.

00:21:45.880 Look at independence, socialism, deeply unpopular there.

00:21:49.700 This is interesting.

00:21:51.240 Views of socialism, Democrats, 52% favorable, 43% unfavorable.

00:21:57.120 It's what you and I have been saying for a long time.

00:21:59.340 I think the Democratic Party is dead.

00:22:01.340 I think it is Marxist, socialist, and communist.

00:22:03.300 They use the word Democrat to not scare too many people off.

00:22:06.260 But this midterm is absolutely this agenda.

00:22:09.160 Well, and that clip, if you guys are not watching the video on YouTube, you will not have seen it.

00:22:14.220 but the more general polling for the American people on socialism, socialism, 77% unpopular,

00:22:22.600 13% favorable. So among normal people, that includes Republicans and independents, they're

00:22:28.420 like, no, we don't want socialism. And let's be clear, even socialism is a euphemism. These people

00:22:34.360 are Marxists. They are outright communists. I want you to listen right now to the co-chair of the

00:22:40.320 DSA, the Democrat Socialists of America, explaining their radical agenda. Give a listen

00:22:45.280 to the DSA co-chair. So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of

00:22:49.440 your platform. And I want to ask you, just give me sort of a true or false on these. Abolish the

00:22:53.820 Senate. True. Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them. Yep. Abolish

00:23:03.140 ICE. Absolutely. Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the U.S. illegally.

00:23:10.320 as a long-term plan yep defund the pentagon

00:23:14.980 absolutely abolish prisons at least in large part

00:23:20.380 yeah again that is part of a long-term program yeah okay so no prisons uh government or public

00:23:27.480 ownership of most large corporations yeah absolutely you you listen to that and i i

00:23:34.840 gotta give him credit i love when people in politics don't lie it's very refreshing

00:23:39.220 this is who they are when they tell you who they are senator believe them they're not lying to you

00:23:45.120 look these are people that want to rip the constitution to shreds they want to abolish

00:23:50.000 the presidency they want to abolish the senate they want to abolish the supreme court so there's

00:23:54.160 nothing protecting your rights you have no rights in their world understand abolishing the supreme

00:23:59.020 court that means they can do anything you want and you don't have free speech you don't have

00:24:03.440 religious liberty you don't have a second amendment the government is in charge of everything that's

00:24:08.540 what they believe. Now, they also want to abolish the Pentagon. So we have no military. We're unable

00:24:15.060 to defend ourselves. That means the Chinese and the Russians and Hamas and Hezbollah and every 1.00

00:24:19.840 terrorist on earth can run all over us. And we have no military. We can't defend ourselves. 0.74

00:24:24.180 They want to abolish ICE. So we're not able to enforce our borders, which is okay because they

00:24:28.920 want to abolish borders. They want to say anyone on planet earth who wants to come to America 0.96

00:24:32.500 can come to America. They want to grant amnesty and American citizenship to every illegal person 0.79

00:24:38.520 here so that every left-wing radical, everyone who's broken the law, every human trafficker,

00:24:47.300 every gang member, all of them are the people who vote. And they want to close down prisons.

00:24:54.120 So they want murderers and rapists and child molesters living right next to you. And mind you,

00:24:59.840 they're no police because they've abolished the police. So let all the murderers go and eliminate 0.98

00:25:04.900 the police. And then, and then to be clear, this is why I said these people are communists. They 0.94

00:25:10.380 also, Shannon, I give her credit. She asked, do you want the federal government to own most big

00:25:15.540 companies in America? She said, yes. So, so whatever company you work for, guess what? You've

00:25:20.220 just become a federal government employee because the government seizes all of the companies. 0.99

00:25:24.540 Now, these young people are too ignorant to know that what they're proposing 0.97

00:25:28.660 has been implemented. It has been implemented in the Soviet Union. It's been implemented. 0.98

00:25:34.620 in Cambodia. It's been implemented in Vietnam. It's been implemented in Cuba. It's been implemented

00:25:38.980 in North Korea. Uh, it's been implemented, although with a twist in China, uh, and every 0.89

00:25:44.100 place it's been implemented, it's been an absolute disaster. It doesn't work. And here's what happens.

00:25:49.540 You have massive human rights abuses. Yep. You have people every time imprisoned, tortured,

00:25:56.920 murdered. You have genocide. You have concentration camps right now. The Chinese

00:26:00.940 communists have concentration camps with over 1 million Uyghurs, over 1 million people held in

00:26:07.040 concentration camps right now. The DSA wants to turn America into the equivalent of China,

00:26:13.100 the same sort of government. And when it comes to, look, they don't know or they don't care

00:26:21.160 because it is all about power. And by the way, you know what? These DSA guys, just like the Black

00:26:26.800 Lives Matter, who are also a Marxist organization, a communist organization. They raise lots of money,

00:26:32.860 many of them from useful idiots on the left and in big companies that wrote checks. We have a 1.00

00:26:38.340 bunch of giant American companies that wrote checks to Black Lives Matter, who then use to 0.60

00:26:42.740 try to destroy the capitalist system and moves us towards a Marxist system where the government

00:26:46.860 takes over their companies. But you know what? The people running DSA or Black Lives Matter,

00:26:53.020 They tend to live in multimillion-dollar mansions. 0.96

00:26:55.200 They're stealing the money like blind. 1.00

00:26:57.420 And I'll give them credit for that.

00:26:58.880 In this, they are real communists because that's the same thing Putin does.

00:27:04.000 That's the same thing Xi does.

00:27:05.400 That's the same thing Castro does.

00:27:07.520 That's the same thing Kim Jong-un does.

00:27:09.900 Look, in communism, you have billionaires.

00:27:13.260 The only billionaires, though, are the ones with the machine guns that are robbing the people.

00:27:18.800 And actually, there's a reason we connected these two stories. 0.96

00:27:21.580 ask yourself how does the chinese illegal fishing fleet behave do they demonstrate any 0.92

00:27:29.040 responsibility do they demonstrate any concern about the environment do they demonstrate any

00:27:34.000 concern about people who need jobs about people who are hungry about people who'd like a living

00:27:39.060 or do they act purely as rapacious thieves and i think that tells you where these radicals want

00:27:47.560 the democrat party to go and where they want america to go yeah well and if you want to know

00:27:51.600 how much the democratic social of america have a hold right now on the democratic party there this

00:27:57.160 is abnormal going into a midterm so people understand usually the party that is out of power

00:28:03.040 the people that support them whether you're republican or democrat if you're in the minority

00:28:07.500 you usually have a lot of fundraising because then you say okay now my ideals are under threat i'm no

00:28:13.000 longer taking them for granted. This other side has got power. We want to get it back. And usually

00:28:17.840 you have a surge in fundraising. It is typical to see the party out of power have a great amount

00:28:23.540 of cash come in once their ideals, what they believe in, are under attack. The Democratic

00:28:29.200 National Committee does not have the money. In fact, we're now being told that going into the

00:28:34.100 midterms, they're in essence completely broke. Well, that's right. And our source for that is

00:28:40.000 is admittedly a very right-wing outlet, so you've got to take what they say with a grain of salt,

00:28:46.340 and that would, of course, be the New York Times. And the New York Times, I want to read from the

00:28:52.580 beginning of the article. Inside the phone-throwing drama at the troubled, broke Democratic Party,

00:29:01.400 the Democrats should be well-positioned to make gains in this year's midterms,

00:29:05.320 but inside party headquarters every week brings paranoia, worries about money, and on occasion,

00:29:12.440 emotional eruptions. The Democratic Party is so short on cash that leaders at its headquarters

00:29:17.580 have undertaken a new gambit to mask the severity of problems, asking vendors not to send bills

00:29:25.280 until after the midterm elections. The bookkeeping maneuver, which was described by three people

00:29:30.640 briefed on it, is the latest sign of financial duress for the DNC. And it's as its embattled

00:29:35.680 leader, as money troubles threaten to undercut Democratic momentum with 100 days until the

00:29:42.180 midterms. And to give you a sense of the money differential directly, here's what the New York

00:29:48.680 Times says. The Democratic Party and its allies are far beyond Republicans when it comes to money.

00:29:54.460 Mr. Trump controls a $400 million super PAC, and the Republican National Committee is sitting on

00:30:00.500 nearly 130 million dollars. Where's the DNC? Two million dollars in debt. When you have the New

00:30:10.560 York Times saying, what in the hell is going on with you people? You know, it goes on to say,

00:30:17.140 trusted Mr. Martin, the head of the DNC, was sapped by his handling of a long-promised autopsy

00:30:22.320 of the 2024 election. Late last year, he said he would not release the document, but then his

00:30:26.760 criticism mounted he released an incomplete draft that featured searing annotations from the DNC that

00:30:33.080 undermined the report. Now Mr. Martin is both paralyzed by the idea of leaks and surrounded by

00:30:39.700 them. During a May meeting with the full staff of the DNC days after the draft's autopsies release

00:30:45.480 he admitted that times were tough and he chided his team for revealing to reporters what was

00:30:49.400 happening inside party headquarters. Quote, it pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building.

00:30:55.060 No more.

00:30:56.660 Mr. Martin said he saw a lot of down faces and people hanging their heads.

00:30:59.960 Keep your heads up.

00:31:00.680 Keep a smile on.

00:31:01.520 My success is your success.

00:31:03.080 So the weaker I am, the weaker all of you are.

00:31:07.160 Well, what kind of manager is this fellow?

00:31:12.120 Let me tell you.

00:31:13.420 Well, this is clearly someone who knows how to watch his pennies.

00:31:16.300 Here's another quote from the New York Times article.

00:31:19.100 The single biggest expense of the Martin era.

00:31:21.860 What do you think that was, Ben?

00:31:23.520 I'm going to go with private jets just because I know how much they love those private jets, the DNC.

00:31:28.500 I have every certainty the private jet bill is massive, but that was not the single biggest expenditure.

00:31:33.100 The single biggest expenditure was $7.3 million to buy the remnants of Kamala Harris's campaign list from her failed 2024 bid.

00:31:45.760 Ms. Harris' political action committee then used that money to cover additional remaining deaths.

00:31:51.240 So that's his biggest expenditure, is bailing out Kamala Harris's bankrupt campaign, rather than actually trying to win elections going forward.

00:32:03.620 And here's a little more about his very gentle, experienced management style.

00:32:08.600 Another paragraph from the New York Times.

00:32:10.340 Mr. Martin's fraying nerves are showing. In a peak of frustration in early July,

00:32:17.800 he threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while upbraiding the person.

00:32:24.740 The phone tossing incident resulted in a formal complaint to the DNC's Human Resources Department.

00:32:32.340 The fallout from the phone throwing episode was described by half a dozen people familiar with

00:32:37.020 the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to

00:32:41.300 discuss internal party matters none of them witnessed the account and there was some dispute

00:32:46.560 over how aggressively the phone was tossed mr martin was said to have thrown the phone at the

00:32:52.340 desk rather than the aid oh there you go that makes it better there you go yeah you know what

00:32:58.640 somehow i've managed to live 55 years on planet earth uh to work in a bunch of different offices

00:33:04.540 to work with a lot of people, to have a lot of people working for me, I've magically managed

00:33:09.580 to refrain from throwing a phone at anybody. And, you know, I've got to say it hasn't been

00:33:17.300 difficult. I think the only thing I've ever thrown at anyone who works for me is I have thrown a

00:33:22.740 Nerf basketball. So if that counts, I'll plead guilty to that. But when it comes to like not

00:33:29.800 throwing hard metal objects at your employees that does not take massive restraint yeah i guess

00:33:36.200 it doesn't it doesn't boost morale it's incredible that is the democratic party although although i

00:33:41.920 do need to i do need to come clean uh although i haven't thrown anything at one young benjamin

00:33:48.080 this is this is true you have broken bones i have in fact broken his finger so so so maybe

00:33:53.980 maybe it's still crooked folks there it is you see the crookedness there folks you see i just

00:33:58.900 want everybody watching to see that is not straight anymore that is a Ted Cruz broken bone right

00:34:03.600 there I just want to be clear about that look it's important to acknowledge that you have this you

00:34:09.260 know big strapping division one college athlete this like and if you don't know how studly he is

00:34:16.100 give Ben a minute he'll tell you how studly he is he's very proud of being a division one college

00:34:20.620 athlete and he's playing hoops with little old me a college debater and I'm just saying the

00:34:26.760 consequence of playing hoops is is bones are broken and you know when you're losing ted doesn't

00:34:31.880 play fair that's what i learned from that when you're losing ted doesn't play fair and this is

00:34:36.440 what happens it's crooked for life it's so you're admitting to our listeners that not only did your

00:34:42.160 finger get broken but you also lost that that's good i'm glad you are on the record i don't think

00:34:48.340 so no no no it's broken no no i i think by the way do you want to know the finger lies do you

00:34:54.620 want to know what i keep on my desk this is a true story so we were in austin we were playing the

00:34:58.860 game this is the remnants of the tape that is still left that i use to tape said finger together

00:35:04.700 the crooked finger right there and keep playing an entire another game so i kept it as a i just

00:35:09.720 you know that's just that's that's that's well ben just ben just don't ever say i never gave you

00:35:15.180 anything there you go i like it don't forget we do this show monday wednesday and friday

00:35:19.540 hit that subscribe or auto download button in the center and i will see you back here in a couple of

00:35:24.280 days.

00:35:54.280 This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

00:35:59.060 At Navy Federal, they want you to know that if you need a positive sign

00:36:02.860 towards achieving your goal of home ownership, this is it.

00:36:06.140 Because even though today's housing market may seem discouraging,

00:36:09.420 the Home Buyer's Choice Loan offers members down payment options as low as 0%

00:36:13.520 with no required private mortgage insurance.

00:36:16.360 Look for your sign today.

00:36:17.980 Navy Federal Credit Union.

00:36:19.660 Navy Federal is insured by NCUA, Equal Housing Lender.

00:36:22.480 Terms and conditions apply.

00:36:23.720 Loan subject to approval and eligibility requirements.

00:36:26.540 Learn more at NavyFederal.org slash zero down.

00:36:29.560 Brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 27, 2026

Chinese Illegal Fishing Decimates the Oceans, DSA Lunatics Grow Stronger & the DNC is Broke

Episode Stats

Transcript