Verdict with Ted Cruz - Dearborn 'Sad Faces' for the Ayatollah, Hezbollah Inspired Michigan Man & Democrats’ Cash Pipeline at Risk Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.360 Welcome, it is Verdict with Ted Cruz,

00:00:06.480 The Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.540 And here are some of the big stories

00:00:09.760 that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:11.960 First up, a Michigan candidate is now saying

00:00:15.680 that in Dearborn, the people there may be sad

00:00:19.400 because the Ayatollah in Iran was killed.

00:00:22.520 So therefore, he doesn't want to talk about it.

00:00:25.500 We'll have that story in a moment.

00:00:27.360 Also, the synagogue attacker was attacking.

00:00:30.660 Now, we've learned on behalf of Hezbollah, that happening in Michigan. 0.65

00:00:34.300 And why is the media not covering it at all?

00:00:37.560 And finally, the big democratic organization, ActBlue.

00:00:42.380 There's a very good chance they could be investigated.

00:00:45.040 The New York Times is now reporting.

00:00:47.040 For what?

00:00:47.740 We explained it all.

00:00:49.140 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:52.480 If you think Mandani is like a one-off, you're wrong.

00:00:55.080 And if you want proof of it and how concerned you should all be over these types of individuals,

00:01:00.540 let's take a look at the Michigan Senate candidate that avoids discussing Iran because, quote,

00:01:06.420 there's a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad that we took out the Ayatollah.

00:01:12.260 Like, this is not just Mondani, folks.

00:01:14.400 This is the Democratic Party growing very quickly in this.

00:01:18.940 Yeah, look, some listeners, particularly listeners who are skeptical,

00:01:22.380 when I said Mandani was sad, the Ayatollah was killed,

00:01:26.300 might have said, gosh, that's too harsh.

00:01:28.700 He's not really, that's putting too much.

00:01:32.100 Well, Mandani is part of a broader movement

00:01:35.600 of America-hating Islamists

00:01:37.360 who are taking over the Democrat Party.

00:01:39.060 And in Michigan, you've got a candidate for U.S. Senate,

00:01:42.120 a guy named Abdul El-Sayed.

00:01:44.940 And interestingly enough, he was caught on tape

00:01:48.420 strategizing what to say about the the the iran war and and i'll tell you what how about i don't

00:01:55.820 put words in his mouth ben doesn't put words in his mouth let's listen to the words that came out

00:01:59.960 of his own mouth give a listen so like this is going to destabilize reason i also want to remind

00:02:05.220 you guys that that there are a lot of people in dearborn who are sad today so like i just don't

00:02:10.800 want to comment on Khamenei at all like I I don't think it's worth even touching that doesn't even

00:02:19.760 want to touch this this this butcher and killer and murder of Americans because there's a lot of 0.88

00:02:25.460 people that he wants to vote for him in Dearborn that are sad today and by the way you hear his

00:02:31.320 staffers uh-huh uh-huh oh yeah yeah I mean they all know that this is no secret why are the people

00:02:37.140 in Dearborn sad. They're sad for the same reason Mondani is sad, because far too many of them are

00:02:44.520 Islamists who cheer for the Islamists who want to kill Americans. And, you know, this Michigan 0.99

00:02:52.560 Senate candidate, you know, talk about cynical. Listen to his strategy. Rather than talk about

00:02:57.160 U.S. national security, rather than talk about killing terrorists, rather than talk about

00:03:00.700 keeping America safe, what do you think he wants to do instead? Well, again, don't take my word for

00:03:06.260 it give a listen to his strategy rather than address u.s national security and and i'm just 0.87

00:03:12.100 gonna go straight to pedophilia frankly i should be like pedophile president i decide that he 0.88

00:03:15.780 doesn't like the front page news so he decides to take us into another war there was a time when 0.81

00:03:19.840 you all were talking about america first this seems to be to be america last there it is like

00:03:25.820 we're just gonna make up stuff lie about the president and do this and that'll be our pivot

00:03:30.980 from us actually having to talk about what's happening in iran because i don't want to upset

00:03:35.060 the Islamists that support the Ayatollah.

00:03:39.180 By the way, quick question.

00:03:41.420 What painting did Jeffrey Epstein have

00:03:43.740 hanging in his living room in New York City?

00:03:45.980 It was Bill Clinton in a blue dress.

00:03:47.720 Isn't that right?

00:03:48.800 And red pumps. 0.99

00:03:50.440 He literally had a painting of Bill Clinton on his wall.

00:03:53.100 He was an original friend of Bill.

00:03:55.220 Bill Clinton practically had his own seat

00:03:57.760 on the Lita Express.

00:03:59.780 And yet the Democrats just scream, 0.99

00:04:01.680 okay, let's just call Trump a pedophile. 0.97

00:04:03.560 It's pure, but the cynicism of it, the cynicism of it is only works because the media is corrupt. 0.93

00:04:12.620 Listen to what else this Democrat Senate candidate had to say.

00:04:15.580 Like, we have the moral high ground here.

00:04:17.320 I think the more we stay out of, like, they're going to try and bait us into saying, yeah, but isn't it justified now that they took him out?

00:04:23.360 Right.

00:04:23.860 And I just think for us, we've got to prep for it. 0.98

00:04:28.400 We've got to prep for taking out a murderous terrorist in Iran that says he wants to blow up and kill innocent Americans, who already has, and Israel. 0.90

00:04:37.960 And they're like, we've got to prep for this, guys. 0.91

00:04:39.680 This is a big PR nightmare for us.

00:04:41.440 What are we going to do now?

00:04:43.020 Well, there is one other Democrat strategy. 0.67

00:04:45.480 One, they scream pedophile and attack Trump. 0.95

00:04:47.860 But there's a second Democrat strategy, because if they don't want to actually talk about protecting America and killing terrorists, 0.94

00:04:53.980 what they do instead is their old refuge.

00:04:57.900 Which, well, again, listen rather than let me characterize it.

00:05:01.820 I mean, talking about doing this and Israel's issue always just makes me a little nervous.

00:05:08.740 I figured as much.

00:05:10.860 I can shade away from it, but if I'm going to take the shot, I can't just allude to it.

00:05:16.360 I've got to take the whole shot.

00:05:17.340 which means that i'm going to say look you've got a pack backed congress people who now don't want

00:05:24.120 to to empower congress to step up and enforce its own prerogative yeah ask yourself who that

00:05:30.660 benefits and why ask yourself how powerful that force is in our politics if they won't even stand

00:05:35.780 up to a president who's making illegal and unjustified war yeah making illegal war in order

00:05:41.040 to distract us you know um yeah yeah i think that i think it's that shot is fine i i just think that

00:05:48.960 it should always be coupled with um the affordability argument like i think the danger

00:05:53.020 here is just getting too caught up in the like high level politics of it and and not um not

00:05:58.540 spending enough time with the people in michigan right this is gonna come up with what's her name 0.87

00:06:03.520 with uh welch yes it will she's gonna be hot on this and she's gonna she's going to debate me

00:06:09.780 into the israel stuff and i'm if i'm going to take the shot i gotta set it i gotta set up the

00:06:14.880 whole shot that's the thing you know what i mean like look i'm running against an a pack backed

00:06:20.100 democratic congresswoman and you know what her statement was we're perfectly okay with this war

00:06:26.180 he should should have asked us first it's amazing how much sustain he has by the way for jewish

00:06:31.080 people in israel right like just you can hear it there in his voice he's like look we're gonna

00:06:34.780 His strategy is simple. Attack Israel, attack the Jews. Like, that is his strategy. And you know what? In Dearborn, the same people who, as he put it, are, quote, sad that the Ayatollah who chanted death to America is no longer able to pay terrorists to kill Americans. 0.99

00:06:51.940 those are the same people that when you attack Israel and attack Jews they get excited and vote 0.99

00:06:57.540 for you and you know you know what's what's really terrifying that may be a winning strategy in a

00:07:02.060 Democrat primary in Michigan it obviously was a winning strategy in a Democrat primary in New

00:07:07.060 York City uh it was a winning strategy for Ilhan Omar it was a winning strategy for AOC it was a

00:07:12.820 winning strategy for Rashida Tlaib this is the base of the Democrat party and and and and if you

00:07:18.820 have any serious question about how do you protect america against radical islamic terrorists who 0.65

00:07:25.160 want to kill us yeah like the hezbollah terrorist in michigan that we started this podcast talking 0.55

00:07:31.600 about today's democrat party has nothing to say about it nothing i want to move to this last story 0.98

00:07:39.100 it is april 1st april fools but this story is not a joke we're not babylon being you here senator

00:07:45.560 This is actually a real story that has come out, and it's amazing, from the Washington Post, talking about the Iran conflict, showing why energy dominance is so important.

00:07:59.640 You can't make this up.

00:08:01.180 I mean, wow.

00:08:03.240 So this is a real editorial in the Washington Post, and it's an editorial from the paper itself.

00:08:08.840 It's not a guest columnist.

00:08:10.180 It is entitled, Three Cautionary Tales from the Iran Energy Shock.

00:08:16.340 Never confuse good intentions with good planning.

00:08:19.980 And here's what the Washington Post editorial board has to say.

00:08:23.600 Roughly 28 million tons of liquefied natural gas have disappeared from global markets since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to Qatar's export terminals.

00:08:33.400 Analysts predict the shortfall could last years.

00:08:36.960 While every energy importer will feel the pinch, not every one of them will feel it equally.

00:08:42.960 Germany, Taiwan, and California are cautionary tales.

00:08:48.840 All three have had their politics shaped by green movements, and all three are more vulnerable for it.

00:08:56.440 When environmentalists came to power, they forced the premature retirement of nuclear reactors, coal plants, and oil refineries.

00:09:04.040 They calculated that the planet's needs demanded it and that global markets would fill the gap.

00:09:10.320 All three polities are now frantically reversing course, but energy sources can't be rebuilt overnight.

00:09:19.360 Germany's Green Party was founded in 1980 as an anti-nuclear movement.

00:09:23.980 When it first entered coalition government in 1998, its price of admission was nuclear phase-out.

00:09:30.580 It re-entered government in 2021, in time to oversee the shuttering of Germany's last three reactors in 2023.

00:09:39.340 The Greens also pioneered the phasing out of the country's coal plants.

00:09:44.400 That Germany sits atop 35 billion tons, billion tons of lignite, did not enter into their calculations.

00:09:54.960 Germany bet big on solar and wind, but intermittent renewables can't ensure a consistent supply.

00:10:01.740 That left LNG filling the gap.

00:10:05.020 Last week, Energy Minister Katharina Reich called the nuclear shutdown, quote, a huge mistake.

00:10:12.760 With spot prices for LNG sharply up, the government is now looking at restoring coal plants it retired.

00:10:20.740 In the past, Germany has imported nuclear-generated electricity from France when squeezed.

00:10:28.100 So notice, the Green Party, the effect of them is to go back to coal generation and to increase pollution.

00:10:35.060 All right, let's continue and see what the Washington Post has to say about Taiwan.

00:10:39.560 Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party codified anti-nuclear dogma into its founding charter in 1986.

00:10:47.260 Its arch-rival, the nationalist and at the time authoritarian Kuomintang, wisely built nuclear power plants as part of a breakneck industrialization program. 0.61

00:11:01.360 When the DPP won power in 2016, it legislated a, quote, nuclear-free homeland and began retiring the country's coal plants.

00:11:12.380 Phasing out coal made sense.

00:11:14.220 replacing nuclear with lng much less so like germany taiwan can't rely solely on renewables

00:11:23.480 taiwan has virtually no domestic fossil fuels and without nuclear it has to import 97 percent of its

00:11:33.240 energy by sea last week the dpp reversed course and announced plans to restart the reactors all

00:11:41.540 right. How about the People's Republic of California, led by Comrade Gavin Newsom?

00:11:47.460 In California, environmental regulations have achieved something remarkable. They have severed

00:11:55.040 the state's gasoline market from the rest of the country. Unique fuel blend mandates mean no other

00:12:01.580 state's gasoline is compatible with California's. Other onerous regulations, emission fines,

00:12:08.140 profit caps drilling restrictions have driven refiners out and there are no inbound pipelines

00:12:16.920 for crude or refined products now gas is approaching six dollars a gallon yep with no

00:12:28.500 domestic replacement california became dependent on gasoline imports from asian refineries which

00:12:35.840 are now cutting shipments because the Strait of Hormuz is closed as Chevron's refining chief Andy

00:12:43.000 Waltz recently put it quote the California intent to offshore carbon to other nations

00:12:48.480 has offshored their security of supply Chevron has warned that it could leave California entirely

00:12:55.700 within a decade unless regulations change by the way Chevron was a California company they moved

00:13:01.980 to texas in the last year because the california loonies drove them out yeah and here's what the

00:13:08.240 washington post closes with the error in germany taiwan and california was confusing good intentions

00:13:17.240 with good planning and assuming a stable global energy market would always be there to paper over

00:13:24.020 the difference the iran war shows it won't the government's best situated to weather this energy

00:13:31.140 shock are not the greenest, but the ones that treated energy as a national security interest

00:13:37.060 and diversified their supply responsibly. I'm going to say something I don't know that I've

00:13:42.860 ever said before. I agree wholeheartedly with The Washington Post. Now, if you want to hear the rest

00:13:49.160 of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:13:54.660 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00

00:13:59.220 leaders, and the world around them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk

00:14:03.600 podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's

00:14:09.220 most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at

00:14:14.820 different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:14:19.840 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:14:23.900 now on to story number two all right senator so let's get to the this first big story here and

00:14:31.500 and this is one of the ones that concerns me so much about what is happening in this country

00:14:37.840 right now we've also seen this happen in europe and we are now seeing that there are more attacks

00:14:43.780 we're seeing churches that are being burned around the world and we're now seeing uh this synagogue 0.96

00:14:48.220 attacker that attacked on behalf of Hezbollah. It happened right here in Michigan. We know a lot

00:14:55.080 more now than we did before. Yeah, you remember when this story broke, when the man drove his

00:14:59.980 truck into the synagogue that was also a school. There were over 100 kids there. He was trying to

00:15:05.360 kill as many young children as he could. And the media coverage, they referred to him as 0.82

00:15:11.120 Michigan Man. It was reminiscent of Maryland Man, the guy who was the MS-13 gangbanger and human

00:15:17.240 trafficker that was just a maryland man who for some reason was deported no one could imagine why

00:15:22.440 well here it was michigan man and then they had all this sympathetic coverage michigan man was

00:15:28.420 was upset that his brother had been killed in the middle east what they didn't mention is his

00:15:33.480 brother was a commander for hezbollah and so he was a terrorist so hezbollah terrorist in america

00:15:40.080 unhappy that a different hezbollah terrorist had been killed and so he tried to kill as many 0.91

00:15:45.720 children and as many Jews as possible. Here are the details. The attack earlier this month, 0.81

00:15:51.700 this is from CNN, on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, was a, quote,

00:15:56.300 Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism, purposely targeting the Jewish community

00:16:01.380 and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan, the FBI said to news conference on Monday.

00:16:07.460 The assailant, Ayman Ghazali, was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon. Now, put a pin in that,

00:16:14.500 that we need to change our vetting for naturalized citizens.

00:16:17.920 Yeah.

00:16:18.800 He rammed a pickup truck into the synagogue on March 12th

00:16:23.080 as more than 100 children were attending school inside.

00:16:28.340 After waiting in the synagogue's parking lot for more than two hours, authorities said,

00:16:32.600 Ghazali drove the truck far into the building, hitting a security officer

00:16:36.160 before the vehicle became wedged in a hallway.

00:16:39.520 Security officers for the synagogue began exchanging gunfire with Ghazali

00:16:44.460 who eventually shot and killed himself inside the truck.

00:16:48.760 During the chaos, the truck's engine compartment caught fire

00:16:51.600 and caused extensive damage to the building.

00:16:56.000 The truck was filled with over $2,000 of commercial-grade fireworks

00:17:02.080 and about 35 gallons of gasoline, which he used to enhance the explosion.

00:17:09.500 No one else was killed.

00:17:10.760 One of the temple's lead security officers was injured after being hit by the vehicle.

00:17:16.700 Had he lived, he would have been charged with providing material support to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group in Lebanon, said Jerome Gorgon, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

00:17:27.360 Gorgon added that Ghazali was inspired by Hezbollah on propaganda to carry out the attack.

00:17:33.240 Quote,

00:17:34.720 This man acted under Hezbollah's direction and control. 0.50

00:17:40.060 He intended to kill others, not just himself.

00:17:43.920 In the days after the attack, U.S. officials said Ghazali was located in federal government databases as having connections to, quote, known or suspected terrorists associated with Hezbollah.

00:17:55.080 Stop there for a second.

00:17:56.600 So they searched the databases.

00:17:58.000 The databases showed that he had connections to known or suspected terrorists.

00:18:01.920 Then why the hell was this guy letting the country in the first place?

00:18:04.600 Why did they allow him in?

00:18:05.960 Why did they naturalize him as a citizen?

00:18:07.760 I have a feeling that information in the databases didn't magically appear in the last 15 months.

00:18:13.480 It's been there a long time.

00:18:14.680 It's just prior administrations didn't care.

00:18:17.140 We need to get to the bottom of that.

00:18:18.880 A week prior to the attack, members of Ghazali's family in Lebanon, including two brothers,

00:18:25.480 were killed in an Israeli airstrike as the U.S. and Israel entered its second week of conflict with Iran.

00:18:31.500 Now, this is where the media clutched their pearls.

00:18:33.580 Well, his brother was killed. 0.98

00:18:34.920 So naturally, when your brother's killed, what you do is try to murder 100 kids. 0.95

00:18:38.900 That's the normal reaction to that.

00:18:41.920 But then here's the killer paragraph that follows.

00:18:45.500 The Israeli military said one of the brothers, Ibrahim Mohamed Ghazali,

00:18:50.740 was a Hezbollah commander in charge of managing weapons operations in the Iranian proxy group's Bader unit.

00:18:59.440 Ghazali began planning for the attack days earlier, the FBI said, with his plans intensifying on March 9th.

00:19:07.140 A review of Ghazali's online activity dating to January, January was before the war in Iran started,

00:19:15.180 showed repeated searches for pro-Hezbollah and Iranian news outlets, as well as videos related to gunfire and ammunition.

00:19:23.400 Beginning March 9th, the FBI said he closely followed speeches and live coverage involving Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qasem,

00:19:32.300 along with reporting about an Iranian fatwa, a religious ruling concerning Islamic law, calling for total jihad against the U.S. military.

00:19:41.960 He also researched Jewish cultural education and religious centers throughout the Detroit metro area,

00:19:48.200 viewing multiple pages of upcoming events at Temple Israel

00:19:51.820 and searched specific terms and phrases such as, quote,

00:19:56.320 the largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan,

00:20:00.080 Orthodox synagogues, and Israelis near me.

00:20:04.120 That day, after two people declined to sell him a weapon,

00:20:08.040 Ghazali bought an AR-15-style rifle,

00:20:10.680 10 magazines, and about 300 rounds of ammunition

00:20:13.120 at a gun store in Dearborn Heights, Runyon said.

00:20:16.240 Now, it's interesting that two stores declined to sell it to him, and yet the one in Dearborn was willing to.

00:20:21.760 I think that's something else.

00:20:22.840 You've owned a gun store.

00:20:23.940 I was going to say, that is a massive red flag.

00:20:26.580 Like, if you turn down somebody and there's two stores, they clearly, like, were doing their jobs, by the way.

00:20:34.040 Gun stores.

00:20:35.540 So tell us, as someone who's owned a gun store, like this guy goes in and says, I want to buy an AR.

00:20:41.060 Why would a gun store say no?

00:20:43.680 Yeah, there's a couple of reasons.

00:20:44.720 One, you profile and you can see if someone seems angry or agitated.

00:20:48.640 You can also, you're supposed to be looking to see if an individual you think is doing

00:20:53.740 a straw purchase, which means they're buying for someone else illegally.

00:20:57.820 You'll see that happen a lot of times with wives that will come in. 1.00

00:21:00.720 Their husband would be a felon or someone that's disqualified from only a weapon or

00:21:04.800 a friend will come in.

00:21:06.320 You'll see people that walk in the store, they'll look at a gun, they'll take a picture

00:21:09.960 of it, they'll leave, and then literally 30 seconds later, a minute later, someone comes

00:21:13.860 in and tries to buy the exact gun that you just showed to someone else like there's multiple

00:21:18.120 things that you look for here but then there's also conversations if you see that someone comes

00:21:23.720 in and and by the way if you believe that they're drunk or high or on some sort of drug you can

00:21:28.540 refuse and if you just have a really bad feeling if something doesn't feel right you can say i'm

00:21:34.660 not going to sell you a gun and you have the rise of store owner to do that but when you hear that

00:21:39.200 two gun stores did this. That says a lot. Yeah, that says a lot because something there I would

00:21:44.900 love to see and go back and hear because I'm sure there's going to be an interview. What was it and

00:21:51.500 then were the authorities alerted to this and yet a third store was able to sell them the gun. They

00:21:55.320 didn't check in on that afterwards. That also is very concerning. Yeah, the story continues. He

00:22:00.460 practiced shooting the new weapon the next day and bought the fireworks. An order of dozens of

00:22:06.160 water containers arrived on the 11th, the day before the attack, and he immediately started

00:22:10.480 filling them with gasoline, making four trips to gas stations so he would not arouse suspicion.

00:22:15.540 He also bought two torchlighters, which authorities believed he used to set his truck on fire.

00:22:21.260 On the day of the attack, Ghazali sent his sister, who authorities believe lives in Lebanon,

00:22:27.280 numerous videos and messages, quote, affirming his Hezbollah-inspired ideology.

00:22:32.560 Ten minutes before he drove his truck into the synagogue, Ghazali sent his sister two videos in Arabic, indicating that he was at the largest gathering of Israelis in the state of Michigan, had booby-trapped his car and would forcibly enter and start shooting people, the FBI said. 0.93

00:22:50.280 God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can, Ghazali recorded himself saying, according to Runyon.

00:22:56.520 look these are the kind of threats we're facing by the way this podcast covered when the iranian 0.99

00:23:04.600 fatwa went out and we we have covered at length the radical islamic terrorists that the biden

00:23:12.000 administration allowed to flood into this country and the lack of vetting and and tragically all of 0.98

00:23:18.640 this happened at the same time we had the department of homeland security shut down

00:23:22.800 because the Democrats have defunded it.

00:23:25.580 And I'm sorry to say this guy is not the last radical Islamic terrorist left in the country. 0.93

00:23:30.540 And yet, Senate Democrats do not seem to care at all.

00:23:34.860 Well, let's go back in time just a little bit to remind people.

00:23:37.440 This was part of what President Trump had said we need to do, which was to go back and to vet.

00:23:43.020 Can you give an update on that?

00:23:45.360 And is some of that vetting stopped because of DHS lack of funding

00:23:48.520 and all these fights and the government shutdowns that have happened?

00:23:52.080 Well, some of that vetting would be happening at the State Department.

00:23:55.640 Some of it would be happening at DHS.

00:23:57.580 And so I don't know the status of that vetting.

00:24:00.400 We have not gotten a report.

00:24:01.500 We obviously have a brand-new Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen.

00:24:05.780 By the way, I will point out, every Democrat but two voted against confirming him.

00:24:11.100 So their position is they don't want a Secretary of DHS.

00:24:13.760 And by the way, they all like Mark Wayne.

00:24:15.860 He was a colleague in the Senate.

00:24:17.220 They knew him.

00:24:17.820 He was well-liked on both sides of the aisle.

00:24:19.620 It was not personal.

00:24:21.020 They wouldn't vote to confirm Bugs Bunny as head of DHS.

00:24:26.520 Their party is the Open Borders Party.

00:24:29.540 Anyone who is focused on securing the border, today's Democrats oppose.

00:24:34.020 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,

00:24:37.980 you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

00:24:43.160 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:24:45.380 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:24:49.320 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:24:53.320 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:24:54.440 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:24:55.700 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women,

00:24:59.260 entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,

00:25:02.940 all at different stages of their journey.

00:25:05.140 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:25:08.380 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio

00:25:10.760 or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:25:14.020 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:25:18.100 All right, Senator, there was something very interesting that happened this week.

00:25:21.880 No one was really covering it.

00:25:24.120 The New York Times, however, did report on this, that that radical leftist organization,

00:25:31.120 ActBlue, may have misled Congress on, and I'm quoting here, vetting foreign donations,

00:25:37.840 its lawyers said.

00:25:38.920 So just to be clear, another example of Democrats taking foreign interference, something I thought

00:25:44.060 they were totally against in our elections and in our laws.

00:25:46.600 But yeah, not on this one, apparently.

00:25:48.100 foreign dollars coming in and they may not have vetted the money at all

00:25:51.380 so in a shocking development rain fell upwards fish began flying yeah birds began swimming

00:26:02.400 yes and the new york times actually reported news do we do a golf club for that like little

00:26:10.640 masters golf club it is shocking this story and this is actually a bombshell story that

00:26:17.900 that could potentially have very real consequences it's in the new york times uh the headline is act

00:26:24.000 blue may have misled congress on vetting foreign donations its lawyers warned so understand the

00:26:30.400 source of this is covington and burling which is a blue chip law firm in dc that that where where

00:26:38.200 joe biden's former white house counsel was the lawyer for act blue and act blue is is a power

00:26:45.040 powerhouse. It has raised billions and billions of dollars for Democrats. Say that again. People

00:26:50.660 understand, not millions, billions of dollars raised just for Democrats. They flood money and

00:26:57.200 they have all of these donors who their credit card information is set in. They're on auto

00:27:01.200 contribute month after month after month. And it just floods cash. Now, here's what the New York

00:27:06.540 Times reported. The Democratic fundraising group is facing investigations from the Justice

00:27:10.480 Department and Congressional Republicans ahead of midterm elections. In early 2025, a law firm

00:27:16.820 working for ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising behemoth, delivered the organization a startling

00:27:21.540 warning. The firm concluded that ActBlue's chief executive had given a potentially misleading

00:27:28.240 response to Congressional Republican investigators in a 2023 letter explaining how the organization

00:27:34.520 vetted donations to ensure that they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens.

00:27:42.700 Quote, this presents a substantial risk for ActBlue, the law firm Cummington & Burling

00:27:48.020 wrote in one of the two memos. One memo raised the specter of criminal investigation if prosecutors

00:27:53.720 believe that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent foreign contributions.

00:28:00.160 The memos instigated a meltdown at the highest levels of ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party's most vital financial organs.

00:28:08.640 A series of top officials resigned in quick succession.

00:28:13.520 ActBlue is now all but declaring war on its past lawyers, an extraordinary turn of event at a moment when President Trump has already ordered a Justice Department investigation into the organization.

00:28:25.500 Democrats are nervous that any additional upheaval at ActBlue could destabilize the critical fundraising apparatus ahead of the midterm elections.

00:28:34.800 All levels of Democratic candidates, from incumbent presidents to school board aspirants, use ActBlue to raise campaign money from online donors.

00:28:46.280 The platform has processed, get this number, nearly $19 billion, with a B, billion dollars in contributions since its founding in 2004, building a donor database with millions of credit card numbers that is unmatched in American politics.

00:29:06.280 nearly 23 000 candidates and groups used the site in 2025 in one year nearly 23 000 candidates and

00:29:16.980 groups and raised almost 1.8 billion dollars from 52 million contributions some of which recur

00:29:25.780 every month and and what is striking is the covington memos said and here's the really killer

00:29:34.780 sentence. Quote, it can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and or facilitated the acceptance

00:29:43.940 of foreign national contributions into American elections. In addition, because ActBlue's staff

00:29:51.740 was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these

00:29:57.860 violations were knowing and willful a standard that both increases the penalties the fec might

00:30:04.860 seek and gives the justice department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation this is a

00:30:13.920 big big deal yeah when you say big deal and i'm i'm a pessimist now like a lot of people

00:30:21.140 and and every time we see something like this happen then it's like all right well is there

00:30:25.480 going to be people that go to jail and be arrested. And then it seems like nothing ever happens.

00:30:29.360 So when you say this is a big, big deal, are you saying that there could actually genuinely be

00:30:35.440 people that get in trouble for this? Or is it just going to be like some little fine and we

00:30:38.680 move on or even nothing at all? Look, there could be people criminally prosecuted. There

00:30:43.140 could be people going to jail, but that's not really the biggest consequence.

00:30:46.760 The biggest consequence is if there's a criminal investigation, and this is Covington and Burling, 0.97

00:30:53.880 a big democrat law firm that was the lawyer for act blue telling them holy crap you guys have

00:30:59.300 screwed up and you've got real exposure and then this is the new york times the official mouthpiece

00:31:06.240 for the democrats reporting on it the biggest political consequence would be if a criminal

00:31:12.780 investigation shuts down act blue between now and the election because act blue if nothing else

00:31:19.640 happens act blue will raise billions of dollars for democrats between now and november and and by

00:31:26.520 the way act blue's defense one of their defense is well what well we we we we less than one percent

00:31:35.940 of contributions in 2024 were from foreign countries well less than one percent out of

00:31:43.440 19 billion dollars is a crap ton of money and it is illegal and and that dynamic and i'll give you

00:31:51.760 some other other stats so here here's something greg price tweeted with all the headwinds facing

00:31:57.080 the gop national democrat groups have a serious fundraising problem going into the midterm

00:32:02.560 the dnc currently has more debt than cash on hand while the rnc has over a hundred million dollars

00:32:11.260 on hand the slf clf nrcc and nrsc which are all the different committees on the republican side

00:32:17.620 all have more cash than their democrat counterparts and now this with act blue the democrat crown

00:32:26.460 jewel of their fundraising the big big political consequence if act blue has committed criminal

00:32:33.820 conduct laundering foreign money into american elections and if they actively covered it up

00:32:39.680 which is what Covington and Burling suggest there's evidence of,

00:32:43.740 that could be more than sufficient for the Department of Justice to shut Act Blue down.

00:32:49.640 And if that money spigot is cut off from Democrat candidates in November,

00:32:55.060 that has massive, massive consequences for the election.

00:32:59.580 And it shuts off the foreign money, right?

00:33:01.820 That's also another big part of this.

00:33:03.380 And so even if they try to morph into a new group, right, people leave that blue.

00:33:07.260 And by the way, look, the foreign money is not just some hypothetical specter.

00:33:11.360 If you're the fact, if you're the Chinese, if you're the Russians, if you're the Iranians, if you're the Venezuelans, if you're the Cubans, it is objectively in your interest to have Democrats win in November.

00:33:22.740 Donald Trump has made your life a living hell.

00:33:26.400 And so you want Congress to declare war on President Trump.

00:33:29.880 You want a Democrat House and Senate that impeaches the president, that investigates the president, that prevents the president from doing what he's done to the enemies of America. 0.63

00:33:38.800 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:33:44.060 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:33:47.720 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:33:51.100 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:33:54.820 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 04, 2026

Dearborn 'Sad Faces' for the Ayatollah, Hezbollah Inspired Michigan Man & Democrats’ Cash Pipeline at Risk Week In Review

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