Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 29, 2024


Democrats Abandon Israel-Not Just the Squad, but now Schumer & Biden, plus Mexican President Tries to Blackmail America on Illegal Immigration

Topics
Democrat Party abandoning Israel Mexican President AMLO extortion threats fentanyl production in Mexico
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Joe Biden Chuck Schumer Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Menachem Begin Obama White House Patriot Mobile John Kilby John Kirby Ayatollah Verdict Ammo Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Linda Thomas-Greenfield Jennifer Stewart Naftali Bennett Caitlin Clark Nicolas Maduro Lopez Obrador Ben Ferguson and 9 more
Verdict Welcomes Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Michigan Offers Cash to House Illegals, AMLO Blackmails America, & the Challenges for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Week In Review

Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

163.31

Word count

6,423

Sentence count

508

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

20

sentences flagged

Hate speech

34

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons are back, and they ve got a lot to talk about. They discuss the Democratic Party's historic pivot away from Israel, the border crisis, and the President of Mexico s latest threats to the United States.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.440 Welcome.
00:00:06.200 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.200 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.600 Senator, you are actually there tonight, correct?
00:00:12.660 We have good networking internet?
00:00:14.800 I am indeed.
00:00:16.140 The internet is back.
00:00:17.760 Verdict is back.
00:00:18.840 Build back better work tonight, at least.
00:00:21.100 That's how we can spin this one.
00:00:22.980 So it was hilarious, the last show.
00:00:25.460 Just to take you behind the scenes of how this show works.
00:00:28.800 A lot of times, you're in another city, I'm in one city, and then we're connecting to
00:00:33.460 a third city, and we tried for like an hour the other night.
00:00:37.460 It was after midnight, and so I'm glad to say we are all back together.
00:00:41.140 It was two in the morning for you.
00:00:41.920 It was one in the morning for me.
00:00:43.200 Yeah, it was two in the morning when we finally said, okay, this is not going to work, because
00:00:46.600 I was in New York.
00:00:47.500 And I was in Midland, Texas.
00:00:49.600 Yeah, and our producer is in Memphis, Tennessee, so it was hilarious, and we are all working,
00:00:56.420 which it's great to be back.
00:00:57.620 We have got a lot to talk about, because we obviously missed some big news in that last
00:01:02.040 show that we didn't get to do.
00:01:03.560 So let's talk about what we're going to chat about this today.
00:01:06.660 Well, we're going to start with Israel and do a deep dive on really the historic move 0.58
00:01:11.900 the Democrat Party is making, the Biden White House, Chuck Schumer abandoning Israel.
00:01:16.540 And it is historic, it is tragic, it is enormously consequential, and we're going to explain exactly
00:01:22.560 what's going on with it.
00:01:23.980 Secondly, we're going to go into the border and what's happening at the border.
00:01:27.400 And in particular, this weekend, the President of Mexico threatened the United States.
00:01:33.360 He threatened that the flow of migrants will continue unless America gives in to his demands. 0.54
00:01:39.000 We're going to break that down.
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00:03:36.560 Senator, I want to start, and you mentioned this, talking about what's happening with Israel.
00:03:42.200 There was a shocking moment at the United Nations, and I want you to break down exactly
00:03:48.760 what happened, because America didn't vote against Israel, but they certainly didn't stand
00:03:53.200 with Israel in a very important vote that took place, demanding a ceasefire, even though there
00:03:58.880 are still countless, including Americans, hostages being held by Hamas.
00:04:04.140 Well, this week was the culmination of what has been a systemic pivot by the Democrat Party
00:04:12.220 away from Israel, and sadly, it is an historic pivot.
00:04:15.420 It started in earnest two weeks ago, when Chuck Schumer went to the Senate floor and gave
00:04:21.460 an utterly disgraceful speech, a speech with no precedent in our nation's history, where
00:04:26.820 he demanded the elected leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, step down.
00:04:30.540 And it was an assault.
00:04:32.900 It was not one he directed at Hamas.
00:04:35.240 He didn't demand their leader step down.
00:04:36.800 It wasn't directed at Iran or China or Russia or North Korea or Venezuela.
00:04:40.940 None of those did he demand their leader step down.
00:04:43.700 But instead, only the nation of Israel, the only Jewish state on the face of the earth,
00:04:48.920 are close ally.
00:04:50.020 And while they're in the middle of a war, while they are defending themselves in the wake of the
00:04:55.660 grotesque horror that is October 7th.
00:04:59.640 And this was not just a comment off the cuff from Chuck Schumer.
00:05:02.840 This was a long-prepared remarks that he went out and demanded, viewing Israel as a puppet
00:05:08.840 state, that he and the other Democrats can treat like just people who must take their
00:05:13.980 orders, demanded that the people of Israel, he chided them for daring to elect Netanyahu.
00:05:20.480 And understand, this is not just an assault on Netanyahu.
00:05:23.780 It's an assault on the voters.
00:05:24.960 Israel has a democratically elected government.
00:05:30.020 It is our job to deal with the leaders of Israel, regardless of who they are, if the
00:05:34.800 people elect them.
00:05:35.800 We are allies with the nation of Israel.
00:05:38.860 And when Netanyahu was prime minister before, we dealt with him. 0.51
00:05:42.580 When Naftali Bennett was prime minister, we dealt with him.
00:05:45.660 Now that Netanyahu is prime minister again, we're dealing with him.
00:05:48.500 But it's the voters of Israel who decide.
00:05:50.280 So after Schumer gives his speech, immediately after, the White House is asked about it.
00:05:56.520 And they say, oh, we knew about the speech.
00:05:58.960 We knew about it beforehand.
00:06:00.660 We knew exactly what Schumer was going to say.
00:06:03.480 And we thought the president thought it was a very good speech.
00:06:06.480 So the White House immediately signals their agreement with it.
00:06:09.500 And then that culminated in what happened this week.
00:06:12.620 This week, the United Nations passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
00:06:19.940 Now, understand, the word ceasefire has become this leftist mantra.
00:06:25.460 And what it means is, Israel, stop killing terrorists now.
00:06:31.800 What immediate ceasefire means is, Israel, allow Hamas to win. 0.90
00:06:37.960 What ceasefire means is, Israel, do not destroy the leadership of Hamas. 0.52
00:06:42.960 Do not destroy any more terrorists.
00:06:44.440 But rather, allow Hamas to run Gaza.
00:06:48.200 Allow them to commit future acts of terrorism. 0.91
00:06:50.660 It's okay with us, the Democrats, if they murder future Israelis. 0.96
00:06:54.820 Apparently, it's okay with us, the Democrats, if they murder Americans.
00:06:58.920 Since October 7th is one of the worst terror attacks in our nation's history.
00:07:03.080 The resolution, now listen, the United Nations has always been a pit of anti-Semitism and Israel hatred.
00:07:13.280 The United Nations, half the time it seems, the UN exists to give speeches and issue proclamations condemning Israel.
00:07:22.480 But historically, so no resolution can pass, without the Security Council, all five permanent members of the Security Council have a veto.
00:07:31.920 The United States has a veto.
00:07:33.660 So historically, when the anti-Semites get going at the UN, America vetoes the resolution.
00:07:40.040 And we've done that for a long, long time.
00:07:42.600 Well, it turned out this was Biden's opportunity.
00:07:45.840 And by the way, I believe the Biden administration teed this up.
00:07:49.260 I think they orchestrated it.
00:07:51.320 Technically, what Biden did was abstain.
00:07:54.100 Just the United States didn't say anything.
00:07:55.860 So the 14 other members of the Security Council voted to effectively condemn Israel, to demand an immediate ceasefire, which Israel's not doing.
00:08:06.080 And the United States, Biden just declined to exercise its veto and allowed it to pass.
00:08:14.140 And I will say, let me just read the headline in The Guardian.
00:08:19.540 Now, look, The Guardian is a lefty publication.
00:08:21.860 But I got to say, the headline right after this happened really sums up where we are.
00:08:26.840 The headline is, United Nations, Israel isolated as UN Security Council demands immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
00:08:36.180 And let me read the sub-headline because it's even more revealing.
00:08:40.700 Israeli PM cancels White House visit by two ministers and says U.S. abandoned its policy in the UN after abstaining on vote.
00:08:52.820 That's where we are.
00:08:54.660 It is disgraceful.
00:08:56.380 It is dangerous.
00:08:57.820 It's dangerous for Israel and it is dangerous for America. 0.99
00:09:00.920 America, today's Democrat Party, it's heartbreaking, is in the process of abandoning the state of Israel.
00:09:08.580 And that is a terrible development for the world.
00:09:11.760 It's not just how orchestrated this was, but also how the White House doubled down on it so quickly afterwards.
00:09:19.660 National Security Council spokesman John Kilby said this about the UN resolution at the White House press briefing room doubling down on their stance.
00:09:30.920 The ones we vetoed didn't condemn Hamas.
00:09:33.600 This one didn't condemn Hamas, which is why we couldn't support it. 0.82
00:09:37.500 But we didn't veto it because, in general, unlike previous resolutions, this one did fairly capture what has been our consistent policy,
00:09:47.160 which is linking a hostage deal and the release of those men and women with, of course, a temporary ceasefire.
00:09:55.220 I mean, when he's talking to you, it's like, what are you even saying, man?
00:09:58.380 Like, you're trying to spin this and act like this is somehow consistency.
00:10:03.960 This is clearly a change in policy, which is, hey, we know you guys have hostages, including Americans, which no one's talking about,
00:10:11.940 which is also a disgrace, I think, of the media and the White House and the president.
00:10:15.180 They're not talking about that at all, number one.
00:10:17.860 But number two, they're saying, all right, well, let's just go along with a ceasefire while they have hostages.
00:10:25.380 Well, you just listen to the words John Kirby said there.
00:10:30.020 He said, the ones we vetoed, the prior resolutions, didn't condemn Hamas.
00:10:34.180 And then what's his next sentence?
00:10:35.740 Well, this one didn't condemn Hamas either, but they let it pass.
00:10:40.060 But, of course, it's not a change.
00:10:42.040 And, you know, it's actually particularly revealing.
00:10:44.200 Minutes before the vote on Monday, the U.S. decided, OK, we're in the middle of condemning Israel.
00:10:49.560 We're in the middle of screwing our ally.
00:10:50.760 We're in the middle of abandoning our ally.
00:10:52.560 Maybe we should ask that they should say something about Hamas.
00:10:55.960 Maybe Hamas bad. 0.98
00:10:57.520 Maybe, you know, it's not a great thing to murder 1,200 people, to rape women and little girls, 0.99
00:11:02.900 to take hostages, to mutilate their corpses, to desecrate their corpses. 0.99
00:11:07.040 Maybe that's not great. 1.00
00:11:09.020 Guys, can we kind of say raping and murdering children is bad? 0.94
00:11:12.760 And it turns out in the U.N., nope, sorry, sorry.
00:11:16.160 So the Biden administration briefly asked, could you add a sentence or two condemning Hamas?
00:11:21.580 And the anti-Semite said, nope, absolutely not.
00:11:24.480 And what did Biden say?
00:11:25.580 Oh, never mind.
00:11:26.320 OK, that's fine.
00:11:27.040 Then we'll just focus on attacking Israel. 0.96
00:11:29.540 We're with you guys.
00:11:30.960 Yeah.
00:11:31.120 And John was asked, by the way, hey, is this the official new stance that we're basically
00:11:36.000 walking away from Israel, certainly this administration?
00:11:39.100 And listen to his response on that.
00:11:40.960 Here now, for the first time in a while, the United States is at least abstaining and allowing
00:11:46.700 it to go through.
00:11:47.440 So the perception, broadly, is that the U.S. has no longer got Israel's back when it comes
00:11:52.080 to conversations like this with the U.S.
00:11:53.820 Yeah, that's just not true, Ed.
00:11:55.340 Nothing can be further from the truth, quite frankly.
00:11:57.500 Of course we still have Israel's back. 0.65
00:11:58.960 I mean, as you and I are speaking, we are still providing tools and capabilities, weapon
00:12:03.100 systems, so that Israel can defend itself against, which we agree is still a viable threat 0.99
00:12:08.320 to Hamas.
00:12:09.440 I mean, you hear him there.
00:12:11.480 He's like, no, no, nothing's further from the truth.
00:12:13.460 Like, we're still sending them some stuff, so everybody calm down.
00:12:17.380 Yeah, look, this White House, unfortunately, lies regularly.
00:12:21.000 Here's what Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, who is Biden's ambassador to the U.N., quote,
00:12:25.040 this is about their request to condemn Hamas.
00:12:27.420 Quote, certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas.
00:12:33.280 And we didn't agree with everything in the resolution.
00:12:36.400 For that reason, we were unfortunately, note that word, unfortunately not able to vote
00:12:42.100 yes.
00:12:43.100 In other words, we really would have loved to condemn Israel along with the other anti-Semites, 0.98
00:12:47.100 but we couldn't quite do that.
00:12:49.120 However, she continues, as I've said before, we fully support some of the critical objectives
00:12:54.020 of this non-binding resolution.
00:12:56.240 Okay, so even for U.N.
00:12:57.680 And doublespeak, that's something.
00:12:58.820 And let me say something.
00:13:00.840 There are a couple of really important points on this.
00:13:04.200 One, in many ways, Kirby is not lying.
00:13:08.380 And here's why he's not lying.
00:13:09.980 Because Joe Biden and this White House, from the day they arrived in the White House,
00:13:15.600 have been undermining Israel.
00:13:17.220 That is not new.
00:13:18.940 The press hasn't reported on it.
00:13:20.440 This U.N. resolution is just the most visible example.
00:13:23.740 But understand, Biden came in the White House, one of the very first things he did is stopped
00:13:28.100 enforcing oil sanctions on Iran and allowed what's ended up being over $80 billion to flow
00:13:33.880 to the Ayatollah, who chants death to Israel and death to America.
00:13:37.420 The Ayatollah, by the way, Iran, funds 90% of Hamas and 90% of Hezbollah.
00:13:43.240 So that's one of the first things they did.
00:13:44.960 One of the second things they did is send hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza.
00:13:49.360 Gaza, the elected leaders of Gaza, are Hamas, the terrorist organization.
00:13:53.060 To do that, they had to waive U.S. anti-terrorism law.
00:13:57.360 I led a group of 19 senators urging them, don't do that.
00:14:00.980 Don't give money to Hamas.
00:14:02.260 Don't fund terrorism.
00:14:03.820 By the way, 150 House Democrats sent a counter letter saying, yes, do send the money to Gaza,
00:14:10.580 even though it'll go to Hamas, even though it'll go to terrorism.
00:14:13.780 We now know how the Biden administration resolved that issue, which is they concluded, yes,
00:14:18.500 it was highly likely the money would go to Hamas.
00:14:20.420 It was highly likely it would go to terrorism.
00:14:22.600 But instead of following U.S. anti-terrorism laws, they simply waived it.
00:14:27.880 And then understand what happened on October 7th.
00:14:31.460 October 7th is unfolding.
00:14:33.160 The world is watching in horror as 1,200 people are murdered by vicious terrorists who are doing
00:14:38.900 things the world has not seen since the Nazis. 0.98
00:14:42.300 This was, these were Nazi tactics by terrorists that hate Jews because they're Jews.
00:14:51.660 And within hours of the October 7th attack, what did the Biden administration do?
00:14:56.500 The State Department sent out a public tweet urging Israel, do not retaliate, do not strike back.
00:15:03.180 I called them out, they deleted that tweet.
00:15:05.740 Then the next day, Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State, sent out another tweet saying,
00:15:10.480 Israel should not retaliate, do not try to kill the terrorists. 0.58
00:15:13.520 Again, I called them out, again, they deleted it.
00:15:16.080 Over and over and over again, literally from October 7th, Biden has been pressing ceasefire,
00:15:22.740 pause, stop killing terrorists, stop killing terrorists, stop killing terrorists.
00:15:26.260 And then what has happened is the Democrat political base has gone crazy. 0.97
00:15:31.680 There is a strong anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, angry leftist core in the Democrat
00:15:40.800 party, and the Democrats are terrified of them.
00:15:43.560 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00
00:15:48.180 leaders, and the world around them.
00:15:49.920 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:15:53.600 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:15:54.580 And I'm Catherine Clark.
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00:16:05.600 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:16:08.820 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:16:14.580 How much of this comes down to the election coming up?
00:16:18.340 And I ask that, and I'll give you my opinion is, I think this has a lot to do with younger
00:16:24.360 voters, Senator, that they're afraid are going to abandon the Democratic Party if they don't
00:16:30.980 back the Palestinians and Hamas and everybody but Israel. 0.97
00:16:36.940 And they're seeing the poll numbers, and they're seeing that they need young people to come out
00:16:41.100 and vote for them, that the under-35 voter in the Democratic Party is vitally important
00:16:45.160 to their success.
00:16:46.000 Is part of this just saying, well, we are willing to abandon our allies, and it doesn't matter
00:16:51.940 if this puts us in bed with terrorists as long as we have a better chance of winning the next
00:16:56.940 election?
00:16:57.400 So there's no doubt the political pressure is a factor, and a significant factor.
00:17:05.840 In fact, I'm told that there's a joke in Jerusalem that Chuck Schumer's speech was entirely about
00:17:13.260 the two-state solution, the two states being Michigan and Nevada.
00:17:18.180 In other words, Schumer was entirely responding to the fact that a big chunk of the Democrat Party
00:17:23.220 is going crazy because they hate Israel.
00:17:26.240 But I want you to understand, it's not just responding to the fact that they've got some 0.99
00:17:31.340 crazy leftists. 0.91
00:17:32.540 Listen, one of the reasons I am so sad, I am so concerned about what has happened, there 0.84
00:17:37.640 are a lot of people, a lot of people in the pro-Israel community who focus on the squad. 0.84
00:17:43.020 They focus on the crazy anti-Semites in the House.
00:17:45.820 They focus on AOC and Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush. 0.99
00:17:51.160 And look, those people are out there, they hate Israel, they're vicious, and it's kind
00:17:57.460 of easy in the pro-Israel community to say that's the problem, is the extreme leftists.
00:18:02.180 But I'm going to tell you that's not the problem.
00:18:04.840 The problem is the so-called mainstream Democrats.
00:18:10.200 This demand that Israel throw Netanyahu out, throw their elected prime minister out, came
00:18:16.060 from Chuck Schumer, the elected Senate majority leader, the leader of the Democrats in the
00:18:21.940 Senate.
00:18:22.900 This decision to abandon Israel in the United Nations came from Joe Biden, the president
00:18:30.580 of the United States.
00:18:31.500 These are not members of the squad.
00:18:33.240 And understand with Biden, his undermining Israel is not new.
00:18:39.360 He's appointed anti-Israel radicals throughout the White House, throughout the State Department.
00:18:44.500 They're all Obama holdovers.
00:18:45.940 And to be honest, in the Obama White House, they had the same issue where they undermined
00:18:49.900 Israel constantly. 0.94
00:18:51.240 But let me tell you, actually, a very famous exchange that occurred with Joe Biden more than
00:18:57.280 40 years ago in 1982.
00:19:00.800 In 1982, I was 11 years old.
00:19:03.820 You were a baby.
00:19:04.700 You were what, one year old?
00:19:06.220 Yeah, I was one years old.
00:19:07.240 Yeah.
00:19:07.380 Okay, in 1982, Joe Biden is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he's talking
00:19:14.040 with Israel's prime minister then, Menachem Begin.
00:19:17.300 And he threatens Begin with cutting off U.S. aid to Israel if Israel did not stop its, quote, 0.69
00:19:25.980 settlements in Judea and Samaria.
00:19:29.420 And Begin responded with one of the most famous remarks by a prime minister in decades.
00:19:34.720 And this was said to Joe Biden after he was doing what he's doing now, which is trying
00:19:39.060 to bully Israel. 0.80
00:19:40.180 Here's what Begin said, quote,
00:19:43.080 Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid.
00:19:47.320 It will not work.
00:19:50.700 I am not a Jew with trembling knees.
00:19:54.500 I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.
00:20:01.160 Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens.
00:20:06.940 Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country.
00:20:10.780 Joe Biden has been doing this for more than 40 years, undermining Israel.
00:20:36.320 But now he's not just some senator from Delaware spouting off.
00:20:42.340 He is sadly the president of the United States, and it is extraordinarily consequential.
00:20:48.680 Yeah, as much as they're trying to make this a election year issue to bring in young voters,
00:20:52.640 I think conservatives and Donald Trump better make this an election year issue that you stand
00:20:57.080 with your ally Israel for all these reasons.
00:20:59.460 It's going to be, I think, a very, very big issue come November.
00:21:03.380 And, Ben, let me say something.
00:21:05.540 Every single Democrat senator and every single Democrat House member should be forced to ask,
00:21:13.020 answer the question, do you agree with Chuck Schumer demanding
00:21:17.000 that Israel throw out its elected prime minister?
00:21:20.560 And do you agree with Joe Biden abandoning Israel at the Security Council
00:21:25.680 and allowing the enemies of Israel to force a resolution,
00:21:29.420 effectively condemning Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire that they stop killing Hamas terrorists?
00:21:36.220 As far as I can tell, most Democrat senators and House members have not answered that
00:21:41.520 because the press does not want to ask them.
00:21:45.540 Yeah, there's no accountability.
00:21:47.180 That's that's for sure.
00:21:48.280 And it should be, like you said, an election year issue.
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00:23:33.560 Senator, I want to move to another issue.
00:23:36.120 There was an issue, an interview, I should say, that happened on Sunday.
00:23:40.840 A lot of people don't watch 60 Minutes anymore.
00:23:44.040 But the Mexican president did do a sit-down interview.
00:23:47.640 And it actually took a couple days until anyone noticed it,
00:23:50.380 which was, I think, the most unique part of this, first off.
00:23:53.360 And then what he said.
00:23:55.840 It was diplomatic blackmail, as it's been described by many.
00:23:59.900 As the Mexican president said that the flow of illegal immigrants will continue
00:24:04.960 unless the U.S. meets some of his new demands.
00:24:08.980 In an interview, he was asked about the flow of not just illegals,
00:24:12.980 but also drugs coming across the southern border.
00:24:15.420 And here's what the president of Mexico said about America.
00:24:19.060 He thinks you have the power in this moment to slow down migration.
00:24:23.600 Do you plan to?
00:24:26.160 We do.
00:24:27.520 And want to continue doing it.
00:24:29.880 But we do want for the root causes to be attended to,
00:24:33.140 for them to be seriously looked at.
00:24:34.920 With the ear of the White House, President López Obrador proposed his fix,
00:24:41.000 that the United States commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,
00:24:48.000 lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo,
00:24:51.600 and legalize millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.
00:24:55.860 If they don't do the things that you've said need to be done, then what?
00:25:02.140 The flow of migrants will continue. 1.00
00:25:06.200 Your critics have said what you're doing or what you're asking for to help secure the border is diplomatic blackmail.
00:25:13.520 What do you say?
00:25:14.620 I'm speaking frankly.
00:25:16.480 We have to say things as they are.
00:25:19.360 Senator, there's like five different things I want to discuss with you.
00:25:24.160 Let's just start with, number one, this is diplomatic blackmail, $20 billion a year.
00:25:29.520 And if you give me $20 billion a year, and then you allow all the illegal immigrants to become citizens in your country that are there, 1.00
00:25:37.360 then you give what we want with Cuba and Venezuela,
00:25:42.020 and then if you keep giving us $20 billion a year, we might stop the flow of fentanyl coming across the southern border.
00:25:48.120 This is extortion on a level that I can't even get my head around from Mexico. 1.00
00:25:52.140 Well, look, of course it is.
00:25:54.760 And the Mexican president, everyone calls him AMLO.
00:25:58.720 AMLO is short for his full name, which is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. 0.99
00:26:03.060 He is a thug. 0.97
00:26:05.280 He is a hard leftist. 1.00
00:26:07.140 He's been a hard leftist his entire life.
00:26:10.640 He has been vocally and viciously anti-American his entire life.
00:26:17.660 That has been, that's how he got elected.
00:26:20.260 That was his campaign, standing up against the Yankee imperialists to the north. 0.89
00:26:24.940 That's who he is.
00:26:25.940 And by the way, notice his demands.
00:26:28.020 His demands are in the embargo against Cuba and in the sanctions against Venezuela.
00:26:33.600 He's standing with communist dictators in Cuba and Venezuela.
00:26:37.920 That's who he aligns himself with, is the hard left, anti-American, communist axis through Latin America.
00:26:47.160 That's who AMLO is.
00:26:48.280 So it's not surprising.
00:26:50.440 That's who he's always been.
00:26:51.820 Now, that being said, is he trying to extort America?
00:26:58.460 Of course, is the threat that the flow of migrants will continue unless you pay us off $20 billion a year to Latin American countries. 1.00
00:27:07.620 It's kind of like, you know, a mob enforcer.
00:27:10.000 Nice little bar you got here.
00:27:12.220 Shame if something happened to it.
00:27:13.920 Boy, a fire would do real damage.
00:27:16.020 He's saying, well, we'll keep these migrants coming unless you pay us off. 1.00
00:27:19.960 Just, you know, a bag of cash each week would be good.
00:27:24.380 I'll send my guys to pick it up.
00:27:26.020 Yes, that's exactly what he's trying to do.
00:27:28.520 It's almost like, is there a difference between the president of Mexico and the cartels of Mexico?
00:27:34.160 Because the way he was talking seems like the same type of conversation you have with the narcos.
00:27:38.920 Well, and by the way, AMLO, one of the problems is his government has very much been in bed with the narcos.
00:27:44.300 And it is devastating the nation of Mexico.
00:27:47.240 The people of Mexico are facing murders.
00:27:49.960 They're facing kidnapping.
00:27:51.620 They're facing enormous violence from these multi-billion dollar global criminal cartels that AMLO has facilitated.
00:27:59.240 But I'm going to say something that's going to surprise you.
00:28:02.620 I'm actually not terribly upset that AMLO is doing that.
00:28:07.260 That's who he is.
00:28:08.720 That's, you know, it's like...
00:28:10.620 It's on brand is what you're saying.
00:28:11.680 It's not like he's betraying us.
00:28:13.320 This is who he is. 0.99
00:28:14.680 He is an anti-American leftist who is going to behave like a thug. 0.98
00:28:19.780 He is just like Nicolas Maduro. 0.95
00:28:22.040 He is just like the Chavistas in Venezuela. 1.00
00:28:25.300 He's just like the Castanistas. 1.00
00:28:27.740 Fidel Castro and all of their progeny in Cuba. 0.99
00:28:32.220 And that's who he is.
00:28:33.540 But you know why I'm actually not all that worked up about what he said?
00:28:37.660 Why is that?
00:28:38.160 Because Joe Biden wants him to say this.
00:28:41.900 Understand, this crisis at our southern border is not because of AMLO.
00:28:46.540 Like his comment, you could stop it, couldn't you?
00:28:49.000 And well, yes, but pay us money for us to stop it.
00:28:52.460 Understand, Joe Biden doesn't want it to stop.
00:28:55.900 Chuck Schumer doesn't want it to stop.
00:28:58.120 The Democrats don't want it to stop.
00:29:00.060 The 10.4 million illegal immigrants, they're glad of them. 0.55
00:29:03.300 They want more.
00:29:04.140 They want 10 million to become 20 million, to become 30 million.
00:29:07.940 Those they view as future Democrat voters.
00:29:10.960 And so AMLO, listen, you know, do you get mad when a little like yapping dog comes and yaps at the door?
00:29:20.760 No, AMLO is going to scream.
00:29:22.180 So what?
00:29:22.720 But if we had a president, I'll tell you, when Donald Trump was president, AMLO was terrified of him.
00:29:29.840 Utterly and completely terrified.
00:29:31.720 And by the way, AMLO actually did a pretty good job when Trump was president because he was so afraid.
00:29:37.560 Let's pause and ask.
00:29:38.840 How did we secure the border under Trump?
00:29:43.940 What happened?
00:29:44.820 And I'll tell you what happened.
00:29:46.880 Trump threatened AMLO.
00:29:49.740 And what he said is you either help us secure the border or I'm going to impose, I, Donald J. Trump,
00:29:57.400 I'm going to impose a 25% tariff on everything coming out of Mexico. 1.00
00:30:03.620 And AMLO ran screaming.
00:30:07.260 It terrified him because he believed Trump would do it.
00:30:09.360 It wasn't an empty threat.
00:30:11.180 And he was terrified.
00:30:12.480 And what happened?
00:30:14.080 Number one, AMLO put 6,000 troops on Mexico's southern border.
00:30:18.520 You know, remember the shape of Mexico.
00:30:20.300 Mexico is much more narrow at the south than it is at the north.
00:30:23.060 At the north, Mexico has a 2,000-mile border with the United States.
00:30:27.300 At the south, their border is much, much smaller.
00:30:29.780 AMLO put 6,000 soldiers on their southern border.
00:30:33.760 Stop the flow.
00:30:35.120 And critically, because of Trump's threat, AMLO agreed to the Remain in Mexico agreement.
00:30:41.980 What was Remain in Mexico?
00:30:43.060 It said anyone that crossed illegally into Mexico and most of the people coming at that time and now were not Mexicans.
00:30:50.220 They were from elsewhere. 0.97
00:30:51.040 At the time, they were mostly from Central and South America.
00:30:54.840 Remain in Mexico said they would stay in Mexico.
00:30:57.700 These illegal immigrants would remain in Mexico while their U.S. asylum case was proceeding. 0.50
00:31:02.880 And what happened when suddenly people paid cartels thousands of dollars, traveled all the way north, and discovered, holy cow, I don't get to come into America.
00:31:12.060 I'm stuck in Mexico.
00:31:13.460 I can't cross over.
00:31:14.700 The numbers plummeted to the lowest rate in 45 years.
00:31:20.020 So when AMLO says this, by the way, the instant Joe Biden became president, the numbers skyrocketed because Biden is weak.
00:31:27.460 AMLO isn't afraid of him.
00:31:28.960 AMLO isn't scared at all.
00:31:30.200 And actually, everything AMLO is threatening, Joe Biden and every other Democrat in Congress wants him to do that.
00:31:39.380 It's almost like he's empowered to say this because he's actually backed up by the American policy.
00:31:44.740 That's what you're telling us.
00:31:46.120 That is exactly right.
00:31:48.520 That he's doing what they know he'll do.
00:31:52.140 He's, look, look, Marxist going to Marxist.
00:31:54.880 That's who they are.
00:31:56.540 He is going to engage in anti-American rhetoric.
00:31:59.980 The only thing he responds to is strength.
00:32:03.160 This Biden White House is not capable of strength against leftists, against enemies of America.
00:32:08.360 They're only capable of strength against our friends.
00:32:11.180 They're only capable of undermining allies of America.
00:32:14.200 But because AMLO is a leftist, just like in Cuba, they're communists, just like in Venezuela, they're communists, just like Lula in Brazil is an anti-American leftist, just like Petro in Colombia is an anti-American leftist.
00:32:28.040 Every anti-American leftist, this administration gives everything they want, and usually they want to give them money.
00:32:34.000 So when actually AMLO is saying lift the Cuban embargo, you know what?
00:32:37.940 Biden White House wants to lift the Cuban embargo.
00:32:39.800 When AMLO says end the sanctions against Venezuela, you know what?
00:32:43.100 Biden wants to end the sanctions against Venezuela.
00:32:46.500 This is, they are, to use the old communist phrase, they are fellow travelers.
00:32:53.120 You mentioned the drug aspect of this, and I want you to hear what he had to say and everybody listening, because there's zero compassion.
00:33:01.140 The number one killer, 49 under in this country, is fentanyl in this nation more than anything else.
00:33:05.860 That's what's killing us.
00:33:06.780 And he was asked about the drugs, and he kind of mocked America and laughed at America's demise when it comes to drugs and the deaths that are happening.
00:33:18.800 Take a listen.
00:33:19.300 The head of the DEA says cartels are mass-producing fentanyl, and the U.S. State Department has said that most of it is coming out of Mexico.
00:33:28.700 Are they wrong?
00:33:30.800 Yes.
00:33:33.160 Or rather, they don't have all the information, because fentanyl is also produced in the United States.
00:33:39.700 The State Department says most of it's coming from Mexico.
00:33:42.640 Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico, and the chemical precursors come from Asia.
00:33:51.500 You know why we don't have the drug consumption that you have in the United States?
00:33:56.600 Because we have customs, traditions, and we don't have the problem of the disintegration of the family.
00:34:03.660 But there is drug consumption in Mexico.
00:34:06.040 But very little.
00:34:07.540 So why the violence, then, in Mexico?
00:34:09.580 Because drug trafficking exists, but not the consumption.
00:34:16.380 I mean, he's laughing when he gives the last answer there.
00:34:18.600 Like, he's smiling and smirking when he's like, ha-ha, this is hilarious.
00:34:22.500 Like, I can't believe you guys are even asking me these questions.
00:34:25.600 Well, look, that's exactly right.
00:34:27.360 And he's lying when he's suggesting that fentanyl is manufactured in large quantities in the United States.
00:34:34.100 The vast majority of what is killing Americans is being manufactured in Mexico. 0.77
00:34:39.620 Now, he's right that the precursors are coming from China.
00:34:42.800 It's the Chinese communists who are sending it to Mexico. 0.97
00:34:45.300 It's the Mexican drug cartels who are manufacturing it, and they're smuggling it over the border.
00:34:49.580 There's some fentanyl production in the United States, but it is very minor compared to the volume coming from Mexico.
00:34:56.320 He knows that.
00:34:58.260 But this is, and by the way, understand the total volume.
00:35:02.360 Last year, over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses.
00:35:08.520 70% of that, over 70,000, was from fentanyl.
00:35:15.060 And the vast majority of that was Chinese fentanyl manufactured in Mexico by the Mexican drug cartels.
00:35:22.320 And AMLO is saying, sadly, with Biden's blessing and the Democrats' blessing, we're going to keep it flowing.
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00:36:52.240 And finally, Senator, today is Good Friday, and I know that you wanted to take a moment
00:36:56.480 and just talk about this Good Friday and Easter on Sunday and say a little something to everybody listening.
00:37:03.100 Well, look, I hope everyone has a wonderful Good Friday.
00:37:06.080 I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend.
00:37:09.360 For those who are Christians, I hope you reflect on the extraordinary sacrifice that God sent his son Jesus to give his life for us.
00:37:18.660 And on Good Friday, he was crucified for your sins, for my sins, and he died and was buried.
00:37:25.780 And three days later, and we celebrated on Easter, he rose from the dead and rose from the dead to bring us the gift of salvation.
00:37:36.680 And Easter is a wonderful time to reflect on that extraordinary love that God has for us.
00:37:43.660 It's also a wonderful time to be with family.
00:37:45.760 And so I'll tell you, I have been crisscrossing the state of Texas for this entire past week.
00:37:51.140 I've been all over the place, and so I'm looking forward to the next couple of days just taking some downtime with Heidi and the girls.
00:37:58.520 We're going to go to a ranch of a friend of ours and just spend some time with the ranch.
00:38:03.700 The ranch is actually some friends of our daughters, so they're going to play and hang out on the ranch,
00:38:12.120 and I suspect we'll sit out by the fire at night, and we may smoke a cigar or two and just spend time with family.
00:38:19.820 And actually, the ranch has, I think, 20 cats at the ranch, so my daughters in particular will be thrilled because 20 cats is a lot more than they're used to.
00:38:28.000 And so it's going to be a really good time just to be together with family.
00:38:30.340 And I would encourage everyone, don't let work consume so much time.
00:38:35.340 Don't let your other activities consume so much time that you don't pause, particularly at the holidays,
00:38:41.520 to hug your wife, to hug your husband, to hug your kids, to just sit and listen to them.
00:38:49.060 Don't even just talk to them.
00:38:50.220 Listen to them.
00:38:51.800 And just relax and love on your family.
00:38:56.400 This is a wonderful time to do that.
00:38:58.480 Amen.
00:38:59.120 Don't forget, we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and if you missed anything this week,
00:39:03.200 we do the weekend review on Saturday.
00:39:05.180 So maybe if you're traveling over the weekend to get to the lake or whatever, grab the weekend review as well,
00:39:10.720 and the senator and I will see you back here on Monday.
00:39:14.060 Happy Easter to all of you.
00:39:16.280 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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