Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 28, 2024


Dems in Congress want to BLOCK Trump, Trump⧹Cruz at Turning Point & Covid Lab Leak Cover Up Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

38 minutes

Words per minute

154.71666

Word count

5,970

Sentence count

407

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

17

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump share the stage at the Turning Point USA Conference in Arizona. Democrats are going all in to try to keep Donald Trump out of the White House, and the government is still trying to cover up the details of the Carter v. Fauci scandal.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.540 Welcome.
00:00:06.240 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.900 The Week in Review.
00:00:09.280 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:10.560 And these are some of the big stories that you might have missed that we talked about
00:00:13.520 this week.
00:00:14.200 First up, it's not a surprise, but it is a little shocking.
00:00:18.800 The Democrats are now going all in, saying it is time to make sure they keep Donald Trump
00:00:25.840 out of the White House.
00:00:27.120 How do they want to do it?
00:00:28.020 By having Congress say, no, you cannot be president.
00:00:32.300 This coming from the same party that said that Donald Trump was a, quote, threat to democracy,
00:00:37.760 that he would be a dictator and a tyrant, and he wouldn't respect the outcome of the election.
00:00:43.700 And if he got into office, he would never leave office.
00:00:46.820 Well, now the Democrats, they're doing exactly what they said Donald Trump was going to do.
00:00:52.840 Also, there was a very interesting moment that happened at the Turning Point USA Conference
00:00:57.700 out in Arizona, and it involved Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump sharing the stage.
00:01:03.480 Plus, his speech at that event, well, it was a very, very interesting one, especially about
00:01:09.420 the future of this country.
00:01:10.880 We're going to have that for you as well.
00:01:13.260 And finally, the COVID cover-up.
00:01:16.040 We're now finding out a lot more about just how far they went to cover up the lab leak theory.
00:01:22.120 And now what we know about what the government did under Fauci to cover up all of it.
00:01:29.020 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:31.960 The way that you're talking about accountability maybe explains why we are now seeing Democrats
00:01:39.800 write articles saying that it's time to steal the election from Donald Trump.
00:01:45.660 In The Hill, for example, Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office,
00:01:51.180 but lawmakers must, quote, act now.
00:01:54.060 Now, this was an opinion piece written by two different individuals demanding that the
00:01:59.620 Democrats refuse to accept the outcome of the election, so much for the party that's
00:02:04.540 obsessed with democracy, right?
00:02:06.420 Yeah, I got to say, this is an article that was in The Hill that it came out again on December
00:02:11.080 26th, day after Christmas.
00:02:13.160 It is entitled, Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act
00:02:17.860 now, and it is by Evan Davis and David Schulte, who, I don't know either one of these individuals,
00:02:26.160 I don't know anything about them.
00:02:27.340 Their bio says, Evan Davis was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review, and David Schulte
00:02:32.920 was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.
00:02:35.260 Both clerked for Justice Potter Stewart.
00:02:37.900 Davis is a New York lawyer, served as president of the New York City Bar, and Schulte is a Chicago
00:02:41.640 investment banker.
00:02:42.760 And I don't know these guys, but it's been a long time since Potter Stewart served on the
00:02:47.220 court.
00:02:47.860 Which means these are not spring chickens.
00:02:50.160 They were law clerks a long time ago.
00:02:53.480 I mean, I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist in 1996, and by the time I was there, Potter
00:02:59.480 Stewart had been long, long God.
00:03:01.820 And I got to say, the most screamingly funny part of it is, they begin their bios with
00:03:06.020 they were editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review and the Yale Law Journal.
00:03:09.160 Like, I'm sorry, these are presumably accomplished lawyers who are grown-ass adults, and they're
00:03:14.160 quoting the law review they were on when they were 24 years old. 0.98
00:03:18.580 That's just ridiculous.
00:03:19.820 And it actually, it makes the rest of the article make sense, because, listen, part of the 0.95
00:03:28.500 reason our academy is so messed up is you have people who are disconnected from reality, who
00:03:35.840 are hardcore leftist.
00:03:37.140 Far too many people in our universities are openly Marxist.
00:03:42.840 When I was at Harvard Law School, there were more professors on the faculty who were explicitly
00:03:47.640 Marxist than there were who were Republican.
00:03:50.520 And it wasn't even close.
00:03:51.400 There were more than a dozen.
00:03:52.600 By their own self-description, Marxist professors, there was only one open Republican on the
00:03:59.020 faculty when I was there.
00:04:00.440 But what these two numbskulls are arguing is that Congress, when we come together on January 0.89
00:04:06.780 6th, should block Trump from becoming president, and we should do so, they argue, under the 14th
00:04:13.640 Amendment, Section 3 of the Constitution, that says no person shall hold any office, civil
00:04:18.440 or military, who, having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution, shall have
00:04:22.420 engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.
00:04:25.860 Now, they argue this has been disqualification.
00:04:30.540 The evidence of Trump's engagement in insurrection is overwhelming.
00:04:34.240 It has been decided in three separate forums, they write, two of which are fully contested
00:04:38.520 with the active participation of Trump's counsel.
00:04:40.600 The first was Trump's second impeachment trial.
00:04:44.120 The second contested proceeding was Colorado's five-day judicial due process hearing where they
00:04:51.760 found that Trump had engaged in insurrection and barred him from the ballot.
00:04:55.240 And finally, there is the bipartisan inquiry of the House Select Committee to investigate
00:04:59.420 January 6th. 0.99
00:05:01.060 Now, the stupidity of this argument literally leaps off of every syllable of every word that 1.00
00:05:07.100 they have written. 1.00
00:05:07.680 Let's take the first.
00:05:09.780 Okay, a bunch of partisan Democrats impeach Trump because they hate him.
00:05:14.460 And by the way, to be clear, verdict was launched in response, not to the second impeachment, but
00:05:18.880 in response to the first impeachment trial, because we have seen lawfare against Donald Trump.
00:05:24.160 Trump derangement syndrome is real. 1.00
00:05:26.640 It is a serious mental illness. 1.00
00:05:28.600 These people are friggin' nuts. 1.00
00:05:30.220 They hate his guts. 1.00
00:05:31.380 They've lost their minds. 0.98
00:05:32.660 And at this point, understand, these two numbskulls and every other Democrat who engages in fantasy
00:05:40.640 about this is an election denier and an insurrectionist.
00:05:45.420 They are trying to say, we don't care that the voters voted.
00:05:47.960 We don't care that the result was overwhelming.
00:05:49.920 We don't care that of the seven contested battleground states, Donald Trump won, not one, not two,
00:05:55.260 not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven, all seven.
00:05:58.640 We don't care.
00:05:59.820 We are angry leftists, and their argument is we should block it.
00:06:05.140 Now, to be clear, they said there were three different proceedings that had determined he
00:06:09.880 was an insurrectionist.
00:06:10.800 The first was the impeachment trial.
00:06:12.560 Of course, the impeachment trial is two parts.
00:06:15.520 One is the impeachment of the House of Representatives, and partisan Democrats did impeach him, but then
00:06:19.380 it went to the Senate, and there was a trial.
00:06:21.400 And at the end of the trial, Donald Trump was acquitted.
00:06:24.180 They ignore that fact.
00:06:25.140 It literally is not mentioned in their op ad.
00:06:26.740 The second is the Colorado, the radical partisan decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, except
00:06:33.800 for the fact that the U.S.
00:06:35.160 Supreme Court unanimously reversed that decision.
00:06:39.680 By the way, that's another prediction I made on this podcast.
00:06:42.680 When the Colorado Supreme Court came back down, I said this will be reversed, and it will be
00:06:46.920 reversed unanimously.
00:06:48.380 That's what the court did.
00:06:49.420 And they barely acknowledged the Supreme Court reversed it, but they just kind of ignore
00:06:54.520 it and say, well, that's another way it was determined in a decision that has been reversed
00:06:58.080 unanimously by the Supreme Court.
00:07:00.300 And the third, I really laugh, is the, quote, bipartisan inquiry of the House Select Committee
00:07:05.520 to investigate January 6th.
00:07:07.400 Now, it's bipartisan because Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, two people fully afflicted by
00:07:12.320 Trump derangement, Senator Moore included.
00:07:13.780 Of course, Nancy Pelosi allowed no Republicans on it. 0.97
00:07:16.720 Who, by the way, voted for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.
00:07:19.880 So let's not forget that.
00:07:21.160 But they're like, oh, they act like they were Republicans.
00:07:23.520 No, they're not.
00:07:24.620 Look, to be clear.
00:07:25.660 And by the way, both of them also campaigned against me.
00:07:27.920 I was really grateful for it.
00:07:28.880 I think that was quite helpful.
00:07:29.860 Probably drove votes my way. 0.83
00:07:30.960 But to call that inquiry bipartisan when the way committees are put together on Capitol Hill
00:07:39.940 is that both sides pick, the Republicans pick, the Republicans on the committee, the Democrats
00:07:45.940 pick, the Democrats on the committee.
00:07:47.580 Well, for the January 6th committee, Nancy Pelosi said, no, no, no, I'm picking the Republicans.
00:07:52.540 And the only Republicans I will allow on are people who hate Donald Trump, who are foaming
00:07:57.160 at the mouth, who will do everything they can to destroy Donald Trump.
00:07:59.820 They're the only ones I will allow on.
00:08:02.000 And so, you know, when you had other Republicans that Kevin McCarthy was trying to put on, Nancy
00:08:08.240 Pelosi said, nope, they are not welcome.
00:08:10.620 We only take Republicans who agree with the Democrats on everything.
00:08:15.040 That ain't a bipartisan inquiry.
00:08:16.800 And by the way, we're getting more and more evidence of just how skewed that was.
00:08:20.600 The point is, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what this op ed was other
00:08:27.200 than it is a window into the eyes of what the hard left is.
00:08:33.080 They hate Trump so much.
00:08:36.160 Sigmund Freud talked about projection and the left engages in projection all the time.
00:08:42.060 Everything they accuse their enemies of doing is what they are doing.
00:08:45.900 They claim to be defending democracy.
00:08:48.240 This may be the most anti-democratic article I have ever read, which is saying that Congress
00:08:56.000 should say, I don't care that the voters elected Trump.
00:08:59.280 And by the way, they don't dispute that the voters elect Trump.
00:09:01.520 They fully accept.
00:09:03.000 Yes, the American people came to vote and want Donald Trump.
00:09:06.520 But we know better than they do.
00:09:08.720 And so take a stand and take a stand to block what the voters want.
00:09:15.300 Why?
00:09:15.760 Because we are Democrats and we hate democracy.
00:09:18.740 They don't say that, but that's clearly what they conclude.
00:09:21.600 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to
00:09:25.580 the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:09:28.600 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:09:30.540 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:09:34.680 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:09:37.820 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:09:39.660 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:09:40.940 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,
00:09:45.980 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:09:50.360 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:09:53.600 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:09:59.540 Now on to story number two.
00:10:01.880 All right.
00:10:02.160 So let's paint the stage here for everybody that may not have seen your comments at Turning
00:10:08.100 Point, because when Donald Trump went up on stage, there was a really funny moment.
00:10:12.820 You mentioned in the intro there.
00:10:14.400 And that was you being backstage.
00:10:17.000 And then what was funny was, is people start putting on social media as Senator Cruz sneaking
00:10:21.420 up on Trump on stage, which made me laugh because he was looking for you.
00:10:25.780 And I'm glad that the Secret Service didn't, you know, like tackle you or anything.
00:10:28.880 But this is what Donald Trump had to say when he was looking for you.
00:10:33.500 It was hilarious.
00:10:35.040 Pleased to be joined by a man who just also, we really did well in Texas.
00:10:40.220 And I heard Ted's speech.
00:10:42.340 And he can come up and speak more if he wants, or he can just, you know, Ted's going to be
00:10:47.240 going to a big event in a little while.
00:10:49.040 Where's Ted Cruz?
00:10:49.860 Is he here?
00:10:50.920 He's here someplace, Ted?
00:10:53.780 Ted?
00:10:54.220 Oh, oh, oh, he's in trouble.
00:11:04.680 He's in trouble.
00:11:07.520 By the way, the cheering right there is I'm walking out behind him.
00:11:10.420 He was here.
00:11:11.240 Oh, oh, good.
00:11:18.880 He's not in trouble.
00:11:20.100 He's not in trouble.
00:11:24.220 Keep Texas, Texas.
00:11:26.680 Amen.
00:11:30.680 And I've got to say, this election has given President Donald J. Trump, a Republican Senate
00:11:37.680 and a Republican House, a clear mandate to deliver on our promises.
00:11:43.260 One month from today, President Trump will secure the border.
00:11:57.720 We are going to bring back jobs.
00:12:00.020 We are going to lower prices.
00:12:01.780 We are going to protect American families.
00:12:04.300 We are going to put criminals in jail.
00:12:06.320 We are going to keep our kids safe.
00:12:08.760 We are going to end foreign wars with victory. 0.55
00:12:18.720 And I'll tell you, Mr. President, the results of this election, seven battleground states,
00:12:23.800 you won all seven.
00:12:26.980 The people elected a Republican Senate and a Republican House to have your back.
00:12:32.860 And we are going to deliver results.
00:12:41.540 And if I can speak parochially for a minute,
00:12:44.220 one of the most consequential things that happened in this race in Texas, 0.85
00:12:50.060 you won profoundly in Texas,
00:12:52.500 and both you and I won a majority of Hispanic votes in the great state of Texas.
00:12:58.940 That is unprecedented.
00:13:06.640 That is generational change.
00:13:09.180 And it demonstrates that we are going to protect our nation.
00:13:13.040 We are going to bring our country back.
00:13:15.080 And we are going to make America great again.
00:13:18.620 He's a great, he's actually a great guy.
00:13:32.100 He was, was really out there working.
00:13:34.980 Oh, I'm so glad he was here.
00:13:36.300 Oh, that was an amazing moment.
00:13:43.320 I got to tell you, I love just the end there.
00:13:48.840 He's smiling.
00:13:50.020 He's grinning.
00:13:51.540 The demeanor and the interaction is just seems to be very different this time than it compared to 2016.
00:13:58.700 It's like you guys are on the same football team going into the playoffs as a team. 0.99
00:14:03.600 And let's whoop some ass. 1.00
00:14:05.520 Well, I think that's exactly right. 0.99
00:14:08.160 And I got to say, at the entire AmericaFest, Trump was happy.
00:14:14.160 He was relaxed.
00:14:15.180 He was feeling good.
00:14:16.380 You could see it in a way that just he was loose and having fun.
00:14:22.140 And listen, we're coming in with an incredible mandate.
00:14:26.300 We're going to transform, I believe, the country.
00:14:30.220 And I think he's ready to get to work.
00:14:32.160 And I know I am.
00:14:33.300 And I think all of us are.
00:14:35.520 So let's talk about his agenda for a second.
00:14:39.120 One of the things you talked about was the border.
00:14:41.180 That seems to be a very central point of what he keeps talking about over and over again.
00:14:46.540 And is that something that you and him have talked about very clearly?
00:14:50.700 Like, hey, this is square.
00:14:52.540 This is step one.
00:14:53.580 Let's go.
00:14:54.660 We're going to knock this out day one.
00:14:57.760 Absolutely.
00:14:58.240 And the clearest single mandate of this election is to secure the border.
00:15:02.340 People are fed up with Joe Biden and the Democrats' open borders.
00:15:06.920 They want it to end.
00:15:08.120 They want the border secured.
00:15:09.560 And we're going to get that done.
00:15:10.800 And Trump understands that.
00:15:13.420 I think Republicans in the Senate understand that.
00:15:15.500 Republicans in the House understand that.
00:15:17.440 And we're going to get it done, which is exactly what the voters sent us there to do.
00:15:22.720 I want to get back to the turning point event that you just left.
00:15:28.300 Obviously, Donald Trump was there.
00:15:30.440 You were asked to speak.
00:15:32.360 And I want you to give us a quick preview before we play your speech, because this is one of those speeches that I think is really about setting the tone for what's coming in January when you guys have control of the Senate and the House and the White House.
00:15:47.940 Well, I started this morning speaking, and this is about an hour before the exchange that you heard at the beginning of the podcast with President Trump and me.
00:15:56.240 I addressed, as I said, over 3,000 young people, activists at Turning Point.
00:16:00.960 It was incredible.
00:16:01.760 And I really wanted to encourage them.
00:16:03.160 I wanted to encourage them that they had had a profound impact on this election, on this country.
00:16:08.580 And I also wanted to focus on, now that we've won, we've got a job to do.
00:16:13.340 And so what I attempted to do in these remarks is lay out, here are the deliverables that we need to accomplish in the next two years to have a clear vision for what to expect.
00:16:24.640 I'm really excited.
00:16:25.600 I'm excited about President Trump being reelected and coming back into office.
00:16:29.920 I'm excited about a Republican Senate and a Republican House.
00:16:32.940 But I also have in front of me the absolute seriousness we need to deliver on our promises.
00:16:39.340 And so that's what I had to say to Turning Point this morning.
00:16:42.280 Take a listen as we play this right now.
00:16:44.960 God bless Turning Point.
00:16:50.340 We are looking at America.
00:16:54.240 We are gathered here at truly a momentous time.
00:16:57.800 If you were young and passionate and it was 1776, you would have been part of transforming and creating the United States of America.
00:17:11.600 If you were young and passionate and the year was 1980 and the Reagan Revolution was happening, you would have been part of transforming the United States of America.
00:17:22.480 And today, in 2024, you are young and passionate and every one of you is integral to transforming the United States of America.
00:17:39.620 The Washington swamp is terrified of you.
00:17:45.420 Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris are terrified of you.
00:17:53.000 Joe Biden.
00:17:54.960 Well, no, he's actually not terrified.
00:17:56.720 He doesn't know where he is.
00:17:59.480 But he is wondering what time the People's Court is on TV.
00:18:02.240 If you look at what happened in November, the results of the election were clear and unequivocal.
00:18:11.060 Seven battleground states across America.
00:18:14.620 We won all seven.
00:18:16.920 And I've got to say, Donald J. Trump is truly an extraordinary leader.
00:18:29.740 Has there ever been anyone in American history who, after being shot in the head, stands up and responds,
00:18:38.780 The American people have given us the White House.
00:18:51.100 They've given us the House.
00:18:53.740 They've given us the Senate.
00:18:55.540 Now, it's time for us to deliver.
00:19:01.060 We have work to do to deliver on our promises so a year from now, two years from now, four years from now,
00:19:09.280 the American people can say they did exactly what they said they would do.
00:19:14.480 Number one, starting on January 20th, we will secure the border.
00:19:22.140 Catch and release ends on January 20th. 0.99
00:19:37.500 If you are an illegal alien, if you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, 1.00
00:19:44.740 if you're a Venezuelan gang member, pack your bags because you're getting the hell out. 1.00
00:19:52.140 And I'm here to tell you that's not going to take a year. 0.93
00:20:00.420 It's not going to take six months.
00:20:01.920 We are going to see the numbers of illegal immigration plummet,
00:20:06.400 and they are going to plummet in January and February of this year.
00:20:10.880 Number two, we are going to unleash American energy.
00:20:24.380 America is the world's energy superpower, the number one producer of oil in the world,
00:20:30.160 the number one producer of natural gas in the world,
00:20:33.200 and America will be energy dominant.
00:20:37.600 If you're fed up with high prices, high prices at the gas pump,
00:20:42.020 high prices at the grocery store, high prices when you pay your bills,
00:20:46.700 energy feeds into every one of them.
00:20:48.920 The American people in this election said enough is enough is enough,
00:20:53.220 and we are going to lower energy costs and make life more affordable for everyone.
00:20:58.320 Number three, we are going to unleash small business.
00:21:10.280 The regulators descending from Washington,
00:21:14.000 we are going to repeal the rules they're using to kill small businesses.
00:21:18.920 And I'll tell you what, we are also going to unleash crypto.
00:21:22.900 I'm proud to stand with crypto, I'm proud to stand with Bitcoin,
00:21:28.400 and I am the only member of the United States Senate who is, in fact, a Bitcoin miner.
00:21:34.500 I've got three miners hashing in West Texas right now, and it is beautiful.
00:21:40.820 And let me say to all of crypto and all of Bitcoin,
00:21:44.240 come to Texas.
00:21:45.780 Texas is the oasis for Bitcoin.
00:21:48.440 Number four, we will restore integrity to the Department of Justice and the FBI.
00:22:00.540 If you are a wild-eyed partisan who has abused your power and targeted your political enemies at DOJ or the FBI,
00:22:09.560 well, pack your bags because your job is done.
00:22:11.780 And that means, number five, we will enforce the law,
00:22:15.800 especially against universities across this country.
00:22:25.780 The anti-Semitic protests we've seen at universities will end next year.
00:22:32.960 If you violently protest, if you threaten your fellow students,
00:22:42.940 you will be arrested, you will be expelled, 0.95
00:22:45.980 and if you're a foreigner, you will be deported.
00:22:49.780 And we're going to see the Department of Justice and the FBI follow the money,
00:23:02.140 go after the money, cut off the money.
00:23:04.460 We're going to see universities that tolerate anti-Semitism having their federal funds cut off.
00:23:11.020 And when your fellow students look around and say,
00:23:19.980 hey, why didn't this happen before?
00:23:22.980 Why did everyone look the other way at the violence and the threats and the hatred and the bigotry?
00:23:28.820 You're going to be in a position to tell them.
00:23:31.100 And we will end the wars with victory.
00:23:35.060 The war in Ukraine will end this next year, and Vladimir Putin will lose.
00:23:43.520 And the war in Israel will come to an end, and Hamas will lose.
00:23:48.140 Hezbollah will lose. Iran will lose.
00:23:54.800 Every one of you, stand up and speak, and I want to encourage you, inform your friends.
00:23:59.800 I want to ask you, pull out your cell phone.
00:24:01.400 Pull out your cell phone and send the word, text the word VERDICT to the number 24005.
00:24:12.360 That number again, 24005.
00:24:16.320 Text the word VERDICT.
00:24:17.940 You will get back a link to subscribe to my podcast that is designed to help inform you to be,
00:24:28.620 you are the ones who won this election.
00:24:31.580 You are the ones who are persuading your colleagues.
00:24:34.740 You are the ones who are informed and educated and engaged.
00:24:39.220 And just as if we were in 1980, just as if we were in 1776,
00:24:44.960 I stand here today amazed and inspired to be in the company of patriots who love America,
00:24:52.420 who together we are making America great again.
00:24:56.980 God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
00:25:02.220 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,
00:25:08.580 you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:25:13.560 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:25:15.640 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:25:19.840 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:25:23.560 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:25:24.680 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:25:25.700 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:25:29.760 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,
00:25:33.280 all at different stages of their journey.
00:25:35.480 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:25:38.720 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:25:42.760 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:25:49.200 So Joe Biden's administration has got some cover-ups going on
00:25:54.820 that the Wall Street Journal Center is reporting on.
00:25:57.720 Behind the closed doors, we found out that the Lab Week cover-up was a legit cover-up.
00:26:03.400 And now since he's lost, it's like, oh, we can report on this now.
00:26:06.440 Well, this was a story that came out in the Wall Street Journal December 26,
00:26:11.600 and it really is a bombshell story.
00:26:13.780 And it describes how the federal government, essentially the deep state,
00:26:18.520 under Joe Biden, but this is also true under Trump.
00:26:21.080 They didn't – the journal article doesn't talk about Trump,
00:26:23.600 but I'm very interested to what was happening under the Trump administration as well.
00:26:27.340 But how the deep state covered up the evidence and covered up the scientists
00:26:32.580 that were arguing that the COVID virus escaped from the Wuhan lab in China.
00:26:40.200 And it focuses on, in particular, it starts with Jason Bannon.
00:26:45.140 So here, I'm just going to read you the beginning of the article because it lays it out.
00:26:48.860 A car and driver had been ready to whisk Jason Bannon from FBI headquarters early one morning in August 2021
00:26:54.380 to brief the White House on a novel virus that was killing hundreds of thousands of Americans
00:26:59.000 that had stopped the world in its tracks.
00:27:00.800 Bannon had been told by his superiors to be on hand in case the Federal Bureau of Investigation
00:27:06.280 was asked to join a top intelligence community briefing for the president.
00:27:10.940 But the White House summons never came.
00:27:13.900 Bannon, a Ph.D. in microbiology, had joined the Bureau after the September 11th terrorist attacks
00:27:18.880 in New York and Washington when the agency bulked up its expertise to deal with the threat of germ weapons,
00:27:24.240 toxins, and other weapons of mass destruction.
00:27:26.080 But for more than a year, he had spent most of his waking hours on the COVID-19 virus that had seeped out of China in 2019.
00:27:34.440 Frustrated by China's stonewalling, President Biden had ordered an urgent assessment by the U.S. intelligence agencies
00:27:40.060 and national laboratories on whether the virus had leapt from an animal to a human
00:27:44.420 or had escaped from a Chinese lab that had been doing extensive work on coronaviruses.
00:27:48.920 The dominant view within the intelligence community was clear when Avril Haynes,
00:27:53.600 the director of national intelligence, and a couple of her senior analysts briefed Bidens and his top aides on August 24th.
00:28:00.460 The National Intelligence Council, a body of senior intelligence officers who reported to Haynes
00:28:04.800 and that organized the intelligence review, had concluded with, quote,
00:28:09.360 low confidence that COVID-19 had emerged when the virus leapt from an animal to a human.
00:28:15.200 So did four intelligence agencies.
00:28:18.160 At the time, the FBI was the only agency that had concluded that a lab leak was likely,
00:28:24.800 a judgment that it had rendered with, quote, moderate confidence.
00:28:29.000 But neither Bannon nor any other FBI officials were at the briefing to make the case firsthand to the president.
00:28:37.760 Quote, being the only agency that assessed a laboratory origin was more likely,
00:28:43.600 and the agency that expressed the highest level confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic,
00:28:48.660 we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,
00:28:52.280 Bannon recalled in his first on-the-record interview on the subject.
00:28:55.680 I find it surprising that the White House didn't ask.
00:28:59.120 In this article in the Wall Street Journal, it goes on and on discussing Bannon, this FBI scientist,
00:29:05.000 but also scientists throughout the federal government who had laid out evidence early on
00:29:09.720 that COVID came from a Chinese lab, and that evidence was systematically shut down.
00:29:15.200 It was systematically de-emphasized, and it appears that it was systematically blocked
00:29:20.440 from going to the White House under Joe Biden.
00:29:22.860 And as I said, I'm very interested.
00:29:24.460 The Wall Street Journal doesn't report this,
00:29:26.340 but my suspicion is they were doing the exact same thing when Donald Trump was president.
00:29:30.180 So here's my question, and this is a political one.
00:29:35.020 There are people that are really frustrated with so much that happened around COVID,
00:29:40.500 and the answers we didn't get, and Fauci lying to Congress.
00:29:44.200 The list goes on and on.
00:29:46.020 And there's people that are frustrated saying,
00:29:47.640 all right, now that Republicans are in charge, what are they going to do about it?
00:29:51.500 Are they going to investigate?
00:29:52.920 Are they going to hold people accountable?
00:29:54.160 If they were lying to us, whether it's on the origins,
00:29:57.020 whether it's the gang of function research, there's a long list.
00:30:00.980 Should Republicans go down that rabbit hole and do that,
00:30:04.820 or is that going to be looked at by many Americans like,
00:30:08.160 move on already?
00:30:08.900 We've done this already.
00:30:09.860 What are you doing already?
00:30:11.320 There's a real political price that you could pay
00:30:14.480 from being out of touch with what the American people want.
00:30:16.700 I know there's people that are angry and are frustrated,
00:30:19.020 but what should the strategy be come January 20th?
00:30:21.780 I think the strategy should be serious transparency,
00:30:26.040 and it should be accountability.
00:30:28.140 It should be number one.
00:30:29.560 So you are in favor of accountability for people that lie to Congress.
00:30:33.120 Yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:30:33.300 Okay.
00:30:34.440 Then explain what that looks like.
00:30:35.740 Let me start with transparency.
00:30:38.160 And this is a conversation I have had the last couple of weeks
00:30:41.200 with Pam Bondi, who's been nominated to be the Attorney General,
00:30:43.940 and with Kash Patel, who's been nominated to be the Director of the FBI,
00:30:47.520 and also with the nominee for the Deputy Attorney General.
00:30:51.380 And with other senior law enforcement nominees,
00:30:53.920 I've said very simply, make the information public.
00:30:58.160 Make it public on January 6th, the confidential informants that were there.
00:31:02.840 Don't give the names.
00:31:04.100 Don't out, obviously, people who are undercover.
00:31:06.940 But make the information public.
00:31:09.700 It is a public interest.
00:31:11.400 And on COVID-19, put the evidence out there and make it public.
00:31:14.980 I believe China was directly culpable. 0.87
00:31:17.060 And by the way, I will say, this is a prediction that verdict laid out
00:31:23.360 almost before anybody else.
00:31:25.800 We had two different podcasts, I believe, in March and April of 2021,
00:31:31.880 right at the very beginning of COVID, where we laid out the evidence
00:31:37.280 that the COVID virus came from a Chinese lab. 0.87
00:31:41.240 And that evidence, we're going to do, for New Year's,
00:31:44.600 we're going to do an episode going through all of the predictions
00:31:46.980 that verdict has laid out that have come true.
00:31:49.580 Because, look, we have not been shy on taking a risk,
00:31:54.040 on making a prediction, making a counterintuitive.
00:31:58.480 Look, when I said COVID came from a Chinese virus at the time,
00:32:02.800 that was almost universally labeled misinformation.
00:32:05.940 Oh, it was on social media.
00:32:08.320 You couldn't post that.
00:32:09.360 They'd shut you down.
00:32:10.580 It remains remarkable.
00:32:11.860 To this day, I don't know why they didn't block verdict when we said it,
00:32:14.580 because others were getting blocked.
00:32:16.580 Somehow we got through.
00:32:18.940 And it is, and by the way, I will say,
00:32:25.360 it wasn't just this scientist at the FBI.
00:32:28.100 Let me go back to the Wall Street Journal article.
00:32:31.040 Here's a couple more paragraphs.
00:32:32.360 Quote, three scientists at the National Center for Medical Intelligence,
00:32:37.040 part of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency,
00:32:39.700 conducted a scientific study that concluded that COVID-19
00:32:43.200 was manipulated in a laboratory in a risky research effort.
00:32:48.300 But that analysis was at odds with the assessment of their parent agency,
00:32:52.220 the Defense Intelligence Agency,
00:32:53.940 and wasn't incorporated in the report presented to Biden.
00:32:58.000 The DIA Inspector General's office opened an inquiry in the spring
00:33:01.700 into whether the scientists' assessments was mishandled or suppressed,
00:33:05.920 people familiar with the matter said.
00:33:08.700 And look, I think this is important.
00:33:12.200 Number one, because we need truth and accountability.
00:33:14.720 I think the Chinese government bears enormous responsibility 0.98
00:33:18.240 for the people who died, for the millions who died.
00:33:22.560 1.2 million Americans are counted as having been killed with the coronavirus.
00:33:30.280 7 million people worldwide.
00:33:32.420 It was a massive consequence, and the economy shut down globally.
00:33:37.120 Trillions of dollars was destroyed.
00:33:40.700 Millions of lives, trillions of dollars,
00:33:42.860 and I believe the Chinese Communist government has direct culpability for that.
00:33:47.460 And I think the Trump administration would be doing America and the world of service
00:33:53.460 for making that evidence public.
00:33:55.240 But I also think it's important.
00:33:56.940 Listen, there's going to be another crisis.
00:33:59.540 We don't want career bureaucrats within the government
00:34:02.920 suppressing evidence that they don't like.
00:34:06.240 We don't want career bureaucrats, the deep state, 0.99
00:34:09.360 pushing their preferred narrative.
00:34:11.680 You've got to ask why they were leaning in so hard to protect China.
00:34:15.520 Why was that the dominant narrative,
00:34:18.740 and why was everything else shut down?
00:34:23.500 Because the next crisis we face,
00:34:26.220 let's go back to the Wall Street Journal article,
00:34:28.180 because we also saw the scientific community lean in like crazy.
00:34:32.420 Here's another two paragraphs talking about two theories,
00:34:35.620 one that it came from an animal naturally,
00:34:37.880 and the other that it came from a lab leak.
00:34:40.120 Quote,
00:34:41.020 those two theories have also divided the scientific community in February 2020.
00:34:45.520 More than two dozen scientists published a statement in the medical journal Lancet
00:34:49.340 calling the lab leak hypothesis a conspiracy theory
00:34:53.140 that would jeopardize global cooperation in the struggle against the virus.
00:34:58.000 One of the authors was Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance,
00:35:01.660 a nonprofit that has worked extensively on coronavirus research
00:35:05.660 with the Wuhan Institute.
00:35:08.160 That statement was followed a month later by a March 2020 paper on the proximal origins of COVID-19,
00:35:14.840 in which Kristen Anderson of the Scripps Research Institute and four other scientists argued
00:35:19.420 that the virus wasn't purposely manipulated in the laboratory
00:35:23.480 and almost certainly had natural origins.
00:35:26.160 Now, my view right now, based on the evidence that is public,
00:35:28.720 I think it is overwhelmingly likely that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab.
00:35:36.920 And I think it is likely, I wouldn't use the word overwhelmingly,
00:35:40.260 but I think it is greater than 50 percent that the COVID virus was manipulated
00:35:44.920 by those Chinese scientists through gain-of-function research
00:35:48.040 to make it either more deadly, more transmissible,
00:35:52.900 or more in particular able to impact humans.
00:35:58.880 That has not been as conclusively proven as has been proven in my judgment
00:36:03.560 that it escaped from a government lab.
00:36:05.460 It's possible it was a natural virus and they screwed up and it escaped.
00:36:10.280 It is indisputable that China covered it up and did everything they could to suppress it after the fact,
00:36:14.880 but I think it is more likely than not that not only did it escape from a Chinese government lab,
00:36:19.500 but they created it through gain-of-function research.
00:36:22.620 We need to know that.
00:36:24.100 And I got to say, the paragraph I read,
00:36:26.740 Peter Daszak got a whole lot of money at the EcoHealth Alliance
00:36:30.780 for doing research on coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute.
00:36:34.800 There's every reason to expect he was deeply invested in not having anyone know that.
00:36:40.440 And by the way, so was Anthony Fauci.
00:36:42.380 Anthony Fauci's culpability, Daszak's culpability.
00:36:45.920 I hope we have congressional hearings on this.
00:36:48.120 I hope we get to the bottom of what actually happened
00:36:50.260 because I think there is a virtue to transparency and clarity,
00:36:54.840 both for accountability and responsibility for the Chinese communist government,
00:36:59.540 but also to prevent manipulating the science for the next crisis.
00:37:04.460 So final question on this, and that's going to come back to Fauci.
00:37:08.060 What does accountability look like for a guy like that?
00:37:10.860 Look, I don't know.
00:37:12.560 I think it is likely that Fauci lied to Congress under oath.
00:37:17.480 Lying to Congress under oath is a felony.
00:37:19.940 I've called repeatedly.
00:37:20.980 I've asked Merrick Garland if he's open an investigation,
00:37:24.380 if he's willing to prosecute Fauci.
00:37:26.200 Merrick Garland had no interest in prosecuting Fauci.
00:37:28.860 As I'm sitting here right now, I don't remember the dates.
00:37:31.400 I think it is likely the statute of limitations has expired on prosecuting him.
00:37:35.900 So it may be – I'm not remembering the dates as you and I are doing this right now,
00:37:40.700 but I think there's a good chance that Trump cannot prosecute Fauci for lying to Congress.
00:37:46.880 But I think laying out that accountability is important,
00:37:49.680 and I think the reason the Biden DOJ didn't want to do so is because this has been
00:37:53.820 the most politicized Department of Justice in history.
00:37:57.320 Fauci went before Congress and insisted that the U.S. government had not paid for,
00:38:02.960 had not funded gain-of-function research, and actually the NIH came back
00:38:07.380 and had to correct that after the fact and make clear that what he said was false.
00:38:12.040 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:38:16.380 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:38:17.300 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day
00:38:20.900 you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:38:24.340 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast,
00:38:27.840 and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:38:30.500 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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