Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 13, 2023


Dems Make Clear： They Support Open Borders MUCH MORE than They Care about Ukraine


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

176.83795

Word Count

6,994

Sentence Count

491


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:06.280 Welcome.
00:00:07.060 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:10.620 And we have a lot to talk about on this episode, including Zelensky coming to Washington, begging
00:00:16.540 for more money that involves Ukraine funding, which involves funding at the border, which
00:00:21.600 involves funding with Israel.
00:00:24.100 And if that's not enough for you, we also have an update on impeachment moving its way
00:00:28.980 through the House.
00:00:30.000 Senator, let's go back to the very beginning, and it was a wild day on Capitol Hill.
00:00:36.280 You've got Zelensky who comes to town.
00:00:38.280 He's asking for money.
00:00:39.680 The thread that we've seen of kind of headlines here from the Democrats is, you must stand
00:00:45.740 with them no matter what, forever in portuity, amen.
00:00:49.940 And you can't ask questions about where the money's going or transparency.
00:00:53.900 We've just got to write them this blank check.
00:00:56.080 And how dare you Republicans tie this to border security?
00:01:00.740 Give me your initial reaction to that.
00:01:03.820 Well, Zelensky's coming to Washington yesterday was designed.
00:01:09.640 It's a manifestation of the Democrats not living in reality.
00:01:14.940 Chuck Schumer does not believe that Republicans are serious about securing the border.
00:01:20.180 He's in absolute denial.
00:01:22.220 And I've got to say, the supplemental bill on Ukraine, the border, and Israel, the entire
00:01:28.440 thing is in a stalemate.
00:01:29.920 And I think it is very possible this thing will not pass for a long time.
00:01:35.700 Because Schumer and the Democrats, they're living in an alternate reality.
00:01:39.920 And they're just assuming Republicans will cave.
00:01:42.960 Now, sadly, that is a reasonable assumption in a lot of instances.
00:01:46.900 Senate Republicans in particular are pretty quick to cave.
00:01:50.640 I don't think that's going to happen in this instance.
00:01:53.920 And Schumer and the Democrats don't believe it.
00:01:56.800 And so Zelensky came this week to Washington because they're trying to bludgeon Republicans
00:02:03.120 into saying Ukraine really, really, really needs the money.
00:02:07.060 Rather than, look, there have been a lot of Republicans, House Republicans have made very
00:02:12.440 clear, there will be no Ukraine bill without serious, strong border security.
00:02:19.120 And right now, the Democrats are saying, we won't do border security, but give us the
00:02:23.020 Ukraine money anyway.
00:02:24.660 That ain't going anywhere.
00:02:26.300 It was also something that the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, referred to.
00:02:30.000 He said, look, they basically went silent when referring to negotiations with Republicans
00:02:34.720 on this U.S. border security package.
00:02:38.800 Take a listen to what he had to say on Fox News.
00:02:41.960 Significant steps that are happening, negotiations still going on with Secretary Mayorkas and others
00:02:47.840 in the administration about changes?
00:02:50.360 Well, I hope so.
00:02:51.620 Look, I've been crystal clear about this.
00:02:53.460 You know, if we're going to have a national security package of spending, national security
00:02:57.340 begins at our own border, this is about our own sovereignty, these are policy changes that
00:03:03.060 could be easily made, but the White House has been very reluctant.
00:03:07.260 They really went silent on us all of this time.
00:03:10.340 Now, I've been the Speaker for a little over six weeks, almost seven weeks, and since the
00:03:13.940 day I was handed the gavel, I've been saying that this was the condition, that we had to
00:03:18.140 do this first.
00:03:19.020 And we passed H.R.
00:03:20.360 2, the House passed our bill six months ago.
00:03:22.540 It's been sitting on the desk of Chuck Schumer ever since.
00:03:25.000 They've not taken us seriously, and here we are at the end of the year, and now they're
00:03:28.440 saying we've run out of time.
00:03:29.480 It's not the House's fault.
00:03:30.700 Yeah, here is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the timing of all of this.
00:03:34.520 Take a listen.
00:03:36.080 They're leaving at the end of the week, so all I have said is practically impossible, even
00:03:43.360 though we reach an agreement, to craft it, get it through the Senate, get it through the
00:03:48.880 House before Christmas.
00:03:50.220 That doesn't mean it's not important.
00:03:53.240 And even though we've been emphasizing the border, I want to remind everybody of the importance
00:04:00.060 of Ukraine.
00:04:02.120 So, just logistically, would you send the House home and then call them back if there's a deal,
00:04:09.860 or just punt everything to January?
00:04:11.440 Look, the House will do its work if there was a deal, but it has not materialized.
00:04:16.280 And as of tonight, they have given us the cold shoulders.
00:04:19.000 So, they're ignoring this.
00:04:20.500 What I believe is the top priority of the American people, it doesn't matter where I've been in
00:04:23.920 the country over the last few weeks, Brett, whether I'm in New York or the southeast or
00:04:29.860 out west, they all say the same thing.
00:04:31.800 They're deeply concerned about what's happening.
00:04:33.320 We had 12,000 people come over that border one day last week and Wednesday.
00:04:36.800 If you look at the statistics from October, November, and so far in December, more people
00:04:41.440 have crossed that border illegally since any entire year during the Obama administration.
00:04:46.080 It is not a sustainable situation.
00:04:48.140 It is harming our country in ways that are hard to describe, and we have to get on top.
00:04:53.240 So, here's my question.
00:04:55.180 You hear the Senate Majority Leader there, obviously Mitch McConnell, implying like, hey,
00:04:58.900 there's no deal.
00:04:59.680 So, if they think this is going to get done before Christmas, that's just not reality.
00:05:03.420 Then you have the Speaker saying the White House went silent on us on border package, and
00:05:07.980 he said the policy change is easily made, but the White House has been very reluctant
00:05:12.300 to do this.
00:05:13.880 So, read us in behind the scenes.
00:05:16.460 Why is it this much of a hell-bent answer from the Democrats not to secure a southern
00:05:21.620 border, knowing these numbers?
00:05:23.420 You talked about 12,000 coming across just last Wednesday alone.
00:05:27.100 Because the Democrats right now are in a state of denial.
00:05:30.320 Let's rewind a couple of weeks ago.
00:05:32.020 Two weeks ago, we had a classified briefing in the Senate, had every senator in there.
00:05:37.860 It was on Ukraine.
00:05:38.860 It had the Secretary of State.
00:05:41.360 It had the Secretary of Defense.
00:05:43.180 It had the intelligence agencies there.
00:05:46.000 And the entire purpose of the briefing was to say, Ukraine really, really, really needs
00:05:51.740 the money.
00:05:53.780 Now, on the Republican side, the Republican position for a long time has been, this bill
00:05:58.700 will not move without real border security.
00:06:01.040 And so, right at the outset, when we got to the questions, most of the briefing is questions
00:06:04.800 from the senators.
00:06:06.280 Republicans began to make clear, all right, well, where are we on border security?
00:06:09.680 And Chuck Schumer, what happened is something I've never seen before.
00:06:14.600 There was a screaming match down in the skiff, down in the secure facility where we're having
00:06:19.880 the classified briefing, where senators are screaming at the top of their lungs at each
00:06:23.540 other.
00:06:24.040 And several senators stormed out.
00:06:26.160 I've never seen that.
00:06:27.860 And what precipitated it is Schumer sat back and crossed his arms and he was defiant.
00:06:34.280 He was like, no, we are not doing border security.
00:06:36.940 This is not a part of it.
00:06:38.200 It's not going to happen.
00:06:39.460 Then that's not what this briefing is about.
00:06:41.620 And we're not even going to talk about it.
00:06:43.600 And a whole lot of Republicans got pissed.
00:06:47.440 Now, that was the defiance two weeks ago.
00:06:50.680 And Schumer bizarrely believes that that is a reasonable and viable negotiating position.
00:06:58.900 Now, last week, David Cameron was in town.
00:07:02.360 David Cameron, you'll remember, was the former prime minister of the United Kingdom.
00:07:06.060 Yeah, he's now he's now the foreign minister of the United Kingdom.
00:07:08.580 So he's back in the government.
00:07:09.880 This time, he's foreign minister instead of prime minister.
00:07:12.360 And so he came to Washington, D.C.
00:07:14.260 And often when you have heads of state or senior officials from foreign countries, they
00:07:20.200 will sit down and meet for coffee with the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:07:24.420 And so I'm on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:07:26.980 And so I went to that coffee.
00:07:28.180 And so we're sitting.
00:07:29.800 It's in a very cool, it's a ceremonial room in the Capitol that is the Foreign Relations
00:07:34.880 Committee room.
00:07:36.780 And we have it there.
00:07:38.160 They put a tablecloth on this this table that's, you know, 100 plus years old.
00:07:43.260 And they serve tea in China.
00:07:45.780 It's kind of very old school.
00:07:47.420 And you sit around talking with the head of state or, in this case, the British foreign
00:07:51.380 minister.
00:07:52.280 And he was there talking about Ukraine.
00:07:54.620 He was part of the lobbying effort to say, you got to give money to Ukraine.
00:07:58.460 You got to give money to Ukraine.
00:07:59.400 And I got to the coffee a few minutes late.
00:08:03.200 So I was near the end of the order of the senators who were commenting or speaking.
00:08:08.300 And so I heard senator after senator, mostly Democrats, just saying everything is wonderful
00:08:14.260 and peachy keen and we're going to vote out more Ukraine funding and it's going to happen.
00:08:17.480 And at one point, Bob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, he was talking about, he mentioned
00:08:24.720 the border briefly.
00:08:25.500 And he said, look, the border, the problem there is there's a lot of poverty in Latin
00:08:29.520 America.
00:08:29.940 And that's really, we're never going to fix this until we cure poverty in Central and
00:08:34.660 South America.
00:08:35.200 So that's what we need to do is make them rich countries and we won't have that problem.
00:08:40.600 So it got to me.
00:08:42.520 And I said, said to Cameron, I said, listen, number one, it's not your job to try to resolve
00:08:50.460 our border security problems.
00:08:53.200 You're here representing the government of the United Kingdom.
00:08:57.300 However, you should know, because you have a distinct interest in knowing this, that right
00:09:02.160 now this Ukraine bill is going nowhere.
00:09:04.760 It is dead.
00:09:07.080 And the reason you just heard, you just heard a bunch of Democrats blowing smoke up your
00:09:12.060 rear end.
00:09:13.500 They're just telling you everything is fine.
00:09:16.240 And so I actually relayed the story to Cameron about what had happened the preceding week in
00:09:20.900 the classified briefing where Schumer had defiantly said we'll do nothing and people had screamed
00:09:25.620 and stormed out.
00:09:26.620 And I said, I said to Cameron, listen, I don't know what is wrong with my Democrat colleagues.
00:09:32.800 But number one, the chances of a bill that funds Ukraine and doesn't secure the border,
00:09:39.360 the chances of that passing the House are 0.00%.
00:09:44.280 There is no way.
00:09:45.420 Mike Johnson's been saying that from the day he became Speaker.
00:09:48.220 Zero chance.
00:09:51.240 And Schumer and the Democrats are just in complete denial.
00:09:53.580 And I said, let me be clear.
00:09:55.520 I think the chances are exceptionally slim.
00:09:57.800 It would pass the Senate.
00:09:58.740 I can tell you the Senate Republican conference is as unified on this issue as I've ever seen it.
00:10:04.280 You played a minute ago the clip from Mitch McConnell.
00:10:06.400 Mitch McConnell may be the biggest Ukraine hawk among the Republicans.
00:10:12.120 He wants to fund Ukraine and even Mitch is holding firm on this.
00:10:19.180 We don't have any defectors on the Republican side.
00:10:22.000 And the bizarre thing is Schumer is just in utter denial and the other Democrats are as well.
00:10:29.100 And by the way, I pointed out, you know, Menendez said, well, gosh, it's just poverty in Latin America.
00:10:33.620 I said, with all due respect to what Bob said, you know what?
00:10:38.780 There's been poverty in Latin America a long time.
00:10:41.980 That's not the cause of this crisis.
00:10:43.920 When Biden came into power, he inherited the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years.
00:10:50.640 You know what?
00:10:51.020 There was poverty in Latin America then, too.
00:10:53.200 The reason for the crisis is Joe Biden and his administration refused to follow the law.
00:10:58.180 They've implemented catch and release and the numbers have skyrocketed 9.6 million illegal aliens have crossed under Joe Biden.
00:11:06.820 And what I said at this this coffee with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I said, listen, Eric Adams, the liberal Democrat mayor of New York City,
00:11:15.860 says that one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants in New York City are a crisis and they are destroying New York City.
00:11:22.360 Now, he's right about that.
00:11:24.640 Yeah.
00:11:24.820 But if one hundred and ten thousand are doing that to New York City, what in the hell do you think nine point six million are doing to Texas and the other states on the southern border?
00:11:33.680 And so I made that point to Cameron.
00:11:35.340 And the bizarre thing is, listen, I had multiple conversations with my Democrat colleagues today.
00:11:40.540 They still believe, oh, we'll reach a deal on this.
00:11:43.880 You know, just some reasonable compromise.
00:11:46.600 You know, one one Democrat senator suggested to me, well, well, maybe the White House will agree to reinstate Title 42.
00:11:52.740 Well, no, forget it.
00:11:54.780 That is not when Title 42 was in place.
00:11:58.020 We still had the worst illegal immigration in history.
00:12:00.780 And they got Title 42 with that was because some of you may not remember.
00:12:03.880 So Title 42 was a law that allowed individuals to be sent back because of covid.
00:12:11.400 And so it was the one area where Biden was not practicing catch and release, where there was some limited deportation.
00:12:18.760 And then they ended Title 42 and they decided, OK, everyone gets to stay, basically.
00:12:22.080 Um, the problem that goes right to the heart of this, why do we have a border crisis?
00:12:30.000 Three words, catch and release.
00:12:34.120 Joe Biden unilaterally ended the Remain in Mexico agreement and began when people got apprehended, they released them.
00:12:40.360 As long as we do catch and release, the border will not be secure.
00:12:43.900 And by the way, you could build a hundred foot tall wall and put 10 million troops on the southern border.
00:12:49.420 If you did catch and release, you'd still have a border crisis.
00:12:53.000 Why?
00:12:53.860 Because when the people crossed and turned themselves into the 10 million soldiers, Joe Biden would then release them.
00:13:01.000 So they'd keep coming.
00:13:01.980 It doesn't matter how many Border Patrol agents or how much military you have, if the administration releases whoever they apprehend, because as long as that happens, more and more and more keep coming.
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00:14:39.440 You know, something else that's interesting, Senator, about what you were just talking about with the Democrats and them not understanding the reality of the situation is, there was Senator Raphael Warnock.
00:14:50.200 He went on MSNBC and made it very clear that he said, you know, this is the Republicans' fault.
00:14:57.540 This is Republicans not willing to support Ukraine.
00:15:00.600 And cynically, he called it using the border issue.
00:15:03.680 I want you to hear two things here that made me laugh.
00:15:06.280 One, the hysterical bowing down to Warnock introduction.
00:15:11.060 I can't not play it.
00:15:12.700 And that just made me laugh.
00:15:14.220 Welcome to MSNBC, right?
00:15:16.020 And then the second thing is, is him trying to go on offense against Republicans with a terrible argument.
00:15:21.180 Take a listen.
00:15:21.820 It's helpful to have a pastor around, even better, if they're also a senator.
00:15:25.660 And joining me now is Senator and Reverend Raphael Warnock of Georgia, senior pastor at Dr. King's Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
00:15:32.220 Happy holidays in advance.
00:15:34.760 Merry Christmas in advance.
00:15:36.020 Happy holidays.
00:15:36.580 Great to be with you.
00:15:37.480 Thank you.
00:15:37.900 It is good to see you.
00:15:38.520 You see something that's taking the preacher's voice, but I'll do my best.
00:15:40.560 That's okay.
00:15:41.140 Look, a preacher can always find their voice.
00:15:42.580 That's one thing I know about a pastor.
00:15:43.900 But let's talk about all of the, let's go through a few of the things.
00:15:46.960 I want to start with Ukraine.
00:15:47.880 In the House, as well as some in the United States Senate, there is this resistance to providing funding for Ukraine, which is still suffering this attack from Russia, trying to trade things like border, a border policy, border security for funding.
00:16:03.620 J.D. Vance saying basically that Ukraine should cede land and cut a deal.
00:16:08.580 What in the world is going on on the other side of the aisle?
00:16:11.200 That's a very good question.
00:16:12.340 I'll tell you, this is politics in the worst sense of the word.
00:16:17.380 There is no replacement for American leadership in the world.
00:16:21.900 I have had occasion now on a few opportunities to hear President Zelensky, to meet him.
00:16:30.980 And I think he's just a very impressive person who is standing up in a critical moment, not only for his country, but in terms of the world order.
00:16:38.660 And it's unfortunate that I've got colleagues who are reducing such an important geopolitical crisis to typical political horse trading.
00:16:51.740 Look, there are issues at the border and they need to be addressed.
00:16:56.200 I, for one, am open to any reasonable bipartisan proposal that will get there on the way to what we really need is comprehensive immigration reform.
00:17:06.860 But this is one of the most fraught issues in our political system.
00:17:11.040 And so, unfortunately, not everybody, not all the Republicans, but on the other side, you have some Republicans who are not willing to support Ukraine no matter what.
00:17:19.940 Yeah. And so they're just using this issue of the border, which is very serious in the most cynical way.
00:17:28.700 I hope that at the end of the day, cooler heads will prevail.
00:17:32.820 Certainly, we don't want to see American soldiers on the ground as Putin continues his aggressive move across Europe.
00:17:42.420 I think it only makes sense for us to support our friends in Ukraine.
00:17:46.720 By the way, I just have to go to the very end part there when he says, well, it's almost like a weird threat.
00:17:51.840 And this is like the third or fourth time I've heard this this week from Democrats.
00:17:54.980 Well, if you guys don't give the funding, you may see American troops over there.
00:18:00.680 So you should really give this funding, because if you don't, then it's your fault that we have to send American troops.
00:18:07.960 That is the most messed up negotiating I've ever seen from Democrats.
00:18:12.720 And I've seen a lot of pretty crappy stuff. You've seen more being in Washington Center.
00:18:16.400 But that's a whole nother level of vile politics that I just don't I can't believe they're even trying it.
00:18:22.200 Well, look, you got to understand that those comments that that that Raphael Wardock made were filled with hypocrisy and sadly with dishonesty.
00:18:31.520 You know, it started right at the beginning by emphasizing that he's a pastor.
00:18:35.100 It's true. Although I'll tell you, I've never seen a pastor that refuses to say Merry Christmas, that he insists on saying Happy Holidays,
00:18:40.780 because it turns out more important than being a pastor is he's a Democrat and Merry Christmas is not allowed for Democrats to say.
00:18:48.440 But but but then when he gets into the substance, he gets very moralistic about American leadership on Ukraine.
00:18:53.900 You know what Raphael Warnock didn't mention, that it was Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer that caused the war in Ukraine when they refused to vote in favor of my sanctions to sanction Nord Stream 2.
00:19:05.280 I had shut down Nord Stream 2. I had passed legislation that shut it down.
00:19:09.720 And on the day of the vote, Joe Biden came personally to Capitol Hill and lobbied the Democrat senators.
00:19:14.740 Now, actually, Raphael Warnock voted with me, but 44 Democrats flipped their votes at Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer's behest and voted in favor of Russia and Putin and against sanctioning the pipeline.
00:19:26.560 And weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine. So he admitted no responsibility for his own party in causing this war.
00:19:33.520 He also admitted no responsibility of the Biden administration for funding both sides of this war,
00:19:38.700 for sending billions of dollars to Iran that is used to make drones that Russia is using to kill Ukrainian soldiers,
00:19:45.440 that right now Biden is literally funding both sides of the war. He admits no fault there.
00:19:49.180 Instead, he moralizes. And he says on the border he's open to reasonable, quote, bipartisan solutions.
00:19:55.880 Well, baloney.
00:19:57.680 Raphael Warnock and the rest of the Democrats have voted every single time over and over and over again
00:20:04.320 in favor of open borders against anything to secure the border.
00:20:08.960 They have not budged even once. And I will say I will invite Raphael, I will invite any of my Democratic colleagues.
00:20:15.640 Come with me to the border. See the dead bodies that Texas farmers and ranchers find every day.
00:20:22.240 Look in the eyes of the children who are being sexually assaulted and brutalized by the human traffickers.
00:20:28.140 Look in the eyes of the women who've been violently raped.
00:20:30.900 Look in the eyes of the parents who've had kids who they've lost to fentanyl and drug overdoses because of the drug traffickers.
00:20:38.940 This is an existential crisis. And you hear him saying, well, it's just playing politics.
00:20:45.000 Listen, the position of Republicans quite reasonably is that we're not going to focus on securing Ukraine's border
00:20:52.360 until we secure our own border, because right now, Joe Biden and the Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer,
00:20:58.700 have an open invitation to Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists to cross our southern border.
00:21:05.060 And, Ben, we are living on borrowed time.
00:21:06.840 I think it is only a matter of time before we see tragically another major terrorist attack,
00:21:12.560 because this administration is doing nothing to prevent terrorists from coming in.
00:21:18.700 And they've sat by and allowed 9.6 million to come into this country.
00:21:23.240 You know, the other day, and this is in the clip we played a moment ago, there was, I think it was, what did you say,
00:21:29.240 12,000, 13,000 legal immigrants that came across the border?
00:21:32.700 12,000 in one day.
00:21:33.560 Yeah, on Wednesday.
00:21:35.320 When you have 12,000 people coming across the border in one day, terrorists are not stupid.
00:21:42.500 They understand that that means there's a very good chance that you'll be able to get terrorists in,
00:21:47.680 because a lot of the 12,000 are people that want to be, are turning themselves into the U.S. government
00:21:54.640 because of all the free stuff they get.
00:21:56.620 They're not afraid of border patrol.
00:21:57.860 They're seeking them out.
00:21:59.140 And, Ben, that 12,000 doesn't include the gotaway.
00:22:01.580 So as concerning as the 12,000 is, the number that is more concerning are the gotaways,
00:22:07.520 or the people that run.
00:22:08.460 Those are the ones that are likely to be the criminals, that are likely to be the terrorists,
00:22:12.240 that are on the terror watch list, that are the gang members.
00:22:16.640 Those are the ones that are really dangerous, and we have no idea.
00:22:20.220 What we do know, and what this podcast has covered, is the border patrol agents have been instructed
00:22:25.460 to be on guard for Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists coming in.
00:22:28.860 What we do know is Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, has suddenly discovered that there's a risk
00:22:34.760 in our southern border, and his testimony in Congress has changed dramatically in recent months
00:22:42.580 about the risk of terrorism for the southern border, and the only reasonable explanation
00:22:47.000 for that is the FBI is seeing more and more that has them worried about what's coming
00:22:52.420 because this administration won't secure the border.
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00:24:26.280 Senator, I also want to play something else, and this goes back to the issue you were talking
00:24:29.680 about with border security.
00:24:30.780 And there was one Democrat that actually made me laugh.
00:24:34.580 He was on CNN.
00:24:35.840 They were talking about that at the bottom of the screen, it said Russia's war on Ukraine,
00:24:39.060 Zelensky in Washington to ask for more aid.
00:24:41.060 And they had on a House Democrat by the name of Representative Moulton.
00:24:47.380 And he was actually telling a lot of truth about the Democrats and what their real objective
00:24:53.280 is.
00:24:53.580 And there's words I want everybody to listen for here.
00:24:55.960 I want you to listen to how he talks about a pathway to citizenship and how he loves the
00:25:01.020 number of illegal immigrants coming across our border.
00:25:02.940 And he's saying, look, I'm not willing to give that up just to give funding to Ukraine,
00:25:09.900 which the Republicans are demanding.
00:25:12.120 Take a listen.
00:25:12.800 It's incredible to hear from President Zelensky today, say that the Ukrainian economy has grown
00:25:17.180 five percent this year, this after now its second year in brutal war with Russia, that
00:25:23.860 obviously sending a message to lawmakers here that their help has been effective and warranted
00:25:30.740 and welcomed.
00:25:31.260 You know, we talk a lot about Republicans not wanting to continue funding Ukraine, at least
00:25:38.060 without getting something in return.
00:25:39.860 The president making clear last week that he is willing to negotiate on border security
00:25:44.480 and take that issue seriously with more investments.
00:25:48.020 How is that sitting with some members of your own party who may be worried, as has been reported,
00:25:54.520 that he's conceding too much on this front?
00:25:57.860 Well, here's the concern.
00:25:59.040 And I think there are a lot of members of my Democratic Party that recognize we have to
00:26:03.260 do more on the border, that we need to strengthen the border.
00:26:05.840 But we don't want to scuttle what we fundamentally need when it comes to immigration policy in the United
00:26:12.640 States, which is a full immigration deal, a deal that not only includes what Republicans want, which is increased
00:26:19.440 border security, but also what Democrats want, which is a pathway to citizenship, some hope for all the kids, for example, who were brought here years ago by their parents and yet are sitting in legal limbo through no fault of their own.
00:26:33.700 They go to American schools, they go to American schools, they participate in the American economy, and yet they're not technically legal citizens.
00:26:40.960 The vast majority of Americans, Republicans and Democrats, want a fix for that problem as well.
00:26:47.560 But Republicans in Congress aren't willing to do it unless it's paired with border security.
00:26:52.280 So the concern is that if the president bargains away what the Republicans want on border security just to get aid on Ukraine, then it imperils the chances of what we really need on immigration, which is full comprehensive reforms.
00:27:07.500 And a reminder for our viewers, this isn't just about aid to Ukraine.
00:27:10.900 Obviously, this bill includes funding for Israel and Taiwan as well.
00:27:15.760 I mean, you just got to laugh like it's like, all right, well, at least that guy was willing to tell you the truth.
00:27:20.340 This is all about pathways to citizenship.
00:27:22.800 Oh, and then we'll get to the issue of funding for Israel at the very end of the conversation, which, by the way, you and I need to talk about in length in a second.
00:27:30.140 But give me your reaction to this.
00:27:31.960 I mean, this is at least a Democrat saying, yeah, we're all in favor of illegals coming across the border at these rates.
00:27:36.920 And we need to give them a pathway to citizenship.
00:27:38.760 And we're willing to make a trade on that.
00:27:40.900 You know, there's an old line that a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth in Washington.
00:27:45.740 And he just let the cat out of the bag.
00:27:47.880 It's interesting.
00:27:48.500 He says, well, it's Republicans that want to secure the border.
00:27:51.160 Not us.
00:27:51.820 Not us.
00:27:52.220 Democrats.
00:27:52.780 You know, Democrats occasionally claim they do.
00:27:54.580 In fact, you just played Warnock claiming he did.
00:27:57.740 But but Moulton is admitting, no, we don't care about that.
00:27:59.840 We don't care about that at all.
00:28:00.760 What do we care about?
00:28:01.700 Amnesty.
00:28:02.180 What do we care about?
00:28:03.340 A path to citizenship.
00:28:04.320 What do we care about turning every illegal alien we can into a Democrat voter?
00:28:08.420 It's only politics.
00:28:10.320 You know, what's striking?
00:28:11.240 Seth Moulton is someone who holds himself out as one of the more moderate Democrats.
00:28:15.700 So he typically is not lumped in with the crazies on the left.
00:28:19.980 And even a so-called moderate Democrat, he's like, we don't care about border security.
00:28:24.740 And by the way, he says he wants hope for the kids.
00:28:28.120 Well, what about hope for the little boys and the little girls who are being brutalized,
00:28:33.460 who are being sexually assaulted today?
00:28:35.740 Right now, today, there are children being assaulted by human traffickers.
00:28:41.160 The Democrats literally, Ben, do not care.
00:28:44.280 Why?
00:28:44.780 There's a political objective.
00:28:46.160 What do they care about?
00:28:47.100 They want citizenship.
00:28:48.300 And if a bunch of children have to be violated, that is a perfectly acceptable price.
00:28:54.020 It is cynical.
00:28:55.160 It is cruel.
00:28:56.520 It is evil.
00:28:57.760 And I've seen too many of these kids.
00:29:00.020 I've looked in their eyes.
00:29:01.480 I talked about on Verdict the last time we were down there, the 10-year-old girl that
00:29:05.360 had an adult man who claimed to be her father and obviously wasn't.
00:29:09.180 And when you've seen children being abused day after day, you can't turn a blind eye to it.
00:29:16.040 The entire Democrat Party, that is their position.
00:29:19.720 And they're simply in denial.
00:29:21.520 And right at the end, the CNN host, I loved it through it.
00:29:24.660 Well, don't forget, this is also about Israel funding without mentioning, because of course,
00:29:29.660 CNN, they're not actual journalists.
00:29:32.260 They are propagandists.
00:29:33.460 They are propagandists for the left wing of the Democrat Party.
00:29:36.700 You know what she didn't mention?
00:29:38.000 The House of Representatives passed funding for Israel, separate, completely separate from
00:29:44.620 this.
00:29:45.200 And the Senate, as we talked about in length on Verdict on a previous podcast, I and several
00:29:50.580 other senators forced a vote on the Senate floor to pass Israel funding separate from
00:29:56.260 all of this.
00:29:57.240 And every single Democrat voted no.
00:30:00.080 Chuck Schumer whipped against military funding for Israel.
00:30:05.540 And by the way, he did this after several Democrat senators had just come from the National
00:30:10.600 Mall on the March for Israel.
00:30:12.440 They went and walked onto the Senate floor and voted against military funding for Israel.
00:30:16.520 And you know part of why they did that?
00:30:18.580 Because they knew the useful idiots at CNN and at The Washington Post and The New York
00:30:22.780 Times would not report on it.
00:30:24.740 They would tell nobody.
00:30:26.520 So, yes, it is true we don't have military aid to Israel that has passed yet.
00:30:32.100 And the reason is Chuck Schumer and the Democrats blocked it.
00:30:36.960 And if they hadn't, that bill would have been on Joe Biden's desk weeks ago.
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00:31:12.620 Let's talk about that Israeli funding because this is really important.
00:31:16.260 Obviously, as you mentioned, Democrats said hell no to it.
00:31:19.420 No one, not a single Democrat would go with you guys.
00:31:22.420 What does it look like now moving forward?
00:31:24.620 And how desperate is the need from Israel at this point?
00:31:29.080 It's amazing that Democrats are going all in with Ukraine and the corruption there, asking
00:31:33.840 no questions.
00:31:34.680 Whereas, in Israel, there's none of those questions that need to be asked.
00:31:38.640 And there's transparency.
00:31:40.560 And we know what's going on.
00:31:42.160 And yet, they're saying, ah, not so much.
00:31:44.540 And even the White House now is starting to distance themselves from Israel, changing
00:31:49.440 their tune a little bit over the last couple of days, which is what I expected.
00:31:53.280 But it's also incredibly disheartening.
00:31:55.440 Well, look, the one word I disagree with that you said there is you said even the White House.
00:32:00.180 Listen, we've outlined at length on this podcast how how this White House is the most anti-Israel
00:32:06.160 White House we've ever had.
00:32:07.340 Yeah, good point.
00:32:08.540 And Joe Biden and this White House have been undermining Israel from the day Biden was sworn
00:32:13.260 in as president repeatedly.
00:32:14.600 And we've outlined from the very first minutes of this attack on October 7th.
00:32:19.200 This White House has been undermining Israel, has been urging Israel, do not retaliate,
00:32:23.960 do not attack Hamas, do not kill the terrorists.
00:32:26.820 From day one, the State Department, the State Department literally tweeted that out on the
00:32:31.880 night of October 7th.
00:32:33.160 While people were still being murdered, while women and children were being raped, the State
00:32:37.600 Department is tweeting out, Israel, do not respond militarily, do not kill the terrorists.
00:32:43.600 And so, yes, you're right.
00:32:45.900 The White House doesn't really care about the Israel funding.
00:32:48.400 In fact, we know they don't, because if they cared about it, we'd pass it as a freestanding
00:32:53.120 bill.
00:32:53.400 It has the votes to pass as a freestanding bill.
00:32:55.380 But their only interest on Israel funding is to use it as a sweetener to try to convince
00:33:02.560 Republicans to fund the rest of the Democrats' priorities.
00:33:06.040 And I think that's incredibly cynical.
00:33:08.180 I think it's wrong.
00:33:09.000 And their focus is on Ukraine, but it's interesting.
00:33:13.880 If you want to take away from what we've seen over the last six weeks in Washington, it's
00:33:19.320 that the Democrats are much, much more committed to open borders than they are to the war in
00:33:26.220 Ukraine.
00:33:26.520 And they're willing to abandon funding for Ukraine in order to keep the tragedy of open
00:33:32.600 borders at our southern border.
00:33:33.800 That is a higher priority for them, and it's incredibly revealing because they self-righteously
00:33:40.360 claim otherwise.
00:33:42.620 And look, you look at why Zelensky came this week.
00:33:45.660 It's Chuck Schumer trying to browbeat Republicans into saying, give us what we want, even though
00:33:52.080 we will do nothing on the border.
00:33:54.040 And I think that has zero chance of success.
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00:35:44.460 Senator, I want to also move to one other subject real quick that I think is obviously an important one.
00:35:50.800 And that is to give an update on what's going on now with impeachment.
00:35:56.160 We've seen the House Committee is going to vote on impeachment.
00:35:59.460 The House Speaker, Mike Johnson, says the White House is impeding the investigation to President Joe Biden.
00:36:04.920 And the next step will be a vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry.
00:36:08.280 This also, as Fox News is reporting, that Hunter Biden received $250,000 wires originating in Beijing
00:36:16.720 with a beneficiary address listed as Joe Biden's home.
00:36:21.780 This is all about, as the House Oversight Committee put it, the Biden's influence peddling
00:36:25.780 and what they have been doing.
00:36:27.680 This vote, Senator, is a very important vote.
00:36:30.320 And it's also going to give Republicans more power.
00:36:33.460 Explain why this vote is important to happen now.
00:36:36.220 Well, the House has scheduled the vote today.
00:36:39.520 It is a vote on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
00:36:45.080 And previously, the House had not scheduled that vote because it wasn't clear that they
00:36:49.320 had the votes to pass it.
00:36:51.080 And so Kevin McCarthy, when he was Speaker, he didn't schedule it because it looked like
00:36:55.500 the votes weren't there.
00:36:57.160 What Republicans are telling the press, at least, is it looks like the votes are there.
00:37:02.140 And so a number of the Republicans who are in blue districts that Biden carried are now
00:37:09.000 moving forward.
00:37:10.060 So, for example, Mike Garcia in California said, quote, there is enough substantiation to
00:37:15.560 move forward.
00:37:16.340 And, quote, the executive branch made clear they're not going to cooperate with the inquiry
00:37:20.420 unless we formalize it.
00:37:22.080 So let's formalize it.
00:37:23.780 Another one, Mark Molinaro, who's a Republican from New York, again in a district Biden carried,
00:37:28.840 said, quote, Congress has every responsibility to provide oversight.
00:37:32.460 There are serious questions of impropriety.
00:37:34.860 The White House and the president have yet to comply with requests for information and
00:37:38.500 subpoenas, adding that he is, quote, inclined to support the measure.
00:37:43.080 And another Republican from New York, again in a district, and in fact, the most Democrat-leaning
00:37:51.220 district of any Republican, Anthony Desposito, said that he will vote to authorize the inquiry.
00:37:58.820 And so what we are hearing is that the votes are there.
00:38:02.540 It's scheduled for a vote today.
00:38:05.740 And the resolution directs the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees to,
00:38:11.980 quote, continue their ongoing investigations as a part of the existing House of Representatives
00:38:16.560 inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach Biden.
00:38:20.740 And so formally voting this for this is a significant step forward.
00:38:25.940 And I'm glad they're going to do that.
00:38:27.640 I hope they pass it.
00:38:28.960 And we will discuss on the next verdict what happens when the vote happens later today.
00:38:34.560 Don't forget, you can listen to this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, plus our week
00:38:38.740 in review on Saturdays.
00:38:40.920 Make sure if you're listening on Apple, you check and hit that follow button if you're
00:38:45.360 listening on an iPhone right now as the algorithms have changed or wherever you're listening to
00:38:50.060 this podcast.
00:38:50.520 Also, something really cool, we just put up a full episode on Twitter, or I should say
00:38:55.820 on X now.
00:38:57.000 You can now watch on X the entire video pod that we put out.
00:39:02.580 It's on YouTube as well.
00:39:03.620 We put up on Facebook, but it's also now on X.
00:39:06.400 We did that on yesterday for this episode that came out on Monday.
00:39:11.080 It's really cool to see a lot of you guys get to interact with that.
00:39:14.200 So make sure you check that out if you haven't as well.
00:39:16.400 Also, on those in-between days, don't forget, I will keep you updated with what's going on
00:39:20.420 in the world with the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:39:22.420 So make sure you subscribe or download the Ben Ferguson podcast as well.
00:39:26.160 And the center and I will see you back here on Friday morning.
00:39:28.600 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:39:32.320 Guaranteed Human.