Verdict with Ted Cruz - Dems Speak for Hamas more than Hostages, RFK Baffles CNN, & Whining Hosts at NBC Oust Ronna McDaniel Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.200 Welcome.

00:00:05.940 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.920 Week in review.

00:00:09.260 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.380 And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:14.960 First up, where are the Democrats on the issue of hostages that are still being held by Hamas?

00:00:21.760 And why are they not talking about many of them that are Americans?

00:00:25.080 It is months into this conflict and yet no one seems to care.

00:00:29.000 We're going to talk about that.

00:00:30.780 Also, CNN thought they knew what RFK Jr. was going to say about Donald Trump.

00:00:36.760 It backfired in a big way and you're not going to want to miss what he had to say about the biggest threat to democracy.

00:00:43.100 It was Joe Biden.

00:00:44.540 And finally, NBC and MSNBC, they united the biggest hosts and the biggest talent to make sure that the former RNC chairwoman 1.00

00:00:54.240 was basically fired before she ever got started in her new job.

00:00:59.700 What's behind this?

00:01:00.760 We're going to talk about it all.

00:01:02.020 It is the Week in Review and it starts right now.

00:01:05.620 Senator, you and I want to go back in time because it's amazing how quick people forget about what happened on that day.

00:01:12.060 I've met with the Israeli government independently.

00:01:16.160 You've obviously met with them and the representatives countless times.

00:01:20.720 You watched a long version of the atrocities of that day.

00:01:25.580 I have seen more than I wanted to, but I think it was important with the platform that I have to be an advocate for Israel to see it and witness it.

00:01:36.920 And I saw it much more recently.

00:01:38.880 I can't get those images out of my head just how orchestrated, how barbaric, how evil the people were that were doing these things to, as we talked about, children to the elderly.

00:01:56.440 The elderly has somewhat been overlooked.

00:01:59.140 And I was watching some of this and you watch these elderly people.

00:02:03.520 Not only were they killing the grandfathers and great grandfathers in front of the great grandmothers and their kids and grandkids, but they were ripping them away and then taunting because they were going to go after the women.

00:02:17.660 And this was all caught on video.

00:02:19.760 And yet no one seems to be reminding people that those are the hostages that are still being held captive right now.

00:02:28.680 They are.

00:02:30.680 And where is America?

00:02:32.760 Where is the president?

00:02:33.780 Great point.

00:02:34.660 Where is a Democrat calling for the release of the American hostages?

00:02:39.000 By the way, these are not many of them are Israelis, but but there are multiple American hostages that this White House AWOL doesn't even begin.

00:02:48.720 It's worse than AWOL.

00:02:50.660 If they were silent, that would be disgraceful.

00:02:54.420 But they're not silent. 0.90

00:02:55.940 They're telling Israel, stop trying to kill the terrorists.

00:02:58.900 Instead, reward the terrorists and give them a nation state that is stronger than it was before and in a better position to wage war with Israel and to murder innocent civilians going forward. 0.66

00:03:10.280 That is a bizarre way to respond to horrific atrocity carried out by Hamas. 0.86

00:03:15.740 Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary.

00:03:19.740 She obviously and this is when you know it's a coordinated and orchestrated effort by talking heads, former White House Press Secretary, people in the media, people at the State Department, people in social media circles on the left and celebrities and others.

00:03:36.020 This is what she had to say on Israel, on MSNBC.

00:03:40.680 Well, and Jen, it's very easy for people to say the president should do a the president should do B, C.

00:03:48.380 There is also the very real possibility.

00:03:51.000 And now they understand this.

00:03:53.540 If the president turns on Netanyahu.

00:03:58.240 If the president says we're going to stop sending weapons, the Netanyahu actually uses that to gain more power inside of Israel, saying, see, we have been abandoned even by the United States. 0.67

00:04:12.360 We have to fight on that.

00:04:14.760 That's right, Joe.

00:04:15.600 And I think that's important to look clearly.

00:04:17.800 The strategy that the United States is implementing at this point is not working to change the behavior of Prime Minister Netanyahu is not working to end the war.

00:04:26.640 So obviously something has to change.

00:04:28.900 And I think it's pretty clear they're discussing that, I think, in the White House and I hope in the White House in this situation room at this point in time.

00:04:36.920 The question is what that will be.

00:04:38.660 And there's a number of allies of President Biden's in the Senate, Democratic senators and others who have been pretty outspoken about the need for conditioning aid, at least as a consideration.

00:04:50.080 That's obviously something that is being considered, should be considered.

00:04:53.120 The question is, will that change the behavior and what additional leverage needs to be put on Prime Minister Netanyahu at this point in time to change the trajectory?

00:05:02.560 But you're right.

00:05:03.040 There's a calculation if you're discussing this, if you're the president, if you're the national security team, about what would prompt Prime Minister Netanyahu to be more aggressive, what would prompt him to be less aggressive.

00:05:14.260 Obviously, nothing has worked to date, but it's not as easy as it sounds to make that determination.

00:05:18.820 Senator, not one time did she say anything about putting pressure on Hamas, the terrorist organization, or the Palestinian that are supporting the terrorists to stop them.

00:05:29.640 They're talking about Israel like Israel is the terrorist organization that started all this. 0.77

00:05:35.420 They were the ones that were attacked.

00:05:37.660 Look, they treat Israel as a client state.

00:05:41.360 They treat Israel as the oppressors and understand the base of their party believes Israel as their oppressors and also get, you know, there's some folks, there's a popular media narrative that, hey, Joe Biden is really pro-Israel, but he's just got a political problem that his party is not.

00:05:59.440 That's actually not accurate.

00:06:01.280 Joe Biden has been undermining Israel for more than 50 years.

00:06:05.520 So let's go back to 1982.

00:06:08.080 1982 was a long time ago.

00:06:10.460 1982, Joe Biden was in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

00:06:15.620 He had a private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

00:06:20.700 And Joe Biden decided to do what he's doing now, to threaten Israel, to threaten, we're going to cut off USAID if Israel did not stop, quote, settlements in Judea and Samaria.

00:06:32.960 So, frankly, the same thing he was saying in 82 is what he's saying now.

00:06:36.580 We don't like Israel. 0.99

00:06:37.540 You don't have any right to settle the land of Israel. 0.99

00:06:40.380 And if you do, we're going to cut you off.

00:06:42.580 And here's what Begin responded to.

00:06:43.880 And this is one of the most famous responses by any Israeli prime minister.

00:06:48.060 And it was in 1982.

00:06:50.340 So a long, long time ago.

00:06:51.880 Here's what Begin said to Joe Biden, then a senator, quote,

00:06:55.900 Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid.

00:06:59.980 It will not work.

00:07:01.520 Look, I am not a Jew with trembling knees.

00:07:06.280 I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.

00:07:13.460 Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens.

00:07:18.800 Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country.

00:07:23.560 We paid for it.

00:07:25.620 We fought for it.

00:07:27.660 We died for it.

00:07:29.220 We will stand by our principles.

00:07:32.480 We will defend them.

00:07:34.280 And when necessary, we will die for them again with or without your aid.

00:07:42.480 That's what the prime minister of Israel said to Joe Biden over 40 years ago.

00:07:48.140 You know what?

00:07:49.640 The prime minister of Israel is still saying that to Joe Biden.

00:07:52.740 But sadly, the entire Democrat Party is with Biden undermining Israel and effectively

00:07:59.180 forming a protective shield around the Hamas terrorists who committed the most unspeakable acts of modern times that we have seen. 0.92

00:08:10.160 Senator, last question for you, and it's a really important one.

00:08:14.360 If the Elizabeth Warrens of the Democratic Party and if the AOCs and Rashid Tlaibs and others are able to flip the script the way it seems like we're going with the help of the media,

00:08:25.420 what happens if, in fact, we don't give the aid needed and the military weaponry needed that Israel is willing to buy from us because this president caves and blocks it?

00:08:38.340 What happens to Israel then? 0.71

00:08:40.740 Well, listen, the Biden administration and the Democrats in the Congress hope that Israel will give in, that they want to, number one, undermine Benjamin Netanyahu.

00:08:51.400 And I'm not, listen, I'm not being partisan in this.

00:08:54.520 I'm not not intuiting or supposing this.

00:08:57.740 Chuck Schumer said it on the Senate floor.

00:08:59.380 He said he wants Netanyahu to be forced out of office.

00:09:01.600 He wants Israel to have a new election and for them to elect a prime minister whose views he likes.

00:09:07.160 And apparently the voters of Israel don't have a right to choose their own leader, that it's going to be the Democrats in Washington to choose that.

00:09:14.200 But look, the White House and the congressional Democrats, they hope that by attacking Israel relentlessly, by threatening to cut off money, by undermining their international support,

00:09:24.720 that Israel will get cold feet, that they will get weak knees, they will stop attacking Hamas and in particular, Rafa.

00:09:32.020 Look, the Hamas leadership, the Hamas terrorists are all gathered in Rafa.

00:09:35.880 Now, I'll tell you, I sat down doing a Zoom call two weeks ago with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

00:09:42.200 He joined all the Republican senators at our lunch.

00:09:44.760 I can tell you two weeks ago he was unequivocal.

00:09:47.140 He said, we will go to Rafa, we will enter Rafa, we will engage in a military campaign, and we will utterly eliminate Hamas. 0.80

00:09:53.560 And if America is not there, we'll do it on our own.

00:09:56.340 To be honest, what Netanyahu said, it was almost word for word what Menachem Begin said.

00:10:00.220 That has not changed.

00:10:01.900 It's one of the reasons, listen, as a Texan, I've explained.

00:10:06.340 People have asked me a lot of times.

00:10:08.240 They've said, how is it, how did it come to pass that a Cuban Texan Southern Baptist became the leading defender of Israel in the Senate?

00:10:20.460 And there are lots of reasons for that, but I'll tell you one of the biggest is the attitude of Israel. 0.93

00:10:27.280 Israel is surrounded by nations that would drive it into the sea, that would murder every Israeli, every Jew if they could. 0.99

00:10:33.520 And the only reason they don't is because Israel is strong enough to defeat them all. 0.99

00:10:39.180 I got to say that is an incredibly Texan foreign policy.

00:10:43.060 It is a national security policy.

00:10:44.520 I have more than once wished that American foreign policy could have the clarity and strength that Israel's does.

00:10:52.540 And so I'm not surprised that Netanyahu is saying the same thing Menachem Begin said 40 plus years later, which is Israel only survives because they can survive. 0.55

00:11:04.540 They are not dependent on the largesse, the welfare from Democrats who are condescending to flick breadcrumbs from their table.

00:11:14.200 But I really do wonder, Ben, is there one Democrat in Congress with the guts to stand up to Biden and say this is wrong? 0.99

00:11:30.180 We stand with Israel, we stand against Hamas, and all of the rest of this is garbage. 0.91

00:11:36.580 If they have, I haven't seen it.

00:11:38.840 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:11:46.000 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.64

00:11:52.400 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:11:55.720 Next, I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:11:57.340 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:11:58.640 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:12:08.060 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:12:11.300 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:12:17.000 Now on to story number two.

00:12:19.700 Senator, finally, I want to talk about our RFK Jr.

00:12:23.360 CNN decided to have him on.

00:12:26.340 And they thought they were giving him a softball question that was going to be easy and he's going to rip on Donald Trump.

00:12:33.880 Tee it up from there because it didn't go the way they thought it was going to go at all.

00:12:38.480 Well, that's exactly right.

00:12:40.000 CNN tossed RFK Jr.

00:12:42.300 A question that they thought RFK would say, oh, yes, Trump is clearly the manifest threat to democracy.

00:12:48.980 And so you really should vote for Joe Biden instead.

00:12:51.280 Well, RFK did not play along.

00:12:54.000 And listen to this exchange because CNN was astonished at what RFK had to say.

00:12:59.440 Eyes on too many issues.

00:13:00.460 While I admire his high-minded ideals, his suggestion that there is no difference between Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush is irresponsible.

00:13:06.720 A moment ago, you said you you essentially see Trump and Biden as the same different different issues.

00:13:12.840 But do you really believe that when people talk about the threat to democracy that Trump poses, do you really think that that is is an equal evil to Biden?

00:13:21.400 I mean, listen, I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy.

00:13:28.360 And the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history, the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech.

00:13:39.180 So to censor his opponent, I, you know, I can say that because I just won a case in the federal court of appeals.

00:13:44.440 And now before the Supreme Court, it shows that he started censoring not just me with 37 hours after he took the oath of office, he was censoring me.

00:13:53.600 No president of the country has ever done that.

00:13:55.660 The greatest threat to democracy is not somebody who questions election returns, but a president of the United States who used the power of his office to force the social media companies, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

00:14:08.920 To open a portal and give access to that portal to the FBI, to the CIA, to the IRS, the CISA, the NIH, to censor his political critics.

00:14:20.140 President Biden, the first first president in history, used the secret, his power over the Secret Service to deny Secret Service protection to one of his political opponents for political reasons.

00:14:32.120 He's weaponizing the federal agencies.

00:14:34.920 Those are really critical threats.

00:14:37.120 Donald Trump, of course, tried to overturn a free and fair election.

00:14:41.740 He tried to overturn one, right?

00:14:43.020 He's still fighting the court.

00:14:44.160 How is that not a threat to democracy?

00:14:48.440 Well, I think that is a threat to democracy.

00:14:52.000 If him trying to overthrow the election clearly is a threat to democracy.

00:14:56.340 But the question was, who is the worst threat to democracy?

00:15:00.520 And what I would say is, you know, I'm not going to answer that question, but I can argue that President Biden is because the First Amendment, Aaron, is the most important.

00:15:10.300 But Adams and Hamilton and Madison said, we put the guarantee of freedom of expression in the First Amendment because all of our other constitutional rights depend on it.

00:15:19.640 If you have a government that can silence its opponent, it has license for any atrocity.

00:15:25.560 So just to be clear, you're saying you could make an argument that President Biden is a worse threat to democracy than you.

00:15:30.940 You listen to that, Senator, and it's like they're they're like, well, hold on.

00:15:35.160 Well, this is not what you're supposed to say.

00:15:37.460 This is not this.

00:15:38.700 You were supposed to say Donald Trump, orange man's bad and a threat to democracy.

00:15:43.040 Obviously, you weren't supposed to say Joe Biden's actually a bigger threat.

00:15:47.440 And by the way, explain exactly how he is.

00:15:50.720 Warning, Will Robinson.

00:15:52.060 Warning, Will Robinson.

00:15:53.220 Danger, danger, danger.

00:15:54.640 Abort.

00:15:55.040 Run away.

00:15:55.480 Run away.

00:15:56.260 That's what CNN is saying.

00:15:57.520 They're losing their minds.

00:15:58.600 No, no, that that's not the message.

00:16:00.480 The only message we allow on CNN is Trump bad, Trump bad, Trump bad.

00:16:04.680 You're RFK Jr.

00:16:06.080 Your dad was RFK.

00:16:07.420 Your uncle was JFK.

00:16:08.820 You're supposed to echo our message.

00:16:11.040 Trump, orange man, bad. 0.72

00:16:12.260 That orange man, bad.

00:16:14.080 Look, I got to say, listening to that, I agree with every single word Robert F.

00:16:20.220 Kennedy Jr.

00:16:20.880 said right there.

00:16:22.700 When it comes to a threat to democracy, number one, Joe Biden, and for that matter,

00:16:27.840 congressional Democrats are perfectly happy to use government power and big tech to censor

00:16:33.940 you, to silence you, to prevent you from engaging in political speech, prevent you from

00:16:39.080 disagreeing with them.

00:16:40.120 They want to use force to silence you.

00:16:42.340 Secondly, he pointed out Joe Biden is disgracefully denying Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

00:16:48.000 Secret Service protection.

00:16:49.280 That despite the fact that he is clearly polling at the thresholds that would merit that protection,

00:16:55.860 that he is facing significant threats of political violence against him.

00:17:00.760 And the tragic family history, his father was assassinated when he was running for president.

00:17:07.220 His uncle was assassinated when he was president.

00:17:10.420 And Joe Biden and the Democrats are cynical enough that they're willing to risk, well, okay, if RFK Jr.

00:17:16.800 gets assassinated, that's a risk Joe Biden's willing to take.

00:17:19.960 It is disgraceful.

00:17:21.140 And we've called that out on this podcast before that, of course, Joe Biden should give RFK Secret Service protection.

00:17:29.020 That's following the law.

00:17:30.600 That is consistent with the law.

00:17:32.700 It's consistent with precedent.

00:17:33.820 And the only reason not to is pure partisan politics.

00:17:39.160 Let me say something else.

00:17:40.580 Look, I have conversations with people all the time.

00:17:43.420 I have conversations with people today where they make comments about, gosh, I'm worried if Trump wins, he's an authoritarian, he's a dictator.

00:17:52.360 I'm worried what he will do.

00:17:54.440 And, you know, my standard response is, listen, I understand that.

00:17:58.200 And sometimes Trump has rhetoric that can be used to suggest that.

00:18:06.540 That being said, we don't have to hypothesize what Trump will do as president.

00:18:13.140 He was president for four years.

00:18:15.160 And if you look at the time he was president, he didn't abuse his power.

00:18:20.420 He followed the law.

00:18:21.460 If you look at the policies he implemented, and I worked hand in hand with Donald Trump, the policies he implemented worked.

00:18:28.120 We saw the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.

00:18:30.900 We saw the lowest African-American unemployment ever recorded.

00:18:33.980 We saw the lowest Hispanic unemployment ever recorded.

00:18:36.920 We saw peace and prosperity.

00:18:38.420 We saw the border secured.

00:18:40.120 We saw peace breaking out in the Middle East and the Abraham Accords. 0.90

00:18:43.880 All of that played out.

00:18:45.420 And if you look at what Trump did, he didn't defy the law.

00:18:48.300 He didn't ignore the law.

00:18:49.380 He didn't issue lawless executive orders.

00:18:51.800 He followed the law.

00:18:52.920 Now he demonstrated courage.

00:18:54.680 He made decisions that were bold, but they were within the law.

00:18:58.880 Contrast that to Joe Biden.

00:19:01.100 Joe Biden, number one, is responsible for profoundly politicizing the Department of Justice and the FBI.

00:19:06.920 Number two is responsible for the greatest assault on democracy we've ever seen, which is the four indictments of Donald Trump.

00:19:14.420 The abuse of the legal process designed, mind you, Trump is not the target.

00:19:20.200 The voters are the target.

00:19:21.300 They're terrified the voters will vote for Trump, and they're trying to prosecute for the first time in history and the second time in history and the third time in history and the fourth time in history a former president and a leading presidential candidate because they want to stop democracy from playing out. 0.98

00:19:37.740 To be clear also, these are the same Democrats that in Colorado, in Illinois and Maine threw Donald Trump off the ballot because, you know, nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters from voting for the person you don't want them to. 0.75

00:19:51.420 This is Democrats, and let's be clear also, Joe Biden, when it comes to being a dictator, to being lawless, look at what he's doing on the southern border. 0.93

00:20:01.980 He's utterly ignoring federal immigration law.

00:20:04.280 He's releasing people into this country. 0.99

00:20:06.140 He's releasing criminals into this country.

00:20:07.980 He's endangering this country.

00:20:09.620 10.4 million illegal immigrants.

00:20:11.580 It is lawless.

00:20:12.920 No president has ever done this.

00:20:15.160 Barack Obama didn't do this.

00:20:17.040 Bill Clinton didn't do this. 0.89

00:20:18.800 Jimmy Carter didn't do this.

00:20:20.080 Only Joe Biden is brazenly lawless.

00:20:22.820 Let's be clear also, when it came to student loans, Joe Biden trying to buy votes, tried to give away a trillion dollars, a trillion dollars just in an effort to buy votes and win elections.

00:20:33.260 Now, a president can't give away a trillion dollars without Congress passing legislation to do so.

00:20:39.640 Joe Biden knows that.

00:20:40.660 The lawyers in his administration know that.

00:20:42.940 They didn't care.

00:20:44.040 They wanted to lawlessly be political.

00:20:46.200 And so, of course, what happened?

00:20:47.300 And the Supreme Court struck it down and said, no, the president doesn't have the ability to give away a trillion dollars just to buy votes.

00:20:53.720 By the way, same thing happened with COVID vaccine mandates.

00:20:57.080 Utterly lawless, abusive, trying to force people to get COVID vaccines.

00:21:01.140 The president had no authority to do it.

00:21:03.060 Biden administration did so anyway.

00:21:05.000 What happened?

00:21:05.560 The Supreme Court struck it down, said this is lawless.

00:21:08.220 This is not the federal law.

00:21:10.200 You look at who actually has been lawless and dictatorial.

00:21:16.760 And I agree with RFK.

00:21:18.780 There's a powerful argument.

00:21:20.540 The answer to that is Joe Biden and not Donald Donald J. Trump.

00:21:24.040 And that makes CNN and every other corporate media entity, their heads explode.

00:21:28.820 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

00:21:38.620 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:21:43.500 Finally, Senator, I want to ask you about something that happened this last week.

00:21:46.500 And it was a story that was, I was even shocked by it.

00:21:52.160 The former RNC chairwoman was hired by NBC News to become a commentator slash NBC News. 0.98

00:22:02.640 She was hired.

00:22:04.120 It came out.

00:22:05.000 And what ended up happening was virtually every name that was a host of a show, a big talent at NBC, including Meet the Press, said, we're not going to work with her.

00:22:18.840 She's a radical Trump extremist January sixer. 1.00

00:22:23.760 We're not going to work with her. 0.93

00:22:25.280 And they literally ripped her on air in a way that I didn't even think they would do, but they did it.

00:22:32.500 And here's a montage of just how bad it was.

00:22:35.480 We're joined by former RNC chair Ronda McDaniel in her first interview since stepping down as party chair.

00:22:41.360 In full disclosure to our viewers, this interview was scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel would become a paid NBC News contributor.

00:22:49.720 This will be a news interview.

00:22:52.060 And I was not involved in her hiring.

00:22:54.560 I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.

00:22:57.900 And look, there's a reason why there's a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.

00:23:09.440 We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it.

00:23:13.960 NBC News, either wittingly or unwittingly, is teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air in interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections.

00:23:27.240 But that they can do that as one of us, as badge carrying employees of NBC News.

00:23:33.280 There is an easy way to avoid the controversy NBC News has stumbled into.

00:23:41.820 Don't hire anyone close to the crimes.

00:23:45.460 She literally backed an illegal scheme to steal an election in the state of Michigan. 1.00

00:23:51.860 That is the type of experience that Ronna McDaniel brings to the table. 0.96

00:23:55.800 And that experience does not get us to a deeper understanding of anything in the public debate.

00:24:00.940 I want to associate myself with all my colleagues, both at MSNBC and at NBC News, who have voiced loud and principled objections to our company putting on the payroll.

00:24:12.380 Someone who hasn't just attacked us as journalists, but someone who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government.

00:24:21.760 Senator, that was clearly orchestrated by the talent.

00:24:25.860 They were not going to work with her and they were going to ruin her career before it even started.

00:24:29.480 Well, look, NBC News, sadly, is a joke.

00:24:34.260 MSNBC News, it would be a joke if anyone watched it, but it's just sort of a left-wing primal scream. 0.96

00:24:42.340 And the utter hypocrisy of everyone.

00:24:47.920 So much of this was started by Chuck Todd and Chuck Todd had this whole screed, this self-righteous, holier-than-thou screed that he did on Meet the Press.

00:24:58.160 Now, here's an interesting bit you may not know.

00:25:01.880 Do you know how Chuck Todd got his start?

00:25:03.840 How was that?

00:25:04.700 As a staffer in 1992 for the presidential campaign of Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat.

00:25:11.020 So Chuck Todd was a Democrat staffer on a presidential campaign, mind you, not just in passing.

00:25:16.760 But let's go back to Chuck Todd's predecessor, Tim Russert.

00:25:21.360 Tim Russert, the gold standard of Meet the Press, the gold standard of NBC News.

00:25:27.240 Do you know what Tim Russert did before he went to NBC?

00:25:29.980 I'm going to go out on a limb and say a Democratic staffer.

00:25:32.600 He worked for U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat from New York.

00:25:37.180 He served as special counsel to Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

00:25:40.340 He served as chief of staff to Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

00:25:44.060 And then in 1983, he became a top aide to New York Governor Mario Cuomo, also a Democrat.

00:25:50.560 So he was a senior Democrat staffer over and over again for multiple Democrats.

00:25:56.580 And then he went to NBC News.

00:25:58.760 Let's fast forward.

00:25:59.600 George Stephanopoulos.

00:26:00.880 Where did George Stephanopoulos make his name?

00:26:03.340 As a senior press hack for the Clinton White House.

00:26:06.880 He was a political staffer his entire life.

00:26:08.740 By the way, he's the premier political commentator at ABC now.

00:26:13.360 And let's not forget Jen Psaki. 0.99

00:26:16.180 Happily ensconced at MSNBC.

00:26:19.060 She was, of course, Joe Biden's White House press secretary.

00:26:22.480 She stood up there and spin, baby, spin, baby, spin. 1.00

00:26:25.140 And she got hired basically straight from the White House, where she continues to do the same job.

00:26:30.300 She is still, as far as I'm concerned, the White House press secretary.

00:26:33.480 She's actually a much better press secretary than Corrine Jean-Pierre.

00:26:36.840 Why? Because Corrine Jean-Pierre is not very good at her job. 1.00

00:26:41.480 All she does is lie. 1.00

00:26:42.880 To Psaki's credit, she actually rarely directly lied.

00:26:46.860 She just pivoted. 0.99

00:26:47.980 She circled back. 0.54

00:26:48.960 She spun.

00:26:49.900 But she rarely made flat-out, demonstrably provable falsehoods.

00:26:55.120 Whereas Corrine Jean-Pierre seems to do so on an almost daily basis.

00:26:58.480 But the entirety of that, understand the position of NBC is essentially, we cannot tolerate an actual Republican who works for us.

00:27:12.940 And by the way, there were a few folks who got online and they said, no, no, no, that's not true.

00:27:17.940 That's not true.

00:27:18.520 That's not true.

00:27:19.060 Because Nicole Wallace is on MSNBC and she was a Republican staffer. 1.00

00:27:23.440 And Joe Scarborough, he was a Republican congressman.

00:27:28.080 Well, that's true.

00:27:29.300 They were in a prior life Republicans.

00:27:32.380 But both Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

00:27:38.880 So, the position of NBC News is we cannot actually hire anybody who voted for Donald Trump.

00:27:46.440 As long as you vote for Democrats, you can have been a Republican long in your distant life.

00:27:51.220 But you must have abandoned half of the country and decided they're evil deplorables.

00:27:56.080 Those are the only people we are willing to hire.

00:27:59.060 Welcome to MSNBC and NBC News as you described it.

00:28:02.300 And again, I'm not a big person advocating or supporting like, oh, sue somebody.

00:28:07.700 But I hope she gets a big payday the way they treat her. 0.74

00:28:11.800 And apparently, she found out she was fired through media reports, not even from a phone call from NBC News. 0.90

00:28:18.000 I hope that she gets a huge payout from this.

00:28:21.560 She deserves every dime after watching her colleagues run her name through the mud the way they did and treat her the way they did. 1.00

00:28:28.320 So, and let me make an important point on this.

00:28:30.520 So, MSNBC has a niche as a hard-left network.

00:28:35.600 That's why they have so few viewers, but they're hard-left.

00:28:39.020 Now, let me ask you something.

00:28:40.240 Why does NBC, I mean, NBC pretends to actually be a real journalistic outfit.

00:28:47.400 Why do they have a subsidiary that is just a hard-left platform?

00:28:53.220 By the way, they all decry Fox News, but MSNBC is hard-left, unapologetically so.

00:28:59.900 And by the way, you know what the MS stands for?

00:29:02.060 Microsoft.

00:29:03.260 Why exactly is Microsoft funding hard-left propaganda?

00:29:07.760 Why is NBC, why are they okay with a network that has an explicit ideological agenda?

00:29:15.440 And one of the points to understand, it was NBC News that hired Ronna McDaniel.

00:29:22.480 And I'm going to make the case to you, there is no difference between MSNBC and NBC.

00:29:28.420 They are one and the same.

00:29:30.080 NBC no longer pretends to be journalists.

00:29:34.540 They are advocates.

00:29:35.540 They are MSNBC.

00:29:37.200 They are the left wing of the Democrat Party.

00:29:39.640 There's a reason, by the way, in the last presidential cycle they were thrown out of moderating because they're so hardcore and partisan.

00:29:46.760 Now, I guess somebody in their corporate leadership decided they wanted to at least have a nod of have somebody on the staff who had voted with half of the country.

00:29:59.420 But let me ask you, Ben.

00:30:00.780 So you actually have been a paid conservative at a left wing network at CNN.

00:30:07.080 You were paid for a number of years.

00:30:08.800 What was that like then?

00:30:10.200 And give us your perspectives from having been in Ronna's shoes, although at a different time.

00:30:16.560 It's funny that you asked this because I was doing Outnumbered, hosting Outnumbered on, I think it was Wednesday when this story broke.

00:30:22.960 And they came to me like, look, you've got an interesting perspective.

00:30:25.300 I said, yeah, I was hired for my contract was extended when I was at CNN.

00:30:33.080 I was there a total of seven years.

00:30:34.460 But the last year was just and this is how much it even changed at CNN.

00:30:39.340 They used to want when they when when Jeff Zucker took over a grand debate, they wanted conservatives to have people that they thought were well representing them so that conservatives wouldn't, you know, basically immediately skip over the channel.

00:30:52.320 Once Donald Trump won in 16, the wheels came off at CNN.

00:30:57.340 They hated him, they hated and they yelled and screamed and tried to turn you into a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe, everything they could and try to ruin your career when you were on because they couldn't yell at Trump, but they could yell at you and you were supporting Trump or defending Trump.

00:31:11.060 But in the last year that I was there, they hired me just to have my name on a piece of paper as a get out of free jail card when someone said, you guys have no conservatives. 0.85

00:31:20.500 And they would say, no, no, no, no, no, look over here.

00:31:22.820 We have Ben Ferguson.

00:31:23.720 Listen, in my last year, I did two appearances on CNN.

00:31:29.060 Now, that's absurd from a financial standpoint.

00:31:32.080 If you were a financial person, why would you hire a guy, give him a salary and only have him come to work two days out of 365 days in a year?

00:31:39.840 One of those two appearances was after the Hollywood reporter did a story about me being benched.

00:31:46.960 And then they put me on the next day on a Saturday for four minutes just to say, no, see, he's not benched.

00:31:53.300 We just used him today and then never used me again.

00:31:57.060 And with Ronna McDowell, I have to say with her, I think that's part of what they wanted.

00:32:03.040 They wanted to go into this election cycle saying, no, no, we've got a token concern.

00:32:07.680 This lady just ran the RNC. 1.00

00:32:10.400 See, we're not biased.

00:32:12.040 We've got her on the air.

00:32:13.180 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:32:18.860 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:32:22.520 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:32:25.780 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:32:29.620 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:32:32.020 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:32:35.980 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 06, 2024

Dems Speak for Hamas more than Hostages, RFK Baffles CNN, & Whining Hosts at NBC Oust Ronna McDaniel Week In Review

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