00:00:36.040Also, Al Sharpton comes to protect and defend Harvard's president who is kind of stepped down but still making over a million dollars a year from the university.
00:00:50.340We'll give you the real details about this fake firing at Harvard.
00:00:55.340And finally, a big win for the country when it comes to security at the southern border and commerce with a bipartisan piece of legislation that Senator Ted Cruz let on.
00:01:43.480How long could this how does this play out at the Supreme Court?
00:01:46.540Well, the appeal is already pending at the Supreme Court.
00:01:48.900So last week, last Wednesday, the Colorado Republican Party asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court's decision so that that the initial appeal papers have been filed in the interim.
00:02:02.200Trump's name is on the ballot and and in Colorado.
00:02:05.960And that was under the terms of the Colorado Supreme Court decision, which which is it.
00:02:11.380They stayed their own decision pending appeal.
00:02:13.960They recognized the massive consequences of it.
00:02:17.320So the primary in Colorado is on March 5th.
00:02:20.960And so right now, Trump's name is on the March 5th ballot with the appeal filed.
00:02:28.220The court could act exceptionally quickly.
00:02:30.920The court could act in a matter of days or weeks.
00:02:34.420And there are times for emergency appeals that the court schedules a very expedited briefing schedule, schedules oral arguments and issued a decision.
00:05:15.740And listen, if this election was close, it could literally come down to that single electoral vote in Maine deciding the outcome.
00:05:24.800And so the decision in Maine is quite consequential.
00:05:27.480It's also consequential going forward.
00:05:30.740Do other states, in particular swing states, make the same determination?
00:05:34.420Do you see bigger states, a Pennsylvania, a Michigan, a Wisconsin?
00:05:39.520Do you see states like that that are very much in play, that very much could go either way?
00:05:45.460Do you see them engage and try to follow this pattern?
00:05:48.340And if these left-wing partisans were to succeed in removing Trump from the ballot, I think the risk would be very high that you would see other bigger and more consequential swing states following that pattern.
00:06:03.180Now, I don't think that's going to happen because they're not going to succeed.
00:06:05.800And by the way, there's an obvious escalation at some point if the left weaponizes the legal system to such an extent that they try to remove the Republican nominee from the general election ballot.
00:06:18.440That you're likely to see red states reciprocate and try to remove the Democrat nominee from the ballot.
00:06:26.740That this can be a mutually assured destruction, which is one of the reasons I don't think there's any chance the Supreme Court allows this Colorado decision to go into effect.
00:06:38.740Because it undermines the ability of the voters to choose who they want as president.
00:06:45.960And that is as foundational to democracy in our country as anything there is.
00:06:51.060Finally on this, there's the political ramifications of this.
00:06:54.960There's a lot of conservative voters now that are very upset.
00:06:58.680I've heard from more people that are not necessarily big fans of Donald Trump that are now like, the hell with this.
00:07:06.780I'm going to stand behind Donald Trump because this is just so egregious.
00:07:10.200Do you think the Democrats overplayed their hand here politically and the backfire could be catastrophic to them?
00:07:17.160Or by the time we get to Election Day, will a lot of this just be forgotten?
00:07:22.160Well, I think politically this benefits Trump in the primary.
00:13:19.420Ibram X. Kendi, who's one of the godfathers of critical race theory,
00:13:23.440who has pushed this so-called anti-racism, which we've talked about at length in this podcast.
00:13:28.520It has an Orwellian name, because what he means by anti-racism is aggressively discriminating against the so-called oppressors on behalf of the so-called victims.
00:13:38.640Here's what he had to say about Claudine Gay resigning.
00:13:42.080That is going to be their talking point, if you dare stand against their radical ideology,
00:14:12.080you are, by definition, a racist, and that they still see nothing that she did or said that was wrong.
00:14:23.100I want to play for everybody to remind them of exactly where all this started,
00:14:29.140and to put it back into context of the demise of this Harvard president is not for what she said that was anti-Israel, anti-Semitic.
00:15:29.600And you understand that the use of the term intifada in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict is indeed a call for violent armed resistance against the state of Israel, including violence against civilians and the genocide of Jews.
00:15:44.680That type of hateful speech is personally abhorrent to me.
00:15:48.340And there have been multiple marches at Harvard with students chanting, quote, there is only one solution, intifada revolution, and, quote, globalize the intifada.
00:16:00.160I've heard that thoughtless, reckless, and hateful language on our campus, yes.
00:16:06.780So based upon your testimony, you understand that this call for intifada is to commit genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally, correct?
00:16:16.020I will say again, that type of hateful speech is personally abhorrent to me.
00:16:23.620Do you believe that type of hateful speech is contrary to Harvard's code of conduct, or is it allowed at Harvard?
00:16:31.500It is at odds with the values of Harvard.
00:16:34.620Can you not say here that it is against the code of conduct at Harvard?
00:16:37.820We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.
00:16:47.980It's when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassing, and intimidation.
00:16:54.740Does that speech not cross that barrier?
00:16:57.220Does that speech not call for the genocide of Jews and the elimination of Israel?
00:17:01.100You testify that you understand that is the definition of intifada.
00:17:06.740Is that speech according to the code of conduct or not?
00:17:10.160We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, outrageous, and defensive.
00:17:18.540You and I both know that's not the case.
00:17:20.560You are aware that Harvard ranked dead last when it came to free speech.
00:17:33.800And isn't it true that Harvard previously rescinded multiple offers of admissions for applicants and accepted freshmen for sharing offensive memes, racist statements, sometimes as young as 16 years old?
00:17:45.680Did Harvard not rescind those offers of admission?
00:17:48.600That long predates my time as president.
00:17:50.500But you understand that Harvard made that decision to rescind those offers of admission?
00:17:54.540I have no reason to contradict the facts as you present them.
00:18:18.160Will admissions offers be rescinded or any disciplinary action be taken against students or applicants who say, from the river to the sea or intifada, advocating for the murder of Jews?
00:18:30.340As I've said, that type of hateful, reckless, offensive speech is personally abhorrent to me.
00:18:37.380Are you planning today that no action will be taken?
00:18:41.560When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment, or intimidation, we take action.
00:18:51.120And we have robust disciplinary processes that allow us to hold individuals accountable.
00:18:57.320What action has been taken against students who are harassing and calling for the genocide of Jews on Harvard's campus?
00:19:05.240I can assure you we have robust disciplinary processes with actions underway.
00:19:12.100I'm asking what actions have been taken against those students.
00:19:16.140Given students' rights to privacy and our obligations under FERPA, I will not say more about any specific cases other than to reiterate that processes are ongoing.
00:19:29.060Do you know what the number one hate crime in America is?
00:19:31.680I know that over the last couple of months, there has been an alarming rise of anti-Semitism, which I understand is the critical topic that we are here to discuss.
00:20:18.600Well, and Harvard doesn't intend to change its conduct.
00:20:22.700They certainly have made no expression that they intend to do differently.
00:20:26.840They were forced after over a billion dollars in commitments to contributions were called out.
00:20:35.320After academically, their president became a laughingstock.
00:20:39.400After you began to have students who I would note had to anonymously call for her to resign because they were afraid of retaliation.
00:20:48.680After you had editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post, bastions of the left, both calling not from the papers, but from from people submitting op eds, calling for her resignation.
00:21:03.600After all of that, it became intolerable.
00:21:07.260And yet they dug in and they dug in and they dug in.
00:21:12.820You look at her testimony and she she is defending free speech.
00:21:17.380And it would be one thing if she was saying, you know, Harvard's a place where anyone can say anything and we protect free speech for everyone.
00:21:30.960So there's an organization called FIRE and FIRE is is actively involved in fighting to defend free speech and examining censorship and suppression of free speech on campus.
00:21:41.260And they does they do an elaborate survey every year to analysis of universities across the country.
00:21:47.880So Harvard is consistently ranked one of the worst in the country in 2020.
00:21:53.720Harvard ranked number 46 out of 55 schools in terms of protecting free speech in 2021.
00:22:00.340It ranked 130 out of 154 schools in 2022.
00:22:24.020It was six standard deviations below the average and more than two standard deviations below the second to last school in the rankings.
00:22:31.900And the second to last school was the University of Pennsylvania Penn.
00:22:35.580And so when she is is saying, well, anti-Semites are allowed and and apparently encouraged because of free speech, that is a policy that is applied very selectively.
00:22:51.720And Harvard's expressed no willingness, no desire to correct that.
00:22:56.600And and I think it is imperative that this become a moment to try to address and try to fix the profound ideological corruption.
00:23:10.220By the way, if you look at the Harvard Corporation board, every single one of its board members is a hardcore partisan ideological Democrat.
00:23:19.300There is no one right of center allowed anywhere near that board.
00:23:24.920And you see it in the policies why they universally circled the wagons around Claudine Gay.
00:23:32.200And it was only when dragged kicking and screaming that they allowed her to resign.
00:23:37.620As 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.
00:23:46.040Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them.
00:23:53.460And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:23:59.600And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:24:09.080So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:24:12.080Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:24:17.780I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:24:22.640I want to move to something else that is obviously important and significant.
00:24:28.440And it's a big win on the border to secure the enactment of a streamlined permitting process for new and expanded bridges across the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Laredo and Eagle Pass, Texas.
00:24:42.320It is something that you were a part of and led on.
00:24:50.940And I want to play for people part of what you had to say at this very, very big moment.
00:24:56.820We're here today to celebrate bipartisan legislation that was signed into law in December of last year that will expedite building new bridges and expanding bridges between Texas and Mexico.
00:25:14.120We're here at the World Trade Bridge, the largest land port in the United States.
00:25:19.280Every year, Texas and Mexico have roughly $800 billion in trade and commerce that comes across this border.
00:25:42.780This is obviously significant, not just from the standpoint of security that you talked about and orderly commerce coming across the border in a safer manner.
00:25:53.180But it's also a really big deal from the fact that, as you mentioned, it was bipartisan.
00:25:58.560Talk about how significant this is going to be for this country and for Texas.
00:26:02.780Well, the audio you just played was for a press conference that I did in Laredo yesterday morning, and it was right at the World Trade Bridge, right on the southern border.
00:26:12.000And I did that alongside Henry Cuellar, the Democrat congressman who represents Laredo.
00:26:17.140And Henry and I worked hand in hand in this, and it was a huge victory.
00:26:21.440The Texas Business Association that was down there with us, and there was a large group of people celebrating this legislative victory that we had just two weeks ago,
00:26:34.380described the legislation that I introduced and passed as the biggest positive step for jobs and commerce in Texas
00:26:46.820since the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement was negotiated.
00:26:51.600It is literally billions of dollars of additional trade and commerce and tens of thousands of jobs.
00:28:13.180If you're building a bridge across an international border, there's an additional legal requirement.
00:28:20.560You need a permit from the president of the United States.
00:28:25.520Now, the way this used to be done is the president would grant that permit contingent on the completion of the NEPA review.
00:28:34.840And what that did is accelerated the process, enabled it to move through quickly.
00:28:39.560When Joe Biden became president, he announced they were reversing that policy.
00:28:47.020And Biden was going to grant zero presidential permits for cross-border bridges unless and until the NEPA environmental review was fully completed.
00:29:00.200The effect of that was to add two, three, four, five years to these bridge projects to delay them all.
00:29:07.280It also made it harder for them to get funding because the banks were reluctant to commit capital until the presidential permit had been granted.
00:29:17.880So there was a chicken and egg problem.
00:29:22.380And so what I did is, number one, unified the congressional delegation in South Texas.
00:29:28.020And so I brought together a coalition of myself and John Cornyn, the other Texas senator, along with Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat, and Tony Gonzalez, a Republican.
00:29:42.360All of the South Texas congressional delegation, we jointly pressed the Biden State Department reverse this idiotic policy.
00:29:52.620This is hurting Texas and hurting America.
00:29:59.100And so I authored legislation mandating that they expedite the process, got bipartisan support in the Senate, passed it out of the Senate, and then passed it out of the House.
00:30:11.340And Joe Biden signed it into law on December 22nd.
00:30:15.620And it was actually my birthday that he signed in the law.
00:30:19.140And so it was a pretty great birthday gift because it's a huge victory for jobs in the state of Texas.
00:30:26.920And it's an example of, you know, I got to say, it's also an example of the bizarre hypocrisy.
00:30:34.760I mean, let me ask you seriously, Ben, explain to me the mind of a whack job liberal that you want totally open borders and 10 million people invading this country illegally, including human traffickers and drug traffickers on the one hand.
00:30:51.660But on the other hand, you want to put bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of legal trade and commerce from farmers and businesses while you're allowing illegal immigrants to flow with no restraint.
00:31:05.180Yeah, it makes no sense, especially when every year Texas and Mexico, as you mentioned, have roughly 800 billion in trade and commerce that come across this border.
00:31:13.180And this does it in a more orderly fashion, but also with the issue of national security involved in it, keeping it orderly with safety and security, especially with all the drug trafficking, fentanyl and everything else coming across the border.
00:31:30.560And we ended up building the bipartisan coalition to pass this into law.
00:31:36.660And so the way the law works is December 22nd is when Joe Biden signed it into law.
00:31:42.080On that date, which was the date he signed it, the legislation starts a shot clock of 60 days and the State Department has a 60 day time limit to submit its recommendations to the White House as to whether he should grant the permit for these four bridges.
00:32:00.860After that 60 day period, a second shot clock starts and the president has 60 days to make a determination on the permit.
00:32:11.180If the president does nothing after that second 60 days, the permit is deemed automatically granted by operation of law.
00:32:21.820What that means is because it was signed on December 22nd, that by April 20th, we will have these presidential permits, which will expedite these bridges going forward.
00:32:32.680That is an enormous victory, despite the Biden administration putting roadblocks in the way every step of the way.
00:32:40.200As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:32:45.400Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.
00:32:49.060You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:32:52.020I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:32:56.180And we will see you back here on Monday morning.