Verdict with Ted Cruz - FBI’s Role in Russia Hoax, Beijing’s Ivy League Infiltration & Democrats Back Hamas Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.260 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.620 Week in Review. Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.540 And here are the major stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:13.100 First up, new intel on the FBI and how involved they actually were in creating the Russia hoax.

00:00:21.340 We'll explain that to you in just a moment.

00:00:23.400 Also, in a new bombshell report, Harvard University having direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the money they're funneling in is truly incredible.

00:00:34.660 And finally, Democrats go on the record with official votes, becoming more anti-Israel than we've ever seen before.

00:00:43.980 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:47.600 I want to move to the other topic that we mentioned earlier, and that deals with the FBI right now.

00:00:52.580 And new intel that's coming out, and I've got to say, a lot of people are going to be shocked by it.

00:00:59.740 I'm not surprised at all by this.

00:01:02.720 And I want to get your take on now what we're learning about the FBI with the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax

00:01:08.080 and the controversial Trump-Russia actions predicted with alarming accuracy by foreign actors.

00:01:15.920 I mean, you look at this coming out now, and it's just a joke how incredible this whole—I call it a play.

00:01:22.600 It was a movie, it's a script, and everybody was playing with a script that they knew was a lie.

00:01:27.600 That's right, but I want to take a minute and sort of pull the curtain back for our listeners.

00:01:32.380 So we do this podcast, and we do this podcast sometimes late at night.

00:01:36.460 So it is 12.55 a.m.

00:01:38.200 So, look, Ben is half asleep.

00:01:40.780 To be honest, he's been asleep for two hours, and we woke him to do this.

00:01:44.740 So the headline of this story says that it was predicted with alarming specificity.

00:01:52.360 Yes, that's true.

00:01:53.780 And I want you all to know, we recorded this, and this is one of the advantages of doing a podcast.

00:01:58.580 When you record it and screw it up, you can just stop and rewind and do it again.

00:02:01.580 So we recorded it, and twice Benjamin was unable to say the word specificity.

00:02:09.180 He tried.

00:02:10.080 It's a tough one, specificity.

00:02:11.180 I can't say it now, see?

00:02:13.620 And I will confess I kept making it harder because I kept saying specificity.

00:02:19.220 Yes, he did.

00:02:19.900 I can say that word, no problem, right?

00:02:22.020 That one's easy.

00:02:22.920 So finally, after twice crashing and burning on saying specificity, he just said, with alarming accuracy.

00:02:33.140 By the way, the quote is not accuracy, it's specificity.

00:02:36.580 But I didn't say quote-unquote.

00:02:38.260 See, I covered myself there.

00:02:39.780 You didn't say the word quote, but I just wanted our listeners to know that, like, the specificity with which we—

00:02:46.900 The struggle can be real at 1 a.m.

00:02:48.420 That is accurate.

00:02:50.020 It's not 1 a.m.

00:02:50.860 It's 12.57.

00:02:51.720 You got three minutes till 1 a.m.

00:02:54.540 All right, so let's cover the—

00:02:57.640 But this is the important stuff to understand.

00:03:01.260 Look, these are real human beings.

00:03:04.300 I'm in my D.C. apartment.

00:03:06.000 You're in a hotel room, I think.

00:03:07.640 Is that right?

00:03:08.460 No, I'm in a house in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

00:03:12.020 So that's where the World Championships is.

00:03:14.660 Look, that's pretty fancy and she-she, and you've got to be up at, like, 6.30 is tea time. 0.96

00:03:19.860 Is that right?

00:03:20.960 It's 6.18 or something absurd.

00:03:23.780 6.18.

00:03:25.080 All right, Benjamin, while you're at tea time, I will be fast asleep.

00:03:29.000 I believe you.

00:03:30.640 And you'll be dreaming about the alarming specificity, the word I can't say.

00:03:35.440 You still can't say it.

00:03:36.600 Come on.

00:03:37.920 Specificity.

00:03:38.380 Just say it once.

00:03:39.920 Specificity.

00:03:40.360 There we go.

00:03:41.100 I nailed it.

00:03:41.300 There we go.

00:03:41.840 Look at that.

00:03:42.620 By the way, you know what I did Monday on the flight to D.C.?

00:03:46.420 Say that again?

00:03:47.880 Do you know what I did Monday on the flight to D.C.?

00:03:49.860 What did you do?

00:03:52.080 I watched Happy Gilmore 2.

00:03:54.000 Have you seen that?

00:03:55.240 It's so good.

00:03:56.580 It is so good.

00:03:57.640 It is awesome.

00:03:57.760 I love when they don't screw up a sequel like Top Gun Maverick.

00:04:02.080 They killed it, right?

00:04:03.720 Happy Gilmore, it's phenomenal.

00:04:05.620 Happy Gilmore 2 may be better than Happy Gilmore.

00:04:08.780 I agree.

00:04:09.640 It's really good.

00:04:11.300 And by the way, did you see it coming?

00:04:13.460 Because I did not.

00:04:14.860 Hold on.

00:04:15.440 Spoiler word.

00:04:16.120 If you haven't watched it yet, turn it down for five seconds.

00:04:18.540 When he killed his wife with a golf ball, I did not see that coming.

00:04:22.120 Did you?

00:04:22.500 I did not see that coming either.

00:04:24.940 I will say, by the way, as a complete aside, I've gotten to know Adam Sandler's producer.

00:04:31.080 You know, he's a big hoops player.

00:04:32.660 I got to tell you, I'm told that Sandler, I've invited him to come play hoops with me, and he said yes.

00:04:38.280 So, hadn't happened yet, but I'm actually really psyched, because Sandler and I are almost exactly the same age, and he's a serious ball player.

00:04:46.400 And as you know, I play hoops twice a week.

00:04:49.940 By the way, really, do I say count me in for that game?

00:04:52.720 I'd like to be there for that game.

00:04:54.700 Okay, don't injure Adam Sandler like he is a national comedic treasure.

00:04:59.720 And I will say, I played hoops with you.

00:05:01.500 The last time I played hoops with you, you broke your finger.

00:05:04.300 Yes.

00:05:04.500 You're a large man.

00:05:05.000 I'm not worried about him.

00:05:06.000 You're a strong man.

00:05:06.260 I'm worried about me.

00:05:06.820 And you throw your body around pretty physically, which I admire. 0.70

00:05:11.760 Like, I'm like, screw it.

00:05:12.660 If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. 0.91

00:05:14.340 But I'm just saying, don't injure Adam Sandler.

00:05:17.260 There you go.

00:05:18.340 That'd be one heck of a headline, right?

00:05:20.960 All right, let's get back.

00:05:22.040 We actually had a story to do, but I just had to call you out because you, like, magically edited out you're screwing up the word.

00:05:29.280 And so I just had to, like, bring our listeners in and say, you know, sometimes the magic of podcast is not exactly what you think.

00:05:37.300 All right.

00:05:37.880 Yeah.

00:05:38.140 You know, I'm right.

00:05:39.440 Go for it.

00:05:39.900 I'm ready.

00:05:40.800 Go ahead.

00:05:41.260 Say what you're going to say.

00:05:42.280 No, no.

00:05:42.580 I was going to say.

00:05:43.000 So this is the part that laughs when you do radio, like I did three hours a day.

00:05:47.860 My producer, Diaz, who does this show as well, when that would happen, the worst part is he's just laughing at me through the glass on the other side of the wall because it's live and there's nothing he can do to fix it.

00:05:59.420 And so he just laughs in my face.

00:06:00.960 So now this is, like, my weird revenge because for how many years we worked here, Diaz, 12, 13, 14?

00:06:07.420 I don't even know how many it is.

00:06:08.880 He just used to just laugh at me, and now he actually has to go back and fix it.

00:06:13.140 So I'm like, the joke's on you, buddy.

00:06:14.540 The joke's on you.

00:06:15.420 So, yeah, when it's live, there's nothing you can do about it.

00:06:17.780 So with all that specificity, the word I can't say is still denied for some reason.

00:06:23.060 Let's get back to the FBI story.

00:06:24.860 You have reported on this story with alarming fesificity.

00:06:27.860 And let me read from the Fox News story.

00:06:31.840 Quote, U.S. intelligence has credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the salacious Trump-Russia collusion narrative before the Bureau ever launched its controversial crossfire hurricane probe, sources familiar with the intel told Fox News Digital.

00:06:49.580 CIA Director John Ratcliffe is expected to declassify the underlying intelligence, including a classified annex related to former special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

00:07:05.360 A source familiar with the contents of the classified annex told Fox News Digital that while it may not have been exactly clear in the moment what the intelligent collection meant, with the benefit of hindsight, it predicted the FBI's move with alarming specificity.

00:07:23.080 And it goes on to say, Bingo, there's your quote.

00:07:26.440 There you go.

00:07:28.060 Quote, ultimately, the release of the classified annex will lend more credibility to the assertion that there was a coordinated plan inside the U.S. government to help the Clinton campaign stir up controversy connecting Trump to Russia.

00:07:42.640 The source, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence matters that have not yet been made public, told Fox News Digital, quote, mere days after this intelligence was collected, the FBI launched crossfire hurricane, the source said, quote, it is really hard to see how Brennan, Clapper and Comey are going to be able to explain this away.

00:08:07.620 You put that in perspective, and I think it's fair to say at this point, everything we were hearing during the back of the day on this, it was all just straight up government propaganda and the media was 100 percent in on it.

00:08:22.760 Well, it was not just government propaganda.

00:08:25.180 It was driven by the Hillary Clinton campaign. 0.77

00:08:28.500 It was opposition research that they paid for.

00:08:31.100 And then they gave to the Obama administration to launder it.

00:08:34.700 They laundered it through the FBI.

00:08:36.060 They laundered it through the Department of Justice.

00:08:38.780 And it was the federal government attacking Donald Trump because they did not want Donald Trump to be president.

00:08:46.140 And the degree to which the government was complicit in partisan politics, but not just partisan politics, partisan politics that was false, that was a lie.

00:08:57.740 This was made up.

00:08:59.980 The Russia hoax was a hoax. 0.76

00:09:02.240 It was concocted through the Hillary Clinton campaign.

00:09:06.520 It was laundered through the FBI and the Department of Justice.

00:09:10.260 And it was a lie that was a political attack job.

00:09:13.860 And I want to commend John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA, a good friend of mine, for making this public, for drawing accountability and truth to what occurred.

00:09:27.540 What do you think is going to come from this?

00:09:29.660 Because there's so many, I think, disgruntled and frustrated Americans that hear those things like, all right, we're now getting more and more confirmation this happened.

00:09:36.560 Will there be any real accountability and does this move us closer to that?

00:09:42.300 So I hope so that there needs to be accountability.

00:09:45.180 And I will say you have Tulsi Gabbard, who released her bombshell information about the degree of the complicity of the administration.

00:09:57.400 And if you didn't hear our podcast last week on this, you should listen to the podcast on Tulsi Gabbard's bombshell information.

00:10:04.340 I hope there is accountability.

00:10:06.920 I call on the Department of Justice.

00:10:09.320 I also had, when I was having drinks with the Army Secretary, I also had drinks with the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

00:10:15.660 And so I was urging DOJ, follow the facts and prosecute anyone who is complicit.

00:10:21.720 There are challenges because some of the people who were involved in this, their criminal conduct was before the statute of limitations expired.

00:10:29.840 And so it is harder to prosecute someone who committed criminal conduct after the statute of limitations has expired.

00:10:37.220 Andrew McCabe, who was the Deputy Director of the FBI, he testified before Congress.

00:10:42.180 He testified falsely.

00:10:43.440 And the statute of limitations has not yet expired on his testimony.

00:10:47.320 So if I were to predict the single most likely person in the Obama administration to face prosecution, it would be Andrew McCabe.

00:10:55.000 Because there's still a window where he lied to Congress and it's within the statute of limitations.

00:11:00.320 Really incredible.

00:11:01.220 We're going to keep you updated on all this.

00:11:02.540 Don't forget to hit that subscribe or auto download button.

00:11:05.080 Share this podcast and please write us a five-star review.

00:11:07.620 It helps us reach more people out there on the charts.

00:11:10.280 And this evening, I will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:11:12.980 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.

00:11:20.020 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:11:21.720 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:11:26.180 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:11:29.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:11:31.080 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:11:32.300 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:11:36.060 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:11:39.600 All at different stages of their journey.

00:11:41.800 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:11:45.020 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:11:49.080 Now on to story number two.

00:11:53.100 Senator, I want to move to this new report that's come out.

00:11:56.560 And it is something that we have been really, like, raising the flag on, saying, pay attention to this.

00:12:04.140 Be careful where you send your kids to college.

00:12:06.680 Be careful that they're going to be indoctrinated to hate America.

00:12:09.560 And be careful where you send your kids because there's a lot of money that's coming in from countries that are trying to undermine America and hate America.

00:12:19.260 We're now seeing more of this at Harvard.

00:12:23.640 With Harvard's ties now directly to the Chinese Communist Party elites, that has been revealed on a level we haven't seen before.

00:12:32.940 And it's even more shocking of where Harvard's getting their cash.

00:12:36.980 And look, China is not doing this because they like Harvard.

00:12:40.300 They're clearly doing it for influence.

00:12:43.940 Unquestionably.

00:12:44.740 And, you know, some have criticized the Trump administration going after Harvard University.

00:12:49.860 Harvard is the most influential university on the face of the planet.

00:12:54.340 And it also, many universities in America have been in bed with the Chinese Communist Party.

00:13:00.380 The Chinese government spends millions of dollars trying to get influence and trying to brainwash our students, trying to control our universities. 0.52

00:13:10.340 And far too many universities have been really eager to participate in that.

00:13:14.040 And Harvard has been right at the front of the list.

00:13:16.300 Well, this week, the House of Representatives has an investigation, and they sent a letter to the president of Harvard.

00:13:21.640 This is a letter from John Moulinard, who is the chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP in the House.

00:13:27.100 It's from Tim Wahlberg, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

00:13:31.460 And it's from Elise Stefanik, who is the chairwoman of House Republican Leadership.

00:13:35.700 And here's what the letter says.

00:13:37.740 It's addressed to the president of Harvard University, Alan Garber.

00:13:40.420 And it says,

00:13:41.300 During our investigation, multiple whistleblowers told us that

00:13:58.180 Harvard has maintained close, formal relationships directly with Chinese Communist Party entities.

00:14:05.600 Specifically, whistleblower information revealed ties between Harvard and the Central Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CCP,

00:14:14.860 as well as certain Chinese government entities.

00:14:18.080 The CCP Organization Department is one of the most powerful bodies within the Communist Party.

00:14:22.300 It is responsible for the regimented training program centered on Xi Jinping thought provided to the party elites and controls the placement of CCP members in key leadership positions.

00:14:36.860 The whistleblowers also revealed that Harvard cultivates ties with elite CCP members.

00:14:42.200 For example, whistleblowers revealed that the Harvard Kennedy School hosts a formal partnership with the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy, Pudong,

00:14:52.180 which is controlled by the CCP Organization Department.

00:14:55.980 Under that partnership, the rising CCP elite, who are being prepared for senior Communist Party leadership positions,

00:15:02.940 participate in training at Harvard in the United States.

00:15:07.820 Additional publicly available information indicates that some of these relationships have been in place for at least a decade.

00:15:16.280 In 2016, a high-ranking member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences stated that Chinese, quote,

00:15:22.040 party and government cadres participate in education and training run by the CCP Organization Department.

00:15:29.980 The Chinese government sends some cadres abroad to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

00:15:37.060 This is shocking, and it certainly appears from this investigation,

00:15:43.520 and they request all documents related to any engagement between Harvard and the CCP and the government of China,

00:15:50.020 and a list of all money that has come from China and the Chinese government.

00:15:54.680 And my prediction is Harvard is going to fight tooth and nail not to turn this over,

00:15:58.820 because they don't want people to know just how eager they have been to be in bed with the Communists running the Chinese government.

00:16:08.780 Can we also just be very clear, like, China doesn't do this because they like higher education,

00:16:13.460 or they're just trying to get, let's say, their students in.

00:16:16.360 That would be like the most G-rated version of a story that you could tell.

00:16:20.140 They're doing this to buy genuine influence at the highest levels in academia in America,

00:16:26.040 and also this could have major consequences for the U.S. when it comes to national security or spies

00:16:33.760 and countless other infiltration activities that they're a part of all the time.

00:16:38.460 Look, that's exactly right.

00:16:39.960 You look at Harvard trains many of our nation's elite.

00:16:44.760 For example, I just typed in a quick list on AI.

00:16:50.080 How many senators went to Harvard?

00:16:52.400 And AI promptly gave me an answer.

00:16:54.520 There are currently 12 senators who are Harvard alumni.

00:16:57.680 And I will admit, sadly, that it came back and says the list includes individuals like Ted Cruz,

00:17:03.020 Tim Kaine, Jack Reed, Chuck Schumer, and Mitt Romney.

00:17:05.580 So I'm a little embarrassed to be the first name on that list.

00:17:08.540 But that is part of the reason that Harvard puts, that Harvard, that China puts that money into Harvard,

00:17:17.320 into Columbia, into elite universities across this country, is they want to train America's leaders.

00:17:24.000 They want to train members of Congress.

00:17:25.960 They want to train members of the executive branch.

00:17:27.760 They want to train federal judges.

00:17:29.060 They want to train the foreign policy apparatus.

00:17:31.880 And they are trying to train them.

00:17:34.320 And they're trying to propagandize.

00:17:36.200 They use this for brainwashing.

00:17:38.040 They use this for espionage.

00:17:40.580 And far too many of our universities have been so eager to take the money that they have welcomed Chinese communists with open arms. 0.89

00:17:50.320 When you look at where they are right now and you look at Harvard, is this just about the money, do you think?

00:17:57.080 Or is this also about the fact that Harvard has no problem agreeing on a lot of issues with China?

00:18:03.200 Well, it's both.

00:18:04.720 And listen, the Harvard faculty is hard left.

00:18:07.860 One point I've said many times is that when I was a student at Harvard Law School, there were more professors who were communists than there were who were Republicans.

00:18:18.400 And that's not hyperbole.

00:18:20.100 There were at least a dozen professors who openly said they were Marxists, that they were followers of the teachings of Karl Marx and followers of, you know, Karl Marx is the father of communism.

00:18:31.860 When I was a student there, there was only one professor who openly identified as Republican.

00:18:37.000 That was Charles Freed, and by the way, Charles Freed, the lone Republican on the faculty, voted for Barack Obama.

00:18:44.160 So their lone Republican voted for Obama as well.

00:18:47.460 That was the range of thought 30 years ago, and it is much, much worse now.

00:18:53.420 As you know, my most recent book is entitled Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America.

00:18:59.960 And the opening chapter talks about cultural Marxism, how it grew at Harvard University.

00:19:07.360 It spread to universities throughout this country.

00:19:09.500 It spread to K-12 education, to journalism, to big business, to big tech, to entertainment.

00:19:14.360 And sadly, you know, I call the universities the Wuhan lab of the woke virus because they're where it was created, they're where it mutated, and they're where it spread. 0.98

00:19:26.700 And Harvard was ground zero for that spread.

00:19:32.300 Final question on this.

00:19:33.660 Will Congress be able to really do anything on this issue to stop this type of money coming into these universities?

00:19:41.600 Look, I hope so.

00:19:42.920 One of the very first pieces of legislation that I passed 13 years ago was legislation that banned Defense Department money from going to universities that have Confucius Institutes.

00:19:54.620 Confucius Institutes were paid for by the Chinese Communist government.

00:19:58.480 They were at universities all over the country.

00:20:00.880 I got that through.

00:20:01.760 I got that passed and signed into law.

00:20:03.620 I actually got bipartisan support for it.

00:20:05.760 And as a result, dozens of Confucius Institutes shut down all over the country.

00:20:10.440 So we can make a real impact.

00:20:13.580 I've got more legislation to require transparency of foreign money going to universities.

00:20:18.840 We ought to know about it.

00:20:19.960 And look, the Trump administration is trying hard to expose this and to stop it.

00:20:26.180 And I salute the president for doing that.

00:20:27.880 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.

00:20:36.380 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:20:39.020 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:20:43.500 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:20:47.140 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:20:48.400 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:20:49.620 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:20:53.380 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:20:59.120 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:21:02.120 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:21:08.160 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:21:12.400 I want to get to this other big issue, and that is Democrats are not just abandoning Israel.

00:21:18.780 They are straight up anti-Israel, and they're showing it now as they're voting.

00:21:24.300 A record number of Senate Democrats are voting to block weapons sales to Israel.

00:21:30.240 They're doing it in numbers we've never seen before.

00:21:33.540 And this on top of the fact that the New York Times has had to basically correct the claim about a viral photo of a starving Gaza boy they blamed on Israel.

00:21:44.640 It actually wasn't true at all.

00:21:46.700 And they didn't correct it like in the paper.

00:21:49.180 They did it on X on their PR account that, like, no one follows.

00:21:53.980 This is now how bad it's gotten, not only in the media, but also in D.C.

00:21:58.180 Well, you know, when I arrived in the Senate 13 years ago, there was meaningful bipartisan support for Israel.

00:22:05.080 It was one of the issues that you could see Republicans and Democrats come together.

00:22:10.340 2013, when I got here, was the beginning of the second term of Barack Obama,

00:22:14.680 and Barack Obama began to turn the Democrat Party against Israel.

00:22:18.580 That turn accelerated dramatically during the Biden administration, and Joe Biden ended up being the most anti-Israel president and the most anti-Israel administration we've ever seen.

00:22:29.800 Joe Biden, in the midst of a war that Israel was in, cut off weapons, froze weapons to Israel,

00:22:36.520 and did so specifically to prevent Israel from killing terrorists, Hamas terrorists,

00:22:41.700 who had attacked Israel viciously in one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in world history, October 7th,

00:22:48.800 where Hamas murdered over 1,200 civilians, targeted civilians directly, raped and murdered women and little girls.

00:22:57.380 And the Democrats, looking at the aftermath of this, more and more of them decided they stand with Hamas.

00:23:04.940 And sadly, there is a real and growing pro-Hamas contingent of the Democrat Party today.

00:23:12.940 This week, Bernie Sanders brought a resolution trying to block weapons sales to Israel.

00:23:18.680 Now, Bernie Sanders has been rabidly anti-Israel for a long time.

00:23:22.700 Most left-wing socialists and Marxists are.

00:23:25.940 But Bernie Sanders' resolutions trying to cut off Israel usually failed, and usually failed with a big, big vote.

00:23:32.540 Well, this week, the Senate rejected it again, and we rejected it by a vote of 70 to 27.

00:23:38.080 But there were 27 votes in favor of Bernie Sanders' resolution.

00:23:43.420 There are only 47 Democrats in the Senate.

00:23:46.300 That means more than half of the Senate Democrats voted to cut off funding for Israel.

00:23:52.700 That is a dramatic shift.

00:23:54.120 And by the way, if you compare it to in April, we had a similar vote, and only 15 Democrats voted for it.

00:24:01.620 In November of 2024, 18 Democrats voted for it.

00:24:05.160 So moving up to 27 is a major shift.

00:24:09.860 And it is a disturbing pattern where, when faced with a choice, do we support Hamas or do we support Israel, more and more Democrats, they're afraid of the AOCs, they're afraid of the Ilhan Omars, they're afraid of the Rashida Tlaibs in the House, the pro-Hamas squad.

00:24:30.520 And they're also afraid of the radical protesters on college campuses.

00:24:34.440 Understand, those protesters are funded by George Soros.

00:24:37.340 They're funded by the same people who fund the Democrat Party.

00:24:40.100 And more and more elected Democrats have decided that they will not anger the pro-Hamas radicals.

00:24:47.720 And so I've got to say, it is sad to see.

00:24:50.820 Let me ask you a question, by the way.

00:24:54.120 Did you mention, yeah, and let me ask you this.

00:24:56.720 So, look, we know that there's more people on the House side, so you'll get some, you know, fringe groups on the House side on the Democratic Party.

00:25:05.760 Even, like, more hardcore conservatives we've seen in the past with conservative caucuses, you can see numbers move there.

00:25:12.680 The Senate's kind of been, like, the place of elder statesmen, and, like, there's certain issues that you kind of just see that, like, hey, we're going to be the adults in the room.

00:25:23.740 I think that's the scariest part of these votes I'm witnessing now is this has moved from the House and the radicals there that you kind of expect it through the AOC and her group, right?

00:25:35.640 You expect it, but now it's moved into the Senate chamber, and that is really, I think, telling about the anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.

00:25:44.880 Am I wrong?

00:25:45.560 More than half of the Senate Democrats voted to cut off military funding for Israel.

00:25:51.860 That's a milestone.

00:25:52.740 That's never happened before.

00:25:54.240 And, by the way, it happened at the exact same time that we saw three governments worldwide, governments of U.S. allies, but that are led by leftists.

00:26:03.220 The government of the United Kingdom, the government of France, and the government of Canada all came out in favor of recognizing an independent Palestinian state.

00:26:13.320 And I want you to think about the message that the U.K. and France and Canada are saying.

00:26:17.820 They're saying to Hamas, your terrorism worked.

00:26:20.700 They're saying to Hamas, we're glad you murdered 1,200 innocent civilians. 1.00

00:26:24.880 We're glad you raped women and little girls. 1.00

00:26:27.300 By the way, they're also saying to Hamas, we're glad you continue to keep hostages to this day. 0.99

00:26:32.600 You do not release the hostages.

00:26:34.320 They're saying to Hamas, we're glad you're responsible for starving Palestinians in Gaza. 0.73

00:26:40.180 Understand that the human suffering in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas. 0.83

00:26:44.880 Hamas could end this right now.

00:26:46.520 And Donald Trump, by contrast, put out a tweet this week, and he said Hamas could end the suffering right now by stopping fighting and releasing the hostages.

00:26:56.120 They don't want to.

00:26:57.160 And, in fact, Hamas is actively negotiating.

00:26:59.600 You know what they're negotiating for?

00:27:02.020 Cut off food aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

00:27:07.020 We, Hamas, want to control all the food because it's one of the ways we keep in power is by starving anyone who opposes us.

00:27:16.900 That is who the United Kingdom and France and the Canadian government is supporting.

00:27:22.060 And that is also, sadly, who now a majority of Senate Democrats are supporting.

00:27:27.260 You also look at the media, and there's a second part of this conversation.

00:27:31.180 The New York Times has had to roll back a claim.

00:27:35.580 They put it out there of a viral photo of a starving Gaza boy.

00:27:39.580 It was propaganda.

00:27:41.900 It was clearly propaganda from the terrorists and those that want you to somehow believe that Israel is starving kids.

00:27:50.600 It did not happen that way at all.

00:27:53.820 The New York Times was forced to correct it, and I think they did it in such a disgusting way because they issued their statement sharing how they, quote,

00:28:05.040 originally didn't include this boy's pre-existing health condition, but they didn't really do it in the newspaper, like, on the front page the same way they did the picture.

00:28:14.300 The damage had already been done.

00:28:16.140 They corrected the story by going to the New York Times' PR Twitter, not even the New York Times' Twitter account, the New York Times' PR account that virtually no one's going to see.

00:28:29.220 Yeah, look, this was not a picture that they just had as a kind of side note in a small story.

00:28:36.340 This is a picture the New York Times put on the front page.

00:28:39.260 It occupies more than half of the front page above the fold.

00:28:44.680 It is a massive picture, and it's a horrible picture.

00:28:47.160 It's a picture of a little boy.

00:28:49.000 He appears to be starving.

00:28:50.840 His spine is sticking out.

00:28:52.220 I mean, it's very disturbing.

00:28:53.460 It's an 18-month-old child, which they said he was starving.

00:28:59.900 He faced life-threatening malnutrition, and they blamed that on Israel, and they used it to push Hamas' propaganda.

00:29:07.480 After they did that, the New York Times was forced to issue a correction, and they did the correction, as you noted, on Twitter, where no one would see it.

00:29:17.220 And their correction says that what they didn't tell people—here's what their statement was.

00:29:22.500 Quote, children in Gaza are malnourished and starving, as New York reporters and others have documented.

00:29:26.260 We recently ran a story about Gaza's most vulnerable civilians, including Mohamed Zakir al-Mataqwa, who is about 18 months old and suffers from severe malnutrition.

00:29:37.500 We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that is treating him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems.

00:29:46.540 This additional detail gives readers greater understanding of his situation.

00:29:52.020 Our reporters and photographers continue to report from Gaza, bravely, sensitively, and at personal risk, so that our readers can see firsthand the consequences of the war.

00:30:03.120 That's their fairly ridiculous retraction, where they admit they're lying to you.

00:30:06.560 Now, here's what they didn't tell us, that Mohamed's mother indicated that her son suffers from, quote, a muscle disorder, through which he receives specialized nutrition and physical therapy.

00:30:19.860 And another journalist reported that the young boy has, quote, cerebral palsy, hypoxemia, and was born with a serious genetic order.

00:30:30.980 So they showed a child who's very sick, but he's not very sick from starvation.

00:30:36.180 He's very sick from other medical conditions.

00:30:38.960 And the New York Times happily plays the role of Hamas's propagandists.

00:30:44.760 And sadly, Senate Democrats are cheering on that false propaganda.

00:30:49.720 Interestingly enough, the pattern of this is exactly the same as the pattern of Hillary Clinton signing off on the false Russia story.

00:30:57.900 It is take a lie, count on the corporate media to spread that lie, count on Democrat politicians to spread that lie, and count on friendly governments to spread that lie as well.

00:31:09.280 And everyone involved knows they are lying, but their political agenda, in this instance, they hate Israel, they want to undermine Israel, and they want to elevate Hamas.

00:31:20.000 And sadly, that more and more Senate Democrats are falling into that camp.

00:31:23.340 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:31:28.800 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day if you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:31:35.840 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:31:39.580 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:31:42.940 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:31:45.820 Guaranteed human.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 02, 2025

FBI’s Role in Russia Hoax, Beijing’s Ivy League Infiltration & Democrats Back Hamas Week In Review

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