Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 19, 2024


Follow DEI not Science, What the Law Says about Immigrant Asylum in America & Israel Erases Sinwar Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

161.54663

Word count

5,022

Sentence count

322

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Toxicity

19

sentences flagged

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is joined by Sen. Ben Ferguson (D-Illinois) to discuss how the Biden-Harris administration diverted billions of dollars from scientific research to leftist activists. Also, Israel killed Hamas' mastermind behind the October 7th attack.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.320 Welcome.
00:00:06.020 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.880 The week in review.
00:00:09.700 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:10.740 And we had some major stories that if you missed them this week,
00:00:13.560 you want to make sure you know about them now.
00:00:16.320 First up, Biden-Harris diverted billions from actual science research to DEI activities.
00:00:25.600 Where did it go and how did they get away with it?
00:00:27.700 We break that down for you.
00:00:29.120 Also, what does the actual law say about asylum seekers coming into this country?
00:00:34.840 Now, they know how to play the system.
00:00:36.920 But are we supposed to let everyone stay who crosses the southern border? 1.00
00:00:41.300 The answer is no.
00:00:42.480 But what does the law say?
00:00:43.920 And, well, are the people in the White House breaking the law?
00:00:46.400 We'll explain that for you as well.
00:00:48.500 And finally, a major victory as Israel killed Hamas' mastermind behind the October 7th attack.
00:00:56.640 How did they pull it off?
00:00:57.660 We explain it all.
00:00:58.660 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:02.220 I want to move to another subject real quick.
00:01:04.040 And this is the reason why we do this podcast is we get to bring you information that is not being covered.
00:01:10.780 And this is important.
00:01:12.780 There was an investigation that you guys put together in Washington that revealed,
00:01:19.780 and you were the leader on this, how the Biden-Harris administration diverted billions of dollars from scientific research to DEI activists.
00:01:32.520 And for people that are listening, let's start with this.
00:01:35.200 Remind them what DEI stands for and then this story that is broken.
00:01:38.960 Well, DEI is diversity, equity, and inclusion.
00:01:42.780 And it is the catchphrase of the woke left.
00:01:47.160 And let me just give you the headline.
00:01:49.820 Before Biden took office in 2020, less than 1% of the grants from the National Science Foundation were related to DEI.
00:01:56.980 DEI, DEI, today that number is greater than 10%.
00:02:02.160 So there has been a massive, massive shift.
00:02:05.320 Now, what does that mean?
00:02:06.660 Well, this past week, I put out a report.
00:02:10.100 So as you know, I'm the ranking member on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
00:02:15.220 That means I'm the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee.
00:02:18.760 The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about 40% of the U.S. economy, including science, and including the National Science Foundation.
00:02:26.360 So my team engaged in a systematic study, and we put out a report examining how the National Science Foundation has increasingly politicized the use of taxpayer dollars meant for scientific research.
00:02:39.740 And the report shows that in its first week, the Biden-Harris administration mandated that all taxpayer-funded scientific research and development must incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI values.
00:02:56.480 In response to this directive, the National Science Foundation allocated over $2.05 billion, over $2 billion, to thousands of research projects that promoted neo-Marxist perspectives or DEI tenets.
00:03:16.900 And taxpayer dollars supported these very questionable scientific studies used by researchers to drive extreme ideologies in the classrooms and on their campuses.
00:03:28.880 And here are the top-line numbers.
00:03:30.740 Our analysis identified 3,483 grants, over 10% of all National Science Foundation grants during the Biden-Harris administration,
00:03:40.440 that went to questionable projects promoting DEI or pushing neo-Marxist perspectives about enduring class struggle.
00:03:50.600 And our investigation grouped these grants into five categories.
00:03:54.340 Status, social justice, gender, race, and environmental justice.
00:04:00.980 So let me give you some of the examples.
00:04:02.420 So Shirin Vosugi, who is an associate professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University and a co-principal investigator for a $1,034,751 NSF grant award in 2023 for a project titled, quote,
00:04:22.660 Reimagining Educator Learning Pathways Through Storywork for Racial Equity in STEM.
00:04:29.840 And Vosugi credits Marxist Traditions for her decision to teach children, quote,
00:04:37.040 the meaning of genocide and apartheid after Hamas' attack against Israel.
00:04:43.420 I'll give you another example.
00:04:45.840 In 2023, NSF awarded Georgia Institute of Technology's Kelly Cross $99,791 to, quote,
00:04:54.460 Disrupt racialized privilege in the STEM classroom by acknowledging, quote,
00:05:02.860 Whiteness and white supremacy are deeply ingrained in the past, present, and future of U.S. higher education.
00:05:11.360 Cross sought to, quote, subvert these toxic systems to create a more equitable education system
00:05:17.740 and to, quote, initiate a national conversation about addressing racial inequity and white supremacy in the STEM profession and classroom.
00:05:28.500 This is what your taxpayers' tax dollars are going towards.
00:05:31.560 How does this happen where they can divert this type of funding at this level is the question I think most taxpayers would want to ask immediately.
00:05:40.680 Like, I can understand skimming some money here or there, but diverting billions from scientific research to DEI.
00:05:47.360 Two billion dollars.
00:05:48.820 Yeah, two billion dollars to DEI activists.
00:05:51.840 That's not where your tax dollars are supposed to go.
00:05:53.940 And by the way, I think you and I agree on this.
00:05:56.220 I wouldn't want these funds diverted to a conservative activist group either.
00:06:02.500 No, this is meant to be science.
00:06:05.000 This is meant to be saving people's lives.
00:06:06.860 Let me give you another example.
00:06:08.740 In 2022, NSF awarded San Jose State University $401,744 for an ongoing project to, quote,
00:06:18.300 transform science teaching and learning through empowering teachers and students as climate justice action researchers and change agents.
00:06:28.360 The project is meant to foster, quote, the development of a hub for justice centered science education and will produce school based materials and professional development activities that examine the interwoven nature of climate justice and racial justice.
00:06:43.460 Now, who is in charge of this?
00:06:44.600 Well, the principal investigator was Tammy Vicentainer, who sees her classroom as a venue for social activism.
00:06:54.660 In April 2024, Vicentainer wrote that her course, quote, for aspiring middle and high school teachers centers racial justice in science education.
00:07:06.400 And at the end of her course, she showed her students photos of Israel dropping pamphlets inside the Gaza Strip to warn residents to move out of the way of incoming rocket fire.
00:07:19.100 Vicentainer, who claimed that Hamas's October terror attack needed to be contextualized, explained that the photos, quote,
00:07:27.600 create spaces that engage complexity in promotion of shared dignity and humanity to build bridges across differences.
00:07:36.800 But she didn't explain what the hell they had to do with science, which is what a National Science Foundation grant is supposed to be about.
00:07:45.600 Senator, final question on this story that you obviously have broken, and it's a big one.
00:07:51.580 When these types of stories break, usually in the past, you'd have a lot of media that would cover it.
00:07:58.980 You'd have other colleagues that would come in and say they want to make sure this is stopped or have rules and regulations that would help stop it right away.
00:08:08.260 When you came out with this report, did any of the major media outlets call and say, hey, we want this info that you're exposing, or do they just look the other way?
00:08:16.260 Well, there were a handful of stories, but they were principally in conservative outlets, because the actual corporate media doesn't cover news.
00:08:24.060 This news is inconvenient.
00:08:25.760 The fact that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are funneling billions that's meant to go to science, that's meant to save lives, that's meant to promote basic research,
00:08:35.800 they're funneling it instead to aggressively ideological left-wing activist zealots.
00:08:43.020 They're using it to corrupt students, to corrupt universities, to corrupt K-12 education.
00:08:49.060 That is a message that the media does not want to cover.
00:08:52.980 They will actively do everything they can to suppress, because look, you know, what's the big deal to stealing billions of dollars of taxpayer money to fund Marxists poisoning the minds of our kids?
00:09:03.300 The next thing you know, you're going to say it's a big deal that a handful of apartment complexes are taken over by Venezuelan gangs.
00:09:11.740 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.
00:09:18.640 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:09:25.640 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:09:29.360 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:09:30.560 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:09:31.800 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:09:35.580 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:09:41.240 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:09:44.280 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:09:50.440 Now on to story number two.
00:09:52.940 This is something that I think many Americans don't understand about those seeking asylum.
00:09:58.500 And explain that more.
00:10:00.640 The law, what it says, because this is part of the abuse by the left, is they make you think that if anyone in the world is in essence not happy with the conditions of where they are in their life,
00:10:12.840 or what they're living, where they're living, or who's in charge of a country, that that therefore means they should immediately go to the front of the line and come straight into America and we should take care of them.
00:10:24.100 And you just said something that's really important.
00:10:26.220 You don't just allow people to come into this country because they don't like their, quote, economic conditions.
00:10:32.540 That's exactly right.
00:10:33.640 What U.S. law is, is we have asylum, we offer people asylum, but to qualify for asylum, you have to demonstrate a, quote, credible fear of political persecution.
00:10:46.380 If you're in, say, a communist country and you can demonstrate the government, if they capture you, they're going to torture you, they're going to kill you.
00:10:54.240 So that's typically the kind of, kind of showing you've got to demonstrate to qualify for asylum.
00:11:00.820 It's explicitly political persecution.
00:11:03.900 And one of the reasons is, look, there are seven to eight billion people on planet Earth.
00:11:08.140 There are billions of people living in poverty.
00:11:11.300 Our nation has about 330 million Americans.
00:11:14.380 We don't have the capacity.
00:11:15.940 We don't have the ability to provide for billions of people flooding in who are simply in poverty and would like to live better,
00:11:22.780 particularly when you combine it with the Democrats' welfare state.
00:11:26.320 Because understand, Kamala Harris doesn't just provide open borders. 0.93
00:11:29.800 She says, you get here and we'll give you welfare. 0.99
00:11:32.400 We'll give you free health care.
00:11:33.500 We will give you money.
00:11:36.140 And so, frankly, look, I understand why the people come to this country. 0.99
00:11:39.900 If you're living in poverty and you get to come to America and these idiots in the government are going to give you free everything, why wouldn't you come? 0.99
00:11:47.960 But that is not U.S. law. 0.99
00:11:50.200 Economic need, poverty does not qualify for asylum.
00:11:54.440 And the Democrats don't care.
00:11:56.120 They're not even pretending this meets U.S. law.
00:11:58.640 So what they do, here's the game.
00:12:00.800 You show up, and by the way, just about every one of these illegal immigrants is trained by the traffickers to say, I'm claiming asylum. 0.75
00:12:08.620 Now, the Biden administration knows that when their claim is adjudicated, that fewer than 10 percent will meet the standards for asylum,
00:12:16.780 that almost none of them have any credible fear.
00:12:19.400 They're simply poor and they want a better life and they want handouts.
00:12:22.880 But what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing is they say, OK, we'll take you for asylum.
00:12:29.240 We'll set you a court date, 3, 4, 5, 10 years in the future.
00:12:32.840 And in the meantime, we'll let you go.
00:12:34.540 Welcome to America.
00:12:35.460 And by the way, a bunch of them are never seen again.
00:12:38.360 That policy is called catch and release, that when people are apprehended, they let them go.
00:12:42.360 By the way, how did the murderer who killed Lakin Riley get to Georgia?
00:12:47.320 Because of catch and release.
00:12:48.420 Because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go.
00:12:51.360 How did the murderer who killed Rachel Morin get to suburban Maryland?
00:12:55.140 Because of catch and release.
00:12:56.360 Joe Biden and Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go.
00:12:59.040 How did the two murderers and rapists who raped and murdered Jocelyn Nungary get to Houston, Texas?
00:13:03.700 Because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did catch and release.
00:13:08.040 They caught him, they caught both of them, they had them in custody, and they released them.
00:13:13.960 There is no credible argument with these criminals that meet the standards of asylum.
00:13:19.480 But Kamala Harris doesn't care. 1.00
00:13:22.640 You know, I think that there's even something else that's just a personal example that we've talked about in the past on the show.
00:13:30.820 It is the beginning of your last book.
00:13:33.180 Look, your dad was a poster child for someone that would deserve and need asylum in the U.S.
00:13:42.060 because of political persecution, the genuine fear of death when he fled Cuba.
00:13:48.240 Let's just take a moment and let people understand how far that pendulum has swung
00:13:53.360 since your dad was a political refugee basically in the U.S.
00:13:57.700 I think I'm describing that correctly.
00:13:59.920 My father was a political refugee.
00:14:03.020 Actually, he came initially on a student visa.
00:14:05.600 So he was admitted to the University of Texas.
00:14:07.900 He came in 1957.
00:14:09.600 And so he studied at UT.
00:14:11.740 He got a degree in UT.
00:14:13.820 Graduated in 61 with a degree in math.
00:14:16.480 And at that point, Castro had taken over and had begun persecuting dissidents.
00:14:21.800 My aunt, my Thea Sonia, I was with both my father and my Thea Sonia this evening.
00:14:26.040 My Thea Sonia fought in the counter-revolution against Castro.
00:14:29.600 My Thea Sonia was in prison.
00:14:32.200 She was tortured by Castro.
00:14:34.100 And so my family, my father was granted asylum status because why?
00:14:38.820 If he came back to Cuba, they'd murder him.
00:14:41.160 My Thea Sonia got out of Cuba and she was granted asylum status because, again, the government,
00:14:46.740 they had a credible fear.
00:14:48.340 They met the legal standard.
00:14:49.860 We see from communist countries that persecute dictators, that's what the asylum laws were 0.90
00:14:55.480 made for, is if you could demonstrate, if I go back to my country, the government will 0.85
00:15:00.820 imprison me, torture me, kill me. 0.98
00:15:03.160 That's why we have asylum laws. 0.97
00:15:05.660 The claim was not just, I'm in poverty and I would like to live in America.
00:15:10.000 And the reason our laws don't grant a special status to that is there are literally billions
00:15:16.340 of people that fall into that category and we do not have the capacity.
00:15:20.020 And I want to make a point here, Ben, because, you know, sometimes people on the left say,
00:15:24.920 oh gosh, we're just so compassionate when it comes to immigration.
00:15:27.960 Understand there is no country on planet Earth that is more compassionate, that is more
00:15:34.240 generous when it comes to immigration than the United States of America.
00:15:37.440 Every year we let in more than one million legal immigrants.
00:15:42.820 There's no other country that's doing that.
00:15:44.140 You can't do that in France.
00:15:45.160 You can't do that in Britain.
00:15:46.060 You can't do that in Australia.
00:15:47.040 You can't do that in Japan.
00:15:48.600 Name your country.
00:15:49.600 None of them do what America does.
00:15:51.240 So we are, we welcome immigrants, but there's a right way to come. 1.00
00:15:56.400 You come legally, you follow the rules, you wait in line.
00:16:00.180 That's the way the system is, is meant to go.
00:16:02.780 And it goes back to our first story, Bill Clinton, if they'd been properly vetted, you
00:16:06.800 know what, if you're trying to come in legally, if you're a member of a Venezuelan gang, if 0.97
00:16:11.280 you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, you're not going to get in 0.89
00:16:15.560 legally when you're vetted, which is why these open borders are causing such devastations and 0.97
00:16:21.500 they are making American families much, much less safe.
00:16:25.360 Final question on this, and it's an important one.
00:16:28.500 I think the American people are really understanding the game here and they're understanding that
00:16:34.780 these migrant caravans that are coming and they're running here in case Trump gets elected.
00:16:39.580 They even understand this election is either about a wide open border that continues and
00:16:45.000 mass amnesty or law and order in a secure border with Donald Trump.
00:16:51.460 If the illegal immigrants that are rushing to get in here before Donald Trump would take 0.98
00:16:57.920 office, that's, that's clearly the right, they're saying this, right?
00:17:01.500 They're the ones who are telling us this.
00:17:03.960 Then, then, then shouldn't every American take a look at that and realize just the difference
00:17:10.500 of, of, of, of the perspective from an illegal immigrant, Senator, if this is what they're
00:17:17.900 doing right now ahead of time to understand, like, there's two policies here.
00:17:23.020 They're two very different and, and no matter what Harris says, no matter what Wallace says,
00:17:28.200 the legal immigrants know that they are good for business.
00:17:31.900 That's good for human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, the list goes on and on.
00:17:37.580 And Donald Trump is going to shut it down.
00:17:40.240 The party's over.
00:17:41.960 I think that's an incredibly important point that needs to be made. 0.77
00:17:45.460 These illegal immigrants get it. 1.00
00:17:48.320 They do.
00:17:49.000 And you know, another number that everyone should know is 2,600%.
00:17:55.340 Do you know what 2,600% is?
00:17:58.720 I'm going to guess the amount of illegal immigration that's gone up since they got into office.
00:18:04.140 No, no, it's actually a different stat than that.
00:18:06.940 So in 2018, the Mexican drug cartels were earning roughly $500 million in revenue from human
00:18:15.520 trafficking.
00:18:16.420 Now look, $500 million is a lot of money.
00:18:19.160 Do you know how much they made last year?
00:18:21.080 A hell of a lot more than that.
00:18:23.900 $13 billion.
00:18:25.560 And those stats are from the New York Times.
00:18:29.920 That is a 2,600% increase.
00:18:33.600 Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been incredibly good.
00:18:36.260 In fact, I've joked, you know, the standard test for any presidential election is,
00:18:42.020 are you better off now than you were four years ago? 0.99
00:18:44.720 And I've joked, unless you're a Mexican drug lord, and by the way, if you are a Mexican drug 1.00
00:18:50.680 lord, you should definitely vote for Kamala Harris, because she's made you billions and 1.00
00:18:55.960 billions of dollars. 1.00
00:18:56.740 You would be an idiot if you're a Mexican drug lord not to vote for Kamala Harris. 1.00
00:19:00.960 But if you're not, for just about everyone else, life has gotten a lot worse. 1.00
00:19:04.740 That number is staggering.
00:19:06.680 And one of the consequences of it is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have devastated the nation
00:19:12.020 of Mexico.
00:19:12.580 Mexico is a wonderful nation.
00:19:14.660 In Texas, it is our immediate southern neighbor.
00:19:18.300 Texas and Mexican culture, there's enormous overlap.
00:19:21.640 I'll tell you, 20, 30 years ago, you go to South Texas, people would cross the border back
00:19:26.780 and forth.
00:19:27.280 If you were in Laredo, you'd go down to Nueva Laredo, you'd have dinner at a Mexican restaurant,
00:19:31.160 you'd come back and forth.
00:19:32.420 I mean, there was this cross-border culture that was wonderful.
00:19:37.480 Nobody does that anymore, like because the violence, the cartels, Joe Biden and Kamala
00:19:44.300 Harris have made the drug cartels the most powerful economic force in Mexico, and they 0.95
00:19:49.700 are vicious, utterly amoral criminals.
00:19:53.860 There are, I met with the mayor of a border town in Mexico who told me in his town alone 0.74
00:20:01.140 there had been more than 3,000 disappearances, just people who disappear, who the cartels
00:20:09.080 kidnap, they murder, and they're found just in pits of dead bodies.
00:20:13.300 That's what Biden and Harris have done to Mexico, is they have undermined public safety to a
00:20:19.600 level, they have turned these cartels into superpowers, and it is tragic what's happening
00:20:25.600 to Mexico, but it's also tragic what's happening to America.
00:20:28.640 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go
00:20:33.820 back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:20:38.420 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00
00:20:42.920 leaders, and the world around them.
00:20:44.680 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:20:48.420 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:20:49.580 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:20:50.820 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:20:54.580 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:20:57.880 All at different stages of their journey.
00:21:00.340 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:21:03.560 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:21:09.180 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:21:13.200 I want to move to this other issue because I think it's really important, and it is the
00:21:17.800 breaking news out of Israel that Israel has killed the October 7th mastermind.
00:21:24.660 It is interesting.
00:21:26.420 It took them about a year to do that.
00:21:28.440 It's something that we in this country have still not accomplished since 9-11.
00:21:32.940 The mastermind of 9-11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has still not been executed, even though we 0.84
00:21:38.400 have him in our custody.
00:21:39.520 Many Democrats have tried to give him a plea deal to save his life, which was a major point
00:21:45.580 that we talked about and were able to at least stop that deal from taking place because of
00:21:50.700 so many listeners that were outraged by the decision by the Biden-Harris administration
00:21:55.520 to give him a deal as the mastermind of 9-11.
00:21:59.560 Israel said, yeah, we're not going to do that.
00:22:02.360 We're not going to do that at all. 0.99
00:22:04.300 In fact, what we're going to do is we're going to kill the leader of Hamas that planned 0.99
00:22:09.340 this attack, and they did it today and told the world, yeah, we're not messing around. 0.99
00:22:16.680 We're taking out everybody that was involved in this attack on innocent civilians and those
00:22:22.060 that took hostages.
00:22:25.360 Look, that is exactly right, and I will say this is a very, very good day for Israel. 0.75
00:22:30.700 It's a very good day for America. 1.00
00:22:32.740 The Hamas leader, Senwar, hated America, was responsible for American deaths, and it's 0.99
00:22:38.840 a good day for justice.
00:22:40.340 And here, I want you to listen to the coverage when the Israeli foreign minister confirms that
00:22:48.360 the Hamas leader is dead.
00:22:49.520 Give a listen.
00:22:51.520 This is a Fox News alert.
00:22:52.740 Reuters is now reporting that Israel's foreign minister has just confirmed the death of Hamas
00:22:59.300 leader, Yahya Senwar.
00:23:01.880 Yahya Senwar was responsible and the mastermind between the vicious October 7th attack. 0.69
00:23:07.860 That was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
00:23:12.260 And Reuters is reporting that Israeli officials who were analyzing his dental records, that he
00:23:18.120 is, in fact, dead.
00:23:19.100 We go to Trey Yankst in Haifa, Israel, with more on this developing story.
00:23:22.880 Trey.
00:23:24.980 Yeah, guys, good afternoon.
00:23:26.400 According to reports, the leader of Hamas, Yahya Senwar, is dead.
00:23:30.660 We cannot independently confirm this, and I'm going to tell you why.
00:23:33.960 There are two things ongoing at the moment.
00:23:36.180 Israeli officials are using dental records and they are using DNA to try to match Yahya Senwar's
00:23:42.460 DNA to DNA the Israelis have in their file. 0.87
00:23:45.120 The dental records match, but we are waiting to report until the DNA test comes back, just
00:23:50.500 given how high profile this figure is.
00:23:53.060 But again, according to reports attributed to Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, Yahya
00:23:58.480 Senwar is dead.
00:24:00.020 This follows an Israeli operation in southern Gaza today, reportedly in the city of Rafa,
00:24:05.300 Gaza's third largest city that sits next to the Egyptian border.
00:24:09.020 This was not a planned intelligence operation, according to officials, but rather a ground
00:24:14.140 patrol that intercepted movement in southern Gaza.
00:24:17.580 Ultimately, Israeli forces reportedly fired on that movement, and among the cell of Hamas
00:24:22.680 militants was the leader, Yahya Senwar.
00:24:25.480 Now, Senwar is a man who has been at the top of the Israeli target list since October 7th.
00:24:30.760 He is one of three masterminds behind the massacre, along with Mohammed Def, a man who was killed
00:24:36.300 in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year, and Ismail Haniyeh, a man who was killed in
00:24:41.020 an explosion in the Iranian capital of Tehran over the summer.
00:24:44.680 So now that this is confirmed, the three masterminds behind the massacre are dead.
00:24:49.180 Now, Senwar spent 22 years in an Israeli prison.
00:24:52.520 He was released back in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap deal for one single Israeli soldier,
00:24:57.700 Gilad Shalit.
00:24:59.060 Shalit was exchanged for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners.
00:25:02.440 Now, when Senwar went back to Gaza, he was appointed to a defense minister-level position
00:25:07.340 among Hamas's Al-Khlasan brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and then ultimately later took
00:25:12.840 over as the leader of Hamas inside Gaza.
00:25:15.560 The last time that I saw Senwar was in 2021.
00:25:19.020 The month was May, and he was giving a rally where an infamous photo of him was taken holding
00:25:23.680 a Palestinian child who was dressed as a member of the Al-Khlasan brigades.
00:25:28.100 Senwar is someone who has devoted his life to killing Israelis, despite the fact that 0.92
00:25:33.040 the Israelis actually saved his life during brain surgery on him in the early 2000s while
00:25:38.020 he was still in prison.
00:25:39.640 And following the October 7th massacre, he had been hiding in the tunnel network beneath
00:25:43.580 Gaza.
00:25:44.240 Some of the Israeli hostages who were released as part of the November ceasefire deal back
00:25:48.700 in 2023 reported meeting him in the tunnels beneath Gaza City.
00:25:52.920 And so this is significant news and an indication that the Israelis will continue to pick off 1.00
00:25:58.300 the remaining Hamas leaders that exist still inside Gaza.
00:26:01.740 They have destroyed the battalions within the Gaza Strip.
00:26:04.800 But the question remains, what does this mean for the remaining Israeli hostages inside Gaza?
00:26:09.900 101 of them are there.
00:26:11.900 Around half of them are estimated to be alive.
00:26:14.620 And Israeli sources are texting now.
00:26:16.500 They are talking about this news that is taking place.
00:26:19.420 We do expect to hear from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later tonight, Israel time.
00:26:26.000 And the Israelis, according to this source, are in communication with their American counterparts
00:26:30.540 to discuss the operation that took place today.
00:26:33.380 Again, according to our reporting, this was not a planned operation, but rather one that
00:26:37.420 took place after movement was identified inside the Gaza Strip.
00:26:41.520 Again, the latest information that we have attributable to reports, we are waiting for DNA evidence,
00:26:46.300 is that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is dead.
00:26:49.840 Guys?
00:26:51.140 I mean, this is incredible news.
00:26:53.220 And I love how steadfast Netanyahu has been.
00:26:57.640 Yes.
00:26:58.560 So two observations.
00:27:00.380 Number one, on yet another issue, Kamala Harris was wrong. 0.95
00:27:06.880 Remember, Kamala Harris has been opposing Israel continuing to fight to eliminate Hamas.
00:27:16.100 Kamala Harris was explicit urging Israel, opposing Israel, going on the offensive in Rafa.
00:27:25.120 And she claimed to be an expert.
00:27:26.660 She claimed to know that nothing could be accomplished.
00:27:29.560 And what happened today proved that wrong.
00:27:32.440 I want you to listen to a flashback of Kamala in March of 2024,
00:27:36.940 when she's claiming to know that going into Rafa is going to be a mistake.
00:27:40.940 We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation
00:27:53.560 in Rafa would be a huge mistake.
00:27:56.660 Let me tell you something.
00:27:57.380 I have studied the maps.
00:28:00.160 There's nowhere for those folks to go.
00:28:01.840 And we're looking at about a million and a half people in Rafa who are there
00:28:05.800 because they were told to go there, most of them.
00:28:08.820 And so we've been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafa
00:28:14.420 with any type of military operation.
00:28:16.780 A mistake, but would there be consequences if he does move forward?
00:28:21.060 Well, we're going to take it one step at a time.
00:28:22.780 But we've been very clear in terms of our perspective on whether or not that should happen.
00:28:26.360 Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?
00:28:29.200 I am ruling out nothing.
00:28:32.840 Wow.
00:28:33.960 Well, once again, Kamala Harris was wrong.
00:28:36.780 She was wrong.
00:28:38.000 She was threatening Israel with consequences.
00:28:41.140 And to be clear, she and Joe Biden cut off critical weapons to Israel
00:28:45.440 and have been pressuring and undermining Israel at every stage since October 7th
00:28:51.560 and long before that.
00:28:52.900 She was categorically wrong.
00:28:54.560 And I'll tell you, the real consequences, the consequences were for Sinwar. 0.99
00:28:57.900 And this is the final point that I want to wrap up the podcast with.
00:29:02.380 You know, it was 12 years ago that I was elected to the Senate.
00:29:05.720 And when I came into the Senate at the time,
00:29:08.240 I resolved to be the leading defender of Israel in the Senate.
00:29:12.660 And I've got to tell you, a lot of times people ask me,
00:29:15.160 how on earth did it come to pass that a Cuban, Texan, Southern Baptist 0.99
00:29:22.940 would end up the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate?
00:29:27.660 And there are a lot of reasons, but one of the fundamental reasons,
00:29:30.960 and I've described this before,
00:29:32.720 is I was a little kid when the Entebbe raid happened.
00:29:36.400 I was, I think, five years old.
00:29:39.340 And listen, I didn't understand in detail what happened in the Entebbe raid,
00:29:43.380 but it made an impression on me as a child.
00:29:45.880 And my understanding of the Entebbe raid at the time
00:29:49.000 was the people of Israel were saying,
00:29:52.340 if you take our citizens hostage,
00:29:55.800 our citizens might die. 0.98
00:29:58.280 But you are going to die.
00:30:02.740 And I've got to say, Ben, as a five-year-old,
00:30:05.060 that struck me as a very Texan foreign policy.
00:30:09.380 There was a clarity to that.
00:30:11.180 And I've got to say, the three masterminds of October 7th,
00:30:14.860 including Sinwar, the head of Hamas,
00:30:17.260 well, they've gone to meet their 72 virgins,
00:30:19.640 and I think they're disappointed with what they found.
00:30:22.220 And there is an absolute seriousness with which
00:30:26.300 Benjamin Netanyahu and the nation of Israel takes
00:30:29.220 protecting themselves, protecting their citizens,
00:30:32.720 protecting their safety, defeating Hamas, defeating Hezbollah.
00:30:35.960 And that is good for America, good for Israel, 1.00
00:30:39.180 good for the world, and cause for celebration.
00:30:41.980 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict
00:30:45.160 with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:30:47.300 Don't forget to download my podcast,
00:30:49.240 and you can listen to my podcast every other day
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00:30:51.960 or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:30:53.940 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again,
00:30:56.720 the Ben Ferguson podcast,
00:30:57.840 and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
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