Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins me to talk about his lunch with President Donald Trump, a new report from the Department of Homeland Security, and what's going to happen with Joe Biden and his son.
00:00:59.660And it's leading to what we saw just this week, terrorists being released into this country who are preparing to commit major terrorist attack.
00:01:45.800Let me talk to you real quick about the economy and with inflation still well above the Fed's target and interest rates still at a, what, two-decade-plus high.
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00:04:04.020And the initial reports that came out were saying it was a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of excitement from the Republican leaders that were there.
00:06:05.800Number one, he emphasized the border, that we've got to secure the border, that it is insane that we have open borders, that it's an invitation to terrorists.
00:06:15.520If and when Trump wins, we will secure the border in the first month or two of the next Trump administration.
00:06:22.020And I can say that because we know how to do it.
00:06:24.640We did it before and we'll do it again.
00:06:26.780He also talked a lot about inflation and energy in particular.
00:06:32.160And he pointed out quite rightly that energy is foundational to inflation.
00:06:35.920One of the reasons that prices have gone up on just about everything is that energy prices have skyrocketed because the Biden administration has been waging war on American energy.
00:07:40.660There was some divisiveness in the House that's in its side.
00:07:44.120But what you seem to be describing this time is if Donald Trump is elected and Republicans have control of the House and Senate, it's game on from January 2nd.
00:07:54.860There's not going to be, you know, let's get to know each other time and have some meetings and maybe come over to the White House.
00:08:00.160Like, there's an agenda and it's ready to go for the American people.
00:08:05.160And let me put it in broader context, which is yesterday, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, came and had lunch with all the Republican senators.
00:08:13.740And by the way, that almost never happens.
00:08:16.420When Paul Ryan was Speaker, he didn't do that.
00:08:18.460When John Boehner was Speaker, he didn't do that.
00:08:20.540When Kevin McCarthy was Speaker, he didn't do that.
00:08:22.680Mike Johnson has done that this multiple times.
00:08:25.360This is either the third or fourth time he's come and had lunch with all the Senate Republicans.
00:08:32.960He said, you know, it's amazing that the media treats it as a news story, that the House and Senate are talking to each other.
00:08:39.500And the reason he came over and talked to us is he said he's focused on his end very much on developing the agenda and the plans to hit the ground running if and when we win in November.
00:08:53.720If we come in to January of next year with a Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican House, we got an enormous amount to accomplish.
00:09:02.720And the Speaker, to his credit, is very focused on the first hundred days.
00:09:14.020In fact, I shared with the Speaker and with everyone else in the room, you know, a lot of the Senators that are there now were not there back in 2017 when Trump first became president.
00:09:25.820You know, the Speaker said, look, when Trump first became president, he was a freshman.
00:09:49.400In this instance, I'm very glad the Speaker is trying to think proactively.
00:09:53.360And I described something that I did back in the summer of 2018.
00:09:59.800So summer of 2018, we did a lunch with all the Senate Republicans.
00:10:05.880And I prepared a PowerPoint that was about 50 pages long.
00:10:10.560And I spoke to my colleagues probably the better part of an hour.
00:10:14.320And the title of the PowerPoint was Carpe Diem.
00:10:19.100And what I did in the PowerPoint is I looked in the past, in previous instances, when one party controlled the White House, the House and the Senate.
00:10:30.320When the Democrats do it, they fundamentally transform the country.
00:10:36.180So in the last century, the first time they did it, they passed the New Deal.
00:10:41.740The second time they did it, they passed the Great Society.
00:10:45.800The third time they did it, they passed Obamacare and Dodd-Frank.
00:10:49.360And now, for the last two years, we've seen they've spent us into an absolute inflation and recession hole.
00:10:58.200And on the other hand, Republicans, when we have unified control, we tend to do small and piddling things.
00:11:07.080So what I argued in the PowerPoint is, at the time I presented it, it was August of 2018.
00:11:14.860I said, listen, any rational political observer recognizes that there's a very real chance that we will lose at least one House of Congress in November.
00:11:25.120And I said to my colleagues, particularly the guys who were the sophomores, who were the people who had been elected two years earlier, and I said, look, for you guys, we have 183 days till the next Congress.
00:11:41.520For many of you, if we do not pass things now, you will never again have another chance to pass anything into law.
00:12:35.240Amazingly enough, that argument proved unpersuasive.
00:12:41.380Mitch McConnell said, well, so the principal avenue that if you look, the biggest legislative victory of the Trump years was the 2017 tax cuts.
00:12:52.760We passed that using what's called budget reconciliation.
00:12:56.440Budget reconciliation is a process under a bill called the Budget Act of 1975.
00:13:02.200The budget piece is not terribly consequential.
00:13:05.880What's consequential is under the terms of the statute, you have an up-down vote at 50 votes and it can't be filibustered.
00:13:14.020So it's one of the most important exceptions to the filibuster.
00:13:19.080We could have, if you look at the Democrats, they did three budget reconciliations.
00:13:23.520It's how they passed almost all of their agenda that put us in this hole.
00:13:28.880When the Republicans had the majority, we did only one budget reconciliation.
00:13:33.460We did not do a single one in 2018, which frankly, Ben, is indefensible.
00:13:38.100And so I made the case to the Speaker and my colleagues, let's not make that mistake again.
00:13:43.440This seems different, and even when I say different, there's also a lot of people behind the scenes that are working on putting together a Trump administration and a government.
00:13:55.180And learning from the mistakes that happened in 2016, how encouraged are you by that?
00:14:01.280I mean, I've had quite a few people I know that I've talked to in many different areas of government who are saying, this just feels different this time.
00:14:15.240We learn from our inaction and people that we should have replaced and changed with conservative minds.
00:14:21.460And we've witnessed what happens when you do that.
00:14:23.920But this time, it's going to be different.
00:14:25.600That may be the thing I'm the most excited about, is if we had, like you mentioned, a House and Senate ready to go, but also many of the bureaucrats that have been changed out very quickly this time.
00:14:38.920Well, in 2016, I think Trump's winning surprised a lot of people.
00:14:44.420It surprised a lot of Republicans in the Senate.
00:14:46.520It surprised a lot of Republicans in the House.
00:14:49.000It frankly surprised the Trump campaign team.
00:14:51.680And I think it actually surprised Trump himself.
00:14:53.480On Election Day, I think they were all a little bit startled that they had won.
00:14:59.020And suddenly, holy cow, we're going to go do this now.
00:15:03.760And so it resulted in, when the administration came in in the beginning of 2017, in Congress, Republican leadership of the House and Senate was not prepared with an agenda because they had assumed Hillary was going to win and they didn't need one.
00:15:17.580And the White House did not have the experience to know how to drive an agenda.
00:15:23.640There was no first hundred days mission.
00:15:27.300There's a whole series of nonprofits that are engaged in laying out specific plans for executive orders, for regulations, for legislation.
00:15:37.280And whether it is the American First Policy Institute or the Heritage Foundation or others, I think if and when Trump wins this November, we will hit January with a much, much better level of preparation to make a lasting difference immediately.
00:15:57.320Yeah, you mentioned the border, and I want to talk more about that in a moment.
00:16:00.840But first, I want to talk to you real quick.
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00:17:58.040It's something that really, I think, catapulted Trump to get the presidency in 16 when he talked about building the damn wall.
00:18:06.200And it clicked with a lot of Americans.
00:18:08.120Now, the president, Joe Biden, the other day tried to hell Mary and said, all right, I'm going to do some executive action here on the southern border.
00:18:16.000But a new poll reveals that Biden's border security move fails to satisfy voters as the crisis continues.
00:18:25.440In other words, the American people are saying we're not taking the bait this time.
00:18:29.560We are saying your executive order is pretty much worthless.
00:18:33.080It is not shutting down illegal crossings at the southern border.
00:18:36.200Remember, this on top of the fact that we have now people that are on the terrorist watch list and those connected to ISIS-K that crossed the southern border and got into this country that way.
00:18:48.340And so now they've been arrested in the last week.
00:18:50.280And then we got another warning, Senator, this week about we're not doing a good enough job vetting the people that are coming across that we are catching.
00:19:00.440And listen, I think Democrats believe that the American people, the voters, are stupid and that they're easily deceived by an announcement that Biden's got an executive order to secure the border.
00:19:43.220I don't think people are going to buy that.
00:19:44.740But but but as you noted, just an additional piece of evidence that that's really quite compelling and quite concerning is that there's a brand new report that came out this week from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.
00:19:58.480And the DHS inspector general concludes, number one, that DHS has not been effectively screening noncitizens and asylum seekers.
00:20:08.560Number two, that CBP can't access all federal data to complete thorough screening and vetting.
00:20:18.940And number three, the DHS inspector general in the Biden administration concluded as following, quote,
00:20:25.860DHS will remain at risk of admitting dangerous persons into the country or enabling asylum seekers who may pose significant threats to public safety and national security to continue to reside in the United States, end quote, until these challenges are addressed.
00:20:47.180This is a bombshell report from the inspector general.
00:20:50.960And so, of course, the corporate media is ignoring it altogether.
00:20:57.320And we've seen the FBI give their warnings that the director there has given his warnings.
00:21:01.300And he says that it is a very concerning and real national security threat of the open southern border.
00:21:07.500You then put this combined with with ISIS and what you just talked about.
00:21:12.120And you have to ask yourself the question, who is to blame for being asleep at the wheel here?
00:21:17.960Or is it just Democrats say, look, we're willing to sacrifice some Americans.
00:21:23.760Some of you are going to die in a terrorist attack one day.
00:21:26.100But we got in 20 million new illegal immigrants and that was worth it for us.
00:21:30.680How do you look at this subject now, knowing these warnings are coming now from people, I think, inside of our government under Biden who are trying to cover their rear ends?
00:21:39.400Well, listen, in terms of Washington Democrats, the Democrats in the Senate, the House, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the executive branch.
00:21:47.500Ben, to be honest, I don't think they give a damn.
00:21:53.420It's like it's almost like it's well, it's the price that we're willing to pay.
00:21:57.400We're willing to sacrifice safety, security.
00:22:00.020And in reality, if you if you compare it to what ISIS-K did in Russia, American lives to get what we ultimately want, which is a new voting block.
00:22:09.340Look, I think the Democrats right now in Congress are incredibly cynical.
00:22:13.700And the only thing they're focused on is what will keep them in power.
00:22:17.620What will ensure that there are more and more and more and more Democrat voters.
00:22:22.300And I think they look at the 11 million people they've allowed into this country illegally.
00:22:26.760And they view them all as future Democrat voters.
00:22:30.300Now, some of them, I think they are counting on voting illegally this election.
00:22:34.780And the rest of them, I think they're counting on voting legally once a Democrat administration gets into office and grants them amnesty.
00:22:46.240And so I think from their view, they are fundamentally remaking the demographics of this country.
00:22:51.980And they're trying to remake it in a way that ensures that Democrats remain in power forever.
00:22:57.000And the thing that is tragic is they're more than happy.
00:23:01.240The Democrats are more than happy to look the other way at the people dying, at the people dying, crossing the border day after day after day.
00:23:09.900The migrants dying. They're perfectly happy to look the other way at the children being brutalized.
00:23:15.100They're perfectly happy to look the other way at the women being repeatedly sexually assaulted.
00:23:20.580They're perfectly happy to look away at all of the victims of crime we've seen all across the country from illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released.
00:23:29.980And most inexplicably, they have to date been perfectly happy to look the other way at the growing and deeply troubling risk of a major terrorist attack in the United States from illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released among us.
00:23:48.180Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them.
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00:24:18.960During your time serving in the Senate, have you ever seen this many warnings on a national security issue?
00:25:19.500Interestingly enough, he's not a Democrat.
00:25:21.800I think he fully considers himself a Republican.
00:25:25.660And my fault with Chris Wray, which I've articulated multiple times, is that I think he's a company man.
00:25:33.700I think his view of his job as the FBI director is to defend the career employees at the FBI, to circle the wagons around the senior leadership.
00:25:45.640And that might, in an ordinary circumstance, make sense, but it doesn't make sense here when you have hardcore partisans who have burrowed into senior leadership positions and who are corrupting the integrity of the FBI.
00:26:01.520That being said, Chris Wray keeps going to Congress and saying, people, the risk of a terrorist attack is enormous.
00:26:09.300He's trying to ring the bell because he's looking at the intel.
00:26:12.200Look, let me read you from just the opening page of the report from the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security.
00:26:24.880The Department of Homeland Security's technology, procedures, and coordination were not fully effective to screen and vet non-citizens applying for admission into the United States or asylum seekers whose asylum applications were pending for an extended period.
00:26:40.340Although U.S. Customs and Border Protection deployed new technologies to enhance traveler screening, it could not access all federal data necessary to ensure complete screening and vetting of non-citizens seeking admission into the United States.
00:26:58.280In addition, CBP used varied and sometimes inconsistent inspection procedures for travelers arriving in vehicles at land ports of entry.
00:27:11.640Finally, CBP does not have the technology to perform biometric matching on travelers arriving in vehicles at land ports of entry.
00:27:19.900Once a non-citizen files an asylum application, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducts screening and vetting to verify each asylum applicant's identity and determine their eligibility.
00:27:35.580However, USCIS did not always complete timely screenings for more than 400,000 affirmative asylum applicants who filed for asylum between October 2017 and March 2023.
00:27:57.320So, additionally, USCIS does not have a dedicated procedure or comprehensive technology solution to perform interim screening of asylum applicants whose cases were not adjudicated within the required 180-day time frame.
00:28:18.060So, you look at all of that, and it reminds me so much of 9-11 when we found out afterwards.
00:28:24.260Everybody wasn't talking to each other, the FBI and the CIA weren't talking to one another, and so things were falling through the cracks.
00:28:32.280Except this time, they're all saying things are falling through the cracks before the attack, not after.
00:28:38.900Is there any chance that we can get this together quickly enough to fix it before it's too late?
00:28:46.380Or is this just now an administration's decision of, hey, we know what we're doing here, we know the risk, and we're okay with it?
00:28:55.820I think there's no chance with this administration.
00:29:10.240Alejandro Mayorkas is brazenly defying the law and is, in fact, presiding over the criminal invasion of this country.
00:29:19.720Merrick Garland is so politicized, the Department of Justice is not going to do anything.
00:29:24.060I do not believe these individuals will change their behavior.
00:29:28.040They've made the devil's bargain that they will destroy our country in order to let enough illegal immigrants into this country to ensure they stay in power.
00:29:40.680And so I think the only, only, only answer is for Republicans to win in November, for Trump to win re-election, and for us to win the Senate and the House.
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00:35:05.820You'll recall on this podcast, I invited to take Corrine down to the border any day of the week, and we would go out on patrol and we would find illegals crossing day after day after day.
00:35:18.380That's how we got to 11 million illegals.
00:35:20.460She did not take me up on that invitation, but I will tell you multiple times over the last two years, she's gotten in arguments with this podcast, with points you and I have made on the podcast that she's been forced to stand up at the White House press briefing and defend.
00:35:35.320And actually, one of our good friends, Kayleigh McEnany, on Fox has put together a compilation of Corrine Jean-Pierre's repeated flip-flops and repeated lies.
00:36:49.600I think she's clearly leaving the door open for America to accept, frankly, a commutation inevitably, which who would be surprised given the person at the helm?
00:36:57.680You were making some great points about Hunter.
00:36:59.260I want to just give you some space to make them too.
00:37:01.280I just think that their real risk here is that he is a vulnerability if he were to be facing jail and flip.
00:37:08.780And I know that's people, oh, my God, he'd never flip.
00:37:11.460If you read if you read the text messages and some of the stuff that's in evidence already in the cases he's facing, there's no love loss between Hunter and some of the members of the Biden family.
00:37:43.320By the way, one thing there that I do want to ask your opinion of.
00:37:47.260There was some criticism of Joe Biden flying back and forth to the trial.
00:37:52.480They were holding hands, walking in and out of the courtroom.
00:37:55.380Um, and, and coming back from overseas to make appearances.
00:38:01.040The point that was made there about the liability, like, Hey, we got to keep him close.
00:38:05.380Cause if we're not sure he could even handle jail.
00:38:08.220And if he did, then what could happen to the other family members?
00:38:12.440It's a very interesting perspective and point, especially if you go back and read some of the things that he has said and written in his own words.
00:38:21.020Yeah, I got to say, I, I don't actually agree with the criticism of Joe Biden on this.
00:38:51.140Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
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00:38:59.680Also, on those in-between days, grab my podcast and I'll keep you up to date on the breaking news in between the Ben Ferguson podcast as well.
00:39:06.840And the center and I will see you back here.
00:39:08.160And also, on Saturdays, we do that, the week in review.
00:39:12.360So, if you missed anything this week, we'll have that for you on Saturdays as well.
00:39:15.780And we'll see you back here in a couple of days.