Verdict with Ted Cruz - Hunter Biden Indictment： Cronyism, Camouflage & Corruption

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.600 Welcome.

00:00:06.300 It is the verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:08.080 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.260 Senator, the big story.

00:00:11.520 What a hell of a deal.

00:00:12.780 Hunter Biden cuts a massive plea deal.

00:00:15.400 And the media is now saying, all right, it's all over the five-year investigation.

00:00:19.480 They called it a global investigation.

00:00:22.360 This dude gets less than a slap on the wrist.

00:00:25.200 Hunter Biden.

00:00:26.420 I'm angry.

00:00:27.980 Most people listening right now are furious over this.

00:00:30.720 And is there any reason to have any faith in the Justice Department after this today?

00:00:36.780 Well, Ben, I think you're exactly right to be angry.

00:00:39.940 This is incredibly disappointing.

00:00:42.740 Yesterday was a very sad day for the rule of law.

00:00:46.720 It was an outrageous day.

00:00:48.520 And it's worth breaking down what happened.

00:00:51.680 Because I think it was three things simultaneously.

00:00:54.680 I think it was cronyism.

00:00:58.800 I think it was camouflage.

00:01:02.200 And I think it was corruption.

00:01:04.500 Now, let me break it down.

00:01:06.140 Because, and let's say at the outset, what happened yesterday with the Hunter Biden indictment

00:01:12.640 is exactly what this podcast has been telling listeners was going to happen for months.

00:01:19.880 We have said this over and over and over again.

00:01:23.820 That yesterday was going to happen.

00:01:25.200 It was going to play out exactly as it did.

00:01:28.080 Let's start with the cronyism.

00:01:30.340 So, Hunter Biden has committed crime after crime after crime.

00:01:35.160 And the Biden DOJ was in a hard position because the Hunter laptop laid out the evidence of his crimes.

00:01:43.240 He had videos of himself committing those crimes.

00:01:47.260 And so, they were forced to do something.

00:01:52.240 The reason it's cronyism is if Ben Ferguson did what Hunter Biden did,

00:01:57.580 if I did what Hunter Biden did, if anyone not named Biden did it,

00:02:02.920 if his name was Hunter Smith, he'd be doing a hard time.

00:02:07.280 He would be going to jail.

00:02:09.060 The end result of this plea deal is that Hunter Biden pleaded guilty

00:02:14.720 to two counts of willful failure to pay tax

00:02:17.680 because he failed to pay about $1.2 million on his 2017 and 2018 taxes.

00:02:24.440 That's a lot of taxes.

00:02:27.600 And then secondly, the Biden DOJ filed a charge of possession of a firearm

00:02:36.260 by a person who was an unlawful user of a controlled substance.

00:02:39.680 Mind you, Hunter videoed him doing this, so they were stuck with this problem.

00:02:45.000 But for that, he entered a probation and diversion program

00:02:49.920 that it is very likely he will serve not a day in jail

00:02:54.020 and he's required to stay drug-free for 24 months

00:02:57.900 and agree to never own a firearm.

00:03:00.420 That's not a deal your typical defendant could get.

00:03:03.820 If you're a kid in Chicago who does the same thing,

00:03:08.800 you're doing jail time.

00:03:11.500 This was cronyism.

00:03:12.760 But the cronyism is not the most outrageous thing.

00:03:15.160 And I've got to say, if you watch the TV coverage,

00:03:19.180 if you watch Fox or Newsmax or the various conservative outlets,

00:03:23.640 they're mostly focusing on the cronyism.

00:03:26.060 And the cronyism bothers me.

00:03:27.440 It's not fair.

00:03:28.860 But it's the least concerning part of what happened yesterday.

00:03:32.880 Because the second part of it is camouflage.

00:03:35.460 And again, we said this at length on this podcast.

00:03:38.580 I have said for months, Merrick Garland is going to indict Hunter Biden.

00:03:45.320 Why?

00:03:46.340 Because he needs to mask, he needs to cover up

00:03:49.800 his partisan vendetta against Donald Trump.

00:03:53.900 And there's a beautiful symmetry to saying,

00:03:56.600 I'm not partisan.

00:03:57.900 I indicted a Trump.

00:03:59.080 I indicted a Biden.

00:04:00.120 See how even-handed I am.

00:04:01.480 So the biggest purpose behind this is to give Merrick Garland a fig leaf

00:04:10.180 to pretend that he's not being political and biased.

00:04:14.680 But actually, I say that's the biggest purpose.

00:04:17.060 That was a misstatement.

00:04:19.040 There's an even bigger purpose.

00:04:21.540 And that is corruption.

00:04:23.820 Now recall, as we said at length on this pod,

00:04:27.360 why do we care about Hunter Biden?

00:04:29.960 Listen, Hunter Biden, the guy has led a troubled life for a long time.

00:04:36.360 He struggled with substance abuse. 0.98

00:04:38.560 He's had a life where he's made dumb decision after dumb decision after dumb decision. 0.85

00:04:45.740 Everyone has friends or family members who've struggled with substance abuse. 0.95

00:04:50.120 This is something we all understand.

00:04:52.380 And by the way, it's the White House's chief spin now is, gosh,

00:04:56.600 he's a troubled soul.

00:04:58.080 He's agonized with these demons.

00:05:03.060 But you ought to have empathy.

00:05:04.880 That's what his lawyers were saying today.

00:05:06.220 You ought to have empathy for him for these demons.

00:05:08.680 Look, the reason the news is covering this,

00:05:12.000 the reason we're talking about this on the podcast,

00:05:13.840 is not because of his personal tax problems or even drug problems or gun problems.

00:05:18.800 The reason it matters is because Hunter is directly implicated in official corruption by the president of the United States.

00:05:27.620 And the tell, the key indicator, as you and I discussed months ago,

00:05:34.600 is if this indictment focuses on tax issues and gun issues that are personal to Hunter,

00:05:40.940 that can be explained by his being a troubled soul,

00:05:43.680 what they are doing is covering up the mounting evidence of corruption by Joe Biden,

00:05:53.200 of Joe Biden being complicit in Hunter selling access to daddy to foreign players for millions of dollars.

00:06:01.500 And that's exactly what this plea agreement is all about,

00:06:05.640 is there's nothing about Joe Biden, nothing about the big guy, nothing about Burisma,

00:06:10.460 nothing about communist China. 0.99

00:06:12.000 It's just a poor sad sack who has a substance abuse problem. 0.98

00:06:16.160 And this is all about covering up for Joe Biden.

00:06:20.140 I want to go rapid fire with you for a second on this.

00:06:24.200 And one of the things that I want to ask you is this.

00:06:28.100 There are a lot of Americans that are saying,

00:06:31.240 how did they come up with these two charges only?

00:06:36.200 What does that conversation look like?

00:06:38.600 It wasn't a conversation center where they're sitting in a room.

00:06:41.440 They're going, OK, we can only charge Hunter Biden with crimes that insulate and protect the office.

00:06:47.820 Right. The presidency. We got we got we have to protect the Biden presidency.

00:06:52.840 So you guys need to find the crimes that if he does plead guilty to them,

00:06:57.680 that that crime will not connect in any capacity or implicate any of the other nine Biden family members

00:07:05.600 that we know have been on the take in these deals where you don't have to worry about the foreign funds coming in.

00:07:10.720 We don't want to connect it to him not being able to, you know, not registering as a foreign agent, by the way,

00:07:16.520 which is a very big deal.

00:07:18.460 We don't want to connect it to these to Ukraine or Romania or these oligarchs or the Chinese Communist Party,

00:07:24.440 because we have to protect the presidency at all costs of Joe Biden.

00:07:29.740 The only way you come up with these two charges or these two areas,

00:07:34.000 I would think is if you had a conversation that way for the last five years, can't go there, can't do this,

00:07:39.820 because otherwise that'll connect them to the presidency. 0.98

00:07:43.960 Well, look, that's exactly right.

00:07:45.720 And it's it's it's what we had discussed, that you need personal offenses.

00:07:50.800 Look, his failure to pay taxes on it on his own money, that that that's tied to Hunter himself, that that that's his own screw up,

00:07:59.480 his possession of a firearm when he was a drug user.

00:08:04.540 That's his personal screw up.

00:08:06.640 What is missing from from these charges is anything about Burisma, anything about Ukraine, anything about China,

00:08:14.760 anything about diverting funds, anything about money laundering, anything about selling official influence, anything about bribery.

00:08:23.340 Look, we've discussed in the past couple of weeks, the whistleblower came forward and says that there is credible evidence that Joe Biden personally received.

00:08:32.280 First, it was a five million dollar, that it may be a 10 million dollar bribe from senior officials at Burisma.

00:08:38.200 That's why the public should care about this.

00:08:41.200 Now, of course, the Democrats won't acknowledge that exists.

00:08:44.520 The media won't acknowledge that exists, at least not the corporate media.

00:08:47.640 They are thrilled to say, well, now it's over.

00:08:52.640 Everything concerning Hunter Biden is resolved.

00:08:54.920 He's been charged.

00:08:55.880 He's pleaded guilty.

00:08:56.720 He's not going to serve a day in jail so he can go back to vacationing and living off of the millions he's made off of daddy.

00:09:03.060 And the issue is resolved.

00:09:05.120 It is this Department of Justice willfully does not want to examine the very direct and the growing evidence of Joe Biden's direct corruption.

00:09:19.020 Senator, I want to talk about the media's response to this.

00:09:22.340 It has been truly laughable watching how much the media was willing to cover this breaking news story that, you know, Hunter Biden has is reached a plea deal.

00:09:37.380 They covered it for minutes on in more coverage than they have ever given to the story beforehand.

00:09:44.700 Why?

00:09:45.060 Because this is good news.

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00:11:14.800 Senator, the media was very happy to cover this story.

00:11:17.820 You saw it.

00:11:18.880 We talked about this even before the show.

00:11:21.580 How it makes you angry.

00:11:23.920 You roll your eyes.

00:11:25.380 You want to blow.

00:11:26.100 You want to.

00:11:26.700 I want to throw something at the TV because they've refused to cover this story.

00:11:31.120 And not only have they not covered it, they actually lied to the American people about the Hunter Biden laptop.

00:11:36.240 They said it was Russian disinformation.

00:11:38.060 They said on a high horse.

00:11:39.020 They said, we're not going to cover it.

00:11:40.640 We're not going to report on it.

00:11:41.860 You can't mention it.

00:11:42.760 Many networks were banning people from bringing it up.

00:11:45.800 And they said, if you did, they weren't going to let you come back on the air.

00:11:49.580 Now the plea deal comes in and they're covering it wall to wall.

00:11:52.540 Why?

00:11:53.220 Because it's good news for the Bidens.

00:11:55.200 It's an end cap to this entire five years.

00:11:58.780 And so they're happy to tell you now all the crimes have been investigated.

00:12:03.040 There's only a couple and we're moving on.

00:12:06.000 Well, listen, that's exactly right.

00:12:07.900 And they're willing to have Hunter Biden play the scapegoat to a small extent.

00:12:14.200 So he pleads guilty but serves no jail time.

00:12:17.760 So he pleads guilty and gets a slap on the wrist.

00:12:20.020 But importantly, they say, OK, it's all done.

00:12:22.400 And mind you, these networks, they didn't cover in the last couple of weeks the accusation from the whistleblower that a confidential informant had told the FBI that Joe Biden had personally taken a $5 million bribe from a senior Ukrainian Burisma official.

00:12:41.540 They didn't cover that.

00:12:42.520 It didn't make the six o'clock news on any major network.

00:12:45.820 They didn't cover when Chuck Grassley went to the floor of the Senate and said there were 17 different phone recordings, audio recordings of this senior official at Burisma talking, 15 of them with Hunter Biden, two of them with Joe Biden.

00:13:00.660 They didn't cover that.

00:13:01.840 That is not news in their view because that actually implicates the president and corruption.

00:13:07.240 That should have led the news, by the way.

00:13:09.680 And we talked about it at length in Verdict.

00:13:12.200 Instead, they cover it now.

00:13:14.160 Why?

00:13:15.320 Because this is the best way to insulate Joe Biden.

00:13:19.220 I promise you tomorrow, anyone who brings up anything about Joe Biden's corruption with Hunter Biden, they're going to say, been there, done that.

00:13:26.920 Matters resolved.

00:13:27.820 Nope, they investigated it.

00:13:29.420 They have convictions.

00:13:30.880 It's all done.

00:13:32.200 Nothing to see here.

00:13:33.300 Joe Biden's innocent.

00:13:34.320 Move on.

00:13:34.720 By the way, can we talk to you about Donald Trump's indictment?

00:13:37.640 Because that's what they want to talk about.

00:13:39.860 Oh, yeah.

00:13:40.320 Yeah, you brought that up.

00:13:43.340 And I got it.

00:13:43.820 I got to play this because what you just said was exactly what happened on NBC News.

00:13:48.920 They broke in and it took them a minute.

00:13:52.360 And I think it was 21 seconds while telling you about Hunter's indictment center to then say this comes on the heels of Donald Trump's.

00:14:01.920 And they counted the number of indictments just last week.

00:14:05.560 Like, they could even make it two minutes on the Hunter Biden story before they're telling you about Donald Trump.

00:14:13.020 Biden has really not said a whole lot about this.

00:14:16.880 He has argued that he wants to keep distance between himself and, of course, the Justice Department in this investigation.

00:14:22.180 But notably, he did make some very recent comments in an interview with Stephanie Ruhle saying, quote, my son has done nothing wrong.

00:14:31.480 I trust him.

00:14:32.300 Those comments will undoubtedly come under fresh scrutiny.

00:14:35.140 Now, of course, this does come about a week after former President Trump pled not guilty to 37 counts that he mishandled classified documents.

00:14:43.160 Republicans, the former.

00:14:44.300 By the way, I mean, you can hear it there.

00:14:46.200 They couldn't even make it to the two minute mark.

00:14:48.940 They're telling you about the White House not giving a comment yet on this.

00:14:52.760 Right.

00:14:52.980 When they're breaking this news that Hunter Biden reached a plea deal on tax charges and a misdemeanor thing with a gun thing that it's going to go away.

00:15:01.280 So it's not a big deal.

00:15:02.440 And then they tell you about Donald Trump.

00:15:05.080 Well, and they also say, well, the White House wanted to keep the president's distance from this.

00:15:10.340 No kidding.

00:15:11.780 Talk about I'm really expecting Joe Biden at the press conference to say, Hunter, Hunter, who?

00:15:17.320 I'm sorry.

00:15:17.900 I don't know who that is.

00:15:19.740 Yeah.

00:15:20.020 Don't know what you're talking about.

00:15:21.400 This is all about protecting the big guy.

00:15:24.940 And and look, I get why the White House is doing that.

00:15:27.540 That's actually fairly natural political instincts is protect your guy.

00:15:31.280 But why is the Department of Justice acting like the DNC's lawyers in this?

00:15:37.860 I mean, this is disgraceful that this is if you care about the rule of law, if you care about DOJ prosecuting crimes fairly and evenly, regardless of party, you ought to be really upset at this because this is all about Merrick Garland pretending to be even handed while he's acting as the political henchman for Joe Biden.

00:15:59.940 So you look at the timestamp here and you and I were texting, obviously, when the story broke.

00:16:06.220 NBC News broke in for their special report.

00:16:09.640 They went eight minutes in 43 seconds.

00:16:12.680 Now, we're trying to get the exact number, but it looks like they spent more time covering Hunter Biden today than they may have dealt with this story in breaking news for the last since the laptop ever.

00:16:24.680 Ever.

00:16:25.000 Ever.

00:16:25.140 Ever.

00:16:25.280 Ever.

00:16:25.360 Ever.

00:16:25.500 Ever.

00:16:25.940 Ever.

00:16:26.240 Right.

00:16:26.520 So you add up every clip over the last since, you know, 2020 election cycle since the Hunter Biden laptop broke.

00:16:33.420 It would not surprise me.

00:16:35.220 It would not surprise me if the corporate media said Hunter Biden's name more times today than they have in the history of the universe.

00:16:42.980 Yeah.

00:16:43.460 And that is the point here of why they went all in, because for this, this was OK.

00:16:49.260 This is good news.

00:16:50.620 We need to cover this like this is massive breaking news.

00:16:53.800 Because, you know, what their favorite two words were, what the media said over and over and over again on station after station, their favorite two words today were wraps up, wraps up.

00:17:03.840 This wraps up the investigation, wraps it up, wraps it up, all wrapped up, all wrapped up.

00:17:08.000 Nothing to see here.

00:17:08.700 This wraps it up.

00:17:09.380 This wraps it up.

00:17:10.300 That was why they covered it, because it's resolved.

00:17:15.020 Nothing to see here all over.

00:17:17.740 Now, let's return to saying how much we hate Donald Trump.

00:17:20.000 And they even use words today, I was laughing, global investigation has wrapped up.

00:17:26.560 That's how they put it on NBC.

00:17:28.280 And if you went over to ABC and CBS, same exact thing.

00:17:31.980 They wanted you to believe that today this was a massive bombshell.

00:17:36.580 It was a bad moment and a tough thing for the White House to see this happen.

00:17:42.040 It's going to be a day of reckoning.

00:17:43.740 And meanwhile, when they go to break, you know, they're laughing and high fiving each other because they're like, we just got away with it again.

00:17:50.440 Well, but you know what?

00:17:51.640 The American people, I think, are a lot more engaged and aware.

00:17:57.000 Listen, CNN.

00:17:59.000 CNN is celebrating this.

00:18:00.640 But you know what?

00:18:01.700 Verdict.

00:18:02.140 This podcast has more viewers than CNN.

00:18:05.200 The listeners who are downloading this, that's the power that every one of you who downloads this, and every one of you, by the way, let me emphasize, that shares it with your friends, that tells.

00:18:14.520 Tell your friend.

00:18:15.180 Tell your coworker.

00:18:15.940 Tell your sister.

00:18:16.560 Tell your brother.

00:18:17.160 Hey, listen to this episode.

00:18:18.840 You want to know what was really going on with Hunter Biden and Joe Biden?

00:18:21.300 Listen to this episode because you won't get it on the 6 o'clock news.

00:18:24.920 You won't get it on CNN or MSNBC.

00:18:27.760 They are not telling you the truth.

00:18:29.540 The reason why this podcast every week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, keeps growing and growing and growing is because you can't get actual information about what's happening many other places.

00:18:43.080 Yeah, no doubt.

00:18:44.800 And there's always, when a big story like this breaks, Senator, there's an X factor that comes out of these where you didn't see this happening.

00:18:52.400 I didn't see this happening until it was happening in real time today.

00:18:56.080 And that was the racial aspect of this.

00:18:59.380 There was outrage from many African-American leaders and many African-American defendants who have gone to prison and done real hard time for the same crimes that Hunter Biden was accused of and now has done this plea deal with.

00:19:17.820 Some of the headlines that were put out, a 22-year-old had pled guilty to weapons charges stemming from his arrest just before a scheduled concert performance in May.

00:19:26.500 A rapper, Kodiak Black, got over three years in prison in a weapons case.

00:19:31.320 Lil Wayne, another artist, pled guilty to federal gun charges.

00:19:35.100 The rapper will be sentenced in January and face up to 10 years in prison.

00:19:38.760 Another one, Meek Mill, arrested in Philadelphia on gun charges.

00:19:42.100 That one back in 2008, going to prison 11 to 23 months.

00:19:46.380 Ja Rule, sentenced for tax evasion.

00:19:48.820 The rapper will serve 28 months in addition to two years for a weapons charge.

00:19:53.680 Fat Joe, another singer, sentenced to prison for tax evasion.

00:19:58.100 Rapper faces four months and a fifth in jail and a $15,000 fine.

00:20:03.380 Now, many of the people I just mentioned were not accused of the severity of the crimes that Hunter Biden was when it came to the amount of taxes owed, for example.

00:20:15.220 Yet, they served time in jail.

00:20:17.740 And this started a trend on social media.

00:20:20.400 When I say there's always an X factor out of stories, I don't think anyone saw that initial reaction.

00:20:24.960 But there were lawyers speaking out today.

00:20:26.980 There were community activists speaking out today saying, let me get this straight.

00:20:30.380 This guy, because his dad is the president, he's white, he doesn't go to jail. 0.56

00:20:36.860 But many, many African-American men, minority men, have gone to jail for doing less than what he was accused of and done real hard time.

00:20:45.720 Hunter Biden will not spend one second in jail.

00:20:49.440 I don't think the White House even saw that reaction coming.

00:20:52.180 Well, look, there is a sense of entitlement that this double standard is fully baked in to every political operative at the White House, to the political cronies running DOJ.

00:21:04.700 Listen, Hunter Biden on the tax front, he willfully, and he pleaded guilty to this, willfully failed to pay taxes on $1.2 million in 2017 and 2018.

00:21:19.440 $1.2 million is a lot of money.

00:21:21.420 That's not $100.

00:21:23.020 It's not $50,000.

00:21:24.180 It's not $100,000.

00:21:25.400 It's $1.2 million.

00:21:27.200 And it was willful.

00:21:28.160 Not serving a day in jail.

00:21:29.740 This is a guy also who had a firearm.

00:21:33.680 The firearm ended up being discarded.

00:21:37.940 It was a Colt Cobra .38 SPL revolver.

00:21:43.240 And it was discarded in a dumpster by a school by his brother's, his deceased brother's wife, with whom Hunter Biden was having an intimate affair.

00:21:57.660 And she threw it out in the dumpster where any kid could have grabbed the gun and shot himself, shot another kid.

00:22:06.060 Look, if you or I do this, listen, Ben, you own a gun store.

00:22:10.640 Yeah.

00:22:10.860 What do you think the feds would do if you just tossed a gun in a dumpster by a school?

00:22:16.660 What would they do to you?

00:22:17.420 Seriously.

00:22:17.720 I promise you I would do real jail time, number one.

00:22:21.800 But we've actually seen this with people that have done straw purchases where someone buys a gun for somebody else.

00:22:27.320 You go to prison.

00:22:28.740 It's a federal crime.

00:22:29.820 You lose your ability to own a firearm.

00:22:31.880 And you're in serious trouble.

00:22:33.340 By the way, as you should be.

00:22:35.020 But when you dump a gun in a dumpster by a school, there should be instant serious repercussions for those actions.

00:22:43.980 Somebody's life could be taken.

00:22:46.140 A kid could find that gun.

00:22:47.720 You could have an accidental discharge.

00:22:49.880 That's the reason why the feds don't screw around when it comes to guns and the laws with guns. 1.00

00:22:54.320 And they shouldn't.

00:22:55.140 There should be no leeway on these types of things.

00:22:57.820 Yet because he was, again, the vice president's son, right? 0.93

00:23:03.000 And there's also the other shitty part of the story. 0.94

00:23:05.660 Owning a gun store, you know this part of the story well. 0.78

00:23:07.920 Apparently, Secret Service agents went into that gun store trying to get the paperwork from that gun transaction after the gun was thrown in the dumpster.

00:23:17.500 Right.

00:23:17.820 Because they were trying to cover up the crime that he committed.

00:23:20.380 And that gun store owner said, no, I'm not giving you that paperwork to the two Secret Service guys that apparently came in.

00:23:27.840 And he refused to turn that over so they could just make it all disappear.

00:23:31.540 That's another part of the story is why was a Secret Service agent involved in that?

00:23:38.140 Because at that time, from what we understand, Joe Biden did not have Secret Service protection.

00:23:43.860 So why were they being used in that moment?

00:23:46.880 Again, another part of the investigation that went nowhere.

00:23:49.560 Well, and you look at the law that Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to have violated.

00:23:58.260 It's 18 U.S.C. Section 922 G3.

00:24:02.300 It shall be unlawful for any person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance to ship or transport or receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported to interstate or foreign commerce.

00:24:21.360 And what's the penalty for it?

00:24:23.060 Well, let me just read you from the statute.

00:24:24.860 Whoever knowingly violates this subsection shall be fined, as provided in this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years or both.

00:24:36.260 So the maximum punishment is 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

00:24:42.200 What does Hunter Biden get?

00:24:43.780 Zero years in prison, zero months in prison, zero days in prison.

00:24:47.580 Listen, that is a sweetheart deal because daddy is in the Oval Office.

00:24:53.920 But listen, as infuriating as that is, and listen, I understand all these defendants who faced real jail time, they ought to get mad.

00:25:01.960 They are mad.

00:25:02.860 They are getting mad because they recognize, gosh, you know, it reminds me of, you know, Mel Brooks' History of the World where he would say, it's good to be the king.

00:25:14.120 Well, it's good to be the president's son, apparently.

00:25:16.560 The laws don't apply to you.

00:25:18.440 By the way, let me point out, and we said this on one of our most recent podcasts, all of the lefties who went on TV and said, no man is above the law.

00:25:28.260 No man is above the law.

00:25:29.160 No man, no man, no man, no man is above the law.

00:25:32.440 They said that repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly concerning Donald J. Trump.

00:25:36.640 It made them feel very moral and self-righteous.

00:25:40.260 Well, you know who apparently is above the law?

00:25:41.880 Anyone named Biden, or for that matter, anyone named Hillary Clinton, those men are above the law.

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00:26:17.300 I want to ask you about where this moves forward in Congress, and is this going to be the end of the road on this?

00:26:27.500 Like, did we lose, or should people still have faith that this is far from over when it comes to the present?

00:26:33.940 Because at this point, I think there's a lot of people that just don't care anymore about Hunter Biden.

00:26:37.400 They see the corruption.

00:26:39.860 They see the bribes.

00:26:41.140 They see the intel coming out.

00:26:43.480 They see what the whistleblower is saying.

00:26:44.780 They're saying, okay, let's keep our eye on the prize, which is the kingpin.

00:26:49.360 The kingpin is Joe Biden, President of the United States of America right now.

00:26:55.000 I think there's very big concerns that he's compromised by China.

00:26:58.600 You look at how weak our meetings have been with China recently, and Blinken, for example.

00:27:02.580 And we'll go into that.

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00:28:10.740 Senator, this is at a point I think there's rage and anger and frustration in the double standard, yes.

00:28:17.140 But then there's also that worry that people feel like, all right, we lost again.

00:28:20.760 The system's rigged.

00:28:21.760 The DOJ's rigged.

00:28:22.720 The FBI's rigged.

00:28:23.540 It's all rigged against us.

00:28:24.860 There's a double standard here.

00:28:26.340 Yet, we still have a lot of questions being asked about the president.

00:28:29.920 Will they go anywhere?

00:28:31.080 And should people be discouraged?

00:28:32.540 Or is it getting much bigger with the leaks coming out against the president?

00:28:39.460 So, let me say yes, no, yes.

00:28:42.260 Yes, you should be discouraged about DOJ.

00:28:44.840 I think the Merrick Garland DOJ is thoroughly politicized, I think, from their view.

00:28:50.160 The Hunter Biden investigation's over.

00:28:51.760 They're done.

00:28:52.640 They've wrapped it up, as the Democrats and the press are gleefully saying.

00:28:56.960 They're not investigating anymore.

00:28:58.400 They don't want to know.

00:28:59.600 They are the three little monkeys.

00:29:00.780 They see no evil.

00:29:02.140 They hear no evil.

00:29:03.520 And they are covering up any connection to Joe Biden.

00:29:07.340 So, if you're sitting there waiting for, well, when is DOJ going to do more on this?

00:29:12.020 I think you will wait at least until the end of 2024.

00:29:16.260 I don't think it's going to happen.

00:29:17.580 So, that you should be distressed about.

00:29:19.880 The good news is, I don't believe the House of Representatives is going to sit quietly along.

00:29:24.800 I think James Comer and I think Jim Jordan are going to keep digging.

00:29:28.160 I am working closely with both of them.

00:29:30.440 I'm going to keep pressing them.

00:29:31.780 They have the power to issue subpoenas.

00:29:33.620 I think the House needs to keep pressing.

00:29:35.560 So, that is encouraging.

00:29:37.880 And I'll also say, listen, this podcast is going to keep pressing.

00:29:42.100 And what we're seeing is more and more whistleblowers coming forward.

00:29:46.920 More and more people in the FBI, in the DOJ, in the IRS who are principled, who are honorable, who are frustrated by this corruption.

00:29:55.820 And that growing effort.

00:29:58.780 Listen, remember back to Richard Nixon and Watergate.

00:30:02.640 At first, it started off, and it was just a little story here.

00:30:05.380 Then it was a little story there.

00:30:06.700 But the evidence grew and mounted.

00:30:09.160 Do I think Merrick Garland – listen, I've got to say as an aside.

00:30:14.200 I was doing a TV interview last week, and the person interviewing me asked, said,

00:30:19.880 Well, do you think there's a scenario where the Democrats in the Senate would vote to convict Joe Biden in an impeachment hearing?

00:30:29.860 And I laughed, and I said, no.

00:30:33.740 And I went on to say, you could have video of Joe Biden murdering children at midnight under a full moon, dressed as the devil, and singing Pat Benatar.

00:30:49.400 And the Democrats still would not vote to convict.

00:30:52.400 Now, amusingly enough, Ben, the lefties lost their minds, but they didn't dispute the underlying point that the Democrats didn't care about the facts, would never vote to convict Joe Biden, didn't care what he was guilty of.

00:31:05.840 None of that was controversial.

00:31:07.400 They're like, yeah, yeah, oh, that's obviously true.

00:31:09.620 You know what they were mad at?

00:31:12.300 What was that?

00:31:13.800 That I said the words Pat Benatar.

00:31:17.920 It is kind of predictable, right?

00:31:19.780 Okay, this began trending on Twitter, that I said Pat Benatar, and lefties, it's very funny, they're very territorial, they guard culture, you're not allowed to reference pop culture.

00:31:34.100 And actually, Pat Benatar responded to me, who the heck knew Pat Benatar would ever respond a little on me, I was fairly surprised.

00:31:41.900 Okay, hold on, I missed that, what did Pat say, because I totally missed this, this is awesome.

00:31:45.780 So she posted on, I think it was Facebook, and she just said, nice try.

00:31:51.040 And I don't know, one of the lefty papers said, Pat Benatar burns Cruz, that was one of the headlines the last few days.

00:31:58.740 That's hilarious.

00:31:59.800 Which I found really funny, so let me tell you two funny things about Pat Benatargate.

00:32:04.580 Number one, I put out a tweet today, today or yesterday, where I said, look, my point was that he could be murdering children under a full moon while singing, hit me with your best shot, and Democrats wouldn't care.

00:32:26.020 Yep.

00:32:26.180 But to be honest, look, I thought that was kind of a clever tweet, so I sent it out, but do you want to know the actual backstory behind why I said Pat Benatar?

00:32:35.540 Yeah.

00:32:36.660 Okay, so I was just free associating, I'm doing an interview, it's the middle of the afternoon, I'm talking, and I'm trying to think of like an outlandish scenario.

00:32:44.660 So I'm like, murdering children, dressed as the devil, full moon, midnight, and what I was trying to think of was the band Nickelback.

00:32:54.580 Oh, yeah.

00:32:56.280 And the reason, it's kind of a funny, so in 2016, when I was running for president, there was this guy, this protester, that showed up at several of my events, holding a sign that says, Ted Cruz likes Nickelback.

00:33:09.900 That was like the greatest band insult ever, by the way, I remember that, it's like so-and-so, it's like the new, like, oh, he probably drinks Bud Light.

00:33:18.440 Yes, and I remember at the time, the guy who showed up, I was laughing, I was like, that's really funny.

00:33:25.920 And so as I was free associating, I'm like, crap, what was that band that they said I liked, and I couldn't remember the name Nickelback.

00:33:32.820 So I was just like grasping for someone, and I don't know why Pat Benatar popped in my head, but I was looking for someone, and so I said Pat Benatar.

00:33:41.260 And what was funny is all these lefties on Twitter are like, oh, Cruz thinks Pat Benatar is satanic and, like, you know, Metallica or something.

00:33:50.120 I'm like, no, I just was naming, like, a random rock star, because I couldn't remember Nickelback.

00:33:56.580 By the way, the next time, for all the listeners, that you and I are traveling to do a Verdict Live event, I'm going to pull one of the earbuds and just make sure it's not really Pat Benatar.

00:34:05.240 I just want to be, I'll report back to everybody.

00:34:08.820 Maybe that's why this happened.

00:34:10.440 That's amazing.

00:34:11.520 All right, the next campus tour we do, we really ought to, like, enter the Verdict Live recording to Pat Benatar playing.

00:34:18.280 We should totally do it.

00:34:19.720 I'm a kid of the 80s.

00:34:20.880 I grew up with Pat Benatar, so when I was reassociating, I'm trying to think of something that was just sort of, to be honest, the kind of notion was that I had in my head,

00:34:29.940 I wasn't fully formed with the hit-me-with-the-best-shot, was just Biden defiant and utterly carefree because he knew he would never be held to account,

00:34:41.760 which sadly is the reality of Democrats in Congress and the corporate media, which is they do not care.

00:34:49.120 There's not a single Democrat who cares if Joe Biden received a $5 million bribe from a foreign country.

00:34:55.400 They don't care?

00:34:57.280 None of the corporate media cares.

00:34:58.500 Is there any amount of money, though, or anything that Hunter Biden or Joe Biden could have done?

00:35:04.040 I mean, we're talking about taking money from Russian oligarchs.

00:35:06.920 We're talking about taking money from corrupt businessmen in Burisma in Romania and other places around the world.

00:35:14.360 James Comer said recently he believes they're going to find another $20 million, up to another $20, maybe $30 total million.

00:35:21.400 No Democrat cares.

00:35:23.220 Yeah.

00:35:23.600 So you're saying there's nothing that they could have done in the past that any of them would care about?

00:35:28.820 Joe Biden could have put $100 million in his bank account.

00:35:30.520 He could have put $1 billion in his bank account.

00:35:32.560 And he could have put $100 billion in conflict diamonds from Africa that resulted in the murder of thousands of children.

00:35:42.360 The Democrats do not care, and the corporate media won't cover it.

00:35:46.700 Why?

00:35:47.140 While listening to Nickelback.

00:35:48.660 Yeah, while listening to Nickelback.

00:35:50.720 In one ear and Pat Benatar in the other.

00:35:53.700 Yeah.

00:35:54.380 It's amazing.

00:35:55.420 I want to ask you a serious question, though, about China real quick, because this is an important one.

00:36:00.640 We had this meeting with Anthony Blinken going over there, and it just seems like...

00:36:06.260 Hold on.

00:36:06.540 But before you do this, I want to go back.

00:36:09.680 Look, a reasonable listener, as you know, Heidi gets mad at me sometimes when verdict gets a little too dogmatic. 0.97

00:36:17.640 And she says, look, this podcast is better when you're reasonable and you consider both sides.

00:36:22.300 The statement that Democrats don't care may sound hyperbolic.

00:36:29.920 But I challenge you.

00:36:32.260 If it's false, can you point to a single Democrat in the Senate or House of Representatives that has asked even a single witness one critical question about this topic?

00:36:46.640 I can tell you in the Senate Judiciary Committee on which I serve, I have never seen any of the Democrats, when they have DOJ in front of them, when they have the FBI in front of them, they won't ask anything.

00:36:58.500 It does not matter.

00:37:01.380 And I also will say, I have not seen any Capitol Hill reporter ask even a single Democrat senator one question about this.

00:37:10.640 And so you may think, gosh, that's overstated to say they don't care.

00:37:16.220 But at some point, your conduct conveys something.

00:37:19.980 If you cared, you would demonstrate you cared by at least asking about it.

00:37:27.180 They never, ever, ever do.

00:37:30.100 On this issue, the support by Democrats is 100%, is what you're saying, by members of Congress.

00:37:35.180 There's not a single outlier.

00:37:37.300 Maybe there is in the House.

00:37:38.440 I don't think there is.

00:37:39.320 I know in the Senate there's not.

00:37:40.740 Or if there is, if someone has secret concerns they're harboring in their heart, boy, they're keeping them quiet.

00:37:46.860 They won't actually say them publicly.

00:37:49.680 Incredible.

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00:39:31.220 Senator, I mentioned a moment ago, and I do want to get you on the record on this,

00:39:34.620 because one of the things that concerns me the most about the compromise situation that the Bidens are in,

00:39:40.740 and we're following the money, the suspicious activity reports, the amount of cash coming into their bank accounts,

00:39:46.520 the amount of number of payments and loans coming in specifically from China.

00:39:50.020 And then you see Anthony Blinken basically saying, hey, we need a strong China, and that's somehow good for America.

00:39:56.440 He's not really, you know, holding China accountable for what they've been doing, 0.88

00:40:00.540 expanding and creating islands out of thin air and in different parts around the world and the seas that give them a massive,

00:40:08.220 I mean, I don't want to understate this, but a general said they have now superiority when it comes to fighting a war

00:40:16.300 because of these new islands they've created.

00:40:18.560 No one stopped them.

00:40:19.720 America didn't. 0.69

00:40:20.880 And now it seems like China can do whatever the hell they want, 0.83

00:40:23.540 and this administration keeps holding back when there's a chance to hold them accountable.

00:40:29.500 Are you concerned that that is directly related to them being compromised?

00:40:32.920 You know, I don't know.

00:40:35.720 I don't know if it's that China has information on Joe Biden concerning the millions of dollars they funneled to Hunter Biden's business affairs,

00:40:44.480 and I don't know if the 10% for the big guy that went to Joe Biden is a factor.

00:40:48.640 I will say, even if Hunter Biden had never influenced Peddled once,

00:40:53.800 I think Joe Biden would be rolling over to China.

00:40:56.860 Biden has rolled over to China for 50 years.

00:40:59.920 He's famously said, come on, man, come on, man, China's our friend.

00:41:05.680 I mean, he has been a China defender.

00:41:10.180 He has been snuggling up to the Chinese communists for decades. 0.84

00:41:14.880 And if you put it in the broader picture,

00:41:17.620 the entire Biden foreign policy has been to undermine our friends, to undermine our allies.

00:41:22.880 They've worked to undermine Israel. 0.85

00:41:24.800 They've worked to undermine the United Kingdom.

00:41:26.500 They've worked to underline the countries, Saudi Arabia, that have been friends to us,

00:41:31.620 and at the same time have been showing weakness and appeasement to our enemies.

00:41:38.700 Think about it.

00:41:39.180 Every enemy of America is stronger today than they were two and a half years ago.

00:41:43.740 China's stronger.

00:41:44.600 Russia's stronger.

00:41:46.560 Iran is stronger.

00:41:47.940 North Korea's stronger. 0.96

00:41:49.240 Venezuela's stronger.

00:41:50.300 If you hate America, Joe Biden has been great for you.

00:41:56.320 If you're a Mexican drug cartel, Joe Biden has been great for you. 0.83

00:42:00.080 And when it comes to China, one of the things to understand,

00:42:02.800 and we've talked about this before on the podcast,

00:42:05.360 today's Democrat Party in Washington, they are structurally pro-China.

00:42:12.100 And why is that?

00:42:13.280 It's because the stakeholders that fund them, the people who call the shots in the Democrat Party,

00:42:21.660 who pull the strings on the marionette puppets that are Democrat senators and congressmen,

00:42:28.240 all of them are in bed with China. 0.57

00:42:31.560 Who is that?

00:42:32.600 It's big business.

00:42:33.680 It's big Wall Street.

00:42:35.260 It's big tech.

00:42:36.760 It's big universities.

00:42:38.160 And it's big Hollywood.

00:42:39.400 And they are all in bed with China. 0.99

00:42:42.160 They all make billions of dollars from communist China.

00:42:45.880 And so when it comes to today's Democrat Party,

00:42:48.920 they don't want to stand up to China because the people who are paying the bills 0.97

00:42:54.240 depend upon ongoing, close interaction and essentially capitulation to China.

00:43:02.900 So, as you know, in the preceding Congress,

00:43:05.860 I forced a vote on the Senate floor to prohibit the U.S. government from purchasing goods

00:43:11.540 and in particular electric vehicles or batteries made using slave labor in concentration camps in China.

00:43:18.960 Now, this ought to be an easy vote.

00:43:20.840 Yeah.

00:43:21.020 Do you buy things manufactured by slaves in concentration camps?

00:43:26.540 The answer should be just not, not just no, but hell no.

00:43:29.640 So, every single Democrat voted against my resolution, all of them except one.

00:43:37.040 Joe Manchin is the only one who voted with me.

00:43:39.500 Every other Democrat voted for, yep, let's buy things from the concentration camps. 0.71

00:43:44.580 That is because their stakeholders are fully invested in China today.

00:43:52.260 It's truly incredible.

00:43:53.440 I appreciate you giving us that answer and perspective because there's so many people that are asking these questions.

00:43:59.060 How can we keep being so weak?

00:44:01.320 Don't forget to hit that follow button if you're listening on Apple.

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00:44:28.000 We do the show Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.

00:44:30.700 If there's big, big news just like this one, we'll even throw in shows in between so you don't want to miss those.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 21, 2023

Hunter Biden Indictment： Cronyism, Camouflage & Corruption

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