Verdict with Ted Cruz - Hunter DEFIES Congress & House Votes to Open Impeachment Inquiry on Joe Biden

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.460 Welcome.

00:00:06.120 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:08.000 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.180 Senator, we have got a lot to talk about.

00:00:11.120 Two major stories.

00:00:12.740 The House formalizing the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

00:00:16.440 And for everyone listening, we are going to go deep into the legal aspect of this.

00:00:20.580 And what is the cause for this instead of the weaponization of impeachment,

00:00:25.980 which is what the Democrats did to Donald J. Trump.

00:00:28.340 But before we get to that, Senator, I also want to talk about Hunter Biden

00:00:32.780 and Hunter Biden's refusal to show for this deposition.

00:00:36.380 He had this press conference on Capitol Hill, but said,

00:00:39.600 I'm only willing to go public.

00:00:41.240 I'm not willing to go behind closed doors.

00:00:43.620 That is dictating to Congress what you will and won't do.

00:00:47.380 Usually doesn't end well unless you know the deck is stacked on your half,

00:00:51.700 on your side with a DOJ that refuses to prosecute.

00:00:55.660 Is that part of how this is going to play out for him?

00:00:58.820 Well, let me say, first of all, we now know the answer to what we talked about in the last podcast,

00:01:03.720 which is whether or not Hunter Biden was going to defy the congressional subpoena.

00:01:08.460 And the answer is yes.

00:01:09.860 And I'm going to give credit where credit's due.

00:01:11.580 I thought the odds were about 50-50.

00:01:13.300 I could see him going either way.

00:01:15.220 And you were 100% on the other side.

00:01:17.920 And so, Benjamin, you were right.

00:01:19.760 I was at best 50% right.

00:01:22.000 I'm going to frame this transcript and put it in my office now.

00:01:25.560 This is the first time in history of verdict I've gotten these accolades.

00:01:28.620 Diaz, put it off right now.

00:01:30.340 I'm telling you, I'm manning up.

00:01:32.140 I'm admitting it.

00:01:34.180 You didn't even have to rub my nose in it.

00:01:36.240 I came forth right on the front end.

00:01:39.300 Look, he refused to comply with a subpoena.

00:01:42.880 There are a number of things that will flow from that.

00:01:45.280 One of the things that will flow from that is the House, I believe, will hold Hunter Biden in contempt.

00:01:51.220 That's significant, being held in contempt of Congress, that you can be jailed for being in contempt of Congress.

00:01:57.380 But for that to happen, the Department of Justice has to prosecute you.

00:02:02.800 And I've got to say, one of the reasons why I think Hunter Biden is perfectly content to defy a congressional subpoena is he does not believe daddy's Department of Justice will prosecute him.

00:02:14.400 And so I think he and his lawyers feel like they can just ignore the subpoena.

00:02:19.240 But when the contempt vote happens, and I think the votes will be there to hold him in contempt, that will be the next stage in the escalation.

00:02:28.680 Now, we talked about previously on verdict why often when you have someone come in for testimony, you proceed it with a closed door deposition where you get into more detail.

00:02:38.820 You go back and forth.

00:02:39.920 You prepare for the open hearing.

00:02:42.880 And that's what the House Republicans did.

00:02:45.240 Now, I will say at Hunter Biden's press conference, he said, quote, Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry or hear what I have to say.

00:02:59.300 What are they afraid of?

00:03:00.980 I'm here.

00:03:02.060 I'm ready.

00:03:03.240 So I got to tell you, Ben, I would give advice to Jim Jordan and James Comer.

00:03:07.320 Take him up on his offer.

00:03:08.600 Hold him in contempt.

00:03:09.320 Fine.

00:03:10.360 But also bring him to an open hearing.

00:03:12.580 He has said he would testify in an open hearing.

00:03:15.300 Yes, there are strategic advantages to doing a closed door deposition first, but get him under oath and in front of the American people.

00:03:22.620 If the outcome of this is he defies the subpoena, he's held in contempt and nothing, nothing, nothing happens.

00:03:28.300 That is a bad outcome.

00:03:30.040 That is not an outcome that furthers justice.

00:03:32.380 That is not an outcome that furthers holding Joe Biden accountable for his misconduct.

00:03:37.160 And so I think the best.

00:03:39.060 Yes, they're irritated that he's defying their request.

00:03:42.300 And I think they ought to hold him in contempt.

00:03:43.780 But they also ought to schedule that open hearing for the first week.

00:03:48.980 The House is back in January and put him under oath on record on national TV and walk him through the evidence.

00:03:56.320 If they do that, does that mean that you lose the chance for the closed door deposition?

00:04:01.440 And is that also and I'm playing devil's advocate here.

00:04:04.480 Does that imply that you're basically conceding to the demands of Hunter Biden on the entire U.S. Congress?

00:04:13.220 Yes and yes.

00:04:14.300 And so what?

00:04:14.960 Look, losing the closed door deposition, there are some advantages to having that, sure.

00:04:20.540 But you can litigate about it for a year and get nothing.

00:04:24.940 Or on your second point, they could be piqued.

00:04:28.240 They could be annoyed.

00:04:29.280 Well, gosh, no witness is going to dictate what we do because we're tough.

00:04:33.460 Well, so what?

00:04:34.620 Look, there's a job to be done.

00:04:36.200 And the good thing is you and I both know, Jim Jordan and James Comer, these are serious men focused on a serious task.

00:04:42.540 And so I think the appropriate reaction is not to have your feelings hurt and not even to be annoyed, although you are perfectly justified in being annoyed, that a witness is effectively dictating the method in which he will testify.

00:04:56.920 That is annoying.

00:04:57.980 And in the vast majority of situations, it's utterly unacceptable.

00:05:01.660 In this case, there is an overriding interest of justice, of putting the evidence before the American people.

00:05:10.860 And remember, this is something that you and I have said a lot on verdict.

00:05:14.380 This is not about Hunter Biden.

00:05:17.100 This is about Joe Biden.

00:05:19.460 Great point.

00:05:20.300 If the result of this is they spend the next year fighting over the contempt finding, that is a complete waste of time.

00:05:28.900 We need the evidence in front of the American people that Joe Biden was corrupt.

00:05:33.800 And in this, Hunter Biden is an accomplice and he's a witness, but he's not the actual target.

00:05:40.240 The only reason anyone cares about Hunter Biden is because he was integrally involved in the alleged corruption and bribery of his father, who was vice president of the United States and is now the president of the United States.

00:05:54.820 That's why they should say, fine, we'll have you first week of January in front of the full hearing on TV and we'll walk you systematically through the questions.

00:06:05.320 And might they get some surprises?

00:06:07.040 Yes.

00:06:07.280 Part of the reason you do a closed door deposition is so you don't get surprised.

00:06:11.020 You get an answer in the deposition.

00:06:12.180 And then when you do the hearing, if they say something different, you can confront them with, well, that's not what you said at our deposition.

00:06:17.600 I get that, that, that, that is strategically better, but my point is having Hunter testify under oath now versus not having him testify for the next year.

00:06:30.700 It ain't even close, which is better for the pursuit of justice.

00:06:35.180 All right.

00:06:35.440 So let's say that what you're, you're mentioning here happens.

00:06:38.840 I want to, I want us both to go on the record.

00:06:42.200 Would Hunter Biden show up for that public hearing?

00:06:46.040 Now he claims he would, right?

00:06:47.120 But he was saying that because he wasn't going to show up for the, that was his way of getting out of the closed door.

00:06:50.700 So let's say that, that, that Jim Jordan and James Comer, they do this.

00:06:55.140 The speaker of the house says, let's, this is our new strategy.

00:06:57.620 Johnson, let's go with it.

00:06:59.360 Do you believe that Hunter Biden would actually show for that open hearing?

00:07:03.640 So again, I don't know.

00:07:05.620 I think there is a significant chance he wouldn't show for the open hearing, but if you forced me to put odds to it, I'd probably say 60, 40.

00:07:13.840 He shows, I think there's a 40% chance he backs out and said, Oh, I was just kidding.

00:07:18.460 I'm not going to testify there either.

00:07:20.240 But I think there's the, there's a 60% chance that he follows through.

00:07:24.400 He is at this point defiantly said he's ready to go and he's made that offer.

00:07:28.480 And, and, and I think ego and vanity may compel him to go and, and, and testify in, in the open.

00:07:36.340 If that's what happens, what do you think?

00:07:37.760 Where are your odds?

00:07:38.520 I think there's a 0% chance he'd show up for the second one, because if he knows he doesn't have to show up for either, and they're not going to hold him in contempt because, and you would know this legally.

00:07:46.980 I don't, and I'm asking you sincerely, if he didn't show up for the public hearing, what's the recourse there?

00:07:52.800 Would it go to the DOJ again?

00:07:53.980 Hold him in contempt and DOJ again would, would sit on their hands and do nothing because you're going to, if you're going to be held in contempt the first time, why not double up on it and say nothing at all?

00:08:03.100 Look, you're actually giving very good legal advice for someone without a JD that there's a lot of force to what you're saying.

00:08:09.920 Look, the reason I think it is slightly more likely than not that he shows up is, is ego.

00:08:16.480 It is entirely who he is, and they've been so braggadocious saying that he would do it that I think he would find it personally hard to back out of.

00:08:25.520 But there's no doubt the risk-averse, the CYA approach is don't show up to either.

00:08:31.460 By the way, that shouldn't be the risk-averse approach.

00:08:34.400 If we actually had a functioning Department of Justice that would go and prosecute you for contempt of Congress, then the risk calculus would change.

00:08:44.260 But remember, Congress held Eric Holder, then the Attorney General of the United States, in contempt, and DOJ did nothing.

00:08:54.000 Now, Eric Holder was in charge of DOJ, but they did nothing.

00:08:57.980 And I don't expect the Biden DOJ to do any different.

00:09:01.780 Yeah, if prosecuted and convicted for contempt of Congress, Hunter Biden's punishment could, keyword could, if you're looking at the book, be up to a $100,000 fine and imprisonment.

00:09:11.100 And I want to just let me stew in this for a second, because I think everyone listening right now probably feels this way.

00:09:18.420 It is so frustrating to live in a country where there's such a blatant double standard in how the law is applied.

00:09:25.420 You look at Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, they were indicted on contempt charges for not complying with what many refer to as the illegitimate January 6th committee.

00:09:35.620 There was no basis to comply with the Democrats' fake committee, right, that had fake Republicans on there.

00:09:43.800 And it was done not the way that it's normally done historically.

00:09:47.920 And yet those two men, no problem being arrested and tried to ruin their lives.

00:09:53.260 Because it's hard, I think, for so many people listening right now to sit here and to be okay with this and to see the DOJ weaponized in this way.

00:10:04.560 It was Matthew Graves, who was the D.C. attorney who prosecuted Navarro and Bannon.

00:10:08.840 Let me remind everybody, he worked on the presidential campaigns for Joe Biden as well as other Democrats.

00:10:14.360 And this is a process now where I think Americans are so frustrated.

00:10:19.440 So do you agree that we are all not crazy to be so irritated and frustrated at these two standards of justice that we're watching play out in real time?

00:10:30.320 So I agree that everyone but Ben is not crazy.

00:10:33.400 Look, it is absolutely a double standard.

00:10:39.140 And if you don't believe me that it's a double standard, believe Joe Biden.

00:10:44.120 Listen to this clip in October of 2021 when asked this exact question.

00:10:49.880 Here's what Biden had to say.

00:10:51.480 Sir, talking to you so much today, you're not going to want to talk to me more.

00:10:55.480 Sir, do you?

00:10:56.080 What's your message for people who defy congressional subpoenas on the January 6th committee?

00:11:01.040 I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable.

00:11:05.700 Should they be prosecuted by the Supreme Court?

00:11:07.260 I do, yes.

00:11:08.580 Sir, do you support term limits for the Supreme Court?

00:11:10.880 I do, yes.

00:11:12.080 That was the response from, again, you could hear in the background, Marine One spooling up there.

00:11:17.560 And he's saying, yes, you should be held accountable.

00:11:19.560 Yes, you should be held in contempt.

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00:12:43.480 Senator, you hear the president there.

00:12:45.220 He made it clear.

00:12:46.500 You defy these subpoenas.

00:12:48.420 You deserve to be prosecuted.

00:12:49.660 You deserve to be thrown in jail.

00:12:50.900 That's what he said as president getting on Marine One.

00:12:53.740 Well, that's exactly right, and it's a double standard.

00:12:56.920 If they're going after someone in the Trump White House, then absolutely.

00:13:00.200 They want to hold him in contempt.

00:13:01.260 They want to prosecute him.

00:13:02.180 They want DOJ to go after them, and they're happy to do that.

00:13:04.760 If it's Hunter's son who's covering up evidence of criminality from daddy,

00:13:08.840 who happens to be the president of the United States,

00:13:10.940 then the Biden Department of Justice, they act like they're an arm of the DNC.

00:13:14.360 They do not behave like they have any obligation to the rule of law.

00:13:18.700 Merrick Garland should be impeached and removed from office.

00:13:21.480 He's been a disgrace as attorney general.

00:13:24.400 And part of why they do this is they know the Department of Justice is weaponized and politicized,

00:13:30.440 and they also know that the media is thoroughly dishonest.

00:13:34.220 So, for example, Hunter, when he was explaining that he would not go to the closed-door deposition,

00:13:41.140 he said his father was not financially involved in his business,

00:13:46.000 and financially, suddenly that word came in.

00:13:48.840 Now, remember, Joe Biden used to say he'd never talked with his son about his business.

00:13:54.280 He'd never talked to his business associates.

00:13:56.260 All of those proved wrong.

00:13:58.800 Then the Biden White House said he was not involved.

00:14:02.120 He was not in business with Hunter.

00:14:04.600 And now, Hunter says his father is not, quote, financially involved in his business.

00:14:11.340 They keep moving the standard, but you know what's really fun?

00:14:13.500 Let's play Joe Biden saying this, because if you remember,

00:14:17.200 you go back to the first clip I want to play for people is from Des Moines, Iowa.

00:14:21.580 September 21st, 2019.

00:14:24.020 He was angry when he was answering Peter Doocy's question.

00:14:27.720 Take a listen.

00:14:28.520 How many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings?

00:14:33.500 I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.

00:14:36.260 I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else

00:14:41.180 anything having to do with their businesses, period.

00:14:44.560 And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration.

00:14:48.580 It will be an absolute wall between personal and private and the government.

00:14:54.700 Do you stand by your statement that you did not discuss

00:14:57.280 any of your son's overseas business dealings?

00:14:59.280 Yes, I stand by that statement.

00:15:00.740 I mean, he lied to all of us, Senator.

00:15:02.160 He did, and compare that to what Hunter said this week.

00:15:07.000 Compare that to the latest statement.

00:15:08.840 Play that clip.

00:15:11.760 Let me state as clearly as I can.

00:15:15.320 My father was not financially involved in my business,

00:15:19.020 not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma,

00:15:23.620 not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman,

00:15:27.160 not in my investments at home nor abroad,

00:15:29.880 and certainly not as an artist.

00:15:35.600 During my battle with addiction,

00:15:37.620 my parents were there for me.

00:15:43.720 They literally saved my life.

00:15:46.000 By the way, Senator, you and I predicted this was going to be the alibi all along.

00:15:49.560 Oh, yeah. 0.74

00:15:49.860 He's an addict, and he went into it perfectly. 0.61

00:15:53.240 He paused. 0.53

00:15:54.040 He took a deep breath, and then he lays it on real thick.

00:15:58.000 I was an addict, and my parents were there for me.

00:16:00.860 And then listen to the last part.

00:16:02.040 They helped me in ways that I will never be able to repay.

00:16:07.280 And of course, they would never expect me to.

00:16:10.860 And in the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances.

00:16:17.520 But to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd.

00:16:21.760 It's shameless.

00:16:25.480 There's no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business

00:16:30.720 because it did not happen.

00:16:34.220 So it's pretty clear that both of them are lying to the American people.

00:16:38.540 Well, but there's an important context.

00:16:40.380 So that's a categorical denial that Joe Biden was financially involved in his businesses.

00:16:46.100 But you know what's different?

00:16:47.340 It's not under oath.

00:16:48.440 It's not sworn testimony, which means he can lie to the reporters, and it's not a felony.

00:16:54.040 If he had said the same thing, either in a closed-door deposition under oath or in testimony in the House under oath,

00:17:00.140 and if he'd lied and you could prove he lied, that would be a felony.

00:17:03.320 That would be the equivalent of perjury, and it would come with jail time attached to it.

00:17:07.540 And so that's part of why Hunter doesn't want to be under oath, so he can lie without consequences.

00:17:13.740 But he also knows that his lies will be amplified by Democratic hacks in Congress and by the corrupt corporate media.

00:17:22.780 So I want to tell you what the New York Times did.

00:17:25.200 So Hunter's opening sentence there, let me read it to you again.

00:17:28.840 Let me state as clearly as I can, my father was not financially involved in my business.

00:17:35.140 Now here's how the New York Times reported his quote.

00:17:37.560 Let me state it as clearly as I can.

00:17:39.400 My father was not involved in my business.

00:17:42.480 The word financially, the New York Times miraculously deleted.

00:17:47.100 They are covering up for it.

00:17:48.620 They're not journalists. 0.99

00:17:50.080 They're liars. 0.99

00:17:51.320 And it's not an accident. 1.00

00:17:52.660 That wasn't a typo.

00:17:54.360 Removing the word financially.

00:17:55.900 Look, you read financially, you're like, oh, okay, I get the joke.

00:17:59.940 Like, it's a bad dodge.

00:18:02.640 And so the New York Times said, well, here's an easy way.

00:18:04.620 We'll just delete it and have him say my father was not involved in my business,

00:18:07.460 which was, of course, the old lie Joe Biden told in Des Moines.

00:18:11.840 But that lie is no longer operative.

00:18:14.340 One other question on this before we move over to the impeachment inquiry.

00:18:18.980 If Hunter Biden and you're Hunter Biden's attorneys right now, what is your advice to him?

00:18:26.960 The White House, we hear, is getting very nervous.

00:18:29.960 We see this from reporting that has come out from Axios.

00:18:32.960 It's not conservative.

00:18:33.960 They've come out saying now at the White House and people within the White House are very upset with this.

00:18:40.460 They're very upset with the press conference he did.

00:18:42.820 They think the press conference made things a lot worse.

00:18:45.740 As White House insiders apparently said, those inside the White House are saying that he is ruining things for his dad's re-election bid.

00:18:53.820 It's an unwelcome distraction, is another apparently person said it inside the White House to ask him.

00:19:00.540 And you look at the polls and polls matter.

00:19:04.620 Biden is the least popular president in modern U.S. history now, according to the 538 poll.

00:19:11.800 CNN poll center has 67 percent disapprove of Biden's economy, saying that's the number one issue.

00:19:18.140 And a Redfield and Wilton strategies poll says a majority of Democrats are, quote, concerned about the Biden's ability to perform, Joe Biden's ability to perform his job now due to his age.

00:19:30.540 You add that to what we've just witnessed over the last 24, 48 hours, and this is where Democrats have got to be freaking out inside this White House.

00:19:40.760 As one Democratic strategist who worked on Clinton's 2016 campaign said, quote, I have a pit in my stomach about it.

00:19:47.100 The email controversy was silly, but it was made to be a distraction and it worked.

00:19:51.240 And now he says the Hunter story has the legs to ruin things for the Bidens, the Democratic strategist added, quote, unquote.

00:19:58.120 Look, I think there are a lot of Democrats. I think there are a lot of people in the press that are getting very nervous about Joe Biden, the mounting evidence.

00:20:04.840 You know, when you have 20 shell corporations, when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars going back and forth and coming from communist China and coming from Ukraine and coming from Russia and coming from corrupt oligarchs,

00:20:15.820 when you have transfers, when you have check after check after check going directly to Joe Biden, when you have Joe Biden on tape getting caught lying about it over and over and over again, of course the Democrats are nervous.

00:20:27.260 Anyone paying attention recognizes there is very significant evidence of corruption.

00:20:32.620 And the simple question to ask, even the most rabid partisan Democrat, is what services did Hunter Biden have to sell?

00:20:42.280 What would anyone pay him millions of dollars for?

00:20:45.860 He has no discernible skills.

00:20:48.820 So generally speaking, foreign oligarchs are not in the habit of paying millions of dollars just to random crackheads.

00:20:55.800 What is it that he was selling?

00:20:58.420 And there's only one possible answer, and that is favors from daddy.

00:21:03.400 That's what the Democrats and the corporate media do not want you to focus on, is what was given.

00:21:10.480 Let's go back to the heart of impeachment, quid pro quo.

00:21:14.000 What was given in exchange for those millions of dollars?

00:21:18.300 And if you ask that, the only answer that anyone has proffered is, at the milder level, access to daddy, and at the full criminal level, favors from daddy.

00:21:30.180 But that's really where the debate is.

00:21:32.760 Now, of course, Democrats in the media ignore all of that and just say, no, there's no evidence at all.

00:21:36.080 There's no direct evidence, is what they say.

00:21:37.840 Of course, we did an entire podcast on how the no direct evidence lie is a lie.

00:21:42.700 You can go back and listen to that podcast if you want.

00:21:45.020 But, of course, Democrats are nervous.

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00:24:00.320 Senator, I want to move to the other major issue.

00:24:03.560 And they are very much intertwined but separate.

00:24:07.060 And so let's look at this completely separately for a moment.

00:24:09.720 The House formalizing the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

00:24:15.800 There has been a lot of media protection on this story.

00:24:20.000 And I think it's important that we remind people why this impeachment matters, why it's not a witch hunt, how it's different from what the Democrats did against Donald J. Trump when they knew, for example, the Steele dossier was created by the DNC and Hillary Clinton, paid for by them. 0.91

00:24:36.060 The FBI categorized the Steele dossier as user-generated, meaning it was crap.

00:24:40.960 They even offered a million, I think it was a million dollars to Christopher Steele to authenticate anything in the dossier. 0.82

00:24:46.580 Couldn't do it.

00:24:47.620 And yet they still used it and weaponized it to try to overthrow the will of the people.

00:24:53.620 And so I want people to understand that impeachment is important.

00:24:57.100 It shouldn't be used as a political weapon.

00:24:58.740 And Republicans are not using it as a political weapon.

00:25:02.720 So let's go back and remind people why the House is formalizing this impeachment inquiry.

00:25:09.180 Well, the reason the House has opened the impeachment inquiry is because there is serious evidence of corruption.

00:25:15.080 There is serious evidence of bribery on behalf of the President of the United States.

00:25:19.000 And it's from multiple directions.

00:25:22.260 But, you know, Jim Jordan sent out a very simple tweet that I think is powerful.

00:25:26.300 What Jim Jordan said was, quote, four facts that will never change.

00:25:30.240 One, Hunter Biden sat on Burisma's board.

00:25:33.120 Absolutely true.

00:25:34.260 Two, he was unqualified to do so.

00:25:36.960 Absolutely true.

00:25:38.300 Three, Burisma pressured him to get D.C. to act on policy issues in Ukraine.

00:25:44.180 And four, Joe Biden did just that.

00:25:47.760 Now, of those four facts, the only one the Democrats argue against even slightly is number three.

00:25:54.680 And they have some disputes.

00:25:56.040 They say, well, well, no, Burisma didn't really want the prosecutor fired who was investigating the corrupt oligarch who owns Burisma because he was a bad prosecutor.

00:26:05.480 So they didn't really want him fired.

00:26:07.400 Now, I got to say, that is an incredibly weak argument.

00:26:10.340 And it is contrary to the evidence the House has compiled.

00:26:13.180 But that's the whole of their argument.

00:26:14.660 And so remember, when they say no direct evidence, we talked a minute ago about what is bribery.

00:26:21.080 Bribery is quid pro quo.

00:26:22.820 This for that.

00:26:23.640 That's the Latin phrase.

00:26:25.400 The that was for Joe Biden to get the prosecutor fired in Ukraine.

00:26:30.600 And we know that Joe Biden did that.

00:26:32.680 We know that that the quo happened because Joe Biden has confessed on video that he flew to Ukraine, that he held over a billion dollars in U.S.

00:26:42.480 taxpayer funds that are guaranteeing loans to Ukraine.

00:26:45.700 He held them hostage and said, you will not get that money unless you fire the prosecutor. 0.99

00:26:50.720 And then his response we've talked about at length was, son of a bitch, they fired the prosecutor. 0.99

00:26:56.640 So the quo is admitted. 0.99

00:26:58.460 It is stipulated.

00:26:59.520 Joe Biden has confessed on video to it.

00:27:02.820 The only question is the quid, which is, was he paid or and by the way, paying his family for that that official act is also bribery.

00:27:12.420 So it doesn't matter whether the money went directly to Joe Biden's bank account or whether it simply went to Hunter Biden's bank account.

00:27:19.240 We know that he was making eighty three thousand dollars a month.

00:27:22.380 Hunter was to sit on a board.

00:27:23.800 Now, mind you, I don't know of another board anywhere on Earth that pays eighty three grand a month to board members.

00:27:29.540 That is bizarre just on the face of it.

00:27:31.880 It's a lot more than ExxonMobil pays their board members.

00:27:34.320 It's a lot more than any board I've ever heard of pays their board members.

00:27:37.900 And remember, Hunter Biden had zero experience in oil and gas.

00:27:43.640 He didn't speak Ukrainian.

00:27:45.180 I'm not even sure he could find Ukraine on a map.

00:27:48.180 What he did have was daddy's cell phone.

00:27:50.880 What he did have was daddy's fake email addresses.

00:27:53.420 What he did have was daddy's burner phones.

00:27:55.800 What he did have was access to daddy.

00:27:58.060 And I got to say, it was a good investment.

00:28:00.600 If you're a corrupt oligarch and you hire Skippy boy here and daddy uses the full force of the U.S.

00:28:07.120 government to get the prosecutor fired, who's coming after you, that is a great investment.

00:28:12.200 So that is number one, right at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

00:28:17.200 But number two, we have the WhatsApp where Hunter is is shaking down a Chinese communist and saying, I'm sitting here next to my father. 0.56

00:28:25.740 And he's threatening retaliation from daddy, not from Hunter, from daddy, from Joe Biden, if they didn't pay him millions of dollars.

00:28:33.240 And we know that they paid him millions of dollars.

00:28:36.140 So that, again, look, bribery can be on either front.

00:28:39.600 It can be either for getting a benefit, but it can also be bribery.

00:28:44.460 Pay me money.

00:28:45.260 Give me a benefit or else I will do this bad thing through government to you.

00:28:50.600 That's also bribery.

00:28:51.800 You know, if if if a prosecutor, if a U.S. attorney says, give me a million dollars or else I will indict you and you give him a million dollars and he doesn't indict you, that's bribery.

00:29:03.880 In this case, the retaliation that Hunter was threatening from daddy, it would absolutely constitute bribery on Joe's part.

00:29:11.560 And mind you, the IRS whistleblowers say that in the investigation, they wanted to get the GPS data.

00:29:17.180 It's very simple to ascertain.

00:29:18.820 When Hunter sent that WhatsApp text, was he, in fact, sitting next to Joe?

00:29:24.880 You'll have Hunter's GPS data.

00:29:26.820 You'll have Joe's GPS data if they're in the same room, if they're sitting next to each other.

00:29:30.740 That goes right to the heart of that Joe knew and was involved in shaking down these corrupt foreign players. 0.99

00:29:39.540 That's why the House has now opened the impeachment inquiry.

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00:31:12.820 Senator, I want to get your reaction to something that was said on MSNBC.

00:31:17.960 They're claiming now that Biden's impeachment inquiry is, quote, Trump's retribution.

00:31:24.840 Take a listen to this.

00:31:26.220 The fact that there is no there there probably doesn't bother the likes of Jim Jordan.

00:31:31.060 I think Representative McGovern got it right when he said when Trump asks them to jump, they say how high.

00:31:39.040 And they're now jumping for Trump.

00:31:43.060 This is his retribution.

00:31:44.160 And it's a PR, a PR, very cynical, PR-driven attempt to besmirch Biden without any evidence.

00:31:53.000 Without any evidence?

00:31:54.140 You just went through that evidence.

00:31:55.920 But this is what we're up against in the media, saying this is just retribution for Trump.

00:32:01.540 No, it's not.

00:32:02.380 This is based on the facts.

00:32:03.700 Well, MSNBC is not actually a journalistic outlet.

00:32:08.700 They are propagandists.

00:32:09.860 They are the left wing of the Democrat Party.

00:32:11.500 So they're going to repeat that and ignore the facts altogether.

00:32:15.940 They won't cover the facts.

00:32:17.220 Look, if you watch MSNBC, you have no idea that Hunter Biden sent a WhatsApp text to a Chinese communist shaking him down for millions of dollars. 0.98

00:32:25.620 You don't know that because, you know what, if they don't report on any evidence, then they can send idiots on camera to say there's no evidence. 0.98

00:32:32.520 And if all you watch is MSNBC, you're right. 0.99

00:32:35.000 You're right.

00:32:35.440 There is no evidence because they won't report on any of the evidence.

00:32:39.200 It's purely circular.

00:32:41.540 And that is part of why the Democrats, their behavior is so bad.

00:32:45.940 The corrupt corporate media facilitates their blatant dishonesty because the corporate media is every bit as dishonest as the White House is.

00:32:54.260 Yeah, and I think we should end with this.

00:32:56.800 James Comer took to the floor of the House.

00:32:58.860 This is the man that's been digging into all this.

00:33:01.180 He's been a guest on Verdict.

00:33:02.980 There's a two-part series.

00:33:04.220 You can go back and listen to it.

00:33:05.760 But I want you to hear what he had to say on the floor of the House just as a reminder.

00:33:10.640 Kentucky is recognized for three minutes.

00:33:12.520 Thank you, Chairman Cole.

00:33:14.060 Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support House Resolution 918.

00:33:17.380 Joe Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his family's corrupt influence-peddling schemes.

00:33:25.200 He told the American people he never spoke to his son about his family's business dealings.

00:33:29.520 He claimed there was an absolute wall between his official government duties as vice president and his family.

00:33:35.800 He said his family never made money from China.

00:33:39.400 All of these are blatant lies.

00:33:41.900 Our investigation has revealed how Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden name around the world.

00:33:53.960 Since January, we have learned some of the following.

00:33:57.300 The Bidens created 20 shell companies, most of which were created while Joe Biden was vice president.

00:34:03.800 The Bidens and their associates then raked in over $24 million through these shell companies from China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania between 2014 and 2019.

00:34:20.800 At least 10 members of the Biden family have benefited or participated in these schemes.

00:34:28.020 The Bidens layered these payments through their bank accounts to hide the sources of the money.

00:34:35.360 The banks even flagged many of these transactions in more than 150 suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department.

00:34:44.560 One bank investigator was so concerned about Hunter Biden's financial transactions with a Chinese company that he wanted to reevaluate the bank's relationship with him.

00:34:54.340 He noted that his transactions served, and I quote, no current business purpose, end quote.

00:35:01.720 That's what I call a shell company.

00:35:03.800 According to Devin Archer, a Biden family associate, Joe Biden was the brand of the business.

00:35:09.760 The brand showed up.

00:35:11.380 Joe Biden spoke to his son's associates by speakerphone over 20 times, dined with foreign oligarchs and a Burisma executive,

00:35:18.120 and had coffee with his son's Chinese associate, all when he was vice president.

00:35:23.460 Weeks after Joe Biden left the vice presidency, money from this Chinese Communist Party-linked entity began to make its way to the bank accounts of several Biden family members.

00:35:36.560 Based on one Biden associate's interview with the FBI, these payments were sent to the Bidens as a quote,

00:35:43.140 thank you, ask any Justice Department public corruption investigator about the importance of payments received after one leaves public office.

00:35:52.240 It's a hallmark of corruption.

00:35:55.140 We are now at a pivotal moment in our investigation.

00:35:57.900 We will soon depose and interview several members of the Biden family and their associates about these influence-peddling schemes.

00:36:04.060 But we are facing obstruction from the White House.

00:36:08.900 The White House is seeking to block key testimony from current and former White House staff.

00:36:13.660 It's also withholding thousands of records from Joe Biden's time as vice president.

00:36:18.520 President Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption, and obstruction.

00:36:23.760 I urge my colleagues to support this important and necessary resolution I yield back.

00:36:27.620 Senator, I think you and I both can say, listening to him lay that out, thank goodness we've got people in the Republican movement, the conservative movement, like James Comer, who've been willing to do this hard work and methodically do it the right way.

00:36:42.040 Yes, and that's more substance than MSNBC has aired in a year.

00:36:46.180 Bingo.

00:36:46.460 Those three minutes, they can claim no evidence because they won't air that.

00:36:50.920 They don't actually want you to hear what the evidence is.

00:36:53.460 They only want their talking heads that are shilling for a corrupt White House. 0.98

00:36:58.100 And it's – look, that's why verdict – so many listeners keep coming to verdict because you find out information here that the corporate media will not tell you.

00:37:07.320 And this podcast is designed to give you that information and equip you to go talk with your friends and family and loved ones and coworkers and go engage the lies and counter them with truth.

00:37:18.340 Absolutely.

00:37:18.920 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 15, 2023

Hunter DEFIES Congress & House Votes to Open Impeachment Inquiry on Joe Biden

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