Ted Cruz and Ben Fergus Ferguson discuss Iran's latest attack on the Middle East, a major shake-up at Homeland Security, and the results of Tuesday's primary election in Texas. They also discuss the latest on the Iran nuclear deal and what it means for the midterm elections.
00:00:39.620It's the Week in Review and it starts right now.
00:00:43.080Well, let's go back to the Middle East for a moment.
00:00:45.180One of the things that we talk about, you know, the Ayatollah and his team,
00:00:49.340they're homicidal and you could also even say suicidal.
00:00:53.080And their obsession with killing, you know, innocent people in their own country,
00:00:57.600going after Americans, going after Israelis as well.
00:01:01.720But one of the things that I was even a little bit shocked by was how quickly they decided to bring in every other country on the side of Israel and the U.S.
00:01:08.720by attacking these other Middle Eastern nations around them that weren't involved.
00:01:22.840I mean, the list is pretty long now of countries they've attacked.
00:01:25.140And now they brought them into the fold.
00:01:27.540I mean, that that to me just seems like a suicidal mission on their part.
00:01:32.600Yeah, I will admit I was surprised by that.
00:01:36.060There's been a lot of public reporting that suggested that other Middle Eastern nations were discouraging President Trump from going after Iran.
00:01:46.620I have not recently had those conversations with other Middle Eastern nations, but I've had many conversations with the Saudis, UAE, Bahrain.
00:01:57.540And they have always been very focused on, number one, doing everything necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
00:02:05.700The Saudis have said publicly if Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, that they would do everything possible to get a nuke themselves to defend themselves from Iran.
00:02:13.240And so I don't know if it's true or not that in the recent weeks Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries were urging Trump not to attack.
00:02:25.080But I do know that Iran's behavior – so they fired missiles and sent drones and had attacks at almost every single Arab country all throughout the Middle East.
00:02:41.940And we've seen statements from many of those other Middle Eastern countries, mostly Arab countries, expressing, condemning Iran's response.
00:02:55.300And, you know, in my view, they're just indiscriminately firing abroad.
00:03:03.420And I think their reasoning was that if the United States and or Israel hit them, that they wanted to make it as painful as possible for the entirety of the region, what they have ensured is that there's basically nobody standing up and siding with the Iranians.
00:03:22.060They're demonstrating essentially they're willing to kill anybody and everybody.
00:03:26.860I've got to say that's also a really powerful illustration.
00:03:55.400And I always said, look, that's the best case scenario.
00:03:59.180The best case scenario is a horrible situation.
00:04:02.020The worst case is that they would actually use the nuclear weapon.
00:04:05.360And everyone operates under an assumption, well, having a nuclear weapon doesn't mean you use it.
00:04:11.140Listen, when the Ayatollah chants death to Israel and death to America, I believe him.
00:04:18.220When he calls Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan, I believe him.
00:04:24.180And I think the odds are unacceptably high.
00:04:26.420I don't know what they were, but they were unacceptably high that the Ayatollah, if he had a nuclear weapon, would detonate it.
00:04:32.780Maybe in Tel Aviv or maybe in New York or Los Angeles.
00:04:37.680And I don't want to wake up and discover, uh-oh, the predictions were wrong because we have a mushroom cloud and hundreds of thousands or even millions of Americans being killed.
00:04:49.660The reason – and by the way, I've got to say a lot of the news reporting is challenging.
00:05:59.060The reason we are striking Iran right now is because the odds are unacceptably high.
00:06:05.260Iran has already killed nearly a thousand Americans, and they have every desire to kill more.
00:06:09.800As I told the president, driving in the beast, I said, if the Ayatollah could kill the two of us right now, he would.
00:06:16.600The only thing that is preventing him is that he's not able to because he is trying.
00:06:20.920And so if we have an opportunity to take out this regime, and look, my hope is we see a new government in Iran that wants to be friends with America.
00:06:33.680That would make this country massively safer.
00:06:37.920Removing these psychopaths from power and replacing them with anything resembling a normal government would massively improve the safety of every American.
00:06:50.920Number one, I thought it was really interesting to see the compare and contrast of the women standing up for themselves in Iran on the streets, risking their lives, while women in America were actually standing up angry at America for going into Iran.
00:07:03.940We saw that in New York City, for example.
00:07:05.460We saw that in some other college campuses.
00:07:08.200The disconnect from reality from some of these leftists is amazing.
00:07:11.760I want to get your take on that real quick.
00:07:13.440And then also I want to talk about the possible closing straight of Hormuz and what that means and what America's role could be in that as well.
00:07:19.340Yeah, so today, Comrade Mandami put out a statement that I want to read to you.
00:07:28.340Today's military strikes on Iran carried out by the United States and Israel mark a catastrophic escalation of an illegal war of aggression.
00:07:35.900Bombing cities, bombing cities, killing civilians, opening a new theater of war.
00:07:49.940I am focused on making sure every New Yorker is safe.
00:07:53.120I've been in contact with our police commissioner and emergency management officials.
00:07:56.300We are taking proactive steps, including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of conscience.
00:08:19.000Look, this is Comrade Mandami cheering for the Ayatollah because they are both jihadists and they both want to see the great Satan of America.
00:08:32.620They want to see this country fundamentally changed and to become an Islamic caliphate.
00:14:38.640The questioning was bumpy, and she got – the Democrats, of course, went after her hard, but a number of Republicans went after her hard as well.
00:14:47.840And I have to say one of those that was the most effective was my friend and colleague from Louisiana, John Kennedy.
00:14:57.700John has been on this podcast, and he's someone who's a good friend of mine.
00:15:03.140I want to play John Kennedy's cross-examination at Christy Noem because this proved very consequential cross-examination.
00:15:12.020How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?
00:15:36.020Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from,
00:15:45.960with putting commercials out that told them that if they were in this country illegally, that they needed to leave,
00:15:52.180or we would detain them and remove them, and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way.
00:17:11.140I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the President approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.
00:17:32.720And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been.
00:17:40.540Well, they were effective in your name recognition.
00:17:44.800I mean, I personally just, I mean, to me, it puts the President in a terribly awkward spot.
00:17:52.260And it, and I just, I'm not saying you're not telling the truth.
00:17:57.580It's just hard for me to believe, you know, and the President, as I do, that you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend $220 million running them, that he would have agreed to that.
00:18:12.720But I don't think Russ Vogt at OMB would have agreed to that.
00:18:22.320I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out, that you, in fact, one of the people you picked, the strategy group, I'm sorry, Safe America Media, was a company formed 11 days before you picked them.
00:18:45.240And that the strategy group got most of the money, and the head of that is married to your former spokesperson.
00:18:55.420I'm, I'm, I'm, look, we all have friends who are qualified.
00:19:03.340A quarter, a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer money, when we're scratching for every penny and we're fighting over rescission packages.
00:19:15.240But I just can't agree with Madam Secretary.
00:19:47.320This is why we work every day is for the angel families and their victims.
00:19:52.940Senator, it was, it was not, not a good showing there for, for her.
00:19:56.920And, you know, your colleague there, Senator Kennedy asking questions.
00:20:01.100I think a lot of Americans care about the presence also come out saying she did not run this by him in the, in the, in the amount of money being spent either.
00:20:08.300That, that, that, that also didn't work well for her either.
00:20:12.660Well, and, and, and that, that's something that, uh, that, that, that John Kennedy pointed out.
00:20:19.040Um, he, he, he said in the aftermath, uh, he, he said that President Trump was, quote, mad as a murder hornet that Noem claimed he approved the $200 million ads contract.
00:20:33.120Uh, and, and, and, and listen, John is a good friend of mine.
00:20:37.120Um, I, I, I talked to him today on the Senate floor, and, and I just, the number of nominees that his cross-examinations have taken out is, is quite remarkable.
00:20:47.700And, and, and, and I think it, it was John Kennedy's cross-examination that, that, that was pivotal in the decision to, to shift from Christie.
00:20:58.940I had dinner with, with, with her just a few weeks ago.
00:21:01.760Uh, and, and, and I do think the results of the Department of Homeland Security, in terms of securing the border, have been very effective.
00:21:08.820Uh, and, and so that, that is beneficial.
00:21:12.260Um, I, I think John Kennedy's line of questioning here was fair.
00:21:16.260Um, and, and, and it was, uh, it, it was incredibly effective.
00:21:22.140Uh, I, I also think, and we've talked about this, uh, on the podcast before, that the messaging from the administration, particularly following,
00:21:31.100uh, the shooting of two different Americans in Minneapolis, uh, that, that the messaging was, was wrong.
00:21:39.300And, and it did real damage, uh, that, that, that, that I think the, the, the messaging was, look, anytime an American citizen is killed in a confrontation with law enforcement, it's a tragedy.
00:21:51.720Uh, and, and, and we should see our officials acknowledging it's a tragedy.
00:21:56.120Uh, we should see our officials saying, listen, if there's an officer involved shooting, there's going to be an investigation.
00:22:01.620We're going to examine what happened and, and determine what exactly caused it.
00:22:06.060Uh, and instead, the rhetoric immediately leaped to, to really aggressive rhetoric, calling both of the individuals, um, using language like terrorists and seeking mass murder.
00:22:21.040And, and, and, and that was, that was hard to square with the facts of what occurred.
00:22:26.580Uh, I, I think that rhetoric did damage to the administration.
00:22:32.400And I think it was one of the things that contributed to the decision, uh, of the president to shift from, uh, Christy Dome as, as the leader of Homeland Security.
00:22:43.880Mark Wayne Mullen, Mark Wayne, I've, I've served with him in the Senate.
00:23:21.320Um, I'm hopeful that he will bring a level of professionalism and effectiveness.
00:23:25.740The results of DHS have been quite strong, uh, but, but I, I, I do think, uh, I, I do think that the testimony that Secretary Noem gave, it was not an easy day for her.
00:23:40.860And I think John Kennedy, Tom Tillis also lit into her really hard.
00:23:45.320But, but I think the Kennedy cross-examination was more significant.
00:23:49.560There's been quite a bit of reporting that, that the president was unhappy that she said that he knew about the ad she had run.
00:23:56.860And, and, and I don't have independent knowledge of that, but, but, but I don't have reason to, to doubt that reporting.
00:24:04.340Uh, and, and, and so, look, we need to secure our border.
00:24:08.760We've had an incredible success rate doing so, so far.
00:24:11.620And I'm hopeful that Mark Wade Mullen coming in will continue with that success and continue to keep our family safe.
00:24:18.040As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:24:26.780When life gets unpredictable, preparation matters.
00:24:30.440In medicine, it's all about staying alert, ready for whatever comes through the door.
00:27:54.920I thought there was a chance that Trump would call on the cell phone.
00:27:58.520If he had called, I would have put the cell phone up to the microphone and let him announce it to the whole crowd.
00:28:03.940Instead, I got to announce, and the crowd went nuts.
00:28:06.060That was really gratifying to have three people who are two who are members of my team and have been employees and another who's a very close friend to see three new likely members of Congress coming.
00:28:45.060If you're serving in the Senate, if you're working in Congress, if you're endorsing against your colleagues, it makes it very hard to get anything done.