Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 29, 2024


Iran Murders American Troops...while Biden Funds the Ayatollah, plus Texas BATTLES Biden on the Border


Episode Stats

Length

45 minutes

Words per Minute

168.08891

Word Count

7,623

Sentence Count

574

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

26


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.700 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.400 Senator, nice to be with you in person.
00:00:07.520 We were going to have a show that dealt a lot with the border.
00:00:10.000 It was our lead story.
00:00:11.760 And then, unfortunately, we got this new news coming out of Jordan.
00:00:14.600 What we have now at time of recording is three U.S. troops have been killed
00:00:18.600 and 25 injured in this drone strike by Iran-backed militias in Jordan.
00:00:24.480 I want to get your reaction to this because this is not a new tactic.
00:00:28.000 Depending on what count you look at, this is somewhere between 150 to 170-plus attacks
00:00:33.560 on U.S. troops in the Middle East being done by these proxy groups of Iran.
00:00:39.720 What is America's response to this?
00:00:42.060 What is the Biden administration doing, and what are we hearing from them?
00:00:45.720 Well, it is tragic.
00:00:47.200 On Sunday, three U.S. servicemen and women were murdered.
00:00:51.280 25 were injured in Jordan.
00:00:53.500 It was a drone attack funded, directed by Iran.
00:00:58.000 And this is a continuation of a pattern we've seen for three years.
00:01:02.640 Listen, number one, our prayers are with the families of those servicemen and women killed.
00:01:07.940 At this point, we don't have the details.
00:01:10.040 Our prayers are with all of the troops who were injured that they recover.
00:01:15.360 But we should also understand why this happened.
00:01:21.000 Joe Biden's weakness produced this attack.
00:01:24.400 At this point, Joe Biden's national security failures, his weakness, his appeasement,
00:01:30.300 is endangering U.S. lives and is causing casualties.
00:01:34.480 We've talked a lot in this podcast about the 13 servicemen and women murdered in Afghanistan,
00:01:39.680 again, because of Joe Biden's weakness.
00:01:43.380 And understand, as you noted, there have been over 170 attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. troops.
00:01:54.100 Iran is waging war on the administration, on America, on our servicemen and women.
00:01:59.800 And Joe Biden is so utterly weak, he doesn't do a damn thing about it.
00:02:04.740 Reminds me back when Bill Clinton was in office, the phrase, he fires a missile and hits a camel in the butt.
00:02:10.280 And that basically is Joe Biden's approach.
00:02:14.020 And our servicemen and women will continue to be in harm's way as long as this man is commander in chief,
00:02:21.840 because not only is he too weak to respond with force, but even worse than that, Biden funded this.
00:02:29.580 Understand, Joe Biden is responsible for flowing roughly $100 billion to the Iranian regime,
00:02:37.620 to the Ayatollah, to the Mullahs.
00:02:39.960 That is funding these attacks.
00:02:42.060 The October 7th attack on Israel, murdered over 1,200 Israelis,
00:02:48.460 was among the worst terror attacks in the history of the United States with the Americans who were murdered.
00:02:55.040 Joe Biden, in a very real sense, funded that as well.
00:02:58.880 And ironically, look, the left thinks that weakness avoids war.
00:03:05.200 The left thinks that appeasement is the way to go.
00:03:10.080 Weakness makes war more likely.
00:03:13.940 Bullies do not respect weakness.
00:03:16.460 And you contrast this.
00:03:17.700 When Donald Trump was president, he killed Qasem Soleimani,
00:03:22.360 the leader of the Iranian military responsible for the murder of hundreds of servicemen and women.
00:03:31.160 He ordered a strike, he took him out, and you saw Iran behave differently.
00:03:35.960 And let's remind people, when he did that, the media said that he was taking us to World War III,
00:03:40.980 to the brink of World War III, that it was irresponsible and it was the wrong decision,
00:03:45.620 yet clearly there was a response, as you said, from Iran.
00:03:48.960 And the response was a response we should be begging for right now.
00:03:51.780 Well, that's right.
00:03:53.000 They dramatically scaled down their attacks.
00:03:54.800 And remember, Trump combined that with pulling out of the Obama-Iran nuclear deal.
00:03:59.340 Yeah.
00:03:59.780 That was the right decision to make.
00:04:01.240 It was a decision that I urged Trump emphatically and repeatedly to do.
00:04:05.560 Both the State Department and Defense Department under Trump argued to stay in the nuclear deal.
00:04:09.980 They were both wrong.
00:04:11.620 And Trump agreed with me, overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary of Defense,
00:04:16.840 pulled out of that deal.
00:04:17.700 But not just that.
00:04:18.960 He combined it with vigorously enforcing oil sanctions.
00:04:22.620 So once we pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, there was still in place what were called oil waivers.
00:04:28.460 So we had a waiver that allowed Iran to sell.
00:04:31.280 At the time, they were selling roughly a million barrels a day of oil.
00:04:35.120 And I urged the president, once we pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal,
00:04:39.180 OK, let's end the oil waivers.
00:04:40.820 Let's cut off their money.
00:04:42.580 And there was a fight this time between the State Department and the Department of Energy.
00:04:47.440 The Secretary of State at the time was Mike Pompeo.
00:04:49.620 And State argued, if you end the oil waivers, the result will be the price of oil will skyrocket.
00:04:54.960 The price of gasoline will skyrocket.
00:04:56.420 You can't do that.
00:04:57.780 The Department of Energy, to its credit, you would think energy would know something about energy.
00:05:02.440 Yeah.
00:05:02.680 They responded, that's nonsense.
00:05:04.440 There's plenty of global supply of oil.
00:05:06.520 Cut it off.
00:05:07.120 I leaned in aggressively on the side of the Department of Energy, said, starve the beast.
00:05:14.160 Take away the resources that Iran is using to murder Americans and murder our allies.
00:05:19.840 Trump agreed with me, again overruled his own State Department, ended the oil waiver.
00:05:24.980 And it turns out we now know energy was right.
00:05:27.900 State was wrong.
00:05:28.660 It crushed the Iranian economy and the price of oil barely moved at all.
00:05:33.500 The price of gasoline barely moved at all.
00:05:35.340 And essentially no impact because of global supply.
00:05:39.080 But it cratered the Iranian economy.
00:05:41.200 Joe Biden inherited the Iranian economy on its knees.
00:05:45.520 We had cut their oil exports to 300,000 barrels a day or less.
00:05:50.000 So it was a massive decrease.
00:05:52.560 And Joe Biden came in.
00:05:53.820 He flowed $10 billion to Iran.
00:05:56.520 He flowed $6 billion to Iran.
00:05:58.380 And he stopped enforcing the oil sanctions.
00:06:01.300 That ended up flowing $80 billion to Iran.
00:06:06.960 Today, Iran is selling 2 million barrels a day of oil.
00:06:12.300 These rockets, these drone attacks that just killed three servicemen and women,
00:06:17.160 Joe Biden in a very real sense funded them.
00:06:19.860 Because when you send $100 billion to a theocratic lunatic who screams
00:06:24.960 death to America and death to Israel,
00:06:27.200 you know what happens?
00:06:28.620 They actually follow through on that.
00:06:30.120 And so this appeasement is dangerous.
00:06:34.440 And you contrast a strong commander-in-chief killing General Soleimani saying,
00:06:41.860 if you go after Americans, you're going to die.
00:06:44.040 And what happens?
00:06:45.000 The bad guys back off.
00:06:46.180 You contrast that to the weakness in the Biden White House that says,
00:06:50.480 if you threaten Americans, if you threaten Israel, we're going to give you hundreds of billions of dollars.
00:06:54.540 And they get worse.
00:06:56.760 170 attacks.
00:06:58.840 And more will happen unless Biden is willing to defend U.S. troops.
00:07:03.260 I have very little faith that he will be.
00:07:04.760 Two questions on this I want to ask you that I think are important.
00:07:06.940 Number one, there's a lot of people that remember the money we were allowing Iran to get their hands on.
00:07:11.680 The State Department said in the White House said,
00:07:13.280 oh, well, they don't have the money yet.
00:07:14.440 They have to act the right way to get the money.
00:07:16.520 Is there any indication that that has changed at all?
00:07:18.840 And the policy has changed because of all these attacks.
00:07:21.120 And number two, I don't think people understand exactly when we talk about these proxy groups,
00:07:27.660 these terrorist organizations that they funnel money to, funnel drones to, funnel bombs to, roadside bombs, whatever it may be.
00:07:35.100 Explain why Iran does that and how many people they're working with in the Middle East.
00:07:41.540 So Iran is the world's largest state-sponsored supporter of terrorism in the world.
00:07:46.660 About Hamas and Hezbollah.
00:07:48.640 Hamas launched the October 7th attack.
00:07:51.500 What percent of Hamas's budget do you think Iran funds?
00:07:53.840 I would guess 70, 80 percent.
00:07:55.420 It's about 90.
00:07:56.020 Wow.
00:07:56.440 About 90 percent of the budget comes directly from Iran.
00:07:59.880 We have reporting in the Wall Street Journal that says about 500 of the Hamas terrorists who carried out the October 7th attack
00:08:06.560 traveled to Iran and trained in Iran to be ready for that attack.
00:08:12.820 Hezbollah.
00:08:13.480 How much of Hezbollah do you think Iran funds?
00:08:14.920 I would bet at least 90 percent.
00:08:16.560 That's about 90 percent as well.
00:08:19.020 Iran funds terrorists in the Middle East.
00:08:21.600 They fund terrorists in South America and Central America.
00:08:25.800 They're Hezbollah terrorists in Central and South America that Iran is funding.
00:08:29.740 The Ayatollah, you have to understand, he's a theocratic, genocidal maniac.
00:08:35.720 He refers to Israel as the little Satan.
00:08:40.700 He refers to America as the great Satan.
00:08:45.580 Understand if the Ayatollah could, he would murder both of us in an instance.
00:08:49.880 If the Ayatollah could, he would murder every American in New York City.
00:08:53.800 He would murder every American in Los Angeles, every American in Washington, D.C.
00:08:58.000 You know, the former head of the Iranian nuclear program, a scientist, who...
00:09:09.160 Former head, by the way.
00:09:10.360 I want to make sure we say that again so everybody pays attention to what you're about to tell
00:09:13.960 because I know where you're going with this.
00:09:15.100 And former is important.
00:09:17.260 He has gone to meet his maker to see if there are 72 virgins waiting for him or not.
00:09:23.880 Many say at the hand of the Mossad, at the hand of the Israelis, that's not confirmed,
00:09:29.060 but that is widely speculated that the Israelis helped him on his way.
00:09:35.400 He had written in his last will and testament that he wanted the following words written on his tombstone.
00:09:42.460 Here lies a man who sought the annihilation of Israel.
00:09:50.700 Think for a second, Ben, how much hate, how much racism, how much anti-Semitism, how much venom
00:09:58.800 do you have to be filled with, that you literally want your tombstone?
00:10:04.340 The only thing that you want to be remembered for is, I hate Jews.
00:10:09.280 That was the head of Iran's nuclear program.
00:10:12.800 That is the theocratic governance of this Iranian regime.
00:10:16.540 And explain to me why Joe Biden keeps sending them billions of dollars to this day.
00:10:22.320 We're sitting here today.
00:10:23.600 We have Iran murdering three U.S. servicemen and women.
00:10:31.740 And Joe Biden continues to allow him to sell two million barrels of oil a day tomorrow.
00:10:38.520 Presumably, Joe Biden is going to allow him to sell two million barrels of oil a day
00:10:42.420 because weakness is so intertwined with the Biden foreign policy, not just weakness.
00:10:49.260 They have this bizarre policy.
00:10:53.500 I do not understand it.
00:10:55.960 Enemies of America, they give money to and they give them everything they want.
00:10:59.780 Friends of America, they abandon, they undermine.
00:11:02.060 By the way, simultaneously, the news is breaking this weekend that the Biden administration is
00:11:07.920 talking about cutting off military weapons to Israel.
00:11:11.540 So billions of dollars to Iran to murder Americans while simultaneously the Biden White House
00:11:18.480 is saying, let's cut off weapons to Israel because they're killing terrorists
00:11:22.440 who have murdered Americans and want to murder Americans.
00:11:26.500 It is exactly backwards.
00:11:28.180 It makes no sense.
00:11:29.380 Last question on this.
00:11:31.020 There's a lot of people asking, OK, well, then what would the response or what should
00:11:34.140 a response be from the president of the United States of America?
00:11:37.220 So a lot of talking heads over the weekend that were saying, well, they're just trying to
00:11:41.100 bring us into a war.
00:11:41.980 And if Joe Biden responds with a heavy hand and goes after and attacks targets in Iran,
00:11:47.160 we're getting into World War Three.
00:11:48.840 And that's exactly what they want.
00:11:50.540 What is a responsible response to this from this president?
00:11:54.120 What is it that he should do?
00:11:56.000 Number one, cut off the money.
00:11:57.880 Dramatically enforce the oil sanctions.
00:12:00.060 Starve the beast.
00:12:01.060 I've introduced legislation that would do that.
00:12:03.040 There's an entire fleet of ghost tankers that takes the Iranian oil to China.
00:12:07.260 By the way, China is buying it.
00:12:09.140 Communist China is loving this.
00:12:11.040 China is funding Iran.
00:12:12.700 They love that Iran is distracting America from China's malevolence.
00:12:18.300 So cut off the oil, number one.
00:12:20.420 Number two, cut off the funds.
00:12:21.760 Number three, cut off the funding for Hamas.
00:12:24.800 Cut off the funding for Gaza.
00:12:26.120 Cut off the funding for Iranian proxies.
00:12:28.460 Number four, cut off the funding for UNRWA.
00:12:30.440 In our next show, we're going to talk about UNRWA, the UN agency that is filled with Hamas
00:12:37.460 terrorists.
00:12:38.120 That news broke this weekend also.
00:12:39.580 We're going to go in depth in a later podcast this week about that.
00:12:43.140 But stop funding people who hate us, number one.
00:12:46.440 And number two, if you kill U.S. military or U.S. civilians, pound the living crap out of them.
00:12:55.240 Respond like Donald Trump did.
00:12:57.100 Now, not invade Iran.
00:12:59.700 I'm not saying send the Marines.
00:13:01.320 I'm saying let them know it's not worth it.
00:13:04.600 Let them know that the cost will be significantly greater than the benefit.
00:13:09.680 What Joe Biden has showed them is there is no cost, that his ideology and politics is so important.
00:13:16.940 He will allow Americans to be killed and will not respond.
00:13:22.500 That weakness makes it more likely more Americans will be killed.
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00:15:38.800 Senator, I want to move to what was supposed to be our big story, and that was the border.
00:15:43.160 There is a clear war between Texas and the Biden administration.
00:15:47.820 That war was declared by the Biden administration to be very clear on Texas.
00:15:52.840 There's a war now of the issue of states' rights.
00:15:54.960 There's a war of what the Constitution says, and there's a ton of misinformation out there.
00:16:00.220 I want you to explain so people understand.
00:16:03.180 Does the state of Texas, and any state, have the right to protect and defend itself if it's being literally invaded?
00:16:09.820 That's what's happening in Texas.
00:16:11.960 What does the Constitution say about this?
00:16:14.740 Because there's a lot of people that have been arguing over it.
00:16:17.500 I want to know, does the state of Texas have the right to defend itself?
00:16:21.040 If the federal government especially is not doing their job, and their job is to protect the border, right?
00:16:27.220 Not just the border for Texas, but every state in the country, and they're not doing that right now.
00:16:32.960 So when you look at this war, who's right and who's wrong, and what do our founders think about this?
00:16:39.500 Well, the text of the Constitution, and in particular the constitutional provision that is being discussed, is Article I, Section 10, Clause 3.
00:16:48.360 And what it says is, quote,
00:16:49.720 No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace,
00:17:01.220 enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power,
00:17:06.900 and this is where the critical language is,
00:17:08.580 So the question, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, my good friend, has declared an actual invasion,
00:17:32.920 invoking the authority of Article I, Section 10.
00:17:38.220 Article I, Section 10 is a prohibition on the state.
00:17:44.920 It says, let me omit the kind of language in the middle.
00:17:48.460 It says,
00:17:48.880 No state shall engage in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
00:17:59.600 So, under that constitutional provision, it suggests the state would have the authority to, quote,
00:18:07.640 engage in war if actually invaded.
00:18:11.720 Now, you asked, what's the law?
00:18:14.220 The truth of the matter is, this is an open question, constitutionally.
00:18:17.800 We saw a number of years back when the state of Arizona passed legislation trying to limit illegal immigration.
00:18:25.440 And during the Obama administration, the Department of Justice sued Arizona.
00:18:30.080 It went all the way to the Supreme Court.
00:18:32.000 There was a case, Arizona versus United States.
00:18:34.440 And unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Obama administration.
00:18:40.460 It was a decision that got strong dissents, got a strong dissent from Justice Scalia,
00:18:45.000 a strong dissent from Justice Thomas, a strong dissent from Justice Alito.
00:18:49.300 Now, the Supreme Court composition has changed since then.
00:18:53.360 And, frankly, the facts on the ground have changed since then.
00:18:57.180 Listen, illegal immigration was a problem under Barack Obama, was a serious problem under Barack Obama.
00:19:02.000 But I got to say, compared to now, it's night and day.
00:19:06.600 The Obama immigration problems seem quaint, that they are minuscule compared to what is happening now.
00:19:13.480 The order of magnitude.
00:19:14.920 I've joked multiple times that Joe Biden has done something I thought was impossible.
00:19:20.060 He's made me miss Barack Obama.
00:19:22.080 Yeah.
00:19:23.060 Who would have thought Ted Cruz would ever say that?
00:19:25.340 It is, look, on immigration, one of the astonishing things about Obama is he, by and large, followed the law.
00:19:36.360 He didn't on DACA, but DACA was one unique subset of individuals, and it was a relatively limited subset.
00:19:42.760 But for people crossing illegally into the country, Barack Obama deported millions of people.
00:19:50.140 If you remember during the Obama administration, the left got very mad.
00:19:52.860 They called him the deporter-in-chief.
00:19:54.620 Yeah.
00:19:55.780 And that made a difference.
00:20:01.200 What has happened here under Joe Biden, and we've never seen a president do this.
00:20:05.860 In over 200 years of our nation's history, there's never been a president that utterly and completely defies U.S. law and lets people go by massive numbers.
00:20:16.640 So, for example, there's an authority under federal immigration law called Parole Authority, which is you can release people in limited and special circumstances.
00:20:25.720 Under Obama, he would parole roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants a year.
00:20:30.720 Under Trump, it was a comparable number.
00:20:32.360 So it took – they were extraordinary circumstances.
00:20:34.340 You know how much Biden is doing?
00:20:35.540 How much?
00:20:35.900 About 800,000 a year.
00:20:38.560 Wow.
00:20:39.080 He took Obama's 5,000 a year and he blew it up to 800,000.
00:20:44.060 They've made a decision.
00:20:46.660 We are going to allow an invasion.
00:20:49.140 Now, what is Texas doing?
00:20:52.960 They're laying – Constantine wire, they're laying basically really jagged razor wire all along the border.
00:21:01.520 And, in fact, here, let's look at some of the video of what they're laying and also understand the Biden administration is actively suing them, is actively attacking them, is trying to tear down the wire to let cartels in and to let the invasion occur.
00:21:19.780 Take a look at the governor of Texas talking about this.
00:21:22.880 Well, first, I'll be shocked.
00:21:24.100 That would be a boneheaded move on his part, a total disaster.
00:21:27.660 But, for one, as you might imagine, we are prepared in the event that that unlikely event does occur to make sure that we will be able to continue exactly what we've been doing over the past month.
00:21:38.960 And that is building these barriers, whether it be the Constantine wire or other anti-climb border barriers, whatever we've been building, the Biden administration is now trying to attack us because of it.
00:21:51.500 And we will continue to do exactly what we're doing to expand our denial of illegal entry into the state of Texas.
00:21:59.160 You listened to the governor there, and I had an interesting debate this week with a liberal on TV who said Texas is totally wrong.
00:22:06.700 They're out of line.
00:22:07.440 They cannot say that they're being invaded because to say you're invaded, they have to wear a uniform of an official country that's invading you, a.k.a. military.
00:22:15.260 Would that stand up?
00:22:16.000 Under that argument, Hamas could invade.
00:22:19.380 Understand how idiotic that argument is.
00:22:21.940 You could have a million Hamas terrorists cross over the border and start blowing people up.
00:22:26.040 They could wage October 7th, and these imbeciles would say, no, it's not an invasion because they're not a country.
00:22:31.720 And they're not wearing a uniform of that country.
00:22:34.200 Like, under that theory, October 7th in Israel was not an invasion.
00:22:39.620 Like, that's idiotic on its face.
00:22:42.040 Yes, and by the way, I fully expect – so where does this case stand?
00:22:46.860 So Texas has laid the wire along the border, particularly in Eagle Pass, miles of it.
00:22:53.100 Yeah.
00:22:53.560 The Biden administration wants to tear it down.
00:22:56.040 Texas filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration saying you can't tear it down.
00:23:00.440 What happened is the Biden administration won in federal district court.
00:23:05.360 Texas appealed to the Fifth Circuit, the federal court of appeals.
00:23:08.100 Texas won in the Fifth Circuit, and what they got was an injunction, which is an order from the Fifth Circuit against the federal government tearing down the concertina wire.
00:23:19.400 The United States appealed that injunction to the Supreme Court, and unfortunately, the Supreme Court 5-4 ruled in favor of the Biden administration.
00:23:27.840 So where does it stand?
00:23:28.780 But where it stands right now –
00:23:31.440 And that ruling, I want to be clear, because we talked about this in a previous pod, and I want to make sure everybody that's watching this understands this.
00:23:36.980 It was 5-4, but it didn't say you had to take down the razor wire either.
00:23:40.900 Explain that for people that may have missed that.
00:23:42.460 So it's important to understand, number one, a ton of Democrats, a ton of reporters, a ton of leftists are saying Texas is defying the Supreme Court, is defying a Supreme Court order.
00:23:53.860 That is a lie.
00:23:55.380 There is no order that impacts Texas in any way, shape, or form concerning this.
00:24:01.500 This was a lawsuit by Texas against the United States.
00:24:05.080 There had been an order against the Biden administration.
00:24:08.720 The Supreme Court took away the order against the Biden administration.
00:24:13.480 So where things stand right now, if Joe Biden orders the federal government to go tear down the wire, the federal government will not be violating an injunction.
00:24:24.360 Now, the court didn't say the federal government has to tear down the wire.
00:24:27.620 Court didn't say the federal government should tear down the wire.
00:24:30.200 The court also didn't say that Texas couldn't lay more wire.
00:24:35.380 Yeah, which is what they're doing.
00:24:36.820 Right. There's no order against Texas.
00:24:40.000 And injunctions are, by their nature, temporary and emergency proceedings.
00:24:47.140 The Fifth Circuit has scheduled the oral argument in this case on the merits of the case on February 8th.
00:24:53.880 February 8th, interestingly, is the same day the Supreme Court has scheduled the oral argument in the Colorado case.
00:24:59.640 Yeah, with Donald Trump.
00:25:00.800 With Donald Trump.
00:25:01.580 So February 8th is going to be a big oral argument day.
00:25:04.020 Whatever happens in the Fifth Circuit, that case is extremely likely to go back to the Supreme Court.
00:25:12.020 And I think the Supreme Court is likely to take it and decide the issue on the merits.
00:25:16.240 And that'll be decided in the next couple of months.
00:25:18.720 I think the Fifth Circuit is likely to decide quickly.
00:25:21.680 And I expect a rapid appeal to the Supreme Court.
00:25:24.880 And understand the 5-4 decision from the Supreme Court on the injunction.
00:25:30.180 It was the three liberals plus John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.
00:25:34.540 Now, nobody wrote an opinion.
00:25:35.620 So we don't know their reasoning.
00:25:38.780 By the way...
00:25:39.280 Was that interesting to you?
00:25:41.320 Would you have expected an opinion saying this big?
00:25:44.500 Or was it such a quick thing to say, hey, we're going to go back to the Fifth and let them do their oral arguments.
00:25:49.520 That's all we're saying about this.
00:25:51.120 Hence the fact they didn't say to Texas, you've got to take down the razor wire and you can't lay more of it.
00:25:55.160 So, look, it is not shocking.
00:25:58.920 Emergency appeals...
00:26:00.460 Often they don't write.
00:26:02.500 They don't always write opinions.
00:26:03.700 They're decided on quick emergency appeals.
00:26:06.040 The underlying merits are still being litigated.
00:26:08.420 By the way, there are also jurisdictional questions that are being debated in the case that are fairly arcane and legal.
00:26:14.720 But they deal with whether the United States has waived sovereign immunity.
00:26:18.800 In other words, whether Texas can sue the United States in federal court for an injunction.
00:26:24.220 And those are technical legal questions that I don't know that we need to get into the details in this podcast.
00:26:29.920 But they have nothing to do with whether the Biden administration can tear down the wire.
00:26:36.120 They simply question whether Texas is able to sue the Biden administration in federal court.
00:26:40.760 So there's a big dispute.
00:26:42.100 A lot of the briefing, a lot of the argument focused on that jurisdictional question, which has nothing to do with the merits.
00:26:48.800 So, we don't know what John Roberts' reasoning was.
00:26:53.360 We don't know what Amy Coney Barrett's reasoning was.
00:26:55.380 To be fair, we don't know what any of the nine justices is because they didn't write.
00:26:59.960 I will say this.
00:27:04.740 John Roberts and federal judges generally, particularly ones that are in D.C. that are on the Supreme Court, they tend to be creatures of Washington.
00:27:13.120 They tend to have a general predilection that they side with the feds against the states.
00:27:20.040 Let's actually have some analysis from Jonathan Turley.
00:27:22.680 He's a constitutional law professor, someone I know and respect.
00:27:25.480 Here's what Professor Turley had to say.
00:27:26.960 Well, I certainly agree with the governor that this is a violation of the understanding between the federal government and the states.
00:27:36.240 The language in Article 1, Section 10, really deals with that agreement that we made with the states and the federal government
00:27:47.100 to move from the Articles of Confederation to a constitutional system with a strong federal government.
00:27:53.560 I don't think anyone can honestly look at the southern border and say that the federal government has fulfilled its pledge.
00:28:01.200 This is an unprecedented crisis brought about, I believe, by President Biden's policies.
00:28:06.720 So on all that, I agree.
00:28:08.600 The problem is that federal courts are unlikely to agree that this is the invasion referenced in the Constitution.
00:28:16.820 There's also a reference to imminent danger.
00:28:20.220 And certainly looking at hundreds of thousands of people crossing an effectively open border presents an imminent danger.
00:28:28.160 But the courts are likely to define that in the context of that provision, in the context of an invasion as with a foreign state.
00:28:37.840 So I think Texas is going to have a hard time making that constitutional argument in court.
00:28:43.660 I have to ask about the imminent danger part, specifically the fact that we know that people on the terrorist watch list have been coming across the open southern border.
00:28:52.580 We had more that were caught last year that were on the terrorist watch list in the last five years before that combined.
00:28:58.860 There's no reason to believe that number is not going to be up even higher this year based on the number that are coming across the border.
00:29:04.460 Is that one of the arguments that Texas would make, obviously, right away?
00:29:08.600 Absolutely. So take a look at this tweet from Fox News.
00:29:11.580 So this is from Bill Malugian, who is the best reporter on the border across the country.
00:29:17.020 And by the way, every other fake news entity ought to ask, why don't they have a Bill Malugian?
00:29:21.800 Why don't they have someone reporting on the facts?
00:29:23.660 Because he reports on it. There's no one on CNN that does this.
00:29:26.400 No one at MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Washington Post, New York Times.
00:29:30.360 Not a one of them has a Bill Malugian.
00:29:32.160 He's doing heroic work. Here's what Bill Malugian reports.
00:29:35.380 Breaking. In a Friday news dump, by the way, that's what the Biden administration does.
00:29:39.540 It dumps all of its bad news on Friday.
00:29:41.240 In a Friday news dump, CBP officially reports 302,034 migrant encounters in December, the highest month ever recorded.
00:29:52.960 And traditionally, December is not your highest month of the year, has not been.
00:29:56.060 But people are rushing the border because they realize, go, it's open, hurry up.
00:30:02.340 CBP also reports Border Patrol arrested 19 people on the FBI terror watch list in December.
00:30:10.240 In one month, bringing the total to 50 arrests for fiscal year 2024, which started in October so far.
00:30:19.240 The 19, when you see that, Senator, you get briefings on different things in national security.
00:30:23.700 That is an alarming number that we caught because that doesn't count the ones, the gotaways.
00:30:28.260 And we had record gotaways in December as well.
00:30:30.320 So understand, under Trump, the number of people on the terror watch list apprehended in an entire year were in the single digits.
00:30:36.340 They were like zero, two in an entire year.
00:30:38.540 We're up to 50 in three months.
00:30:41.320 And 19 in the month of December alone.
00:30:43.380 Yes.
00:30:44.100 So the month of December is more than any single year under Donald Trump.
00:30:50.040 It may be more.
00:30:50.940 I don't have the totals in front of me.
00:30:51.900 It may be more than all four years of Donald Trump.
00:30:53.940 It probably is.
00:30:55.740 This is an order of magnitude.
00:30:57.580 So I will say when the case is at the Fifth Circuit, when it gets to the Supreme Court, the argument is going to have to be that what is happening at the border right now is qualitatively different than just ordinary illegal immigration.
00:31:11.720 It's not that the federal government is doing a bad job, doing a negligent job, is ineffective.
00:31:19.920 Any case like that would be likely to fail.
00:31:22.240 It is in this instance the Biden administration is actively complicit in an invasion of 10 million people into this country.
00:31:28.920 10 million.
00:31:29.620 That is a staggering number, including at a time the Border Patrol is telling us they're extremely worried about Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists coming in to carry out a terror act.
00:31:40.860 And not just that, they warned of an attack that could very much resemble what happened against the Israeli people.
00:31:46.900 So they're not just saying it's like a lone wolf style attack.
00:31:49.940 They're saying an orchestrated, a well-planned, well-orchestrated attack in the United States of America that could very much mimic what we just witnessed and saw in Israel.
00:31:58.020 And understand that Joe Biden, by the way, just about every Washington Democrat, are on the side of the human traffickers, are on the side of the terrorists coming in.
00:32:06.900 That this suit, so look, there are aspects of this lawsuit.
00:32:11.080 The Biden administration frames it as Texas is preventing the ability of Border Patrol agents to access the border.
00:32:17.860 And there's a federal statute that says that agents can't access the border.
00:32:21.760 And I will say, if the question is framed, can Texas officials physically stop, block, arrest a federal official from going to the border, Texas will lose that question.
00:32:35.140 Can you forcibly stop a Border Patrol agent from accessing the border?
00:32:39.320 I think the answer to that would be no.
00:32:40.780 So the next question everybody's going to ask is this then.
00:32:45.060 Can Texas stop a Customs and Border Patrol agent who is cutting down the barbed wire and allowing people to come into the country illegally?
00:32:52.460 Well, and understand, it's not that the Border Patrol agent, the statute saying to access the border, is written in the context of apprehending illegal immigrants.
00:33:02.520 The Biden administration doesn't want to apprehend illegal immigrants.
00:33:05.100 They want illegal immigrants to come in.
00:33:06.920 When they cut it, they're asking for them to come in.
00:33:08.760 And understand, it's not cutting it.
00:33:10.400 The Biden administration wants to destroy miles of wire.
00:33:15.580 So the state of Texas has spent billions of dollars securing the border because the federal government won't do so.
00:33:21.380 The state of Texas has built Border Wall.
00:33:23.660 Imagine if the Biden administration was coming in with dynamite and blowing up the walls that Texas has built.
00:33:31.880 Look, Texas, the reason Texas sued the United States is they said, you don't have a right to destroy our property.
00:33:38.080 Imagine the federal government showed up and started blowing up state buildings.
00:33:42.040 Yeah.
00:33:42.360 I mean, under the federal government's argument, they're like, we can destroy it or whatever we want.
00:33:46.020 We're the feds.
00:33:46.700 And Texas is saying, no, you can't.
00:33:49.320 There is a limit on your ability.
00:33:51.840 The state of Texas has constructed this.
00:33:53.680 And it's one thing if a Border Patrol agent says, hey, I need to get to that river.
00:33:58.160 I think if it were framed that narrowly, the federal courts are going to side with the ability of the federal government to get to the border.
00:34:05.240 But this is the question of does the federal government have the authority to just destroy miles and miles of wire barrier put up by the state of Texas in order to stop an invasion?
00:34:20.080 And I think that's a very different question.
00:34:22.820 I hope when it gets to the merits that the Supreme Court resolves it differently.
00:34:30.020 Now, there are also really untested questions of constitutional law.
00:34:36.000 There are potentials of direct confrontation between state officials and federal officials that could get really messy.
00:34:42.580 There's also a dynamic that Biden is getting so extreme, he's facing what is potentially a revolt within the federal government.
00:34:50.740 By the way, the word they used this week on TV was insurrection.
00:34:53.960 And Griff Jenkins, Fox News, put out this tweet talking about what you were just mentioning.
00:34:58.080 Take a look at this, guys, because this is a very interesting scenario here.
00:35:01.860 It says a senior CBP official tells Fox the relationship between Border Patrol, Texas DPS and the TMD remains strong.
00:35:10.460 Bottom line, Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure, seawire placed by Texas along the border.
00:35:16.900 Our posture remains the same.
00:35:18.880 So there were people on TV saying if this is true, this is like an insurrection.
00:35:23.400 I think that's absurd.
00:35:24.740 But if you have federal government officials that aren't listening to the, quote, orders of the Biden administration and saying we're not going to do this, what does that mean?
00:35:33.900 Well, look, and mind you, the same people who are saying this are the Democrats, elected Democrats and the lefties in the press who praised, for example, people in the military under Trump who they said, well, they won't follow his orders.
00:35:47.560 They will resist his orders.
00:35:48.960 Mind you, in this instance, look, I know the Border Patrol agents, many of them very, very well.
00:35:53.640 I spent a lot of time with them.
00:35:55.100 They are horrified at what Joe Biden is doing.
00:35:57.980 They're watching the body bags, the death, the suffering, the children who were assaulted, the women who were raped.
00:36:04.100 They're seeing it on a daily basis.
00:36:06.000 And it is, look, at some level, if you have a president who is so utterly out of touch that he wages war on the law, that he's defying the law, that he is instructing him, go destroy, use my example, go bomb the walls.
00:36:25.180 Yeah.
00:36:26.160 You would expect some federal officials to say, hold on, you have no legal authority to do this.
00:36:30.520 This is just an abuse of power.
00:36:32.460 And, look, our system, we are pushing to the edges of a constitutional crisis because we have a president who is so utterly lawless that he puts his partisan political agenda above the rule of law, above federal immigration law, above the Constitution, above people's welfare, above protecting the lives of Texans.
00:36:57.700 And it is all politics all the time with the Biden White House.
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00:38:14.360 I've got to ask you, you just said something that was very interesting, and that was about
00:38:17.540 a constitutional crisis.
00:38:19.340 Texas isn't having to do this alone, thank goodness.
00:38:21.740 You've got, I think it's 25 different states now that have come to the aid of Texas fighting
00:38:26.060 for states' rights, saying you have a right to defend your state.
00:38:28.420 And it is powerful.
00:38:29.340 Governor after governor after governor saying, we stand with Texas, we stand with Texas,
00:38:32.700 we stand with Texas.
00:38:34.020 And Joe Biden is trying to say to the states, I don't care.
00:38:38.280 I want your state to be invaded.
00:38:40.460 I want the law to be ignored because my partisan politics matter more than your obligation to
00:38:46.880 protect the safety of your citizens.
00:38:48.560 So explain the rules, and this is, I think, a very important point, because it's going
00:38:53.160 to come up, obviously.
00:38:54.760 You have some states that are sending, for example, state troopers to the state.
00:38:59.300 Is that under state authority?
00:39:01.200 Is that federal if you're clashing, right, if you're a trooper?
00:39:03.640 And then the second part is, the National Guard can work in two different scenarios, one
00:39:09.620 for the governor, and then all of a sudden the federal government can come in, and that's
00:39:13.820 been a big fight over the last several days of what if he nationalizes the federal, you
00:39:18.200 know, these guardsmen?
00:39:20.900 How does that play out?
00:39:22.080 And explain how it works if there's two different people that are your boss, who do you decide
00:39:25.660 with?
00:39:26.320 So ordinarily, the National Guard is under the direction of the governors.
00:39:30.020 And the National Guard of each state is under that governor of that state.
00:39:33.120 Now, under federal law, the president has the authority to call up to nationalize the
00:39:38.020 National Guard and put it under the direction of the federal government.
00:39:42.460 And a bunch of folks on the left are demanding that Biden do that in Texas.
00:39:48.660 I don't think he will.
00:39:50.240 The clip we played of Greg Abbott, what he was responding to was the claim, what happens
00:39:54.460 if he tries to nationalize the Guard?
00:39:56.060 I don't think Biden will do that because it has a risk of backfiring.
00:39:59.420 If he did, I'm not sure what will happen.
00:40:03.060 But what he cannot nationalize is DPS troopers.
00:40:07.140 He cannot nationalize the state law enforcement.
00:40:10.700 And so even if...
00:40:12.000 The example is Florida sent a lot of state troopers to Texas this past week.
00:40:16.560 There was a caravan coming up.
00:40:17.740 He could have no control over them.
00:40:19.540 None whatsoever.
00:40:20.840 The federal government does not have the ability to nationalize state law enforcement.
00:40:24.800 So conceivably, Biden could try to nationalize the National Guard.
00:40:29.060 And at that point, assuming the Guard complies with those orders and they're not challenged
00:40:34.180 in court, they're not struck down, assuming the Guard complies with those orders, it's
00:40:37.700 no different than Biden sending in the army.
00:40:40.740 It is federal military, but there are still state officials and the potential for clashes.
00:40:46.840 Now, do I think you're going to see state and federal officials shooting each other?
00:40:51.220 No.
00:40:52.440 I do think...
00:40:54.080 Look, you've got crazies on the left that are pushing, you know, might you see Biden
00:40:58.800 trying to order federal officials to arrest state officials?
00:41:03.760 Yeah.
00:41:04.020 I think that's possible.
00:41:05.260 And we are starting to get into very uncharted territory.
00:41:08.940 Who could he arrest in that scenario?
00:41:10.380 Is that the governor on down?
00:41:11.500 The governor?
00:41:11.960 The attorney general?
00:41:12.460 Are you talking about like a guy at the border who's saying, I'm not going to take down
00:41:15.660 that razor wire?
00:41:16.620 And they say, OK, arrest him or who's laying razor wire, for example.
00:41:20.480 And I don't think that's going to happen.
00:41:22.520 But Joe Biden is listening to the radicals, the extremist party, and he keeps escalating
00:41:28.360 and escalating and escalating.
00:41:29.940 And it's dangerous.
00:41:31.300 Just like Joe Biden is endangering American lives abroad.
00:41:36.420 And we saw three servicemen and women murdered this weekend by Iranian proxies because of Joe
00:41:43.580 Biden's lawlessness and support of genocidal killers.
00:41:51.460 At the same time, Joe Biden is endangering Americans here because of his lawlessness and
00:41:57.100 support for homicidal killers that are human traffickers and drug traffickers.
00:42:01.920 In both instances, it is because this Biden White House puts politics above the safety
00:42:07.660 and security of Americans.
00:42:09.080 And the question every Democrat is going to have to answer, every Democrat senator, every
00:42:12.680 Democrat House member, do you stand with the lawlessness and the extreme agenda of the
00:42:17.580 Biden White House or do you stand with the safety of the American people?
00:42:20.980 And at least to date, just about every elected Democrat in the country puts politics above
00:42:25.900 safety.
00:42:26.520 And that's what makes where we are right now so extreme and so dangerous.
00:42:30.580 You just said two words, so extreme and so dangerous.
00:42:33.920 I do want to remind people, wasn't this administration that said that the adults are finally back in
00:42:39.720 charge so we will have none of these issues?
00:42:41.940 I just want to remind everybody this is what they said about their own team.
00:42:45.640 As any connection to reality about what is going on around them should have watched that
00:42:53.000 and said the adults are back in the room.
00:42:55.500 It seems as though we have a professional adult once again in the White House who's just simply
00:43:02.040 doing the work.
00:43:03.200 Really, the theme, I would say, is the adults are back.
00:43:06.380 Still, it is a relief to have adults in charge.
00:43:09.500 Now we have adults in the White House.
00:43:12.260 OK, the adults are back in the room.
00:43:14.580 There is a sense, I think, the world over that the adults have returned.
00:43:19.200 We have an adult in the White House now and it's glorious.
00:43:22.900 If this is what adulting looks like, I'll take a kid in charge at this point.
00:43:27.480 God bless.
00:43:28.900 So we actually, and the irony is every word of that is a lie.
00:43:32.420 Well, look, Joe Biden is a senior citizen and he may be so adult that he's not aware of
00:43:38.420 what's happening.
00:43:39.560 But I'll tell you, the agenda has been extreme and dangerous.
00:43:44.340 And you look at things like the withdrawal from Afghanistan, incompetent, naive, ideological.
00:43:53.180 It is the opposite of adult leadership.
00:43:55.500 Adult leadership focuses on let's follow the law.
00:43:57.820 Adult leadership focuses on we've got a task to do.
00:44:00.500 Adult leadership focuses on let's keep people safe.
00:44:03.020 Adult leadership focuses on what's in American interest.
00:44:05.860 Adult leadership focuses on how do we stop bad guys from hurting us.
00:44:10.140 Everything Joe Biden and the Democrats have done is the opposite of adult leadership.
00:44:14.240 It is naive.
00:44:15.220 It is dangerous.
00:44:16.260 It is extreme.
00:44:17.080 And the country is a lot less safe as a result.
00:44:19.060 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Fridays.
00:44:21.340 We do a week in review on Saturdays as well.
00:44:23.840 And if you're watching this, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel.
00:44:27.640 One of these episodes a week on average, we do on video as well.
00:44:30.640 We put it up on X.
00:44:31.640 We put it up on Facebook so you can watch it there.
00:44:33.820 And don't forget as well, make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button, especially
00:44:38.440 if you're listening on Apple as they've changed their algorithms for 2024.
00:44:43.380 The Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
00:44:47.700 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:44:50.560 Guaranteed human.
00:44:51.400 Bye-bye.
00:45:12.920 Bye.
00:45:13.020 Bye.