Verdict with Ted Cruz - Liberals Kill Spirit, Tucker's Antichrist Talk & Cuban Island Intrigue w Squad Member Jayapaul Week In Review

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00:00:19.700 Welcome.

00:00:20.380 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:21.680 We can review Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:23.660 And these are the stories you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:26.720 First up, you may not realize that Spirit Airlines could have been saved a couple years ago.

00:00:32.440 But Democrats stopped it on purpose.

00:00:34.840 Why do they do it?

00:00:36.040 We've got the receipts and we'll explain exactly what liberals were behind destroying another American airline, costing thousands of people their jobs.

00:00:45.320 Also, Tucker Carlson's now saying Donald Trump is the Antichrist.

00:00:49.820 And then when he's called out on it, he says he never said it.

00:00:53.040 The problem is it's on video.

00:00:55.640 And finally, why is it that there are members of the United States Congress that are working on behalf of Cuba right now to try to help the regime?

00:01:04.280 We'll explain that as well.

00:01:06.060 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:01:09.780 Let's talk about another aspect of this, and it was the, there was a lot of, you know, fodder online,

00:01:15.600 and there was a lot of media reports that, well, maybe America would give, the government would give a bailout.

00:01:21.460 We'd own, you know, 80, 90 percent of the company, whatever the number was.

00:01:24.320 ultimately that did not happen. Explain. I hear bailout and I always get real cringy. We've had

00:01:31.220 some that have been really good where we've gotten our money back as taxpayers. But in this scenario,

00:01:36.520 there's many that say, you know what? It makes me really nervous. It did not happen. But can you

00:01:42.440 explain how the government getting involved with that and how that works and who's making that

00:01:47.720 decision of saying yes or no? Yeah. So this last week, there was considerable discussion

00:01:53.180 about the Trump administration potentially bailing out Spirit Airlines.

00:01:57.560 And the bailout that was being discussed was the federal government would give Spirit Airlines $500 million.

00:02:04.980 And in exchange for that, the federal government would own 90% of the airline.

00:02:10.460 And there were differences of opinions within the administration on that.

00:02:16.220 So the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, was vocally arguing against that, saying that's a bad idea.

00:02:22.520 Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, was the one who was advocating this idea.

00:02:28.120 I publicly came out against it.

00:02:30.140 I came out loudly.

00:02:31.300 I sent a tweet a little over a week ago that said the following, quote,

00:02:37.100 this is an absolutely terrible idea.

00:02:42.180 The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake.

00:02:45.980 And the government doesn't know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline that the Biden administration killed.

00:02:56.320 Now, when I said that I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over aviation, when I came out against it, that got quite a bit of media attention and it prompted a number of other members of Congress spoke out against it after I did so.

00:03:13.460 So I will tell you, Ben, that was my public statement.

00:03:18.260 I also went – so last week I had dinner with Howard Ludnick.

00:03:23.280 Howard is a friend.

00:03:24.180 He and I work together very, very closely.

00:03:25.820 He's the secretary of commerce, and the commerce committee is the senate committee that has jurisdiction over the commerce department.

00:03:34.800 So Howard and I had dinner last week, and a good chunk of the dinner was spent discussing the potential spirit bailout.

00:03:44.460 And I will tell you, one-on-one with Howard, it was just the two of us having dinner, I leaned in really hard and said this is an absolutely horrible idea.

00:03:55.300 Corporate bailouts are a bad, bad strategy.

00:03:58.880 They were a bad strategy when we did TARP.

00:04:00.740 They're a bad strategy when you have the government coming in and bailing out giant corporations, but they're particularly bad when the government doesn't know a damn thing about the business.

00:04:12.200 And so if we'd ended up giving $500 million to Spirit and having the federal government own 90% of Spirit, number one, I believe we would have lost our money.

00:04:23.420 In fact, I had said somewhat cynically, a better idea was simply to put $500 million in a pile on the floor, pour gasoline on it, and light it.

00:04:31.920 Because then at least you'd get some warmth.

00:04:34.160 You could, like, roast marshmallows by it.

00:04:35.640 That would get something positive and beneficial from it.

00:04:39.380 But fundamentally, who in their right mind thinks the federal government knows anything about how you run an airline?

00:04:48.860 How do you set pilot schedules?

00:04:50.560 How do you run baggage handling?

00:04:53.240 How do you make sure somebody's suitcase that's headed to Pittsburgh doesn't end up in Milwaukee?

00:04:58.840 How do you negotiate with pilot unions, with flight attendant unions?

00:05:03.720 How do you ensure safety?

00:05:05.620 And all of that, the federal government doesn't know a blooming thing about it.

00:05:11.280 And it is a really dangerous road.

00:05:14.680 Look, there are some voices and some voices within the administration that are pretty excited about the federal government taking ownership shares in lots and lots of companies.

00:05:28.680 I think that is a really bad idea.

00:05:33.660 And Ben, I'm going to hearken back to when I was a kid, when I was in high school.

00:05:38.720 And you may recall, I was part of a group in Houston

00:05:42.180 that was called the Constitutional Corroborators.

00:05:45.840 And it was started by this nonprofit in Houston

00:05:47.880 called the Free Enterprise Education Center.

00:05:50.660 And as high school kids, we studied free market economics.

00:05:54.380 We read Milton Friedman and Hayek and Bastiat and von Mises.

00:05:58.640 And we studied the Constitution.

00:06:00.140 And we ended up touring around Texas

00:06:02.560 speaking on the Constitution.

00:06:05.240 And it was five high school students

00:06:06.960 we would set up easels and say we'd go to like a Rotary Club or a Kiwanis Club or a Lions Club and

00:06:13.580 folks would be sitting there having lunch and the five high school students would set up easels

00:06:18.680 and we would write from memory the entire constitution in shortened demonic form

00:06:26.280 and we would write a definition of socialism which is government ownership or control

00:06:34.840 of the means of distribution or production.

00:06:38.080 And the reason we wrote this,

00:06:39.260 and this is what I was doing at 14, 15 years old,

00:06:42.420 is if you don't know what it is,

00:06:44.880 you can't identify it when you have it.

00:06:47.920 Well, the folks who are arguing the federal government

00:06:50.460 should own or control the means of production

00:06:54.320 and distribution and economy are directly arguing

00:06:57.940 we should adopt socialism for our economy.

00:07:01.420 That is a really, really bad answer.

00:07:04.840 And I think a budget airline made it obvious to most observers, look, there are limited circumstances.

00:07:13.560 So, for example, in national security areas where you're dealing with critical minerals and rare earth minerals, where it makes sense to have some government control because you need to be able to ensure that we can defend our nation from national security threats.

00:07:29.000 But outside that very limited category, it is a really dangerous, slippery slope to start having the government be a shareholder and especially be the biggest shareholder in major companies.

00:07:43.160 That's how you lose the competitiveness.

00:07:45.940 That's how you lose the incredible success of the American for Enterprise system.

00:07:51.360 Yeah, it really is.

00:07:52.120 You know, when things like this happen, I always go back to there are real people that are affected by it.

00:07:57.820 And there's always, you know, people that are out without a job today.

00:08:01.220 There's also stories that come out of it that I think are amazing.

00:08:04.760 The New York Post had this story, and I think it's a great way to just wrap this up in a human way.

00:08:10.800 It said Spirit Airlines pilot gave an emotional send-off from rival airline after his retirement flight,

00:08:16.880 which is a huge deal when you're a pilot, was cut amid the shutdown.

00:08:21.020 The Spirit Airline pilot received a hero send-off with the help of another airline.

00:08:27.300 Captain John Jackson was scheduled to fly one last time for Spirit into Baltimore-Washington International on Saturday.

00:08:35.200 When they ceased operations and went out of business in the dead of the night, Jackson was left stranded by the permanent shutdown.

00:08:43.140 He hitched a ride with Southwest Airlines in Fort Lauderdale.

00:08:47.380 He wrote alongside his son, who was a first officer, and this was the coolest part.

00:08:52.880 It went online viral.

00:08:55.320 They basically, Southwest, gave him the send-off that he deserved.

00:09:00.200 Southwest put it up on their social media.

00:09:02.560 It went to well over 100,000 people that responded to it very quickly.

00:09:07.520 They showed him in the cockpit with his son.

00:09:10.120 It was awesome.

00:09:11.040 And I just got to say, even when things like this happen, I do love seeing the hearts of Americans and people that do this and gave him a send off.

00:09:21.840 The Southwest Airlines carry him.

00:09:23.800 They went under the water canyon salute after arriving at BWI.

00:09:27.620 I just I tell you, it's awesome when you see things like that happen.

00:09:31.260 So to that retiring pilot who didn't get his final flight job, well done to Southwest.

00:09:36.420 And thanks for making that guy's day special.

00:09:38.540 Well, good for Southwest.

00:09:39.580 That was the right thing to do. And I'll say Southwest is a great Texas company. American Airlines was also a great Texas company. Texas is really a critical hub for aviation. And I'll say I fly just about every airline all the time.

00:09:56.440 I jokingly refer to Southwest as the company plane, you know, people ask sometimes, they assume senators fly private jets all around, and the vast majority of the time you fly commercial and you fly coach, and so I tell people, I say, oh yeah, I've got a private jet, it's a 737, and it's with 135 of my closest friends on Southwest, that's my private jet.

00:10:19.600 But, you know, Southwest, I think, does a great job. And that was a very class move. I'm glad they honored the spirit pilot who was retiring. I'm sorry that so many other pilots are now out of a job. I think many of them will end up getting hired by other airlines, but it's still an awful lot of pain and hurt from the disastrous Biden economic policies.

00:10:44.640 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

00:10:46.940 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:10:52.180 Rental mishap?

00:10:54.400 That's embarrassing.

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00:11:06.680 Now on to story number two.

00:11:09.300 Tucker Carlson did a sit-down interview with the New York Times.

00:11:13.200 It was a disaster, and Tucker Carlson got busted lying, including his accusations that Donald Trump is the Antichrist.

00:11:23.600 He also attacked Senator Ted Cruz countless times in the interview, completely obsessed with him.

00:11:29.920 Senator Cruz and I break down this shocking interview, and it's everything you need to know.

00:11:35.180 Take a listen.

00:11:36.840 All right, Senator, let's move to Tucker Carlson.

00:11:39.020 He did an interview, and it couldn't have gotten worse for him with The New York Times.

00:11:42.280 I've said this before

00:11:44.020 Some disagree with me

00:11:45.520 I think the demise of Tucker Carlson

00:11:47.820 Is happening in real time

00:11:49.100 I think his audience is disappearing very quickly

00:11:51.940 I think these types of interviews

00:11:53.540 Do incredible damage to his

00:11:55.400 Integrity, his character

00:11:57.200 And these interviews just show

00:11:59.900 How unhinged he is, which we've been talking about

00:12:01.760 For quite some time 0.85

00:12:02.820 He's also still obsessed with you

00:12:06.160 And had something very interesting

00:12:07.820 To say about you in this New York Times interview

00:12:09.720 As well

00:12:10.180 who do you think is more morally repulsive ted cruz who do you think is more morally repulsive

00:12:16.800 ted cruz ted cruz is a sitting u.s senator who has called for the killing of people

00:12:24.760 who did nothing wrong whole populations who advocated for this war nick fuentes is like a

00:12:31.020 kid he's like 26 or 70 he has no power except his words here you have a public official who we pay

00:12:39.600 who has actual power who's voting for things who's making policy decisions and those decisions would

00:12:44.980 include in fact they are focused on the murder of people who did nothing wrong and yet no one

00:12:49.860 thinks it's a big deal what well this is totally fine i mean if there's tape of nick fuentes saying 0.97

00:12:54.720 we should kill people because we hate their parents or it's okay to kill children i would 0.99

00:12:59.760 love to see the tape because that's disgusting and that's basically the entire u.s senate does 1.00

00:13:04.800 every single day and no one notices nick fuentes said something naughty that i disagreed with he

00:13:09.320 made fun of things that i don't think i would never make he's a white nationalist who's denied

00:13:13.580 the holocaust and what i will say is that worse than killing kids from my from my understanding

00:13:19.700 of my own you know i was just in germany recently um and you know it was such a good reminder 0.52

00:13:27.800 that the holocaust didn't start with the gassing of jews it started with the dehumanization of

00:13:34.080 used it was language that was used and again that is what it concerns people agree more and that's

00:13:40.740 why when you have a u.s senator a member of congress a u.s ambassador waving away civilian

00:13:47.840 deaths as if they don't matter that's the language of genocide which results and this is the lesson

00:13:52.360 of the holocaust in genocide itself and it has so the lesson for me really watching all of this

00:13:59.020 is that this can happen in civilized countries in all human beings there is the capacity to 0.78

00:14:06.940 ignore the evil right in front of you and i'm my point is it's happening right now

00:14:11.100 and my job they said i have one i don't really have a job but i just want to remind people

00:14:15.600 that we're all capable of that including me and that we're watching it right now and if you think

00:14:21.160 that nick fuentes is a greater threat to other human beings than ted cruz i would love to know

00:14:27.920 Wow. I can imagine people hearing this and thinking you are soft peddling Nick Fuentes.

00:14:34.380 You are apologizing. I'm hardly soft peddling Nick Fuentes.

00:14:37.060 I'm trying to awaken people to killing of innocents in our midst, which we are not only encouraged to ignore,

00:14:44.080 but really told to ignore on pain of being denounced.

00:14:48.340 And I'm just saying, no, I'm not doing that.

00:14:51.720 Senator Nick Fuentes is a Holocaust denier.

00:14:54.580 yeah but that doesn't even touch it let's start with the fact that this loon i think he brought

00:15:02.460 me up eight or nine times in that interview apparently i am living completely rent-free in

00:15:06.900 his brain and every word he's saying is a brazen lie i am 55 years old never once have i called

00:15:13.840 for the murder of innocence never once have i called for the murder of children by the way he 0.96

00:15:18.140 claims that i do that he claims that the entire u.s senate does that and and it's just it it's

00:15:23.540 at a point where it's a pathological lie. There's no basis in fact. There's no evidence. He just

00:15:29.200 says it. He just asserts it. And he knows he's lying. He doesn't care he's lying. By the way,

00:15:35.100 his defense of Nick Fuentes is, well, Nick Fuentes said something naughty. Naughty. Okay, here's what

00:15:40.620 Nick Fuentes said. He said, Hitler was right. Hitler was very, very cool. I agree with Hitler. 1.00

00:15:45.000 On Tucker's show, Nick Fuentes said his mission in life is to defeat global Jewry. That's not

00:15:50.760 something naughty that is a rabid nazi bigot he also said nick fuentes also said that he celebrates

00:15:58.900 stalin's birthday every year tucker nodded approvingly and by the way tucker there's a

00:16:05.780 reason why tucker is celebrating nick fuentes tucker has gone to the point now of embracing 0.90

00:16:11.140 nazis it's not just nick fuentes who's an open nazi tucker had one had one lunatic professor

00:16:17.160 on his show who said that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II. He had another 0.96

00:16:22.400 lunatic professor on his show who said there's a good argument the Americans should have supported 0.91

00:16:26.760 the Nazis in World War II. No, there's not. But Tucker is on a mission, and I believe at this

00:16:33.060 point, I cannot prove it, but I believe Tucker is being compensated, is being paid by Qatar

00:16:37.820 or other foreign nations. He is apologizing for Islamists. He is apologizing for Sharia. 1.00

00:16:42.800 He is apologizing for America haters.

00:16:45.280 He is attacking Trump every day.

00:16:47.340 He is attacking Israel. 0.65

00:16:48.440 He's attacking Jews. 0.94

00:16:49.700 He knows he's lying about me, but his mission is also to normalize Nazis. 0.90

00:16:54.640 By the way, one of the things he said this week is Graham Plattner, the lunatic Democrat nominee or likely nominee, almost inevitable nominee in Maine for Senate, who is a self-described communist. 0.71

00:17:06.800 communist. Graham Plattner says, I am a

00:17:08.860 communist. And who has

00:17:10.700 not just a Nazi tattoo on his chest,

00:17:12.980 but a Totenkampff, which is the

00:17:14.420 tattoo of the SS

00:17:16.460 in the death chambers of the

00:17:18.480 concentration camps. You know what Tucker Carlson

00:17:20.560 said? Oh, I want to interview Graham Plattner.

00:17:22.740 I'm sure they do. Maybe they have

00:17:24.680 matching Nazi tattoos. I don't know what tattoos

00:17:26.800 Tucker Carlson said. As Tucker would say,

00:17:28.800 I'm just asking questions. But

00:17:30.680 apparently, if you're a Nazi,

00:17:33.240 if you say Sig Heil,

00:17:34.740 Well, Tucker wants to elevate you.

00:17:37.640 And I got to say.

00:17:39.100 And not just elevate you, normalize you.

00:17:42.260 Make it go away.

00:17:44.260 And listen, by the way, when you lie about people, you notice his whole diatribe about me.

00:17:50.520 He provided no evidence.

00:17:52.080 What I just listed about Tucker, I can give you the episodes where he said every one of those things.

00:17:57.200 Those are objective facts. 0.81

00:17:58.220 So Tucker is now a professional liar who lives without facts.

00:18:04.100 and I want you to listen to this exchange, and if you're watching on YouTube, it's even better if

00:18:07.920 you watch it, because it's not just me. Tucker has decided he hates America, he hates Donald Trump,

00:18:13.400 he hates Jews, he hates capitalism. He had this other lunatic on his show who said that Jesus 1.00

00:18:18.980 hated capitalism and Jesus was a socialist. He is attacked. He is... All right, I want you to 0.91

00:18:28.800 listen to him being confronted over his argument that donald trump is the antichrist this is what

00:18:35.300 tucker has argued and when he's confronted with his own words he just flat out lies listen

00:18:40.880 what i was saying which is you cannot mock other people's gods and put yourself in their place

00:18:49.180 period that is a deal killer for me that's worse than the war with iran in my opinion

00:18:53.440 yeah but i ask because you know you've been talking on your show about whether trump is

00:18:57.520 the antichrist i have not said that on your show the day after easter you noted he did not put his

00:19:03.520 hand on the bible during his swearing ceremony as president you said and i'm quoting maybe he

00:19:08.460 didn't put his hand on the bible because he affirmatively rejects what's inside that book

00:19:11.920 and then on a recent show you went further saying here's a leader who's mocking the gods of his

00:19:16.620 ancestors mocking the god of gods and exalting himself above them could this be the antichrist

00:19:21.960 i actually did not say could this be the antichrist here's a leader who's mocking the

00:19:27.920 gods of his ancestors mocking the god of gods and exalting himself above them could this be

00:19:35.460 the antichrist well who knows um i don't know where that comes from but i know that those words

00:19:42.040 never left my lips because i'm not sure i fully understand what the antichrist is if there's just

00:19:47.120 one i actually tried to understand it um i may have said some are asking that i'm not

00:19:53.020 weighing in on that because i don't understand it just to be totally no and revelations obviously

00:19:57.500 the senator he said that like 15 days ago when the interview took place this wasn't like a year

00:20:02.960 ago he says i may have said some are asking he didn't say that she played what he said she played

00:20:08.680 verbatim what he said he asked very directly is donald j trump the antichrist look i'm willing

00:20:15.500 to answer that? No, I don't believe President Trump is the Antichrist. But Tucker doesn't

00:20:21.420 live in the world of facts. He doesn't live where any words he says matter. And the words he's

00:20:29.420 saying, so there's good news and bad news. The bad news is the words he's saying are having really

00:20:34.520 serious negative consequences. He is pushing anti-Semitism. He's pushing Jew hate every day,

00:20:40.840 Like every week, his show focuses on how the Jews are responsible for everything wrong in the world. 0.98

00:20:47.040 But he's also pushing America hate. 0.98

00:20:48.960 He's pushing how America is terrible.

00:20:50.400 He's pushing Trump hate.

00:20:51.740 He has said he regrets supporting Trump.

00:20:53.600 He wished Trump had lost.

00:20:54.940 I mean, that's.

00:20:55.620 Yeah, he said it to his brother.

00:20:56.820 It was like this sad moment where they're like, we are going to be held accountable for helping this man win the White House.

00:21:03.520 Like, it was their sin of their lives.

00:21:05.840 So the good news is Tucker is becoming more and more irrelevant each and every day. He's really talented. He's a charming, charismatic guy. Even when he's lying to you, he's like Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars going, these are not the drones you're looking for. He just flat out lies, but he's charming and good at it.

00:21:24.460 but the good news is he is becoming so irrelevant right now. And listen, I hope he has a really

00:21:31.720 nice home in Qatar. By the way, you may not know this, but he bragged that he has bought a home in

00:21:37.300 Qatar. He also has repeatedly praised the Ayatollah, the president of Iran. He's praised Maduro. He's

00:21:43.300 praised Mandami. Like, if you're a Hitler, if you're a Hitler lover, if you're a communist,

00:21:49.800 if you're a leftist, if you are an America hater, if you're an Islamist, if you're an

00:21:56.860 Ayatollah, Tucker Carlson loves you. If you're actually an American who believes in free

00:22:02.500 enterprise, who believes in America, who believes in America first, Tucker hates your guts and his 0.90

00:22:07.100 mission is to attack you. And I think that's why more and more people are moving away from at this

00:22:12.980 point, it's so disconnected from reality that it's just kind of sad. Don't forget,

00:22:19.200 Share this podcast wherever you can with your family and your friends, and I'll see you

00:22:22.560 back here tomorrow.

00:22:23.700 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go

00:22:28.240 back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

00:22:33.260 Sending a spicy picture to your work chat instead of your significant other?

00:22:37.440 That's so embarrassing.

00:22:39.100 You know what's not?

00:22:40.200 Debt.

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00:22:47.340 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:22:52.180 All right, Senator, this is a very interesting and just weird story. 0.74

00:22:56.780 You have a liberal Democratic congresswoman, Jaya Powell, who defies President Trump to literally go work with a foreign country, Cuba, to try to get them oil.

00:23:09.780 And I'm pretty sure that if I'm looking at this the right way, this could be against the law. 0.88

00:23:15.040 What she's now trying to do is, again, advocate for Cuba right now?

00:23:19.760 Well, Ben, let me make a statement that I don't want to be true.

00:23:23.920 And I want to make the statement, and then we're going to assess the facts to determine if it's true.

00:23:29.660 Here's the statement.

00:23:30.640 too many elected Democrats in Congress hate America and actively, aggressively, and enthusiastically

00:23:41.700 support the communist enemies of America. Now, as I say that, listen, as someone who loves our

00:23:48.640 country, I hate saying those words. I don't want them to be true. I want you to listen to the

00:23:54.380 words of Pramila Jayapal, who is a left-wing, progressive, communist member of the Democrat

00:24:02.940 Party from Washington. Listen to what she had to say about what she's been doing lately.

00:24:08.780 In January, Trump issued an executive order threatening tariffs on any country's supply

00:24:15.880 and fuel to Cuba. This was this January, just a few months ago. And oil shipments from Venezuela,

00:24:21.780 that's where Cuba had been getting its oil, were halted after the U.S. operations to kidnap

00:24:28.160 Nicolas Maduro. Since January, only one Russian tanker of oil has made it to Cuba. In fact,

00:24:37.880 it landed just a couple of days before I landed. And one tanker has enough oil basically for 10

00:24:46.240 to 14 days of cuba's oil needs so it's a very limited amount of time now russia has said they're

00:24:53.360 going to send another tanker i was in conversations with the ambassadors from mexico and some other

00:24:59.640 places and i know other countries in latin america trying to figure out how to get oil there

00:25:04.660 but it is a crisis beyond imagination just this past friday on may 1st trump signed a broad

00:25:13.800 executive order that widens sanctions and allows for new penalties similar to what we have for

00:25:20.820 Iran and Russia against foreign banks and firms that are dealing with Cuba, and it also reinforces

00:25:27.580 the ban on U.S. tourism. I have called these sanctions an economic bombing of the infrastructure

00:25:36.960 of Cuba. It is illegal, it is against the war, we've been talking about this in Iran, obviously,

00:25:41.600 to bomb the infrastructure of any country

00:25:44.540 that is against international law.

00:25:46.940 This is essentially doing the same thing.

00:25:50.020 It is bombing the infrastructure of Cuba

00:25:53.380 with economic sanctions

00:25:55.760 that essentially ensure

00:25:58.260 that the infrastructure collapses.

00:26:01.860 There's something interesting that she said there.

00:26:04.400 She kept saying the kidnap of Maduro

00:26:07.280 like it was a crime center.

00:26:09.800 I'm like, which I mean this, like whose side is she on?

00:26:13.400 Is it on the side of Maduro and the county of San Cuba?

00:26:16.960 Because the way she said it there, she was saying it like it was a crime, what America was doing.

00:26:22.420 So listen, there used to be a rule that politics ends at our water's edge.

00:26:29.620 I like that rule.

00:26:31.440 I liked a time where we said, gosh, Democrats and Republicans will disagree.

00:26:36.120 We'll disagree on how high the top marginal tax rate should be.

00:26:39.540 We'll disagree on some policy questions, but when it comes to defending America, when it comes to standing with American servicemen and women, when it comes to standing up against our enemies, we're going to stand united.

00:26:51.080 Sadly, that is not this world.

00:26:53.800 Representative Jayapal, who I've never met, she's a very, very left-wing.

00:26:57.960 She is part of the squad.

00:26:58.960 She is part of AOC and Ilhan Omar and these extremely left-wing House members.

00:27:06.220 look when she says the kidnapping of nicholas maduro understand nicholas maduro was indicted

00:27:12.680 for being a massive narco trafficker our fbi came down executed a legitimate arrest warrant

00:27:20.160 the delta force accompanied them to carry out that arrest warrant she describes it as the kidnapping

00:27:27.000 that is language that is identical to what every enemy of america would say the last i checked

00:27:34.180 executing a legitimate arrest warrant nicolas maduro number one he's he's a tyrant who's

00:27:40.140 responsible for massive oppression of his people for murder for torture for he has destroyed 0.59

00:27:46.340 venezuela just like hua chavez has but you know what that's not what he was indicted for that's 0.88

00:27:51.140 not what he was arrested for he is a huge narco trafficker and he has killed thousands of americans

00:27:58.400 through the drugs he flooded in this country. And her view is Nicolas Maduro is the victim.

00:28:04.000 It is the evil American government that dared arrest this narco trafficker. So on Cuba, 0.95

00:28:10.620 understand she is unambiguous. She stands with the Cuban communist government. And I will say this,

00:28:16.940 my family was imprisoned and tortured by Cuban communists. I don't take this as cute. I don't 0.81

00:28:23.700 take this as fun. I get that she's from Washington state. I get there are a bunch of leftists

00:28:27.660 who snap their fingers at yes, yes, yes, communism is wonderful

00:28:31.420 because they're soft and weak and they hate America.

00:28:36.420 But I got to say, the idea that they're actively trying to smuggle fuel into Cuba

00:28:43.140 because their objective is they want the communist regime in Cuba to stand, to exist,

00:28:51.800 I find infuriating.

00:28:53.660 Look, Ben, did you ever have a chance to meet my Theosonia?

00:28:57.660 uh i i yes i actually did once at an election event okay my tia sonia my aunt she's my father's

00:29:05.380 kid sister i i adored her she was an amazing spectacular person she passed away earlier this

00:29:12.680 year yeah my nickname what i've called her my whole life is my tia loca which is spanish for

00:29:18.140 crazy aunt she was a fireball she died at 82 she lived a wonderful life a life that i celebrated

00:29:25.600 She was in Cuba after the revolution. 0.80

00:29:28.120 She fought in the Cuban revolution.

00:29:30.680 She was tortured in Cuban prisons.

00:29:34.200 When she was dying, she lived in Dallas.

00:29:36.800 She was fading away earlier this year.

00:29:39.280 And she was on her deathbed.

00:29:40.720 We all knew she was going.

00:29:41.940 And I told her, it was right after Maduro had been arrested.

00:29:45.360 And I told her, I said,

00:29:46.400 Yeah, we just arrested Maduro.

00:29:51.760 Cuba's next.

00:29:53.280 Cuba is going to fall.

00:29:54.720 And I got to say, the look of joy in her face, and there are millions of people in America, millions of Cubans, Americans, millions of Venezuelan Americans, millions of Chinese Americans and Korean Americans, and everyone who has been a victim of communism, who has understood, listen, Ben, I believe communism is the most evil ideology that the world has ever produced.

00:30:22.560 There's been no ideology in American history and world history that has resulted in more murder, more torture, more slavery, more oppression, more poverty, and more misery than China.

00:30:38.420 And to listen to an elected member of Congress, a leader of the Democrat Party, saying she desperately wants to smuggle fuel in because her objective is to save the communist government in Cuba. 0.80

00:30:56.480 I got to say, it will be an amazing thing.

00:30:59.900 I don't know what's going to happen in Cuba, but we have a greater opportunity right now than at any point in my lifetime to see the communist regime fall.

00:31:07.120 And Ben, here's what I want to see happen. I want to see this communist regime fall. I want to see a new government in Cuba that is democratically elected, that is legitimate, that is just two things, that embraces free markets and that wants to be friends with America.

00:31:25.760 And let me tell you what that will look like if that happens.

00:31:29.940 Number one, I would love to see Cuba be this oasis of free enterprise, much like a Singapore or a Hong Kong before China took it over.

00:31:39.980 I think it could be extraordinary.

00:31:41.920 But number two, Cuba has a massive advantage.

00:31:45.880 There are millions of Cuban expats, Cubans who fled Cuba, came to America seeking freedom.

00:31:52.160 who if Cuba had a free market government

00:31:56.380 that was friends with America

00:31:57.620 would eagerly invest in Cuba

00:32:01.360 there would be billions of dollars

00:32:02.940 tens of billions of dollars

00:32:04.740 that would be invested in Cuba

00:32:06.460 you would see a mass of capital 0.65

00:32:08.600 Cuba is stuck in the dark ages

00:32:11.360 it's like going to Cuba

00:32:12.740 and I've never been

00:32:13.320 I will go to Cuba when we have a free Cuba

00:32:15.120 I do not wish to go to Cuba under communism

00:32:17.140 but Cuba, the cars they drive

00:32:20.060 do you know the cars they drive are from the 1950s?

00:32:22.160 yeah it's like the movie the land that time forgot when the revolution happened the cars stopped the

00:32:30.480 innovation stopped the food stopped the misery stopped the poverty everything froze in time

00:32:36.340 and i'll tell you cuba has some of the most beautiful beaches on the face of the planet

00:32:40.420 if we have a free market government that's friends with america we will see this tourist oasis

00:32:48.000 There's billions of dollars flooding into Cuba, and it's just 90 miles off the coast of America.

00:32:53.580 And what befuddles me, I want to ask you this, Ben.

00:32:58.520 Take a minute.

00:32:59.580 Get in the mind of a leftist, Congresswoman Premier Jayapal. 0.94

00:33:04.900 Why would you root for Cuban communists over America? 0.74

00:33:09.140 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:33:13.980 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast.

00:33:17.020 Every other day you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:33:21.020 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson Podcast.

00:33:24.740 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 09, 2026

Liberals Kill Spirit, Tucker's Antichrist Talk & Cuban Island Intrigue w Squad Member Jayapaul Week In Review

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