Verdict with Ted Cruz - Michigan Offers Cash to House Illegals, AMLO Blackmails America, & the Challenges for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.420 Welcome.

00:00:06.260 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and the Weekend Review.

00:00:09.860 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:11.160 And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about earlier this week.

00:00:15.260 Let's start off with what's happening in Michigan.

00:00:18.260 In a shocking move, Democrats are looking to buy votes by giving homeowners cash.

00:00:25.280 Thousands and thousands of dollars a year if they will house illegal immigrants. 0.97

00:00:31.860 How is this legal?

00:00:33.240 We're going to break that down for you.

00:00:35.360 Plus, Mexico's president decides to come out and do a sit-down interview with 60 Minutes.

00:00:40.280 What he said was pretty clear.

00:00:42.240 You got to, well, bribe him.

00:00:44.240 And then he might help you stop the flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants coming across the border.

00:00:49.540 But if you don't give him billions of dollars every single year,

00:00:52.820 he says the problem is going to continue and Americans will die.

00:00:58.880 And finally, you may have seen the world get rocked when a Democratic mayor switched the Republican Party in a major city in America.

00:01:07.800 So why did he do it?

00:01:08.820 We're going to have the story of Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas.

00:01:12.280 It is Verdict Weekend Review.

00:01:14.600 And it starts right now.

00:01:16.120 There's new poll numbers out over the weekend that show that Donald Trump, who lost Michigan to Joe Biden the last election, he won it in 16.

00:01:24.560 Trump now tops Biden by eight points in a Michigan poll.

00:01:29.820 That is significant.

00:01:31.520 The president's approval rating in Michigan is at 35 percent.

00:01:36.080 So what is Michigan doing?

00:01:37.740 I guess it's time to buy votes.

00:01:39.840 They're now offering homeowners a $500 a month stipend if they'll welcome what they describe as newcomers, what that is, is an illegal immigrant into their home. 0.98

00:01:51.660 And the state of Michigan will subsidize you $500 a citizen a month up to a year.

00:01:57.860 So basically six grand is what they're willing to give you to house someone now.

00:02:01.860 Well, that's right.

00:02:03.380 The program that Michigan has rolled out, it's called the Newcomer Rental Subsidy, and it's designed to provide shelter outside of state shelters for so-called refugees. 0.81

00:02:12.440 And refugees is simply the term they use for illegal aliens.

00:02:16.640 It lasts for up to a year.

00:02:18.160 So get this, the state of Michigan is quite literally paying individuals, paying homeowners to house illegal immigrants, 0.97

00:02:48.160 in their house.

00:02:48.740 And by the way, it's not just them.

00:02:50.660 Others who qualify include individuals who arrived under the family reunification parole process for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.

00:03:02.000 Who in Michigan, what Michigan taxpayer says, you know what I really want?

00:03:07.000 I want my taxes going to paying my neighbor to put an illegal immigrant that Joe Biden led into this country into his house. 0.99

00:03:17.000 And we'll send them $500 a month to keep the illegal immigrant there. 1.00

00:03:21.700 That is how nutty today's Democrat Party is on this issue.

00:03:26.240 Well, and my question is, and I'm not joking when I say this, is this not a form of just buying votes?

00:03:30.660 If you're talking that each person is now worth $6,000 to a Michigan homeowner to house them,

00:03:39.340 and I don't know if there's a cap that you can only have one or maybe you can have two.

00:03:43.900 What if it's a family? I'm assuming we're not going to break up the family.

00:03:46.560 So if you have a family of four and you house them, are we now talking that they're worth $24,000 to your bottom line?

00:03:55.700 How is that not the Democratic Party basically buying votes saying, hey, you better keep us in office.

00:04:02.200 You better vote for us because we're worth $24,000 a year to you right now.

00:04:05.700 Well, and look, I'll read you a quote from Amy Hovey, who is the executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority,

00:04:13.580 who said the program would help migrants, quote, build a new life here.

00:04:16.780 And she said, quote,

00:04:17.620 This program is truly a win-win as it addresses the most pressing barrier to refugee resettlement by meeting housing needs while setting up families for success with increased employment and opportunities.

00:04:32.300 That's the position of the Democrat Party.

00:04:34.460 You, too, can have an illegal alien in your house. 0.76

00:04:37.660 Do they care about the cost of housing going up?

00:04:40.560 I mean, is that a conversation you guys have in D.C.?

00:04:43.740 Is that a question that anyone asks of the Democrats?

00:04:47.760 When you have this many illegal immigrants coming into America, and I'll go back to what you were talking about at the very beginning, 1.00

00:04:54.180 and these votes, it's not just the 320,000 illegal immigrants that we have flown into this country at the taxpayers' dollars paying for these charter flights.

00:05:03.320 But if you look at how many illegal immigrants have come across the southern border since Joe Biden was sworn in,

00:05:10.280 it's at least, at minimum, 7.2 million illegal immigrants that have entered the U.S. under the Biden administration,

00:05:16.220 which is greater than the population of 36 individual states in America.

00:05:23.680 And now we see housing cost issues, rent cost issues, and we see inflationary issues,

00:05:30.380 and we see that we're seeing wages that are being undermined by illegal immigrants. 0.91

00:05:35.220 If Michigan does this, and other states go along with it, which other states are as well,

00:05:40.760 they're saying the same thing.

00:05:41.980 How's an illegal immigrant? 1.00

00:05:43.140 We'll give you cash.

00:05:44.720 Is that not the definition of undermining hardworking American families who are just struggling to survive?

00:05:51.440 Well, look, you've got to understand the modern Democrat view is they can spend unlimited money,

00:05:55.780 trillions of dollars, they can print unlimited money,

00:05:57.960 and if they want more, they'll just tax the hell out of you.

00:06:01.280 And it's a giant Ponzi scheme where they print money, they raise taxes, they spend more money.

00:06:05.640 Inflation goes up, so they print more money.

00:06:08.060 And when it comes to, if the voters don't like it, don't worry, they'll change the composition of the voters.

00:06:14.020 They'll let 10.4 million people into this country illegally. 0.99

00:06:17.880 Those guys, the Democrats are confident, will vote Democrat, and so they stay in power.

00:06:22.000 That is, you know, there used to be a time when you could have a common-sense discussion.

00:06:27.900 There are no longer any Democrats in Washington in Congress who engage in common sense.

00:06:35.220 I mean, look, we saw these votes.

00:06:37.160 Every single one of them lined up over and over and over again.

00:06:41.360 Illegal immigrant who built, who beat up a cop? 0.99

00:06:43.800 Nope, don't deport him.

00:06:45.520 Like, tell me what world does a sane or rational person believe that,

00:06:50.880 and yet every Senate Democrat, that's their view.

00:06:53.360 Well, last question on this.

00:06:55.160 When they vote lockstep like that, is that pre-planned with a conversation they have behind closed doors,

00:07:02.060 and they say, hey, no matter what they throw at you, no matter how sane it is,

00:07:05.540 you do not agree with Republicans on anything full stop?

00:07:09.720 It's why it took all night.

00:07:11.400 They knew what we were going to have votes on.

00:07:13.380 We had put forward, these are the amendments we want votes on.

00:07:15.860 And we spent the entire day Friday just doing nothing because Schumer was talking to his Democrats saying,

00:07:23.280 okay, here are the votes.

00:07:24.300 We need every Democrat to stand, lock arms, and just vote against all of them.

00:07:28.560 And he had...

00:07:29.380 Hold on, walk me through Friday, that day, because people don't understand, I think,

00:07:33.780 how dysfunctional Schumer can make things when they're trying to get things done like this.

00:07:38.880 So you guys wake up Friday, you know you had to stay over another day.

00:07:43.280 Well, we didn't.

00:07:43.860 We actually thought we would be done Friday afternoon.

00:07:46.980 In a normal world, we would have been.

00:07:48.480 We stayed there the whole night.

00:07:50.500 So tell me, like, you guys wake up Friday morning.

00:07:54.200 Do you have a vote schedule yet?

00:07:56.100 And then he changes it or does he just say, hey, wake up and stand by until I tell you when you get to vote?

00:08:01.060 Yeah, it's much more the latter.

00:08:02.420 And the way the Senate works, it's a strange place.

00:08:05.400 So the majority leader only has one real power under the rules, and it's what's called priority of recognition,

00:08:11.660 which means he is recognized first if he's on the floor.

00:08:15.680 And he uses that to control the Senate calendar, to fill the pending business with whatever he wants

00:08:22.020 so that no one else can put anything else on the Senate calendar.

00:08:26.220 So you spend a lot of time just sitting around waiting.

00:08:29.520 It's a very weird thing.

00:08:30.840 I'll tell you, when I was, you know, new in the Senate and I'd be a typical Senate week,

00:08:37.480 you will fly to D.C. Monday mornings and you'll fly home Thursday nights.

00:08:41.240 And then typically I'm home in Houston Thursday nights.

00:08:44.520 Friday I travel somewhere around Texas.

00:08:47.040 Sometimes Saturday I travel around Texas.

00:08:49.260 I try to spend Sundays home with the family.

00:08:52.480 And then Monday morning I fly back to D.C.

00:08:54.700 That's the usual rhythm of things.

00:08:56.500 But on Thursdays I would call home, back when Republicans had the majority, I would call home,

00:09:02.440 and my daughters would ask, well, are you coming home tonight?

00:09:05.180 And I'd say, well, I don't know.

00:09:06.380 It depends what Mitch schedules, when he schedules votes, and we have no idea.

00:09:12.860 My daughters used to say, is that mean man going to let you come home? 0.99

00:09:17.300 And by that mean man they meant Mitch McConnell, because you literally have no control over your schedule.

00:09:23.180 It is utterly incoherent.

00:09:28.860 So Friday we spent all day.

00:09:31.040 We were waiting to see if a deal would be reached.

00:09:33.020 We were waiting to see if a deal would be reached.

00:09:35.400 And throughout the afternoon and evening it looked like there was going to be no deal.

00:09:39.540 At midnight Friday night funding for the federal government was set to expire and we were going to have a shutdown.

00:09:45.120 So as the evening went on, I was on the Senate floor for a while.

00:09:48.640 It looked like there was no deal.

00:09:49.760 I went with some senators, grabbed some food, watched some basketball.

00:09:54.560 And actually I had gone home.

00:09:56.660 I changed out of my suit, was getting ready to go to bed.

00:09:59.620 And then after 11 p.m. I got the note, nope, we're getting ready to vote.

00:10:03.820 And we began voting at 11.56 p.m.

00:10:06.580 So I had to get dressed again, head back to the Capitol.

00:10:09.540 Everyone did.

00:10:10.540 And we voted from 11.56 p.m. until 2.03 a.m. is when it was over.

00:10:15.580 But that's just kind of how hectic things are.

00:10:20.380 Senator, lastly, this story broke.

00:10:22.780 It's not being covered, of course, by the media, because why would they want to tell you about this?

00:10:28.640 But apparently now the Biden administration has decided we don't want to offend extremists, jihadist extremists.

00:10:37.520 And they want to change the way you talk about actual terrorists.

00:10:42.320 Well, that's exactly right.

00:10:43.700 This is a story that The Daily Wire broke.

00:10:45.940 And it's a memo that was sent by the diversity, equity and inclusion officials at the Biden administration's top intelligence agency.

00:10:52.620 And it warns personnel not to use, quote, problematic phrases when discussing Islamic terrorism and foreign adversaries such as China.

00:11:02.920 The unclassified newsletter, and it's from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is called, quote, The Dive.

00:11:10.720 And it was obtained through Freedom Information Act request by The Daily Wire.

00:11:14.460 It argues in its cover story that the intelligence community needs to focus on, quote, changing terminology related to counterterrorism because, quote, words matter.

00:11:28.660 Here's more, quote, the article is about one of our goals, disentangling Islam from words and phrases used to discuss terrorism and extreme violence.

00:11:41.300 It goes on to declare that trying to remove, quote, certain phrases to identify international terrorism threats that are hurtful to Muslim Americans.

00:11:55.740 Some of the problematic phrases include, but are not limited to, Salafi jihadist, jihadist, Islamic extremist, Sunni Shia extremism, and radical Islamist.

00:12:08.840 Only in America could you have a memo that someone took this much time and wastes this time under the Biden administration to make people that are directly associated with terrorism feel better about, I guess what, not being a terrorist?

00:12:24.180 Well, and sadly, this is continuing the path of putting politics above national security that we saw when Barack Obama was president.

00:12:34.120 When Barack Obama was president, I actually chaired a hearing that examined the purge that the Obama White House insisted DHS do to remove from their records any reference to radical Islamic terrorism or Islam or Muslim or jihadist.

00:12:51.980 And they erased, and they erased over 800 times, they erased those words from their records.

00:12:59.040 And by the way, the word purge, that's not me adding that word to it.

00:13:05.080 That was the word that was used by the political official in the Obama White House in the instructions to DHS.

00:13:12.340 Purge your files.

00:13:13.620 Well, these same radicals are now running Biden's intelligence agencies.

00:13:20.880 And this article is part of a newsletter that is created by ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Intelligence Community Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Accessibility Office.

00:13:33.020 And it was sent to personnel throughout the intelligence community, which includes the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, the DHS and the Department of Justice.

00:13:43.980 All of them are being told the fact that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was one of the two terrorist groups that carried out October 7th.

00:13:54.400 October 7th was carried out by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

00:13:58.960 Apparently, that is an inconvenient fact to the language commissars who, I presume, want to edit out the word Islamic from the name of the terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

00:14:14.140 Look, they're not murdering Jews because they dislike their hairstyle.

00:14:18.640 They are murdering Jews because they have a perverted view of radical Islam that mandates jihad and countering jihadism, countering the radical religious extremism behind it. 0.60

00:14:32.920 It is only possible if you acknowledge it exists. 0.98

00:14:36.100 And so on one level, you say, OK, this sort of language, political correctness stuff, it's silly. 0.95

00:14:41.880 But in this instance, it's much worse than silly.

00:14:45.140 It is dangerous because if the intelligence community has no idea, refuses to acknowledge what is actually happening, it means they will be utterly ineffective in fighting against it and keeping Americans and our allies safe.

00:15:00.560 Yeah. And this is one of those moments when you say, what are they focusing their time on right now?

00:15:06.440 Is it political correctness or is it actually keeping us safe from actual jihadist terrorists that they're afraid of offending by using the name?

00:15:13.580 It reminds me a lot of the president saying that the individual that killed an innocent young girl in Georgia was an illegal immigrant and then apologized to the to the illegal immigrants for calling that individual who is the alleged murderer an illegal immigrant.

00:15:33.800 And it's like, what are you focusing on? What is important to you? Protecting innocent people, protecting people from terrorist attacks?

00:15:41.460 Or is it the this this this PRPC wokeness? Is that matter more you than than actually fighting the bad guys?

00:15:50.560 Well, unfortunately, based on things like their late night votes, where every Democrat voted against the American citizens, voted in favor of illegal aliens, voted in favor of sending billions of dollars to Iran.

00:16:02.540 Again, it's not difficult to figure out where their priorities lie right now.

00:16:06.520 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:16:13.700 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.70

00:16:19.940 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:16:23.680 I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.

00:16:25.800 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:16:35.580 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:16:38.800 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:16:44.700 Now on to story number two.

00:16:46.980 Senator, I want to move to another issue.

00:16:49.120 There was an issue, an interview, I should say, that happened on Sunday.

00:16:53.540 A lot of people don't watch 60 Minutes anymore.

00:16:56.960 But the Mexican president did do a sit down interview and it actually took a couple of days until anyone noticed it, which was, I think, the most unique part of this first off.

00:17:06.180 And then what he said, it was diplomatic blackmail, as it's been described by many.

00:17:13.040 As the Mexican president said that the flow of illegal immigrants will continue unless the U.S. meets some of his new demands.

00:17:21.820 In an interview, he was asked about the flow of not just illegals, but also drugs coming across the southern border.

00:17:28.440 And here's what the president of Mexico said about America.

00:17:32.100 He thinks you have the power in this moment to slow down migration.

00:17:37.160 Do you plan to?

00:17:38.460 We do and want to continue doing it.

00:17:42.900 But we do want for the root causes to be attended to, for them to be seriously looked at.

00:17:47.960 With the ear of the White House, President Lopez Obrador proposed his fix, that the United States commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo, and legalize millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.

00:18:08.880 If they don't do the things that you've said need to be done, then what?

00:18:14.680 The flow of migrants will continue. 1.00

00:18:19.200 Your critics have said what you're doing or what you're asking for to help secure the border is diplomatic blackmail.

00:18:26.540 What do you say?

00:18:27.640 I'm speaking frankly.

00:18:29.500 We have to say things as they are.

00:18:32.380 Senator, there's like five different things I want to discuss with you.

00:18:37.180 Let's just start with, number one, this is diplomatic blackmail, $20 billion a year.

00:18:42.540 And if you give me $20 billion a year, and then you allow all the illegal immigrants to become citizens in your country that are there, then you give what we want with Cuba and Venezuela. 0.98

00:18:55.040 And then if you keep giving us $20 billion a year, we might stop the flow of fentanyl coming across the southern border.

00:19:01.140 This is extortion on a level that I can't even get my head around from Mexico. 1.00

00:19:05.160 Well, look, of course it is.

00:19:07.780 And the Mexican president, everyone calls him AMLO.

00:19:11.740 AMLO is short for his full name, which is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. 0.99

00:19:16.080 He is a thug. 0.97

00:19:18.300 He is a hard leftist. 1.00

00:19:20.160 He's been a hard leftist his entire life.

00:19:23.660 He has been vocally and viciously anti-American his entire life.

00:19:30.680 That has been, that's how he got elected.

00:19:33.280 That was his campaign, standing up against the Yankee imperialists to the north. 0.89

00:19:37.960 That's who he is.

00:19:38.960 And by the way, notice his demands.

00:19:41.040 His demands are in the embargo against Cuba and in the sanctions against Venezuela.

00:19:46.620 He's standing with communist dictators in Cuba and Venezuela.

00:19:50.940 That's who he aligns himself with, is the hard left, anti-American, communist axis through Latin America.

00:20:00.180 That's who AMLO is.

00:20:01.420 So it's not surprising.

00:20:03.460 That's who he's always been.

00:20:04.840 Now, that being said, is he trying to extort America?

00:20:11.480 Of course, is the threat that the flow of migrants will continue unless you pay us off $20 billion a year to Latin American countries. 1.00

00:20:20.640 It's kind of like, you know, a mob enforcer.

00:20:23.020 Nice little bar you got here.

00:20:25.260 Shame if something happened to it.

00:20:26.940 Boy, a fire would do real damage.

00:20:29.040 He's saying, well, we'll keep these migrants coming unless you pay us off. 1.00

00:20:32.980 Just, you know, a bag of cash each week would be good.

00:20:37.400 I'll send my guys to pick it up.

00:20:39.040 Yes, that's exactly what he's trying to do.

00:20:41.540 It's almost like, is there a difference between the president of Mexico and the cartels of Mexico?

00:20:47.180 Because the way he was talking seems like the same type of conversation you have with the narcos.

00:20:51.940 Well, and by the way, AMLO, one of the problems is his government has very much been in bed with the narcos.

00:20:57.320 And it is devastating the nation of Mexico.

00:21:00.260 The people of Mexico are facing murders.

00:21:02.980 They're facing kidnapping.

00:21:04.640 They're facing enormous violence from these multi-billion dollar global criminal cartels that AMLO has facilitated.

00:21:12.260 But I'm going to say something that's going to surprise you.

00:21:15.640 I'm actually not terribly upset that AMLO is doing that.

00:21:20.280 That's who he is.

00:21:21.740 That's, you know, it's like...

00:21:23.640 It's like Bran is what you're saying.

00:21:24.700 It's not like he's betraying us.

00:21:26.340 This is who he is. 0.99

00:21:27.700 He is an anti-American leftist who is going to behave like a thug. 0.98

00:21:32.800 He is just like Nicolas Maduro. 0.95

00:21:35.060 He is just like the Chavistas in Venezuela. 1.00

00:21:38.320 He's just like the Castanistas. 1.00

00:21:40.760 Fidel Castro and all of their progeny in Cuba. 0.99

00:21:45.240 And that's who he is.

00:21:46.560 But you know why I'm actually not all that worked up about what he said?

00:21:50.680 Why is that?

00:21:51.180 Because Joe Biden wants him to say this.

00:21:54.920 Understand, this crisis at our southern border is not because of AMLO.

00:21:59.560 Like his comment, you could stop it, couldn't you?

00:22:02.020 And well, yes, but pay us money for us to stop it.

00:22:05.540 Understand, Joe Biden doesn't want it to stop.

00:22:08.920 Chuck Schumer doesn't want it to stop.

00:22:11.140 The Democrats don't want it to stop.

00:22:13.080 The 10.4 million illegal immigrants, they're glad of them. 0.55

00:22:16.320 They want more.

00:22:17.160 They want 10 million to become 20 million, to become 30 million.

00:22:20.960 Those they view as future Democrat voters.

00:22:23.980 And so AMLO, listen, you know, do you get mad when a little like yapping dog comes and yaps at the door?

00:22:33.780 No, AMLO is going to scream.

00:22:35.200 So what?

00:22:35.740 If we had a president, I'll tell you, when Donald Trump was president, AMLO was terrified of him, utterly and completely terrified.

00:22:44.740 And by the way, AMLO actually did a pretty good job when Trump was president because he was so afraid.

00:22:50.560 Let's pause and ask.

00:22:51.860 How did we secure the border under Trump?

00:22:56.960 What happened?

00:22:57.840 And I'll tell you what happened.

00:22:59.900 Trump threatened AMLO.

00:23:02.760 And what he said is you either help us secure the border or I'm going to oppose, I, Donald J. Trump, I'm going to impose a 25% tariff on everything coming out of Mexico.

00:23:16.660 And AMLO ran screaming.

00:23:20.280 It terrified him because he believed Trump would do it.

00:23:22.380 It wasn't an empty threat.

00:23:24.220 And he was terrified.

00:23:25.500 And what happened?

00:23:27.100 Number one, AMLO put 6,000 troops on Mexico's southern border.

00:23:31.540 You know, remember the shape of Mexico.

00:23:33.300 Mexico is much more narrow at the south than it is at the north.

00:23:36.340 At the north, Mexico has a 2,000-mile border with the United States.

00:23:40.320 At the south, their border is much, much smaller.

00:23:42.360 AMLO put 6,000 soldiers on their southern border to stop the flow.

00:23:48.140 And critically, because of Trump's threat, AMLO agreed to the Remain in Mexico agreement.

00:23:55.000 What was Remain in Mexico?

00:23:56.080 It said anyone that crossed illegally into Mexico and most of the people coming at that time and now were not Mexicans.

00:24:03.260 They were from elsewhere. 0.97

00:24:04.180 At the time, they were mostly from Central and South America.

00:24:07.860 Remain in Mexico said they would stay in Mexico.

00:24:10.580 These illegal immigrants would remain in Mexico while their U.S. asylum case was proceeding. 0.50

00:24:16.080 And what happened when suddenly people paid cartels thousands of dollars, traveled all the way north, and discovered,

00:24:22.820 holy cow, I don't get to come into America.

00:24:25.180 I'm stuck in Mexico.

00:24:26.480 I can't cross over.

00:24:28.320 The numbers plummeted to the lowest rate in 45 years.

00:24:33.140 So when AMLO says this, by the way, the instant Joe Biden became president, the numbers skyrocketed because Biden is weak.

00:24:39.920 AMLO isn't afraid of him.

00:24:41.960 AMLO isn't scared at all.

00:24:43.320 And actually, everything AMLO is threatening, Joe Biden and every other Democrat in Congress wants him to do that.

00:24:52.400 It's almost like he's empowered to say this because he's actually backed up by the American policy.

00:24:57.760 That's what you're telling us.

00:24:58.760 That is exactly right.

00:25:01.520 That he's doing what they know he'll do.

00:25:05.860 Look, look, Marxists are going to Marxists.

00:25:07.880 That's who they are.

00:25:09.460 He is going to engage in anti-American rhetoric.

00:25:12.980 The only thing he responds to is strength.

00:25:16.180 This Biden White House is not capable of strength against leftists, against enemies of America.

00:25:21.380 They're only capable of strength against our friends.

00:25:24.100 They're only capable of undermining allies of America.

00:25:27.460 But because AMLO is a leftist, just like in Cuba, they're communists, just like in Venezuela, they're communists,

00:25:34.820 just like Lula in Brazil is an anti-American leftist, just like Petro in Colombia is an anti-American leftist.

00:25:41.060 Every anti-American leftist, this administration gives everything they want.

00:25:45.020 And usually they want to give them money.

00:25:47.020 So when actually AMLO is saying lift the Cuban embargo, you know what?

00:25:50.960 Biden White House wants to lift the Cuban embargo.

00:25:52.840 When AMLO says end the sanctions against Venezuela, you know what?

00:25:56.500 Biden wants to end the sanctions against Venezuela.

00:25:59.520 This is they are, to use the old communist phrase, they are fellow travelers.

00:26:06.140 You mentioned the drug aspect of this, and I want you to hear what he had to say and everybody listening,

00:26:11.780 because there's zero compassion.

00:26:14.180 The number one killer, 49 under in this country is fentanyl in this nation more than anything else.

00:26:18.880 That's what's killing us.

00:26:19.800 And he was asked about the drugs and he kind of mocked America and laughed at America's demise when it comes to drugs and the deaths that are happening.

00:26:31.820 Take a listen.

00:26:32.580 The head of the DEA says cartels are mass producing fentanyl.

00:26:36.880 And the U.S. State Department has said that most of it is coming out of Mexico.

00:26:41.240 Are they wrong?

00:26:43.900 Yes.

00:26:46.200 Or rather, they don't have all the information, because fentanyl is also produced in the United States.

00:26:52.700 The State Department says most of it's coming from Mexico.

00:26:56.220 Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico.

00:27:01.020 And the chemical precursors come from Asia.

00:27:03.380 You know why we don't have the drug consumption that you have in the United States?

00:27:09.900 Because we have customs, traditions, and we don't have the problem of the disintegration of the family.

00:27:16.680 But there is drug consumption in Mexico.

00:27:19.060 But very little.

00:27:20.560 So why the violence then in Mexico?

00:27:23.920 Because drug trafficking exists, but not the consumption.

00:27:28.620 I mean, he's laughing when he gives the last answer there.

00:27:31.640 Like, he's smiling and smirking when he's like,

00:27:33.760 Ha ha, this is hilarious.

00:27:35.540 Like, I can't believe you guys are even asking me these questions.

00:27:38.600 Well, look, that's exactly right.

00:27:40.380 And he's lying when he's suggesting that fentanyl is manufactured in large quantities in the United States.

00:27:47.100 The vast majority of what is killing Americans is being manufactured in Mexico. 0.77

00:27:52.640 Now, he's right that the precursors are coming from China.

00:27:55.820 It's the Chinese communists who are sending it to Mexico. 0.97

00:27:58.320 It's the Mexican drug cartels who are manufacturing it, and they're smuggling it over the border.

00:28:02.600 There's some fentanyl production in the United States, but it is very minor compared to the volume coming from Mexico.

00:28:09.860 He knows that.

00:28:11.280 But this is, and by the way, understand the total volume.

00:28:15.280 Last year, over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses.

00:28:21.720 70% of that, over 70,000, was from fentanyl.

00:28:27.340 And the vast majority of that was Chinese fentanyl manufactured in Mexico by the Mexican drug cartels.

00:28:36.060 And AMLO is saying, sadly, with Biden's blessing and the Democrats' blessing, we're going to keep it flowing.

00:28:41.280 As 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.

00:28:50.440 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:28:53.200 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:28:57.660 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:29:01.360 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:29:02.560 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:29:03.780 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:29:07.520 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:29:12.980 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:29:16.480 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:29:22.260 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:29:27.240 If you were up for re-election right now, running as a Republican for mayor.

00:29:31.520 Yes.

00:29:32.640 Your policies haven't changed.

00:29:34.120 The only thing that's changed is a D went to an R.

00:29:36.620 Correct.

00:29:37.260 Could you win?

00:29:38.560 I'd win overwhelmingly.

00:29:40.400 I don't have any doubt about it.

00:29:41.560 I have no doubt about it.

00:29:43.280 And I'll tell you why I believe that.

00:29:44.660 I'll tell you why.

00:29:45.640 I'm glad someone finally asked for that on the record.

00:29:47.980 Because that's sort of the chatter as well.

00:29:50.140 That's why I asked it.

00:29:51.040 Because you know they're going to say, oh, well, this guy could never win.

00:29:53.280 That's why he waited until the end of his term to then switch parties.

00:29:57.140 So, here's the reality that people have to ignore to even make that argument.

00:30:01.880 But I understand why people need to make it.

00:30:03.320 I mean, I told someone, I said, you know, you don't switch parties in a two-party system for one or the other

00:30:07.920 and think the other party's going to say, well, you know, we wish him the best.

00:30:10.240 He was great.

00:30:10.760 And it's our loss.

00:30:12.520 You know, they've got to come up with something.

00:30:14.580 And these are the kinds of arguments they've come up with.

00:30:17.740 But here's the reality.

00:30:19.220 I won my last election with, it wasn't 93%.

00:30:23.360 Dallas City, you know, has ordinances about how write-in candidates get on the ballot.

00:30:30.400 And if you write in a name other than the actual write-in candidate's name that's there, you just essentially didn't vote.

00:30:36.400 You threw your ballot in the trash.

00:30:39.060 Of the cast votes, which were canvassed by the city and are the official records of the city, 98.7% of the vote.

00:30:45.520 That's Democrats and Republicans in that group.

00:30:48.800 That's a pretty hardy endorsement of the incumbent mayor.

00:30:53.380 And I didn't run with a D or an R behind my name.

00:30:56.100 I ran just with, you know, as Eric Johnson.

00:30:58.260 Because you don't run in Texas, in any city, with a D for folks who aren't from Texas.

00:31:02.340 We don't actually have partisan elections in Texas for mayor.

00:31:05.600 You just run.

00:31:06.760 And you don't run with a party's support.

00:31:10.340 Now, what do I think would have actually happened if I had just come out and said six months before the election, I'm actually a Republican.

00:31:16.960 Here's what would have happened.

00:31:18.540 Some Democrats would have gotten together and said, well, this is an opportunity for us to run an ostensibly just overtly partisan candidate.

00:31:27.780 We're going to do something that's never been done in Dallas before, which is to just make it partisan.

00:31:31.580 Like, to say, okay, we've got an R running, and now we're going to run a D against him.

00:31:36.380 The problem is that the R you're talking about for four years well enough to clear the field and win with 98.7% of the vote.

00:31:42.960 But that didn't happen yet.

00:31:44.340 So let's just go back and say a Republican who's been that effective, who happens to also be African American and supported by the African American community.

00:31:54.820 We think that that person would lose simply by saying, I've become a Republican.

00:31:59.680 I think what happens is I won the first race in a contested nine-person field that it went to a runoff with 12% of the vote.

00:32:08.400 I won, you know, 56-44.

00:32:10.740 I think that goes down to the normal, you know, pretty solid win of a, you know, 54, 53% win.

00:32:20.940 But I still win.

00:32:21.880 There's no question I still win that race because I'm the incumbent at that point.

00:32:25.600 No incumbent mayor, we've had Republican and Democrat mayors before, by the way.

00:32:30.000 No incumbent mayor seeking re-election in Dallas has ever lost, ever.

00:32:34.080 All right, so let me ask a final question, which is you have started now a national organization, the Republican Mayors Association.

00:32:41.800 And you have been out articulating that Republicans need to have an agenda for the cities, that we can't just write off big cities where an awful lot of Americans live.

00:32:52.800 And I think that's a very important message.

00:32:56.040 It's something.

00:32:57.500 And I want to ask you, what's your vision for the message Republicans should have in the cities?

00:33:04.060 And how do we end up with a lot more Republican mayors in the big cities?

00:33:09.860 What's the path forward there?

00:33:11.540 I said this in the Wall Street Journal, and I meant it.

00:33:13.420 It's a two-way benefit for America and for our party.

00:33:20.040 Now, America needs the leadership that Republicans provide at the local level because of the things we talked about just a few minutes ago.

00:33:28.460 A Republican mayor is going to, because it's part of the DNA of the party, is going to be right on law and order issues, going to be right on public safety.

00:33:38.540 People who've asked me about that, I've said, let me just quiz you very quickly.

00:33:43.340 Every bad idea you can think of about public safety came from one side of the aisle.

00:33:47.940 There's not even a mixed bag on this issue.

00:33:50.040 If it's a bad idea when it comes to public safety, defund the police, don't prosecute shoppers, whatever, Republicans don't propose ideas that undermine law and order.

00:33:59.160 Not every Democrat believes them, but they only emanate from the Democrats.

00:34:04.440 That's just a factual statement.

00:34:07.000 So a Republican is going to be right on law and order and public safety.

00:34:10.780 A Republican mayor is going to be right on taxes. 0.92

00:34:12.740 A Republican mayor ought to be right on infrastructure spending and investing prudently.

00:34:19.120 And there's studies that show, I mean, have proven that you actually have lower debt levels and you issue less debt when you have a Republican mayor versus a Democrat.

00:34:29.900 An MIT professor actually studied this and concluded that it is a statistically significant different level of debt associated with a city when there's a Republican in charge and a Democrat in charge.

00:34:42.160 So we actually need Republicans running our major cities because 80% of Americans live in cities.

00:34:49.620 By 2050, that number is going to be 90%.

00:34:52.040 So the country actually needs the leadership.

00:34:54.660 But I'm actually telling you as a group of partisans, we actually have to pay attention to this.

00:35:00.060 And I think we have to pay attention to it because I, in my heart of hearts, believe that by being competitive in the cities, by basically re-engaging, because we were once engaged.

00:35:13.700 There was a Republican mayor's association at one time.

00:35:16.240 It had a similar name.

00:35:17.500 It was like the Republican conference.

00:35:19.700 It was during the Ford administration.

00:35:21.600 And at some point, we just lost interest in competing at that level.

00:35:26.680 And it sort of just faded away.

00:35:28.020 But it was very active at one time.

00:35:30.540 And we were more competitive in our cities at one time.

00:35:32.840 We need to get more competitive there again because the margin of victory at the state level in states like Wisconsin, in states like Michigan, in states like Pennsylvania,

00:35:43.580 is the difference between performing at the city level in, you ready, Madison, Green Bay, and in Detroit, and in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by just five or ten percentage points better.

00:36:00.180 So, in other words, engaging in the cities in a more significant way and having the GOP brand associated with the things we're talking about at the local level, it doesn't take that many votes.

00:36:11.840 And now, all of a sudden, the whole state is no longer lock, stock, and barrel going one direction because of the advantage that's been run up in the cities.

00:36:21.080 You've cut into the advantage that the cities have.

00:36:24.420 You know, Eric, I'll tell you on that point.

00:36:27.800 So, Heidi and I met 25 years ago when we were both working on the George W. Bush campaign in 2000, the presidential campaign.

00:36:34.960 And actually, in that campaign, you know, I was a young, 29-year-old staffer, but I wrote a memo urging that the campaign consider, at the time, Condoleezza Rice as a VP nominee.

00:36:51.080 And in the course of the memo, I laid out all sorts of reasons why I thought this was worth considering carefully.

00:36:57.760 But one of the things I did is I did an electoral analysis.

00:37:00.400 I looked at the three preceding presidential elections, and I posited a series of hypotheticals.

00:37:07.760 I said, what would have happened if Republicans had gotten 5% more, 10% more, or 15% more of the African American and Hispanic vote?

00:37:19.460 So, I didn't posit, what if we get 50% more?

00:37:22.380 I did 5%, 10%, or 15%.

00:37:24.320 So, goals that were achievable, I believe.

00:37:28.720 And I ran through the numbers, and the one that stood out the most was if Republicans had gotten an additional 15% of the African American and Hispanic vote in 1996, Republicans would have won an additional 96 electoral votes.

00:37:47.520 I mean, it flips the election dramatically.

00:37:51.280 But to do that, we've got to compete.

00:37:53.400 It's a whole different national conversation about the competitiveness of this party if we are a factor at the city level.

00:38:04.540 Yep.

00:38:04.660 Because it's just where so many people are concentrated.

00:38:07.640 It's getting harder and harder to figure out how to win elections where we're just not even playing there.

00:38:12.140 I mean, we just, it's just not even, it's just, we ought to be competing in every major city where we're currently just sort of saying,

00:38:21.680 you know, a Democrat hasn't won, I mean, a Republican hasn't won there in a long time, so let's not try.

00:38:27.600 We just flipped, just in this last cycle, the mayor, the current mayor of, I believe it's Charleston, South Carolina, is now a Republican.

00:38:37.580 They hadn't elected a Republican mayor in Charleston in like 175 years.

00:38:44.940 So it can happen.

00:38:46.960 It can be done.

00:38:47.900 You have to run the right candidate.

00:38:49.020 He was a former legislator like I was, and he ran a great campaign.

00:38:52.260 Now they've got a Republican mayor. 0.97

00:38:53.380 So what's going to happen next is he's going to do a good job.

00:38:56.480 And when he does a good job, these people who've been voting for Democrat mayors for 175 years are going to say,

00:39:00.640 you know what, Republicans are in charge, the city just seems to be, it's safer.

00:39:04.920 We hire more cops, and crime goes down, and you know what, the taxes go down, and you know, things are just better.

00:39:12.060 The brand means something to them at the local level, and not just, the brand will always have a federal aspect to it.

00:39:19.640 It'll always have a state aspect to it.

00:39:21.020 But right now, in this party, we're missing a brand at the local level.

00:39:25.600 It doesn't mean anything right now at the local level.

00:39:27.680 And we get to decide what it means.

00:39:29.140 And I'm saying we should be running solid conservatives at the local level, winning elections, running cities well,

00:39:35.860 and then that makes people at the local level go, yeah, I'm actually a Republican.

00:39:40.020 I love my Republican mayor, and so I'm a Republican.

00:39:42.480 And that has benefits for people running for U.S. Senate, running for president, running for governor.

00:39:48.020 But we are right now just aren't doing anything.

00:39:50.280 I mean, I was shocked to find that there was no one even in this lane.

00:39:54.020 I wasn't even stepping on anybody's toes by doing this.

00:39:56.680 Well, let me say, Eric, I appreciate you.

00:39:58.780 I appreciate your friendship.

00:40:00.180 I appreciate your leadership.

00:40:01.600 And I appreciate your joining us on the Verdict podcast.

00:40:04.060 Appreciate that, man.

00:40:04.900 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:40:10.620 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're

00:40:14.360 not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:40:17.660 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:40:21.380 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:40:23.800 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:40:26.620 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 30, 2024

Michigan Offers Cash to House Illegals, AMLO Blackmails America, & the Challenges for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Week In Review

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