Verdict with Ted Cruz - Not Just Hunter-Cascading Evidence of Biden Family Corruption, plus Media Turns on Biden & Attack Real Journalism

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.300 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.540 And Senator, it has not been a great day for the Biden family on multiple fronts.

00:00:15.420 Well, that's putting it mildly.

00:00:16.860 Number one, we've seen the evidence of Joe Biden's personal corruption continue to grow.

00:00:22.260 James Biden, it's now come out.

00:00:24.720 It's not just Hunter.

00:00:25.660 It's the entire Biden family that has a business of selling favors, selling access to Joe Biden to the tune of millions of dollars.

00:00:34.320 And James Biden was on Capitol Hill, was testifying, contradicted himself.

00:00:39.360 And it is getting worse and worse and worse for the corruption in the Biden family.

00:00:44.420 Beyond that, we're also seeing the media turning on him.

00:00:48.300 I got to say, Rolling Stone has abandoned Joe Biden. 0.99

00:00:53.440 Holy crap. 0.97

00:00:54.240 If you're a Democrat and you've lost Rolling Stone, what is next? 0.98

00:01:00.920 And I'm going to say, finally, as the entire Biden edifice collapses in flames, the corporate media is an abject state of panic.

00:01:13.520 And so they fired Catherine Herridge, the lone reporter at all of CBS who actually reported on anything happening in America.

00:01:22.720 They fired her. 1.00

00:01:23.980 And then the news broke this week that CBS has gone and seized her files. 0.98

00:01:29.520 They've said, We want to see every damn confidential informant you talk to. 0.93

00:01:33.900 We want to see every source. 0.98

00:01:35.520 We want control of all of it.

00:01:37.540 And I got to say, even lefty journalists are saying, What is going on when CNN is doing this?

00:01:46.280 It's a big week.

00:01:47.020 Yeah, we're going to get into all that.

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00:03:25.580 Senator, this story when it broke was one where I kind of laughed.

00:03:31.680 James Biden lies just like Joe Biden does.

00:03:35.240 James Biden now had to tell the truth, contradicting himself during testimony on his brother, who just happens to be the president's involvement with the family business dealings, which means virtually every Biden that's ever spoken publicly about the Biden family businesses lied to the American people saying Joe Biden had nothing to do with it.

00:03:54.200 And we now know he was the entire business and his brother is now admitting it.

00:03:59.640 Well, it's a sad pattern.

00:04:00.920 It's one we're seeing over and over again.

00:04:02.920 And to step back a second to set the stage.

00:04:06.560 So this past week, Politico broke a major story.

00:04:10.320 The story was entitled Biden's brother used his name to promote a hospital chain.

00:04:17.400 Then it collapsed.

00:04:20.120 This was a bombshell story.

00:04:22.440 And so let me read a portion from this story because it's important.

00:04:26.120 Quote, the investigation based on public records, court filings, dozens of interviews and hundreds of exclusively obtained internal documents reveals that Joe Biden's role in AmeriCorps was larger than previously reported.

00:04:42.680 In some maternal documents and investor materials, his name is included among its top handful of leaders.

00:04:51.700 That's Joe Biden, by the way.

00:04:53.680 He also helped the company seal regulatory approval to acquire the Pennsylvania hospital and personally fired AmeriCorps chief financial officer, according to the emails obtained by Politico.

00:05:08.340 The investigation also reveals that Joe Biden's name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood.

00:05:17.060 In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an advisor to his older brother.

00:05:28.360 And on top of Joe Biden's own previously reported encounter with the firm CEO, at least three of Joe Biden's relatives did work with AmeriCorps.

00:05:43.740 They include Jim Biden's wife, Sarah, his son, Jamie.

00:05:50.720 The president's son, Hunter Biden, also met with its CEO and his personal doctor, the current White House physician, Kevin O'Connor, joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by AmeriCorps, according to a former executive and emails obtained by Politico.

00:06:15.820 That's a lot. And if you think about just all of that in the context of the Biden crime family, at least they're consistent now where they were willing to walk into basically any room with any person, any time where if they had cash, it didn't matter if they were enemies of America.

00:06:33.000 It didn't matter if they're Russian oligarchs, Romanian oligarchs, Ukrainian oligarchs.

00:06:37.640 It didn't matter if they were doing business directly with the Chinese communist government and people that were connected to the spying agency of the Chinese communist party.

00:06:46.600 The Bidens were willing to take a check to sell access to the United States of America.

00:06:51.740 And he has now made it clear.

00:06:54.320 Yes, that was the business.

00:06:56.120 Sure, you got us.

00:06:57.240 But is there going to be any accountability?

00:06:58.960 That's the big question everybody wants to know.

00:07:01.180 Well, the entire Biden family, their source of financial support, their business was selling the big guy, was selling Joe Biden.

00:07:13.640 Here's also from that Politico story, quote,

00:07:16.020 One person on the receiving end of Jim Biden's health care pitch recalled a phone call in which Jim Biden said he was sitting in a car next to his brother, Joe.

00:07:33.420 Joe Biden has said that he has never discussed business with his brother.

00:07:37.300 Now, at this point, there's a parallel.

00:07:40.260 Do you remember the text that Hunter Biden sent to the Chinese communist executive where he said, I'm sitting next to my father?

00:07:48.820 This is a pattern now that apparently the entire Biden family.

00:07:53.860 It's a really lucrative business to be sitting next to Daddy Joe and you sit next to Daddy Joe and you shake people down for cash and you say right next to me is Joe Biden.

00:08:06.720 And if you don't give me millions of dollars right now, Joe is going to come after you.

00:08:12.900 And the consistency of this story, that it's not just remember, look, what is the White House's main defense?

00:08:23.120 Their main defense is, you know, Hunter is a sad soul.

00:08:27.560 He's troubled by substance abuse. 0.98

00:08:30.380 Look, the guy's a crackhead. 0.69

00:08:32.220 That's not our fault. 0.99

00:08:33.460 That's his problem.

00:08:34.340 But just blame it on him.

00:08:37.700 Well, it turns out it's not just Hunter.

00:08:41.880 As far as we know, Joe's brother Jim is not a crackhead. 0.98

00:08:46.760 He just is in the same damn business. 0.96

00:08:49.640 And by the way, in the business with other family members of his, the business is selling Joe Biden. 0.97

00:08:56.940 And in this case, the hospital that they acquired in Pennsylvania was a hospital that was focused in rural Pennsylvania, providing health care that was needed by by Americans in real trouble.

00:09:12.180 They acquired it and then they went broke.

00:09:14.840 They went out of business.

00:09:15.960 They left their patients high and dry.

00:09:19.700 But you know who did great on this?

00:09:21.580 You know who made a whole bunch of money? 1.00

00:09:23.300 That would be Joe Biden and every damn member of his family. 0.98

00:09:26.200 Well, let's go back to the also the fact that this company, which they were working for, AmeriCorps, allegedly defrauded Medicare. 0.99

00:09:36.080 I mean, this claim comes, as you mentioned, the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer.

00:09:40.780 He's a former bank board member.

00:09:42.240 We've had him on this show now, I think, four episodes.

00:09:45.440 He found in October that $200,000 check from AmeriCorps, which allegedly defrauded Medicare, landed in Joe Biden's bank account via James Biden.

00:09:55.100 So this is direct linkage of the money on top of the fact that that's not even the biggest part of the story, the $200,000.

00:10:01.460 It's the fact that this is a company that was allegedly defrauding Medicare.

00:10:05.180 Don't you normally go to jail if you do that?

00:10:07.400 That's what I thought.

00:10:08.440 I mean, Democrats are obsessed with fraud right now, right?

00:10:11.400 That's their whole thing.

00:10:12.860 They're obsessed with fraud, even if it's not even there, like we saw with Donald Trump in New York.

00:10:16.760 But this is actual fraud, actual payments, and actual defrauding of Medicare.

00:10:23.060 Listen, defrauding Medicare, that means you're defrauding the American people.

00:10:27.240 You're also defrauding your patients.

00:10:29.720 And that is the Biden family's MO.

00:10:33.540 That is their approach.

00:10:35.680 And this Politico story, it is, number one, interesting.

00:10:39.440 We talked about the last podcast.

00:10:40.820 We're going to talk more in this podcast about how the media, the corporate media, is turning on Joe Biden.

00:10:46.820 The fact that they published this story, holy cow, a year ago they would not have published this.

00:10:52.740 Politico would have said, nope, no story here.

00:10:55.120 We're not reporting this.

00:10:56.660 Leave this to Breitbart.

00:10:58.700 We, the esteemed members of the fourth estate at Politico, will not write this.

00:11:04.220 Well, suddenly they've decided, uh-uh, Joe Biden's a liability.

00:11:08.780 Let's get rid of him.

00:11:09.520 But, you know, what's interesting, this story then segues into what happened this week.

00:11:14.720 So this week, GOP lawmakers who said James Biden contradicted himself during testimony about his brother Joe Biden's supposed business dealings with his family.

00:11:28.040 And here's what Fox News reported.

00:11:29.940 Quote, the president's brother initially said he was not part of a deal with his nephew Hunter Biden and business associates Rob Walker, Tony Bobulinski, and James Gilliar, according to a source familiar with the interview.

00:11:47.060 But when presented with an agreement with his signature on it, uh-oh, that's a problem, Biden changed his story, saying he didn't recall signing the agreement, the source said.

00:12:02.680 Now, understand, James Biden's like, nope, nope, nope, not in business with them.

00:12:07.900 I don't know.

00:12:08.240 Who's Hunter?

00:12:09.180 What do you mean, my nephew?

00:12:10.160 You don't know the guy. 1.00

00:12:11.280 You mean the guy that's naked and smoking crack and running around with all the prostitutes? 1.00

00:12:15.380 No, never heard of that guy. 0.98

00:12:16.880 The one on Air Force Two, Air Force One?

00:12:19.000 No idea who that guy is.

00:12:22.120 And then he's like, uh, here's the agreement you signed.

00:12:26.700 And he's like, uh, I don't know what you're talking about.

00:12:30.920 Look, a lot of our listeners are young enough.

00:12:34.660 You may not remember Hogan's Heroes.

00:12:36.260 I grew up with my dad watching Hogan's Heroes as a kid.

00:12:39.360 And Hogan's Heroes, there was a character, Sergeant Schultz, big fat guy, German guy.

00:12:44.840 And, and when, when, when Hogan was like doing all sorts of shenanigans, Sergeant Schultz would say, I see nothing.

00:12:52.720 I hear nothing.

00:12:54.700 Well, that right now is James Biden's defense.

00:12:57.560 I hear nothing.

00:12:59.560 Well, I got to say, the rest of us, we see something.

00:13:03.940 Yeah, it's big.

00:13:05.080 And now the media is turning on him.

00:13:06.580 We've talked about this.

00:13:07.760 I just came back from CPAC in D.C.

00:13:09.900 And it was a very clear topic of conversation and a real concern of many that were there saying, what happens next when it comes to Joe Biden?

00:13:20.920 Will he actually be who we're running against come November?

00:13:24.920 And the media seems to be turning on Joe Biden.

00:13:28.820 And it's not just like they're testing out the waters now.

00:13:31.560 It's like they've gotten their orders from the Democratic establishment.

00:13:34.640 Okay, now may be the time that we take our hand off of Joe and we, and we push him underwater and sink this ship so we can get somebody else in here.

00:13:44.180 And I want you to talk about Rolling Stones.

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00:15:29.780 Senator, I think the reason why the media has flipped on Joe Biden is because this is an orchestrated effort.

00:15:38.700 It's not like one media outlet decided to go rogue here.

00:15:43.360 They all started on the same day.

00:15:45.840 They all are putting out stories at the same time.

00:15:48.900 They're all trying to basically say, okay, maybe we got to get rid of him.

00:15:54.220 Rolling Stones, for goodness sakes, writes this.

00:15:57.140 That has never happened before to write an article like this about a Democrat, much less a sitting president in the Democratic Party.

00:16:04.480 Well, listen, that's right.

00:16:06.260 And we talked about in Wednesday's podcast how the media is turning on Joe Biden, how the Washington Post, how the New York Times is turning on Joe Biden.

00:16:16.360 And you're right.

00:16:17.700 There is an amazing thing.

00:16:19.260 Maybe we'll discover at some point there's some secret listserv or text message or signal app that they send each other.

00:16:27.120 They're like, okay, now we're turning on him.

00:16:30.060 I don't know.

00:16:31.300 I just know the results that they all do it simultaneously.

00:16:34.320 And so, look, as bad as the New York Times is, as bad as the Washington Post is, when you think of left-wing mouthpieces, it's hard to find one that is more so than Rolling Stone.

00:16:47.860 And here's an article from Rolling Stone this week.

00:16:52.980 I want to read you the title.

00:16:54.640 Over it.

00:16:56.040 Young, black, and done with Biden.

00:17:01.300 The issues that could decide the election.

00:17:05.440 Taking a ride through Detroit with the young black Democratic voters who helped Biden get into office in 2020 and aren't so sure about doing it again.

00:17:15.900 That's not a story that's ever written by the mainstream media, much less, like, hardcore lefties.

00:17:23.180 And that would be Rolling Stone's magazine.

00:17:27.000 And they didn't just, this didn't just happen, by the way, in a week.

00:17:30.780 They clearly knew what they were going to write.

00:17:33.600 They knew this was a story that probably was worth writing.

00:17:36.500 And they just decided to look the other way for the last three years.

00:17:40.860 Now, all of a sudden, you're going to write it?

00:17:42.800 Like, the timing of this is laughable.

00:17:44.780 No, that's exactly right.

00:17:46.900 And let me read you the opening of this article.

00:17:50.320 Troy, Michigan is quintessential suburbia.

00:17:54.560 Strip malls, banks with drive-thrus, and jewelry stores.

00:17:59.080 Through just 30 minutes outside of Detroit, Troy feels a world away from the Motor City.

00:18:07.040 With its blocks of boarded-up houses and abandoned stores.

00:18:13.160 The disparate environments speak to the systematic inequality that brought me here to talk politics and the bind that Joe Biden has gotten himself into.

00:18:23.940 Inside fresh and pressed juice, a brightly lit juice bar and cafe, with a vibrant green ceiling.

00:18:34.600 I talk with the impeccably dressed shop owner, Kiara Smith, and her husband, rapper, Icewear Vezo, who has braved the snow in his designer wool jacket.

00:18:50.220 Over smoothies, Vezo takes off like a rocket when I ask what issues he'd like to see presidential candidates address in the lead-up to November.

00:19:00.960 However, Vezo says that over the past several years, he's been paying attention to electoral politics more than ever.

00:19:09.500 He thinks Biden's deceitful and that likely Republican candidate Donald Trump is a blabbermouth.

00:19:18.940 Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy is his preference over both men.

00:19:24.000 He takes some local pride in Michigan being a battleground state because he said voters are actually paying attention.

00:19:34.220 Now, understand, this is Rolling Stone saying black Democrats in Detroit, Michigan are not going to vote for Joe Biden.

00:19:45.260 That's a big deal.

00:19:46.360 It's not just that.

00:19:48.800 It's also that all of the data is pointing to the disaster, which is the Biden administration, specifically on the economy.

00:19:56.000 And you compare that to what Donald Trump did when he was in office.

00:19:58.840 The lowest unemployment rate in the history of African-Americans happened under Donald Trump.

00:20:05.160 And Joe Biden came in and said, I'm going to fix everything in the African-American community. 0.99

00:20:09.540 Look at what's happened since Biden took office.

00:20:12.180 It's the latest number.

00:20:13.480 Overall prices are up 17.9%.

00:20:16.580 Food prices are up 21%.

00:20:19.500 Rent is up 19.4%.

00:20:23.380 Electricity is up 28.6%.

00:20:26.660 That's Bidenomics.

00:20:28.420 And this White House says, oh, no, no, it's working.

00:20:30.740 It's working.

00:20:31.380 We promise you it's working.

00:20:32.780 And I think that's part of the reason why, Senator, that the African-American community is turning against him as they're saying, you have ruined what we had under Donald Trump.

00:20:43.040 And now we have a massive crime wave on top of everything else I just mentioned.

00:20:48.260 Well, if you remember the political party in New York previously that was called the rent is too damn high.

00:20:56.480 Yeah.

00:20:57.300 Well, I got to say the rent is too damn high.

00:21:00.000 That is a message that is resonating in a whole lot of cities right now.

00:21:04.720 And Joe Biden, he owns it.

00:21:07.640 You think your rent is too damn high?

00:21:09.940 That would be Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. who brought that to you.

00:21:13.860 And that's a real problem.

00:21:15.520 That's a real problem for the voters.

00:21:17.360 The Democrats need to turn out.

00:21:18.720 If they're sitting there saying the rent is too damn high, they're in trouble.

00:21:24.320 And it's why, look, this podcast six months ago broke national media when we said that I believe there was a very real risk the Democrats were going to jettison Joe Biden and replace him with Michelle Obama. 0.95

00:21:40.300 It's been interesting the last two weeks suddenly seeing the rest of the press say, holy crap, there's a very real chance they jettison Joe Biden and replace him with Michelle Obama.

00:21:51.420 And the fact that the media is turning on him day and night is increasing the chances every day.

00:21:59.580 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

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00:22:30.640 There's also another shocking story, and I want to make sure we spend some time on this.

00:22:35.840 Many people may know the name Catherine Herod.

00:22:39.400 She is a phenomenal reporter.

00:22:41.120 She was at Fox for a long time.

00:22:43.000 She then moved to CBS News.

00:22:45.820 She did incredible reporting on tough issues and stories, including what's been happening with the Biden crime family.

00:22:54.360 She was let go slash fired, whatever you want to call it, laid off with some other people as CBS is having financial issues and downsizing.

00:23:04.040 But it was shocking that she was let go in that because she's basically one of their best and only tough investigative reporters, certainly in Washington, D.C.

00:23:14.100 Now we have found out that CBS News went full communist after, quote, seizing her journalistic files.

00:23:24.300 That is not what's supposed to happen in America in journalism.

00:23:30.060 And yet now we're finding out not only they get rid of her, but the question is, what was she what did she have?

00:23:35.720 What was she about to report on?

00:23:37.160 I would say this, Senator.

00:23:38.360 I know you love her reporting.

00:23:40.360 I think we should try to get her on verdict because I would love to hear what she has to say about everything.

00:23:45.320 She uncovered that maybe she hasn't been able to tell us yet.

00:23:49.240 So I agree with you that we should have Catherine Herridge as a guest on verdict.

00:23:53.140 We're going to try to make that happen.

00:23:54.700 And I will say, look, in many ways, Catherine Herridge is a unicorn because the corporate media is so utterly corrupt that they do not report on news that is inconvenient to the regime. 1.00

00:24:09.120 And Catherine Herridge was a rebel in that. 0.88

00:24:11.440 She actually reported on things the Biden White House didn't like.

00:24:15.320 And so CBS was engaged in layoffs. 0.98

00:24:19.060 And I get, look, the media are a bunch of dishonest, lying hacks. 0.97

00:24:24.240 I understand that they're firing people because people don't want to purchase their goods anymore because it is useless. 0.99

00:24:30.860 They're no longer journalists. 0.99

00:24:32.140 They're liars.

00:24:33.620 That being said, if you're laying off people, somebody in some corporate suit in a corner office made a decision. 0.89

00:24:43.100 Who do we want to lay off?

00:24:44.200 Let's lay off the person who actually is criticizing the White House.

00:24:49.040 And so Catherine Herridge, they laid off. 1.00

00:24:51.560 That was shocking in and of itself because she is such a unicorn.

00:24:55.160 But then the news broke this week that not only did they lay her off, but CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, her computers, her records, including her information on privileged sources.

00:25:14.900 And that I've got to say, so explain people, so people understand why that's such a shocking, in my opinion, abuse of power by CBS.

00:25:25.820 Well, listen, reporters have sources that give information and under promises of confidentiality.

00:25:32.900 And those promises are that their name will be held secret.

00:25:38.440 They will not be outed.

00:25:39.520 And that is right at the heart, the essence of journalism, of free press.

00:25:46.700 Well, CBS, the corporate suits have said, we want to know who your sources are.

00:25:52.460 And the problem is that nobody rational, with their head not inserted in a bodily orifice, believes that the corporate suits want that for any reason other than bad purposes.

00:26:08.300 Look, I'm going to read from an article in The Hill.

00:26:14.160 So in The Hill, this is something written by Jonathan Turley, who has been really terrific on a lot of these issues.

00:26:20.760 But here's what he wrote.

00:26:22.900 Quote, I've spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before.

00:26:34.540 One former CBS journalist said that many employees, quote, are confused why Herridge was laid off as one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting.

00:26:49.000 This has led to concerns about the source of the pressure.

00:26:52.440 He added that there he has never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist and that the move has sent a chilling signal to the ranks of CBS.

00:27:07.740 And that is deeply, deeply disturbing.

00:27:13.000 By the way, there have been reports that when Catherine Herridge published stories that were critical of the Biden White House, that CBS executives push back, including someone, CBS News President Ingrid Cyprian Matthews, who I don't know.

00:27:34.500 But good God, her name sounds like something out of a science fiction movie about some overlord in the star chamber who wants to silence all dissent.

00:27:45.160 Ingrid Cyprian Matthews, let's fire the reporter that dares report anything of substance because we are propagandists.

00:27:54.540 Listen, I got to say, there was a time when CBS actually had a reputation as being real journalists.

00:28:05.700 How many?

00:28:07.460 Walter Cronkite is rolling over in his grave at what has happened to CBS today.

00:28:14.980 I want to just talk about the quality of Catherine's reporting for a moment.

00:28:21.160 There are reporters that you don't talk to.

00:28:24.120 There's reporters that I don't talk to.

00:28:25.740 You see them.

00:28:26.760 You roll their eyes.

00:28:27.640 You deal with it a lot more than I do.

00:28:29.240 There's certain reporters on Capitol Hill.

00:28:30.680 You're like, really, you again?

00:28:31.980 Give me a break because, you know, they're hacks when you when you saw Catherine and others like there seemed to be mutual respect from both sides out because she wasn't partisan. 0.95

00:28:43.460 She just was a truth teller in investigative journalism.

00:28:47.400 It's something that we've lost in this country.

00:28:49.860 And that's what ultimately, I think, made her lose her job at CBS.

00:28:56.040 Look, sadly, what Catherine Herridge does used to be the norm in journalism. 1.00

00:29:04.540 Yeah.

00:29:04.800 You would have journalists who would actually investigate stories.

00:29:08.840 They would follow the facts.

00:29:11.180 They would report on the substance.

00:29:12.740 That used to be how the entire enterprise worked.

00:29:17.600 Now, and I really think this is post-Trump.

00:29:21.720 Trump broke the corporate media.

00:29:24.960 They hate him so much that they've abandoned any effort at truth telling, any effort at reporting facts, any effort at being even-handed, any effort at reporting both sides.

00:29:36.660 Instead, look, if you go back a decade ago, if you go back to 2014, 2015, you would have people at CBS, you'd have people at CNN, MSNBC, even MSNBC that would claim they're trying to be journalists and report both sides.

00:29:56.940 What has changed is Trump convinced a lot of the so-called journalists and all of the corporate brass that reporting fairly was no longer acceptable.

00:30:13.960 That Trump was the devil, their mission was no longer present both sides.

00:30:22.620 Their mission, and this is the way they framed it, was to save democracy.

00:30:27.400 And what they mean by save democracy is elect left-wing Democrats in every election, no matter what, which means never, ever, ever report on anything harmful to left-wing Democrats, and only be propagandists for the left wing of the party.

00:30:45.160 Now, listen, I don't like the New York Times. 0.98

00:30:49.400 I think they're a bunch of friggin' communists. 0.98

00:30:52.020 I don't particularly like the Washington Post. 0.99

00:30:54.440 I don't like much of the media.

00:30:57.680 But bizarrely, Ben, I think they're valuable.

00:31:01.020 How many years were you an employee of CNN?

00:31:03.640 Seven years in hell is how long I was there fighting the good fight.

00:31:07.420 Okay, but compare CNN.

00:31:09.960 All right, you're a former employee.

00:31:11.640 You were an employee there from when to when?

00:31:13.600 Gosh, it was, I mean, go back, what, two years ago, and then add seven on to there.

00:31:19.100 So in the middle of that, right before Trump was elected, when it wasn't that bad.

00:31:24.580 I was there for, I guess, about two years before the 16 election when Trump was elected, and then the wills came off.

00:31:30.360 So give your perspective, because you were a paid employee of CNN.

00:31:35.180 Give your perspective of CNN before 2016 and the Trump election and after.

00:31:40.960 Because, look, what I'm describing is real, but you experienced it from the inside.

00:31:47.300 Yeah, when I first got hired, it was funny.

00:31:49.600 When I got hired by CNN, the call came in and they said, look, we want real and genuine conservatives on the air.

00:31:57.040 I got hired, I think it was on the same day with Newt Gingrich.

00:31:59.720 And they said, we want to have a robust debate.

00:32:02.680 And it was and that's exactly what it started out as.

00:32:05.720 And even when they were covering Donald Trump in 16, remember, CNN would go wall to wall with him, campaign event after campaign event.

00:32:14.360 And it was huge.

00:32:15.180 I remember well.

00:32:16.080 Yeah, it was huge for their ratings.

00:32:17.600 You remember, you were running against him.

00:32:19.160 It was like CNN was giving, it was almost like the Trump News Network during the primary.

00:32:23.720 And then once he got the nomination and then once he actually looked like he might have a chance of winning, they started to turn a little bit.

00:32:33.780 It wasn't until the night.

00:32:36.020 And I was I was at CNN that night all night long on election night.

00:32:40.180 And you could see the shock and the anger because everyone there from the highest up people assumed Hillary was going to win. 0.97

00:32:50.120 So this was basically just great TV drama until he won.

00:32:54.640 And then when he won, they basically and once he started saying they were fake news and he was in there going after them as the president and going after them in the in the White House press briefing room and allowing Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others to fight back.

00:33:09.300 They couldn't take it out on Trump enough.

00:33:11.840 So they started taking it out on the commentators that were left.

00:33:15.080 I was one of the last, I think, real conservatives left at CNN.

00:33:18.760 I actually begged them to not resign me at the end.

00:33:22.120 They had a right to sign and a right to match.

00:33:24.940 And they did it anyway.

00:33:26.240 And in my last year, they signed me to silence me.

00:33:29.780 I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly, actually.

00:33:32.740 In my last year, I asked them not to.

00:33:35.520 And they said, no, we're going to resign.

00:33:37.160 You know, I had another offer and they were they were going to match.

00:33:39.300 And that was it.

00:33:41.140 I can say this and you'll laugh.

00:33:44.020 I will go down history as being the highest paid CNN contributor in history.

00:33:49.540 If you count it per appearance, because in the last year of my contract, when they extended it, they signed me to bench me just to say they had a pro Trump commentator on the payroll.

00:34:01.480 And I did a total of two appearances in 12 months under contract.

00:34:08.280 Yes.

00:34:08.800 What appearances?

00:34:09.780 Yes.

00:34:10.120 That's I I've never really talked about this publicly.

00:34:12.760 So they re-signed me and I said, please don't.

00:34:16.480 And they did it anyway.

00:34:17.980 And I they didn't have me on for like three and a half, four months.

00:34:22.360 All right, Ben, I don't want to out your personal finances, but I kind of do.

00:34:26.540 How much does CNN pay someone?

00:34:29.200 I mean, look, if you don't want to answer that, don't answer that.

00:34:31.380 But I'm kind of curious.

00:34:32.580 Yeah, it all depends on if you're hosting, what your past resume was, how long you've been there.

00:34:40.240 And so I made, I mean, low six figures when I was there.

00:34:44.840 My first contract.

00:34:45.600 A hundred grand, a hundred plus.

00:34:46.660 Yeah, a hundred plus, I think is what it was.

00:34:49.220 And you did two appearances in a year?

00:34:52.160 In a year, in a year.

00:34:53.340 So they paid you fifty friggin thousand dollars per appearance?

00:34:56.400 A little more than that.

00:34:58.000 That's why I said I go down in history as the highest paid CNN contributor in history per appearance.

00:35:04.420 But they they benched me and the Hollywood reporter noticed that there was like two or three of us that were pro-Trump.

00:35:11.740 And we vanished from the screen because a normal week when I was there in the first, you know, six years,

00:35:17.080 I would probably average four to six appearances a week.

00:35:21.120 Some weeks would be eleven, twelve, thirteen during the political campaigns.

00:35:25.160 I did so many appearances in my first contract.

00:35:28.600 Wait, wait, I'm doing some quick math.

00:35:30.220 Let's say five appearances a week, fifty two weeks.

00:35:32.920 That's over two hundred and fifty appearances a year.

00:35:35.120 That's that's what you used to be.

00:35:36.980 And you went from two hundred and fifty appearances a year to two to two in my last year, two.

00:35:43.100 And it was only I did one appearance where they tried to I think it was actually to try to get rid of me.

00:35:49.560 They had me come on to defend Rush Limbaugh and they tried to turn me into a racist bigot that was defending Rush Limbaugh that was anti-gay.

00:35:57.900 And I didn't take the bait.

00:35:59.220 And I was you could see I was very angry when I was on TV because I knew what they were trying to do.

00:36:04.660 And it didn't work and I didn't take the bait and I fought back. 0.94

00:36:07.620 And then there was a bunch of articles from, you know, scumbags in me that were trying to imply that I said something I didn't say.

00:36:13.940 And then Hollywood Reporter noticed that the pro Trump surrogates, in essence, these conservatives at CNN were had vanished from the air and they wrote an article.

00:36:26.900 So I say this seriously and look, I don't watch CNN, so but I can't recall a single pro Trump surrogate in years they've had.

00:36:37.380 Yeah, I can tell you, I used to do CNN.

00:36:40.160 I didn't do it five times a week because they paid me zero.

00:36:43.320 And in my entire life, I've been paid zero by CNN.

00:36:46.440 And, you know, I feel it was a fair trade.

00:36:49.740 But I used to do CNN once a week consistently.

00:36:53.480 I haven't done them in years, years, because they're not interested in a fair discussion.

00:37:03.300 They are propagandists and they're not even Democrat propagandists.

00:37:08.940 They are the left wing of the Democrat Party.

00:37:11.560 And it's not just CNN.

00:37:14.900 Why did CBS seize Catherine Herridge's confidential source notes?

00:37:23.480 That is extremely unusual.

00:37:26.700 But it is a manifestation of the complete corruption of the corporate media.

00:37:32.100 No doubt about it.

00:37:33.880 This is a really fun show.

00:37:35.680 I hope everybody enjoyed it.

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00:37:50.260 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:37:52.540 I keep you up to date on my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast, on those in-between days as well.

00:37:58.060 So download that podcast, mine, the Ben Ferguson podcast as well.

00:38:01.720 And we have that week in review.

00:38:04.340 What you may have missed during the week, if you didn't get to get every episode, we have that for you on Saturdays as well.

00:38:09.620 And the Senator and I will see you back here Saturday morning for that.

00:38:12.860 Have a great day.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 23, 2024

Not Just Hunter-Cascading Evidence of Biden Family Corruption, plus Media Turns on Biden & Attack Real Journalism

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