Obamacare Equals Expensive NO CARE, Why Democrats Hate Fetterman & Antifa at TPUSA Week In Review
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Summary
Ted Cruz and Ben Fetterman talk with President Trump on the phone about the government shutdown and why it s time to open it up. Also, why are Democrats so angry with John Fettermann for just saying it's time for the government to reopen? And finally, more violence as Antifa attacks at a Turning Point USA gathering.
Transcript
00:00:09.680
And here are some of the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
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First up, Democrats, they're pretty upset over the government shutdown.
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But what they're really upset about is your subsidies.
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Billions and billions of dollars in payouts going to insurance companies that are getting rich.
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Obamacare is broken, known as the Affordable Care Act.
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It's anything but, and we'll explain it to you.
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Also, why are Democrats so angry with John Fetterman for just doing the right thing
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And finally, more violence as Antifa attacks at a Turning Point USA gathering.
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It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
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And the president, he was in a good mood, but he was expressing his views emphatically, as he always does.
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By the way, for people that have ever done a phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,
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he does not ever hold back when you're talking to him on the phone.
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But when I've had phone calls with him, whether it was in 16 to 20 or now forward,
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like he does not hold back at all when you're on the cell phone, on speakerphone as well.
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So one of the things we asked of him Friday night, we said, listen, in this battle with
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the Democrats over Obamacare, Obamacare is failing.
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And if you go back, go back to 2013, 2013, when I did a filibuster against Obamacare,
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I said at the time, if you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people Obamacare would
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cut the average family's premiums by $2,500 a year.
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And in fact, they skyrocketed at the time, $5,000 a year.
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Even the Washington Post has now admitted the editorial page, the Affordable Care Act,
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which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make health care more affordable.
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So when we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it would really help if you made the
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case that what Democrats are fighting for is these massive multi-billion dollar corporate
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welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies instead of empowering consumers.
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And so we said, in particular, it would really help if you would send a truth.
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And so I will tell you what the president sent.
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Um, I had a lot of input in this and, and here's what he put out.
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President Trump said, Democrats claim to be working for quote, the little guy and driving
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But the, and the rest of this is in all caps, Obamacare scam goes straight to their best
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They are making a killing while health coverage only gets worse.
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If Democrats, if Democrats get their way again, they're in for another huge payday at the expense
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of the American people, no deal in all caps, Republicans should give money directly to your
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personal health savings accounts, all in caps that I expanded in our great, big, beautiful
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Now this is really important because if you want a really strong principled, conservative
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reform to, to, to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts so that you give you
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And instead of sending money to the insurance companies, send it straight to people's health
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You can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and empowers patients and it lowers
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The president leaning in with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll have
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over the next six weeks because the outcome he's advocating for is something I've advocated
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And, and that was a direct result of that dinner on Friday night where we got him on the phone.
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You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out of this first year of, of Trump
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It is really empowering the American people, whether it is the, the account she's talked
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about, uh, whether it's the, the Trump accounts are, that are going to be coming in this next
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year that you guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money and to be able to grow accounts
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Like there is a lot of personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get
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And then the Democrats like, no, no, no, no, no, no, my Donnie's and others, you should
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We want to run the whole damn show from, from, from birth to death.
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Just trust the U S government to, to be your daddy or your mommy, uh, or both.
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And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans and Democrats right now.
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As you noted, we passed the Trump accounts, as you know, well, I wrote that legislation.
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This has been a major theme that I've been fighting for since the first day I got elected
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And, and whether you're talking about health savings accounts, whether you're talking about
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Trump accounts that are, that are essentially 401k savings accounts for kids, or whether
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you're talking about school choice and getting tax credits, the unifying theme of all of those
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is individual choice, empowering you, the individual rather than government competition and, and
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That is the fundamental difference between left and right.
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And president Trump has been a great partner in this.
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And I'll tell you as a part of his tweet, he sent out a chart, uh, a chart, which, which,
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which I had sent him, but I want you to, to see the chart.
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We're going to put it up on, on, on YouTube for anyone that's watching it on YouTube, but
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it goes through the major, uh, healthcare companies, their stock performance since Obamacare
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Aetna's stock, stock price was $30 and 50 cents.
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Anthem Elevance Health, its stock has increased 414%.
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And UnitedHealth Group, when Obamacare passed, UnitedHealth stock was $25.66.
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It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.
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By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.
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They give to Akeem Jeffries and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in
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power, their profits go through the roof, and the American people's premiums skyrocket.
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What do the Democrats say they wanted to do in this shutdown?
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Give $50 billion to those same health insurance companies whose profits have skyrocketed.
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And it's why what the president said is so important.
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No, we're not going to give money to health insurance companies.
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Instead, we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the individual, has control
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Senator, I also want to get a little preview of something that you're working on.
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We're going to do a more expansive show on this, but it's important that people know
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that even while the government has been shut down, you have been working very hard on other
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One of those things is you have now introduced the, quote, Deporting Fraudsters Act of 2025,
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and it deals with SNAP and public benefits abuses that is costing the American people millions
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Give us a little preview of this so people know what's been going on.
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It is an astonishing fact that right now, welfare fraud, fraudulently taking government assistance
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benefits, is not a deportable offense under the immigration laws.
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This law will change that and make it a deportable offense.
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48% of households headed by illegal immigrants received food-related welfare benefits.
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A CIS analysis found that 31% of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.
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One in five households getting WIC, women, infants, and children, or SNAP is headed by a
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non-citizen, and 96% of the children in those households are U.S. but born, showing how illegal
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aliens exploit child-based eligibility to access benefits indirectly.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports 1.76 million non-citizens on SNAP in 2023.
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That is roughly $312 million in taxpayer funds.
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In 2012, or not 2012, rather, 2022, it was 1.5 million recipients.
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For example, in 2024, $126.8 million was stolen from EBT cards.
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In Texas, 3.7 million people, about 11% of the state, relies on SNAP.
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Every stolen or unlawfully claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need.
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And according to the CBO, about 200,000 illegal aliens from the surge of alien asylum seekers
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from 2023 to 2024, already received SNAP, growing to $800,000 by 2034, assuming no deportations,
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And so this bill is to target that and say, if you're here illegally, you do not have any
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And if you access, fraudulently access public welfare, that is yet another ground to deport
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Now, Chuck Schumer is a co-sponsor of this bill, right?
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And I feel confident that Schumer is not just a no, he's a hell no, because today's Democrat
00:11:02.300
party, it is all for giant health insurance corporations.
00:11:13.340
It's all for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work hard and provide for
00:11:21.760
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to
00:11:28.720
Canadian women are looking for more, more to themselves, their businesses, their elected
00:11:34.840
And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:11:40.700
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,
00:11:46.080
athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:11:50.480
So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:11:53.720
Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:12:04.080
And that's part of what I got to ask you about is there are Democrats now that are
00:12:09.320
basically like off with his head in leadership.
00:12:22.980
This goes back to being held hostage by the Marxists, the socialists, and the communists
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Now they're running the party, and they're anarchists, and Chuck Schumer shut down the
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government for the longest period in history of this country, and that wasn't good enough
00:12:44.400
He voted no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head.
00:12:52.580
And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will believe John Fetterman.
00:12:59.280
Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, was on The View.
00:13:05.100
And Sonny, you know, one of the left-wing hosts there, comes after him and comes after
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Listen to her unhinged question, and then listen to Fetterman's response.
00:13:16.520
Well, Senator, Bernie Sanders said the vote was a horrific mistake.
00:13:20.440
Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic and a surrender.
00:13:23.660
There, poll after poll found more Americans on both sides of the aisle blaming Republicans.
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As you mentioned, Democrats had big wins last week.
00:13:40.880
Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate on health care in good faith once
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Because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their health
00:13:59.320
Well, first of all, you know, MTG is quite literally the last person in America that I'm
00:14:06.880
going to take advice or to get their kinds of my leadership and values from.
00:14:10.920
And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants like that, then that's on them.
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I don't need a lecture from from whether it's Bernie or the governor in California, because
00:14:23.360
they are representing very deep blue, blue kinds of populations.
00:14:27.940
And a lot of those things, a lot of those things were part of the extreme.
00:14:32.440
And I'll remember what really needs to win to win.
00:14:35.880
The big win is involving my state and other states and those things.
00:14:41.240
And why have we arrived here after the election a year ago?
00:14:47.020
We got to forget some of the things that cost us that election or now for me, it's like
00:14:52.480
that's why I'm trying to remind people that kinds of the extreme extremism, we can't return
00:14:57.740
to those kind of things and realize we need to find a way forward.
00:15:00.940
And I would like to rather than cite MTG, I'm going to cite one of the new governor elects
00:15:06.060
saying that my election is not a green light to continue the shutdown, because I promise
00:15:17.480
But the reality is 42 million Americans now not sure where their next meal is going to
00:15:22.860
And because we vote like that, vote like that, or people that haven't been paid for
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five weeks now and that kinds of chaos, those workers borrow more than half a billion dollars,
00:15:32.960
you know, from their credit union just to pay their bills.
00:15:35.880
You listen to him talking about paying their bills.
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They also were very quiet because I didn't think I don't think they realized he was going
00:15:45.720
to come back with facts that way and describe it.
00:15:49.240
I jokingly said to you before the show started, when's John Fetterman going to join the Republican
00:15:54.320
Because he's been speaking an awful lot of truth about the reality of this shutdown.
00:16:01.320
And I will tell you, Republicans actually treat him much more nicely than the Democrats do.
00:16:13.800
And the amazing thing is he votes the overwhelming majority of the time with the Democrats.
00:16:20.300
You know, he's on the Commerce Committee with me.
00:16:22.820
On virtually every vote, he votes party line with the Democrats.
00:16:25.920
On most votes on the floor, he votes party line with the Democrats.
00:16:33.880
And that's viewed as this great heresy because he didn't want to have a force of government
00:16:39.040
shutdown and hurt millions of Americans and continue the longest government shutdown in
00:16:44.300
And the main area that he's been willing to dissent from virtually every other congressional
00:16:53.020
And we've talked about before that there is a real and cognizable pro-Hamas caucus in
00:17:07.620
And Fetterman is a massive outlier because he is genuinely pro-Israel.
00:17:15.300
And the radicals in the Democrat Party hate him for that.
00:17:18.860
And again, if you don't believe me, listen to what John Fetterman said on exactly this
00:17:38.540
You have been one of the most outspoken people in American life on the issue of anti-Semitism.
00:17:56.620
And it's like, maybe it's ironic that a big German guy from Pennsylvania who's been very
00:18:03.780
absolutely devoted to Israel and to experience the kind of anti-Semitism in my life.
00:18:09.860
I mean, you know what, you know, the tree of life.
00:18:15.260
And my heart breaks for what the Jewish communities suffered, especially after 10-7.
00:18:22.100
I've had the honor of meeting, you know, members of the hostages, former people that were kept
00:18:36.400
And they have eight children, raising eight children by their own.
00:18:45.600
And that's been what's so difficult for me, is like being devotion to Israel becoming increasingly
00:18:51.680
incompatible with being a proud Democrat now, too.
00:18:57.340
And the things that put me at odds have all converged at the same time.
00:19:01.380
You know, the Gaza War, the peace deal, and then we move right into a shutdown.
00:19:04.980
You know, like now Democrats might not be allowed to hold these views, and I'm not changing my
00:19:19.160
You know, he is a Democrat, but you've walked past his Senate office countless times.
00:19:25.080
I've walked past it probably dozens of times when I'm up in D.C., and he had all the hostage
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pictures up in his front office, which I thought was incredible.
00:19:34.980
Look, he has been genuinely courageous and sincerely courageous on Israel, and it's earned
00:19:42.800
the absolute ire, hatred, animosity, venom of the radical left in the Democrat Party.
00:19:51.340
I mean, you heard what he just said there, that being pro-Israel is becoming incompatible
00:20:02.480
And I wish that statement were not true, but it is the biggest reason why their radicals
00:20:11.120
And much of, you know, when he was first elected and he came into office, he had had a stroke
00:20:17.820
during the campaign, and the stroke was very debilitating.
00:20:20.680
When John showed up, the stroke really limited, like when I first met him, what the stroke
00:20:28.260
did is it limited his ability to process auditory input.
00:20:33.140
So you would talk to him, and his brain was not able to process the words he was hearing.
00:20:39.920
And so he would carry with him an iPad that had a translator, because it just, this is
00:20:45.680
one of the consequences that can be from a stroke, is your ability to process words that
00:20:55.500
But when he first got there, you would talk to him, and he would literally, he was not
00:21:05.040
The man's a Harvard graduate, but he had a medical issue that he had real consequences.
00:21:10.600
Early on, the Democrats all circled around him and said his, you know, he's perfectly
00:21:17.720
There are no issues whatsoever, because they assumed he would be a left-wing Democrat.
00:21:26.180
And then when he started standing up, particularly on Israel, standing up and defying the
00:21:32.780
pro-Hamas caucus, you started seeing the Democrats leaking and planning stories and really attacking
00:21:41.580
And the irony is, look, you heard in those exchanges, he's now able to have a conversation.
00:21:46.980
He still is a little halting in his communication, and I think that's some of the aftermath of
00:21:54.660
You can now have a conversation, and he can hear you in a way that when he showed up in
00:22:00.500
And yet, Democrats are running to reporters to plant negative stories attacking him.
00:22:08.460
Many of his colleagues want to drive him out of the party.
00:22:11.660
And at least on the Republican side, I like John, and I think consistently all the Republicans
00:22:19.580
By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin.
00:22:23.760
And they succeeded in driving both of them out of the party because they want no dissent.
00:22:28.700
You must obey and follow orders or they'll do everything they can to drive you out.
00:22:34.920
And to be honest, both Sinema and Manchin, I think Republicans were much nicer to than
00:22:40.880
And the consequence was they were both driven out of the party.
00:22:44.000
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go
00:22:48.800
back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
00:22:52.540
Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected
00:22:59.640
And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:23:05.780
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:23:09.540
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their
00:23:15.260
So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:23:18.260
Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcast.
00:23:22.540
I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:23:29.240
I want to end the show with talking about something else that has really made me sad this week.
00:23:34.720
It's also, I think, really telling you where we are as a country with a radical left.
00:23:40.720
We have seen violent protesters at a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley.
00:23:48.720
I wish it wasn't what we witnessed, but it was radical leftists.
00:23:57.100
But it is shocking to see this level of rhetoric and attacks on conservatives who are just going
00:24:07.240
And it's very eerily close to what we witnessed with the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:24:12.180
Yeah, look, the pattern of left-wing violence continues, and it continues across the country,
00:24:17.280
and it continues with the acquiescence and support of many on the far left, far too many
00:24:25.720
This week, Turning Point USA had a rally at UC Berkeley.
00:24:30.920
Now, the speakers at the rally were Dr. Frank Turek, who's a Christian pastor,
00:24:40.220
So it's not like either of these speakers were particularly controversial in any normal
00:24:48.500
But UC Berkeley is not necessarily a normal or sane place.
00:24:54.380
And Antifa targeted them, targeted the people coming into the rally, coming in to see, to
00:25:09.020
A bloody fight broke out near the University of California, Berkeley, on Monday afternoon
00:25:15.780
The event, which featured Dr. Frank Turek and Rob Schneider, marked the end of the This
00:25:22.200
It took place just two months after Turning Point USA's founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated
00:25:35.140
During the brawl, two men were seen fighting each other, one of whom had blood gushing from
00:25:43.880
Video taken by Fox News Digital also shows a crowd of agitators gathered around the fight.
00:26:03.440
They were celebrating that Charlie Kirk had been murdered.
00:26:06.520
They were chanting how happy they are about that.
00:26:12.180
And you can watch the video online of one of the people coming to the Turning Point event
00:26:29.280
And I'll tell you, what is frustrating is where was the administration of Berkeley?
00:26:42.520
This is the same faculty that allowed their campuses to be taken over for weeks and months
00:26:47.920
on end by radical anti-Semitic protesters, by Antifa communists, who again engage in threats
00:27:01.200
There is, I've been saying for a long time, follow the money.
00:27:04.680
I've been urging the Department of Justice and the FBI to follow the money.
00:27:08.620
I've introduced legislation, the Stop Funders Act, to add rioting as a predicate act to RICO
00:27:13.880
to let us go after the money that is behind these violent anarchists.
00:27:23.420
UC Berkeley's bloody protest of Turning Point USA, allegedly funded by far-left non-profit.
00:27:30.040
Attorney General Pam Bondi opens anti-terrorism investigation into campus clash outside Turning
00:27:39.660
Last month, a band of demonstrators marched across West Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles
00:27:46.140
in the national anti-Trump No Kings protest, carrying a banner that read, defeat Trump's
00:27:53.020
fascist takeover, stop ICE raids, and deportations by any means necessary.
00:27:59.600
And in one corner, four bold letters stood out.
00:28:04.120
B-A-M-N, an acronym for by any means necessary.
00:28:11.180
The rest of the banner spelled out clues to the group's full name in smaller print.
00:28:15.140
Quote, coalition to defend affirmative action, integration, and immigration rights and fight
00:28:24.580
That organization, one of 266 groups with combined annual revenues of $2.9 billion, $2.9 billion,
00:28:36.460
identified by Fox News Digital, leading the No Kings protests, would soon reappear at this
00:28:45.040
week's flashpoint on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.
00:28:49.360
And so this group, a flyer circulated before the demonstration, urged participants to, quote,
00:28:56.060
end fascist Turning Point's youth-oriented campaign of incitement to violence.
00:29:00.560
Now, ironically, they're accusing Turning Point of incitement to violence, and they show up
00:29:05.140
and violently assault the people who are going to Turning Point.
00:29:08.180
This is, it's classic Marxist technique of projecting and accusing your opponents of
00:29:15.900
And this flyer announced a rally outside of Zellerbach Hall an hour before the doors opened
00:29:23.220
Well, the good news is, and a QR page printed on the flyer leads to a page on BAMN.com, which
00:29:34.420
is a domain of this group that was helping fund the No Kings rallies.
00:29:38.380
And so there is an entire ecosystem with money flowing to promote violence.
00:29:45.460
And thankfully, the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi has announced that they're doing
00:29:51.480
an anti-terrorism investigation to go after to follow the money.
00:29:55.660
And I'll tell you also, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights is questioning, is
00:30:05.520
questioning why Berkeley allowed this to happen.
00:30:09.760
In fact, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dillon, formally demanded that
00:30:16.320
UC Berkeley preserve all records regarding their response to the mob violence at Berkeley's
00:30:28.620
And that's because I suspect they're going to find, they're going to find emails, they're
00:30:33.820
going to find administrators saying, communicating back and forth, just like we did with the
00:30:39.060
anti-Semitic protesters, where it is clear that the administrators do not want to protect
00:30:45.440
the people at Turning Point USA, do not want the police to stop violence if it's directed
00:30:50.140
against conservatives, and there's a real moral decay at our universities, and I'm glad we
00:30:55.720
have a Department of Justice that's willing to enforce the law and go after, number one,
00:31:01.860
the money behind the left-wing violence, but number two, the administrators who are facilitating.
00:31:07.560
And I've got to say, it is not dissimilar to what's happening in Nigeria.
00:31:12.660
We talked about a minute ago where you have government officials who look the other way and refuse
00:31:17.420
to enforce the law to protect Christians. In Berkeley's case, I suspect the evidence will
00:31:22.360
indicate the school administrators look the other way and refuse to protect the students at
00:31:28.540
Turning Point USA because they're rooting for the Antifa rioters who are physically assaulting
00:31:37.000
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:31:41.920
Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not
00:31:45.820
listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a
00:31:50.160
listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here on Monday morning.