Verdict with Ted Cruz - Obamacare Equals Expensive NO CARE, Why Democrats Hate Fetterman & Antifa at TPUSA Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.260 Welcome.

00:00:05.980 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Weekend Review.

00:00:08.640 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.680 And here are some of the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:13.000 First up, Democrats, they're pretty upset over the government shutdown.

00:00:18.100 But what they're really upset about is your subsidies.

00:00:21.540 Billions and billions of dollars in payouts going to insurance companies that are getting rich.

00:00:28.000 Obamacare is broken, known as the Affordable Care Act.

00:00:31.980 It's anything but, and we'll explain it to you.

00:00:34.680 Also, why are Democrats so angry with John Fetterman for just doing the right thing

00:00:40.660 and saying it's time to open the government?

00:00:43.060 We'll explain that as well.

00:00:44.660 And finally, more violence as Antifa attacks at a Turning Point USA gathering.

00:00:51.860 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:55.040 And the president, he was in a good mood, but he was expressing his views emphatically, as he always does.

00:01:02.960 Yeah.

00:01:03.380 By the way, for people that have ever done a phone call, like if you've never gotten to do this,

00:01:07.020 he does not ever hold back when you're talking to him on the phone.

00:01:09.940 Not a single phone call.

00:01:11.360 You've had a lot more than I have.

00:01:13.320 But when I've had phone calls with him, whether it was in 16 to 20 or now forward,

00:01:18.480 like he does not hold back at all when you're on the cell phone, on speakerphone as well.

00:01:23.820 He does not.

00:01:24.740 So one of the things we asked of him Friday night, we said, listen, in this battle with

00:01:28.840 the Democrats over Obamacare, Obamacare is failing.

00:01:31.920 It's a bad program.

00:01:32.860 And if you go back, go back to 2013, 2013, when I did a filibuster against Obamacare,

00:01:39.040 I said at the time, if you remember, Barack Obama promised the American people Obamacare would

00:01:44.540 cut the average family's premiums by $2,500 a year.

00:01:48.480 Yep.

00:01:48.720 That was a lie.

00:01:49.820 And in fact, they skyrocketed at the time, $5,000 a year.

00:01:54.040 They've skyrocketed a lot more than that.

00:01:56.440 Even the Washington Post has now admitted the editorial page, the Affordable Care Act,

00:02:01.360 which is the misleading name of Obamacare, did not make health care more affordable.

00:02:05.420 It caused premiums to skyrocket.

00:02:07.800 So when we had Trump on the phone, we said, look, it would really help if you made the

00:02:12.960 case that what Democrats are fighting for is these massive multi-billion dollar corporate

00:02:18.600 welfare payoffs to the health insurance companies instead of empowering consumers.

00:02:24.580 And look, we want to lower prices.

00:02:26.980 And so we said, in particular, it would really help if you would send a truth.

00:02:31.880 And Trump said, great, come up with something.

00:02:35.420 And so I will tell you what the president sent.

00:02:37.620 Um, I had a lot of input in this and, and here's what he put out.

00:02:42.220 President Trump said, Democrats claim to be working for quote, the little guy and driving

00:02:48.040 down your health insurance.

00:02:50.280 But the, and the rest of this is in all caps, Obamacare scam goes straight to their best

00:02:56.080 friends in the insurance industry.

00:02:57.760 They are making a killing while health coverage only gets worse.

00:03:03.060 If Democrats, if Democrats get their way again, they're in for another huge payday at the expense

00:03:11.560 of the American people, no deal in all caps, Republicans should give money directly to your

00:03:19.400 personal health savings accounts, all in caps that I expanded in our great, big, beautiful

00:03:25.660 bill.

00:03:26.320 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:03:28.180 Now this is really important because if you want a really strong principled, conservative

00:03:33.920 reform to, to, to health insurance, expanding health savings accounts so that you give you

00:03:40.760 the consumer, you, the patient more control.

00:03:43.200 And instead of sending money to the insurance companies, send it straight to people's health

00:03:48.280 savings accounts.

00:03:49.120 So you can spend it on premiums.

00:03:51.080 You can spend it on deductibles.

00:03:52.440 You can spend it on healthcare that expands competition and empowers patients and it lowers

00:03:57.360 prices.

00:03:58.360 The president leaning in with this tweet really helps in this political battle we'll have

00:04:05.120 over the next six weeks because the outcome he's advocating for is something I've advocated

00:04:10.680 for a long time.

00:04:11.680 And, and that was a direct result of that dinner on Friday night where we got him on the phone.

00:04:17.220 You know, there's one interesting thing that's coming out of this first year of, of Trump

00:04:21.940 being back in office.

00:04:22.880 It is really empowering the American people, whether it is the, the account she's talked

00:04:28.320 about, uh, whether it's the, the Trump accounts are, that are going to be coming in this next

00:04:32.520 year that you guys pass to give kids the opportunity to save money and to be able to grow accounts

00:04:38.700 and to build wealth over their lifetime.

00:04:40.920 Like there is a lot of personal growth and personal excitement that it's Trump is get

00:04:47.860 the government out of your life.

00:04:49.580 You can do better without it.

00:04:51.460 We want to help you do that.

00:04:52.860 And then the Democrats like, no, no, no, no, no, no, my Donnie's and others, you should

00:04:56.480 have no control of your life. 0.97

00:04:58.300 We want to run the whole damn show from, from, from birth to death. 1.00

00:05:02.020 Just trust the U S government to, to be your daddy or your mommy, uh, or both. 0.98

00:05:07.040 And that's exactly the difference between the Republicans and Democrats right now.

00:05:11.400 Look, it's a fundamental divide.

00:05:13.520 As you noted, we passed the Trump accounts, as you know, well, I wrote that legislation.

00:05:18.360 Yep.

00:05:18.800 This has been a major theme that I've been fighting for since the first day I got elected

00:05:23.860 to the Senate.

00:05:24.400 And, and whether you're talking about health savings accounts, whether you're talking about

00:05:28.720 Trump accounts that are, that are essentially 401k savings accounts for kids, or whether

00:05:34.160 you're talking about school choice and getting tax credits, the unifying theme of all of those

00:05:39.740 is individual choice, empowering you, the individual rather than government competition and, and

00:05:48.020 giving you control.

00:05:50.280 That is the fundamental difference between left and right.

00:05:53.360 And president Trump has been a great partner in this.

00:05:55.380 And I'll tell you as a part of his tweet, he sent out a chart, uh, a chart, which, which,

00:06:00.880 which I had sent him, but I want you to, to see the chart.

00:06:04.440 We're going to put it up on, on, on YouTube for anyone that's watching it on YouTube, but

00:06:08.700 it goes through the major, uh, healthcare companies, their stock performance since Obamacare

00:06:17.720 passed.

00:06:18.180 I'm going to walk through them.

00:06:19.120 Aetna, Obamacare March 2010 is when it passed.

00:06:23.640 Aetna's stock, stock price was $30 and 50 cents.

00:06:27.820 Today it's $212.

00:06:29.780 So it's increased 595% since Obamacare passed.

00:06:34.360 Centene, its stock has increased 604%.

00:06:38.820 Molina, its stock has increased 859%.

00:06:43.120 Humana, its stock has increased 490%.

00:06:47.940 Anthem Elevance Health, its stock has increased 414%.

00:06:53.960 Cigna, its stock has increased 822%.

00:06:59.880 And UnitedHealth Group, when Obamacare passed, UnitedHealth stock was $25.66.

00:07:06.840 Today, November, 2025, it is $327.74.

00:07:13.900 That is a 1,177% increase.

00:07:18.300 That's what Obamacare did. 1.00

00:07:20.060 It massively increased the profits of the health insurance companies.

00:07:23.300 By the way, those health insurance companies overwhelmingly give to Democrats.

00:07:27.260 They give to Chuck Schumer.

00:07:28.500 They give to Akeem Jeffries and the Democrats because they recognize when Democrats are in

00:07:32.900 power, their profits go through the roof, and the American people's premiums skyrocket.

00:07:38.260 What do the Democrats say they wanted to do in this shutdown?

00:07:41.780 Give $50 billion to those same health insurance companies whose profits have skyrocketed.

00:07:46.680 And it's why what the president said is so important.

00:07:49.320 No, we're not going to give money to health insurance companies.

00:07:51.620 Instead, we're going to expand health savings accounts so you, the individual, has control

00:07:56.920 over your own health care.

00:07:58.520 Senator, I also want to get a little preview of something that you're working on.

00:08:02.720 We're going to do a more expansive show on this, but it's important that people know

00:08:06.760 that even while the government has been shut down, you have been working very hard on other

00:08:11.720 things.

00:08:12.520 One of those things is you have now introduced the, quote, Deporting Fraudsters Act of 2025,

00:08:18.920 and it deals with SNAP and public benefits abuses that is costing the American people millions

00:08:25.900 and millions of dollars.

00:08:27.720 Give us a little preview of this so people know what's been going on.

00:08:30.880 Look, this is a very simple bill.

00:08:33.160 It is an astonishing fact that right now, welfare fraud, fraudulently taking government assistance

00:08:38.680 benefits, is not a deportable offense under the immigration laws.

00:08:43.740 This law will change that and make it a deportable offense.

00:08:46.240 Let me give you some basic statistics.

00:08:48.640 48% of households headed by illegal immigrants received food-related welfare benefits.

00:08:55.800 48%, nearly half, specifically SNAP.

00:08:59.300 A CIS analysis found that 31% of illegal alien households with children draw SNAP benefits.

00:09:07.400 One in five households getting WIC, women, infants, and children, or SNAP is headed by a 0.99

00:09:14.800 non-citizen, and 96% of the children in those households are U.S. but born, showing how illegal

00:09:21.880 aliens exploit child-based eligibility to access benefits indirectly.

00:09:26.720 The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports 1.76 million non-citizens on SNAP in 2023.

00:09:36.400 That is roughly $312 million in taxpayer funds.

00:09:43.060 In 2012, or not 2012, rather, 2022, it was 1.5 million recipients.

00:09:49.000 That cost $222 million.

00:09:51.380 Fraud is rampant.

00:09:53.500 For example, in 2024, $126.8 million was stolen from EBT cards.

00:10:00.480 In Texas, 3.7 million people, about 11% of the state, relies on SNAP.

00:10:07.620 Every stolen or unlawfully claimed dollar robs a citizen family in genuine need.

00:10:13.820 And according to the CBO, about 200,000 illegal aliens from the surge of alien asylum seekers

00:10:20.540 from 2023 to 2024, already received SNAP, growing to $800,000 by 2034, assuming no deportations,

00:10:31.420 a 10-year cost.

00:10:32.680 You said this cost millions?

00:10:34.640 Yeah.

00:10:35.300 The 10-year cost is $15 billion.

00:10:39.240 And so this bill is to target that and say, if you're here illegally, you do not have any

00:10:43.720 entitlement to public welfare.

00:10:45.440 And if you access, fraudulently access public welfare, that is yet another ground to deport

00:10:51.660 you.

00:10:52.400 Now, Chuck Schumer is a co-sponsor of this bill, right?

00:10:54.880 No.

00:10:56.820 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. 0.55

00:11:05.740 It is all for illegal immigrants. 1.00

00:11:07.940 It is all for violent criminals. 0.91

00:11:09.860 It is all for men and women's sports.

00:11:13.340 It's all for everyone except the average American citizen trying to work hard and provide for 0.98

00:11:18.620 his or her family.

00:11:19.660 And that's exactly backwards.

00:11:21.760 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to

00:11:25.560 the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:11:28.720 Canadian women are looking for more, more to themselves, their businesses, their elected 0.99

00:11:33.080 leaders, and the world around them.

00:11:34.840 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:11:38.640 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:11:39.760 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:11:40.700 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

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00:11:53.720 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:11:59.420 Now on to story number two.

00:12:01.740 This is a civil war.

00:12:03.320 Let's be clear.

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.

00:12:11.300 They want him gone.

00:12:12.280 They're publicly saying that.

00:12:13.640 They're saying this is the end of him.

00:12:14.920 He is done.

00:12:15.780 MSNBC said it multiple times.

00:12:17.940 CNN commentators said the same thing.

00:12:19.460 Like, he's done.

00:12:20.140 They got to get rid of him.

00:12:21.020 His career's over.

00:12:22.980 This goes back to being held hostage by the Marxists, the socialists, and the communists

00:12:26.860 of the Democratic Party.

00:12:27.840 Now they didn't police him.

00:12:29.540 Now they're running the party, and they're anarchists, and Chuck Schumer shut down the

00:12:33.920 government for the longest period in history of this country, and that wasn't good enough

00:12:39.580 for them.

00:12:40.420 And he still voted no on reopening it.

00:12:42.600 So he shut it down for the longest in history.

00:12:44.400 He voted no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head.

00:12:48.560 It really is.

00:12:50.040 The crazies are driving the Democrat Party.

00:12:52.580 And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will believe John Fetterman.

00:12:57.520 And I want you to listen to this exchange.

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

00:13:10.840 him hard.

00:13:11.380 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. 0.97

00:13:20.440 Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic and a surrender. 0.84

00:13:23.660 There, poll after poll found more Americans on both sides of the aisle blaming Republicans. 0.92

00:13:29.420 Even Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed the GOP.

00:13:32.340 As you mentioned, Democrats had big wins last week.

00:13:35.020 So you had momentum.

00:13:36.840 Why give in now?

00:13:38.480 Why bring a butter knife to a gunfight?

00:13:40.880 Are you willing to gamble that the GOP will negotiate on health care in good faith once

00:13:47.100 the government reopens?

00:13:48.520 Because if that gamble is wrong, half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their health

00:13:53.780 care costs will skyrocket if you are wrong.

00:13:57.440 And I believe you are wrong.

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.

00:14:15.600 And I don't need and I don't need a lecture.

00:14:17.780 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?

00:14:45.600 We want to forget.

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

00:15:13.220 you, this isn't a political game.

00:15:15.080 It is viewed by that by many of us.

00:15:17.480 But the reality is 42 million Americans now not sure where their next meal is going to

00:15:22.080 come from.

00:15:22.860 And because we vote like that, vote like that, or people that haven't been paid for

00:15:27.580 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.

00:15:38.580 And I love that from Fetterman there.

00:15:41.280 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

00:15:53.320 Party?

00:15:54.320 Because he's been speaking an awful lot of truth about the reality of this shutdown.

00:15:58.820 Well, look, I like John Fetterman.

00:16:01.320 And I will tell you, Republicans actually treat him much more nicely than the Democrats do.

00:16:06.180 The Democrats are mean to him.

00:16:07.680 They're vicious to him. 0.69

00:16:08.800 They really have a deep antipathy to him.

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.

00:16:29.460 He has a few defections.

00:16:30.860 So he did vote to open the government.

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

00:16:43.780 history.

00:16:44.300 And the main area that he's been willing to dissent from virtually every other congressional

00:16:50.580 Democrat is in support of Israel. 0.71

00:16:53.020 And we've talked about before that there is a real and cognizable pro-Hamas caucus in

00:16:59.820 the Democrat Party.

00:17:01.540 It rose up about 10 years ago.

00:17:03.960 The Democrats did nothing.

00:17:05.160 They look the other way.

00:17:06.160 And it's now taken over their party.

00:17:07.620 And Fetterman is a massive outlier because he is genuinely pro-Israel.

00:17:13.260 He is vocally 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

00:17:25.000 topic.

00:17:25.600 You are not Jewish, at least as far as I know. 0.99

00:17:28.560 Feel free to come out here to me right now.

00:17:32.020 But you have been one of the most outspoken.

00:17:36.040 It's beyond Washington.

00:17:37.560 It's beyond politicians.

00:17:38.540 You have been one of the most outspoken people in American life on the issue of anti-Semitism.

00:17:44.920 Why is this issue so important to you?

00:17:48.860 Ironically, I did that 23andMe.

00:17:52.020 I'm 97% German and 3% Neanderthal.

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.

00:18:11.740 I mean, that's where you're from, too.

00:18:14.140 Absolutely appalling.

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

00:18:27.400 underground for 500 days.

00:18:30.280 I mean, those are heroes.

00:18:31.540 I've met with widows. 0.99

00:18:33.980 Their husbands were lost in the Gaza War.

00:18:36.400 And they have eight children, raising eight children by their own.

00:18:40.460 That's a hero for all of it.

00:18:43.340 So for me, it's heartbreaking.

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.

00:18:55.340 And that's put me at odds.

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

00:19:11.760 party.

00:19:12.720 And, you know, run the numbers.

00:19:14.080 Run the numbers.

00:19:14.980 You know, you would find that I'm a Democrat.

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

00:19:31.240 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

00:19:58.460 with being a proud Democrat.

00:20:00.180 I mean, that's a tragic statement.

00:20:02.480 And I wish that statement were not true, but it is the biggest reason why their radicals

00:20:09.760 hate him.

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

00:20:51.200 you hear.

00:20:51.640 Your brain just can't put them together.

00:20:53.780 So you would talk, and he would read it.

00:20:55.500 But when he first got there, you would talk to him, and he would literally, he was not

00:20:59.680 able to understand what you were saying.

00:21:01.340 And I mean, it hurt your heart.

00:21:02.800 I mean, this is a very bright man.

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

00:21:17.060 capable.

00:21:17.720 There are no issues whatsoever, because they assumed he would be a left-wing Democrat.

00:21:22.040 That's what they expected of him.

00:21:23.360 That was not a crazy expectation going in.

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

00:21:39.800 his mental capability.

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

00:21:52.480 the stroke.

00:21:52.900 But the difference is night and day.

00:21:54.660 You can now have a conversation, and he can hear you in a way that when he showed up in

00:21:58.460 the Senate, he was not able to.

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

00:22:18.300 are just trying to be nice to him.

00:22:19.580 By the way, they did the same thing to Joe Manchin.

00:22:22.240 They did the same thing to Kyrsten Sinema.

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

00:22:39.440 Democrats were.

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 1.00

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00:23:22.540 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:23:28.800 All right.

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.

00:23:53.280 I want to know who's funding them, Senator.

00:23:55.300 I want to know who's behind this.

00:23:57.100 But it is shocking to see this level of rhetoric and attacks on conservatives who are just going

00:24:05.660 to have a conversation.

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

00:24:24.080 on the far left.

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,

00:24:36.240 and Rob Schneider, who's a comedian and actor.

00:24:40.220 So it's not like either of these speakers were particularly controversial in any normal

00:24:45.520 or sane place.

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

00:25:01.060 listen to the speakers, and they were violent.

00:25:05.200 Let me read how Fox covered it.

00:25:09.020 A bloody fight broke out near the University of California, Berkeley, on Monday afternoon

00:25:13.000 ahead of a Turning Point USA event on campus.

00:25:15.780 The event, which featured Dr. Frank Turek and Rob Schneider, marked the end of the This

00:25:20.440 Is Turning Point tour.

00:25:22.200 It took place just two months after Turning Point USA's founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated

00:25:27.400 at a campus event in Utah on September 10th.

00:25:29.860 The confrontation erupted around 4.30 p.m.

00:25:33.540 Pacific Standard Time.

00:25:35.140 During the brawl, two men were seen fighting each other, one of whom had blood gushing from

00:25:41.360 his face.

00:25:42.340 And you can watch the video.

00:25:43.880 Video taken by Fox News Digital also shows a crowd of agitators gathered around the fight.

00:25:52.360 These were left-wing Antifa activists.

00:25:56.720 They were chanting obscene chants.

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.

00:26:10.260 Most of them had masks.

00:26:12.180 And you can watch the video online of one of the people coming to the Turning Point event

00:26:21.320 who they beat the hell out of him.

00:26:25.160 And his face is bleeding profusely.

00:26:27.800 And they engaged in violence.

00:26:29.280 And I'll tell you, what is frustrating is where was the administration of Berkeley?

00:26:36.320 Where was the police?

00:26:37.380 Why are they allowing violent protesters?

00:26:40.180 And look, these are the same administrators.

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

00:26:54.760 of violence.

00:26:55.700 And in both instances, these are not organic.

00:26:59.160 They're being paid for.

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.

00:27:18.780 And I'll tell you what's being reported now.

00:27:20.380 This is another story Fox News covered.

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

00:27:36.380 Point USA event.

00:27:38.080 And here's what Fox reports.

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

00:28:21.560 for equality by any means necessary.

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

00:29:14.200 doing what you're doing.

00:29:15.900 And this flyer announced a rally outside of Zellerbach Hall an hour before the doors opened

00:29:22.500 for the event.

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

00:30:24.360 Turning Point USA event.

00:30:25.720 All records.

00:30:27.620 Good.

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

00:31:35.980 those students.

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.

00:31:56.120 This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 15, 2025

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