Verdict with Ted Cruz - Protecting Kids From Deepfake Exploitation, plus Trump Surges w Black Voters & Russia Passes USA in Europe Gas Sales

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.600 Welcome.

00:00:06.300 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.880 And Senator, we have got some really important legislation that it needs to be talked about

00:00:16.320 that you're working on in a bipartisan way.

00:00:20.440 Give people a little bit of an update on that.

00:00:21.820 And also, we've got some other breaking news we're going to deal with as well.

00:00:25.300 Well, that's right.

00:00:25.980 So this week, I launched major bipartisan legislation focused on protecting kids online.

00:00:33.320 And as you know, that's been a huge focus of mine for years.

00:00:37.860 But in particular, this is focused on AI, artificial intelligence, and deep fake technology that

00:00:44.780 is being used more and more to exploit children, and in particular, to create explicit images

00:00:50.620 of teenagers, of women, and to put it publicly, taking their face and melding it with explicit

00:00:58.800 sexual images, either pictures or videos, and making them public.

00:01:03.300 And the victims that are happening are growing and growing exponentially.

00:01:08.680 And so I've introduced legislation, bipartisan legislation, number one, to make it a crime,

00:01:13.400 to publish deep fake images, intimate images, of an individual without their consent.

00:01:22.060 But number two, and this is really the most important part of the legislation,

00:01:25.460 to mandate that big tech companies take down those images at the request of the victim.

00:01:31.460 The name of this bill is the Take It Down Act.

00:01:34.020 Because right now, when you have a victim, and we have victims in Texas, we have teenage

00:01:40.120 girls, and many of these deep fakes target teenage girls, these images get posted that their

00:01:46.520 friends at school see them.

00:01:48.480 And the big tech platforms will not take down the images.

00:01:52.540 They leave them up.

00:01:53.520 And so this legislation would create a legal and statutory right for a victim, for a victim's 0.95

00:01:59.260 parents, to say, take this garbage down. 0.99

00:02:01.900 It's not right, it's not real, it's non-consensual, and pull it down within 48 hours. 0.88

00:02:06.700 And so that legislation we launched this week, and I'm hopeful we'll get that passed.

00:02:13.160 Secondly, Ben, we're going to talk about the polling numbers that are coming out, and in

00:02:17.140 particular, the enormous surge of support that Donald Trump and Republicans are seeing

00:02:21.980 among African-American voters.

00:02:23.920 And I've got to say, this has Democrats freaked out.

00:02:26.800 This has the corporate media losing their minds.

00:02:29.700 They're very frightened about what this portends.

00:02:33.060 And finally, we're going to talk about major news that did not get a whole lot of coverage

00:02:38.420 because it actually reveals the absolute abysmal failure of the Biden administration's foreign

00:02:46.100 policy and domestic policy.

00:02:47.620 And that is, in the month of May, Russia overtook the United States as the gas supplier to Europe.

00:02:55.560 That is catastrophic.

00:02:57.100 It's catastrophic for jobs in the state of Texas, and it's catastrophic for our national

00:03:02.000 security, but it is also an enormous benefit to Vladimir Putin and Russia, and that is

00:03:07.660 a gift of Joe Biden and the Democrats.

00:03:09.720 We're going to explain that as well.

00:03:11.220 Yeah, no doubt about it.

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00:05:13.040 I want to start with painting a picture here, especially so people understand just how important

00:05:19.920 this bipartisan legislation is.

00:05:22.120 You're working with Amy Klobuchar, introducing the tools to address known exploitation of innocent

00:05:29.500 people.

00:05:30.020 This has become a moneymaker online, by the way, for people that want to do this to celebrities.

00:05:36.880 We saw that recently happen with Taylor Swift, and it really brought to light just how damaging

00:05:43.180 these deep fakes can be and this kind of revenge that some people will take on exes and others

00:05:51.640 or people they just want to harm or even just make money off of.

00:05:54.500 But there's also, I know people personally who have been affected by this that are not

00:06:00.920 famous, that are not a celebrity, and it has ruined the reputation.

00:06:06.520 We have seen warnings from parents on the issue of suicide with young girls, young teens, young

00:06:12.480 boys who have had been exploited in this way with things that aren't real, that are fake,

00:06:17.720 and they can't get them taken down.

00:06:19.380 They are then bullied, and it's been tragic and cost many young people their lives, and

00:06:23.460 that's why you guys are doing this.

00:06:26.020 Well, that's exactly right.

00:06:27.360 And I'll tell you, one of the major things that brought this issue to my attention was

00:06:31.540 actually a call we got from a constituent, a mom, a family that live in North Texas in

00:06:37.220 Aledo.

00:06:37.520 And her daughter, a 14-year-old girl, was targeted, targeted by a classmate, a classmate that took

00:06:45.160 her face and her image from social media, from Snapchat and other social media, and used AI,

00:06:52.760 used deep fake technology to graft her face onto explicit nude images that were not her, 0.95

00:07:00.100 and publicized those to all of her classmates.

00:07:03.880 And so she's 14 years old, this poor girl goes into school with all of her classmates

00:07:08.880 believing that they've seen explicit sexual images of her, and it was a total lie, but

00:07:14.720 obviously it traumatized this teenage girl significantly, as any young person would, or for that matter,

00:07:22.840 most adults would.

00:07:24.140 That is a horrific experience to go through.

00:07:27.380 And listen, there's always been the ability for someone to Photoshop and, you know, put Ben Ferguson's

00:07:34.820 head on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body.

00:07:37.720 And by the way, that was you in Conan the Barbarian.

00:07:39.700 I was really impressed.

00:07:41.160 Ben, you should not have punched the camel. 0.94

00:07:43.680 I'm going to sick PETA on you. 1.00

00:07:45.020 Punching a camel is a bad move. 0.99

00:07:47.480 But look, if you graft your head onto a different body, it was fairly obvious to someone watching.

00:07:53.580 What's changed is with the deepfake technology, it can now look completely real that people can look at it

00:08:03.700 and go, dude, I didn't know Ferguson was so ripped.

00:08:07.320 And that – here's an amazing stat.

00:08:10.480 Up to 95% of all internet deepfake videos depict non-consensual intimate images.

00:08:22.680 Up to 95%.

00:08:24.200 And the vast majority of them target women and girls.

00:08:27.480 And so this is becoming a tool, a tool for cyberbullying, a tool for attacking, maybe attacking an ex-girlfriend

00:08:33.700 or an ex-wife or an ex-partner that you're mad at and using it just to smear them and attack them.

00:08:39.900 And so this bill, I've introduced it along with Amy Klobuchar.

00:08:44.160 Amy Klobuchar is a Democrat, as you know, from Minnesota. 0.96

00:08:47.340 It's also co-sponsored by Cynthia Lummis, who's a Republican from Wyoming.

00:08:52.000 Richard Blumenthal, who's a Democrat from Connecticut.

00:08:55.020 Shelley Moore Capito, who's a Republican from West Virginia.

00:08:57.960 And Jackie Rosen, who's a Democrat from Nevada.

00:09:00.420 So we brought together both Republicans and Democrats.

00:09:03.920 And the two elements of this are, number one, making it a crime, making it a felony

00:09:08.100 to publish non-consensual intimate images without consent, against someone's wishes.

00:09:15.820 But number two, as I mentioned, and I think this is the piece –

00:09:19.880 so there's other bills people have introduced that make it a crime to do so.

00:09:23.460 And so there are multiple bills, and I'm a co-sponsor of other bills to do that.

00:09:25.980 That's a good idea.

00:09:26.780 The piece that is not reflected in any other legislation I know of that's been filed

00:09:32.580 is the take-it-down component, which is the obligation on the social media company

00:09:40.740 or the big tech company to take the content down.

00:09:45.420 And so –

00:09:46.280 The victims have said this to me and said this to you is, it's one thing that someone does it.

00:09:51.580 It's another thing when there's no mechanism to take it down when you see it, when it's

00:09:56.080 being used against you.

00:09:57.720 We saw this recently with a doctor and nurses, and they were used, and they tried to get

00:10:03.080 it taken down, and they couldn't get it taken down.

00:10:05.000 Like you just said, there's no incentive, in essence, for these big tech companies to

00:10:11.420 even care or notice or respond to you.

00:10:15.220 Well, look, that's exactly right.

00:10:17.720 And as we all know, this happened to Taylor Swift.

00:10:20.720 So Taylor Swift, you had people who took her image and made deepfake, false, explicit images.

00:10:27.920 And because Taylor Swift is a global superstar, she spoke out, and big tech took it all down.

00:10:33.760 So if you happen to be a global superstar, you can get it taken down.

00:10:37.900 But if you're just an ordinary kid, you're powerless.

00:10:42.140 And let me tell you a story that really illustrates this.

00:10:44.440 At the press conference we did this week, we had victims, and we had the moms of victims

00:10:52.180 who had been targeted by this who came and joined us.

00:10:55.160 And one of the victims was this 14-year-old girl, and I mentioned that her mom initially

00:11:01.260 reached out to my office, and she's a Texan.

00:11:03.780 When I sat down with the mom last week, she expressed to me frustration last week.

00:11:12.840 She said, the images are still up.

00:11:14.860 Snapchat has left them up, and she said, I've called repeatedly.

00:11:19.340 I've emailed.

00:11:19.960 I've tried to say, take down these false images of my daughter.

00:11:23.620 They're horrific.

00:11:24.300 They're wrong.

00:11:25.620 And Snapchat basically said, go jump in a lake.

00:11:28.620 She got to run around.

00:11:29.520 She couldn't talk to a human being.

00:11:30.840 She got referred over and over and over, and they're still up. 0.99

00:11:33.020 And I'm sitting there in my office, and I turned to my team, and I said, that is garbage. 0.58

00:11:37.640 And I told my team, I said, I want us to get on the phone with Snapchat today. 0.96

00:11:42.200 And I told my team, if need be, put me on the phone with the CEO of Snapchat.

00:11:47.140 And I told the mom, we are going to get this taken down.

00:11:50.500 Within 24 hours, they took the images down.

00:11:52.780 But it took, and this is the scary part, it took someone getting a hold of you, and then having a United States Senator from Texas to then call and basically say, I want to talk to the CEO to get them to respond.

00:12:12.520 The reality is, the majority of Americans are not going to be able to pull that off.

00:12:16.620 And that's why this legislation is so important.

00:12:18.720 And it shows it's effortless.

00:12:20.680 They could do it instantaneously.

00:12:22.640 They know how to pull it down.

00:12:24.520 They're just, they're so unaccountable.

00:12:27.200 There's such a hubris and arrogance that they don't feel the need to respond.

00:12:32.040 So if you're a global superstar, you can get it taken down.

00:12:36.580 If you're able to get a member of Congress to intervene on your behalf, maybe you can get it taken down. 0.84

00:12:42.040 But if you're just an ordinary teenager in Texas who wakes up one day to the frigging nightmare of walking into eighth grade and every kid there is looking at an image on their phone that appears to be you doing explicit sexual activity, that is an absolute nightmare.

00:13:00.340 And right now, big tech acts with impunity.

00:13:04.680 This legislation, I think we're going to get this legislation passed. 0.96

00:13:07.540 It needs to be passed because you should have a right to say, take this damn thing down and take it down now. 0.84

00:13:14.380 So let's talk about what the big tech world is going to respond with. 0.97

00:13:17.680 And we've already seen this play.

00:13:19.500 They've said, well, look, this is a state issue.

00:13:21.940 The states should deal with this.

00:13:23.240 And there are some states that have.

00:13:24.500 There's, I think, over 20 states that have dealt with this.

00:13:27.520 But you guys are doing it differently from a federal perspective.

00:13:32.520 And that is where there's going to be real teeth in the repercussions for those that don't abide by this federal law that you guys are working to pass, correct?

00:13:42.580 Correct.

00:13:43.300 And listen, we've talked before about that.

00:13:46.240 That's one of the benefits of my role as the ranking member on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:13:52.940 The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about 40 percent of the U.S. economy.

00:13:57.600 And it is, as the ranking member, as the senior Republican, I'm able to drive legislation like this.

00:14:05.780 As you know, you know, the FAA reauthorization bill that was just signed into law a few weeks ago was the hundredth piece of legislation that I've authored and passed into law.

00:14:14.880 And from the Commerce Committee, we have jurisdiction over big tech.

00:14:18.520 And so few things focus the mind of an industry more than the government with jurisdiction over that industry.

00:14:30.520 And so states are acting.

00:14:32.480 And I'm glad.

00:14:32.960 And the state of Texas has acted.

00:14:34.240 And that's important.

00:14:35.020 But what we're not seeing is the mechanism to require that the content being taken down.

00:14:41.120 And actually, we modeled it after existing federal legislation when you're dealing with a violation of trademarks or copyrights that you have a right.

00:14:51.200 You know, if you are Jimi Hendrix, and by the way, if you're Jimi Hendrix, you're dead.

00:14:54.920 So I hope you're not Jimi Hendrix.

00:14:56.000 But if you're Jimi Hendrix or the estate of Jimi Hendrix and someone puts your content online, you have a right to say, go take it down, because that's my content and I own it.

00:15:06.680 And so that's an existing legal mechanism in the world of intellectual property.

00:15:11.960 And we borrowed that model for taking down non-consensual intimate images.

00:15:18.640 Now, I'll say earlier this week I was talking with an editorial board of a major paper in Texas.

00:15:26.000 And they were asking, I think, devil's advocate questions.

00:15:29.280 But one of the things they said is they said, well, what about the First Amendment?

00:15:32.860 Isn't there a First Amendment right to do this?

00:15:34.980 And I said, no.

00:15:36.560 No, there's not.

00:15:37.580 And I said a couple of things.

00:15:39.020 I said, number one, from the very beginning of the First Amendment, it has never covered defamation.

00:15:44.460 It's never covered libel or slander.

00:15:46.340 And so when you have false content that depicts someone in a way that is defamatory and intimate and sexual images that are not you are by definition defamatory, that has always been understood from the very first days the First Amendment was adopted as not being within the protection of the First Amendment.

00:16:08.220 But secondly, the First Amendment free speech protections have never covered the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

00:16:15.500 And so if you engage, and this is connected to defamation, but the First Amendment does not empower you to harass and exploit and abuse other people.

00:16:30.220 And you can be sued and liable for doing so.

00:16:32.660 And it's no defense to say, well, gosh, under the First Amendment, I can say anything I want.

00:16:38.020 That's not how our legal system works.

00:16:41.100 And it's why, as I said, I think we are going to get this done.

00:16:45.480 I think we are likely to get this legislation passed.

00:16:49.540 And when we do, it is going to be a major protection for kids and for Americans across the country, in Texas and across the country.

00:17:01.920 And that brings me to this question.

00:17:04.280 And there are a lot of people, especially parents, grandparents are going to be listening.

00:17:09.460 And this is something they say, hey, this isn't Republican, Democrat.

00:17:12.720 And this is why I think you guys are working so well together with you and Amy Klobuchar and the others you mentioned.

00:17:16.840 And this is just an issue of right and wrong.

00:17:19.500 So what do they need to do to make sure that their voice is heard, especially if they're in favor of this?

00:17:25.380 Yeah, look, speak out and make clear that this is the right thing to do.

00:17:29.200 Look, you and I are both parents.

00:17:30.640 If you could imagine the frustration.

00:17:33.660 And so many parents, listen, dealing with big tech generally, and as you know, this has been a passion of mine for a long time.

00:17:40.900 I've authored and supported multiple bills designed to protect kids online.

00:17:45.300 So a different bill that I have is a bill called COSMA, where I've joined with Brian Schatz, who's a Democrat from Hawaii.

00:17:54.940 And COSMA would prohibit children under 13 from being on social media at all.

00:18:02.340 So it would ban that across the board.

00:18:04.320 And then children under 17, it would prohibit big tech from engaging in algorithmic boosting, which is the process that they push content at teenagers.

00:18:15.780 And as you know, big tech, in the pursuit of the dollar, pushes all sorts of horrible content at our kids.

00:18:23.460 They push substance abuse and alcohol abuse.

00:18:27.100 They push self-harm.

00:18:28.980 They push suicidal ideation.

00:18:31.460 They push body image, particularly for young girls, all sorts of body image issues.

00:18:36.880 We're seeing dramatically increasing instances of depression, of anxiety.

00:18:42.100 You know, the surgeon general under Joe Biden just wrote an op-ed in the New York Times decrying the risk to mental health from social media of young people.

00:18:52.040 The solution, or at least part of the solution, I think, is the legislation I have with Brian Schatz.

00:18:58.000 It also includes another bill that I've authored with John Fetterman, obviously another Democrat, called the Eyes on the Board Bill,

00:19:06.660 which says that any school that receives federal funds, which is pretty much all of them, is required to ban social media from their Wi-Fi on campus

00:19:18.640 because kids on campus ought to be paying attention to school and not on Snapchat, chat, or Instagram, or something else.

00:19:26.060 And what I will say on all of these, Ben, is I literally don't know a parent who is not scared, who is not frustrated about how do you protect your kids online.

00:19:41.420 100%.

00:19:41.900 Couldn't agree with you more.

00:19:43.480 It's shocking now.

00:19:44.580 It's scary.

00:19:45.180 It's the Wild West, and there seems to be no real protections for children.

00:19:50.380 And look, when you and I were kids, we didn't deal with this.

00:19:54.040 No.

00:19:54.300 This was not a world, you know, when I was a teenager, my parents would have me, I'd like, you know, lay on the floor on like the landline phone

00:20:05.640 talking to my girlfriend till one in the morning, and that was like, as much as you dealt with,

00:20:10.920 you now have these phones that are these portals to just about everything evil in the world,

00:20:17.980 to sexual predators, to bullies, to people just targeting our kids.

00:20:22.380 And you know what's interesting, Ben? 0.99

00:20:25.540 So in the Senate, as you know, look, there are a lot of people who are really damn old. 0.99

00:20:31.400 I mean, a lot of my colleagues are in their 70s or 80s or even 90s.

00:20:34.540 And I've got to admit that my colleagues that are of that generation are kind of a little bit befuddled by this issue.

00:20:42.880 They look at it, and frankly, you know, their kids weren't dealing with it when their kids were children.

00:20:50.000 And their grandkids are now, but they're often less connected to it than they would be.

00:20:53.860 And what's interesting is the people that I'm joining with, the senators that are teaming up with me on this,

00:20:59.300 both Democrats and Republicans, almost all of them are either in their 40s and 50s.

00:21:04.240 They're younger senators, and almost all of us have kids that are either teenagers or adolescents.

00:21:11.820 And almost to a person, if you're a parent, and you've got kids who are younger, so you're just starting to face this.

00:21:17.840 But I'm sure you're worried about it now, and I promise you, in 5 or 10 years, you're going to be terrified about it,

00:21:22.920 because every parent I know is.

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00:23:37.200 I want to also get to another story, and this one actually makes me laugh.

00:23:42.420 CNN, and rarely do I get to say this, has been left speechless, Senator, after polling fines.

00:23:50.780 Can you just say that again?

00:23:52.140 Yeah, right?

00:23:52.720 CNN left speechless.

00:23:54.740 Exactly.

00:23:55.840 After polling fines, Donald Trump headed for, quote-unquote, historic performance with black voters. 0.84

00:24:02.000 Now, there's two parts of this that we should just bring up at the very beginning.

00:24:07.040 One, it is amazing that no one's calling out just the straight-up racism aspect of this,

00:24:13.620 that the Democratic Party and the media just assumes that if you're black, you must support the Democratic Party.

00:24:19.560 And if you don't, then you're basically, in their mind, not a real black person. 0.94

00:24:23.500 You're not a real black woman. 1.00

00:24:26.320 You're not a real black mother, right? 1.00

00:24:28.380 You're not a real black father. 1.00

00:24:29.540 No, no, you're an Uncle Tom. 0.98

00:24:31.800 You can't leave the Democratic plantation to think for yourself because you must be a Democrat,

00:24:39.620 a modern-day slave, in essence, to the Democratic Party.

00:24:42.580 And now they can't believe that Donald Trump is headed for literally historic performance

00:24:48.520 with African-American voters saying, we don't like what's happening under the Biden administration.

00:24:53.620 And Biden's support from black voters under the age of 50 has cratered over the last four years,

00:25:01.060 and they don't know what to do with this.

00:25:03.520 Look, that is exactly right.

00:25:05.900 They are shocked that they come in with an assumption that anyone who is African-American must support the Democrats.

00:25:14.440 As Joe Biden famously or infamously said, if you're not supporting me, you ain't black,

00:25:21.160 which is just an arrogance that I think suffuses the current Democrat Party.

00:25:29.340 And it's worth, well, I'll tell you what, just listen to CNN as they're discussing these polling numbers.

00:25:35.980 Senior data reporter Harry Enten is with us.

00:25:39.320 So where does the race stand among African-American voters right now?

00:25:42.500 Yeah, I keep looking for this to change, to go back to a historical norm.

00:25:46.920 And it's simply put, has not yet.

00:25:48.860 So this is the margin, or Biden and Trump among black voters,

00:25:52.600 compare where we were at this point in 2020, compare where we are now.

00:25:55.440 You know, at this point, look at this.

00:25:56.800 In 2020, Joe Biden was getting 86% of the African-American vote.

00:26:01.080 Look at where it is now.

00:26:03.180 It's 70%.

00:26:04.760 That's a 16-point drop, John.

00:26:07.500 And more than that, it's not just that Joe Biden is losing ground.

00:26:11.900 It's that Donald Trump is gaining ground.

00:26:13.860 You go from 7%, single digits at this point in 2020, to now 21%.

00:26:20.360 And again, John, I keep looking for signs that this is going to go back to normal,

00:26:24.140 and I don't see it yet in the polling.

00:26:26.520 If anything, right now we're careening towards a historic performance for a Republican presidential candidate,

00:26:31.540 the likes of which we have not seen in six decades.

00:26:35.100 And when you dig into this...

00:26:37.040 I love this, by the way.

00:26:38.240 They're basically saying, we need to go back to normal,

00:26:40.560 and you guys need to get back on the Democratic plantation.

00:26:43.280 They're saying that on TV.

00:26:45.500 Yeah, look, it is not subtle who CNN is rooting for.

00:26:50.620 They want Joe Biden to win.

00:26:52.040 They want the Democrats to win.

00:26:53.920 And they're shocked, and they're terrified, and they are freaking out.

00:26:59.660 And listen, I think this is an incredibly important shift.

00:27:04.220 I think we're seeing African-American voters moving towards Republicans.

00:27:08.000 I think we're seeing Hispanic voters moving towards Republicans even faster.

00:27:11.400 And I think that is...

00:27:12.480 It's part of the broader demographic shift we're seeing of blue-collar voters that are moving towards Republicans.

00:27:19.000 We're seeing the old conventional wisdom was that Republicans were the party of the rich,

00:27:24.620 and Democrats were the party of the poor and working class.

00:27:26.980 I'm not sure that was ever true, but it is especially not true now.

00:27:31.820 It has been turned on its head.

00:27:33.900 Today, Democrats are the party of rich coastal elites.

00:27:37.180 They're the party of big tech billionaires and Hollywood moguls and California environmentalist billionaires.

00:27:44.100 And I think Republicans, we are the party of truck drivers and steel workers and cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses,

00:27:50.440 and everyone who works for a living and has calluses on their hands.

00:27:53.940 And I think also, so there's an overlap.

00:27:57.500 Listen, if you're right now, let's say you're an Hispanic guy in South Texas,

00:28:02.280 and you work in the oil fields, and you drive a pickup truck, and you go bird hunting on the weekends,

00:28:09.560 you're voting Republican.

00:28:12.360 Number one, you're seeing the invasion at our southern border the Democrats have caused.

00:28:16.360 But number two, the Democrats have declared war on your livelihood and way of life.

00:28:21.320 And so we're seeing Hispanics moving, Republicans significantly, but African Americans, we're seeing movement as well.

00:28:26.760 Not as rapidly, but listen, the simple reality, and I'm going to give Donald Trump credit.

00:28:33.920 He went to Detroit.

00:28:34.800 He went to an African American church.

00:28:36.220 He made the case.

00:28:37.160 He said, listen, for the black community, your lives have gotten a lot worse under Joe Biden and the Democrats,

00:28:43.800 between inflation, between crime.

00:28:45.840 You look at what has happened, and he made the point.

00:28:48.820 Illegal immigration, who do you think 11 million illegal immigrants are taking jobs from?

00:28:53.920 They're not taking jobs.

00:28:55.560 Jake Tapper is not losing his job to an illegal immigrant. 1.00

00:28:59.600 It's actually a point, you remember, I made in 2016 in the presidential,

00:29:05.060 where I said, if you suddenly had, crossing the border, a bunch of lawyers and bankers and journalists

00:29:15.200 coming here to take the job of rich professionals in the media,

00:29:21.520 then you would have a crisis.

00:29:22.960 Then they would lose their mind.

00:29:24.280 But their view is, no, no, no, that's fine to bring 11 million people in who take the job of low-income workers,

00:29:30.560 who take the job of the working class, who take the job of a lot of legal immigrants in the Hispanic community,

00:29:36.460 and who take the jobs of African Americans and drive down their wages.

00:29:40.500 And I think you're seeing a lot of voters.

00:29:44.540 I mean, the numbers among African American voters have more than doubled,

00:29:48.720 and that's got Democrats really freaked out.

00:29:50.620 Well, this goes back to a podcast that we did with, actually, your congressman, Wesley Hunt,

00:29:55.640 where he was on this show, and I would encourage people to go back and listen to it,

00:29:59.340 but he discussed the bigotry of low expectations that the Democrats put on African Americans.

00:30:05.480 And he said at the time, and I'm going back to this quote because I wrote it down,

00:30:09.240 it's to create victims.

00:30:11.280 And he was talking about how the Democratic Party has really victimized the African American community

00:30:18.460 with low expectations, high crime, high poverty,

00:30:23.240 and basically the government getting you addicted to poverty.

00:30:27.760 And I encourage people to go back and listen to it,

00:30:29.640 but that seems to be the case, in essence, that Donald Trump is now making.

00:30:33.920 And Fox, by the way, when these new poll numbers came out,

00:30:36.380 I want you to hear how they explained it.

00:30:39.100 Listen.

00:30:39.240 The poll has bidened down nearly 30% among black voters since the 2020 election.

00:30:45.760 What's changed?

00:30:46.420 Look at the economy.

00:30:47.620 The optimal color is not black or brown.

00:30:49.580 It's green.

00:30:50.300 You hear me say that almost every day.

00:30:52.180 Trump has gained 15 points in that time.

00:30:54.780 Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina downplaying the numbers here.

00:30:58.300 He says, I don't think black voters have left the fold.

00:31:00.560 I don't know what is going on with the polling taking place here.

00:31:04.380 How can the polls get that so wrong?

00:31:06.740 That's going on all over the country.

00:31:10.140 Well, not everybody sees it that way.

00:31:12.360 Political reports.

00:31:13.700 Prominent black Democrats are setting off alarm bells over Biden's black voter problems.

00:31:18.960 I mean, the arrogance there of just Clyburn, who's saying, I don't believe this.

00:31:24.000 I don't see it.

00:31:25.520 I don't think this is actually happening.

00:31:27.820 Right.

00:31:28.180 As he said, that's not going on all over the country.

00:31:30.700 How can the polls get that so wrong?

00:31:33.120 It's it's it's again, I go back to this idea and what Wesley Hunt said on the show.

00:31:38.460 The Democratic Party believes they own the own the black community and you cannot leave.

00:31:44.220 Well, listen, I would encourage listeners go back.

00:31:46.400 As you just said, Ben, listen to the podcast we did with Wesley Hunt.

00:31:50.600 And actually, that was one of the video ones we did.

00:31:52.440 So you can watch it on YouTube, but also go back and listen or watch the podcast we did with Eric Johnson, the mayor of mayor of Dallas, who's African-American.

00:32:01.080 And he was elected as a Democrat mayor of Dallas.

00:32:03.620 He's now become a Republican.

00:32:05.340 Both of both with Wesley Hunt and Eric Johnson.

00:32:07.700 Both of them are friends of mine.

00:32:09.540 And we have a real discussion about how the Democrat agenda has has utterly failed the African-American community.

00:32:16.240 And the approach of Democrats is not to provide real policy solutions, but it's instead to demagogue. 0.65

00:32:23.580 Remember, Joe Biden went I think it was in front of the NAACP, if I remember correctly, where he said they're going to put you all back in chains, which is ridiculous.

00:32:32.200 And, by the way, if you want to talk about who enslaved African-Americans, the answer to that was Democrats. 0.77

00:32:38.140 It was Democrats who were the party of slavery. 0.67

00:32:40.660 It was Democrats who founded the Ku Klux Klan. 0.75

00:32:42.760 It was Democrats who wrote the Jim Crow laws. 0.80

00:32:45.120 And, by the way, you're in my party.

00:32:47.040 The Republican Party was founded to end slavery.

00:32:50.800 That's why our party was founded.

00:32:52.780 The first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln.

00:32:55.360 The Democrats' record on race issues have been horrible.

00:32:59.160 And yet they demagogue and scare people.

00:33:02.800 And I do think you're seeing African-American voters saying, all right, enough already. 0.97

00:33:07.820 Produce results.

00:33:09.000 And, by the way, I'll give you three issues that I think resonate powerfully in the black community.

00:33:15.100 Number one, inflation in the economy.

00:33:17.620 And African-Americans are getting hammered by that.

00:33:20.480 Number two, safety and the combination of the invasion at our southern border,

00:33:24.680 which is endangering African-Americans and all Americans.

00:33:29.160 But also the Democrats undermining the police, undermining, pushing for defunding the police,

00:33:36.060 for abolishing the police.

00:33:37.440 That has resulted in a lot more African-Americans being murdered.

00:33:41.020 And the Democrats like to say Black Lives Matter.

00:33:43.520 Well, their radical policies result in more African-Americans being victims of murder. 0.60

00:33:49.020 But number three is school choice.

00:33:51.900 And as you know, school choice is the issue.

00:33:53.980 I think it is the most important domestic issue in the country.

00:33:56.960 It is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

00:33:59.900 And today's Democrats are the modern-day Bull Connor.

00:34:05.300 They are standing at the school door saying, we will not let low-income students out.

00:34:10.700 I believe every child in Texas and every child in America should have a right to access excellent education.

00:34:17.360 And it ought to be about education freedom.

00:34:18.980 The student and your parents should decide, not bureaucrats who want to keep kids trapped.

00:34:25.080 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:34:28.100 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:34:32.260 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:34:35.880 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:34:37.160 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:34:38.380 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:34:42.100 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:34:45.700 All at different stages of their journey.

00:34:47.880 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:34:50.860 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:34:57.180 Finally, just to expand on this, it's not just African-American voters that Biden has lost touch with.

00:35:04.060 There is now new data with Hispanic voters.

00:35:06.780 For example, another policy that Trump has doubled down on, mass deportations, is now popular in this country.

00:35:14.180 So the majority of registered voters favor a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally by 62 to 38%.

00:35:25.500 That is massive.

00:35:26.540 But here's, you break that number down.

00:35:28.760 Now, a majority of Hispanics, Senator, favor mass deportations in America as well.

00:35:35.900 53 to 47.

00:35:37.140 And this is another blow to Joe Biden with, quote, minority voters.

00:35:42.680 Well, that's right.

00:35:44.560 And it is the fruits of the failures of Democrat open border policies that people are seeing the absolute disaster of.

00:35:53.180 And I'll tell you, years ago, I was doing a national interview with Jorge Ramos.

00:35:58.480 Jorge Ramos was, of course, is the national journalist.

00:36:06.120 And he accused me of being, and I'm going to quote him, a traitor to my race because I believe in securing the border.

00:36:16.360 And his view was, as an Hispanic, I'm not allowed to support securing the border.

00:36:22.160 He practically yelled on me on national television that I'm a traitor to my race.

00:36:25.940 And I asked him, I said, Jorge, tell me, what would happen if I went illegally to Mexico?

00:36:31.800 What would they do?

00:36:32.620 And he said, oh, they deport you.

00:36:34.440 And it's like, well, okay, if Mexico is allowed to enforce its laws, why is America, why are our laws less consequential?

00:36:44.280 And, you know, Jorge Ramos chairs the national news program on Univision.

00:36:51.020 And yet the view that he characterizes as a traitor to your race is now, as you noted, according to polling number, the view of the majority of Hispanics in America.

00:37:02.180 Yeah, exactly.

00:37:03.340 I want to move finally to another important story.

00:37:06.300 And it deals with Russia.

00:37:08.160 And I want people to think about this story through the lens of if we're trying to stop Russia, and that's the policy of the Biden administration from overtaking Ukraine.

00:37:19.560 And the goal is for Russia to lose and to fall back or to retreat within their borders and to leave Ukraine alone and for Ukraine to stand and Zelensky to stand, et cetera. 0.60

00:37:31.040 Then why are you allowing what we're about to tell you about to happen?

00:37:36.520 And that is this.

00:37:38.080 Russia overtook the United States of America as a gas supplier to Europe in May.

00:37:44.280 And this is a Texas issue very much because this is an opportunity to highlight how important it is that we support in Texas and around the country our exploration of natural gas and oil exploration, liquid natural gas and exports.

00:38:02.340 You've been working on this, yet the Democratic Party has been trying to shut all that down, which only feeds the war chest of Russia and Vladimir Putin to overtake Ukraine.

00:38:17.120 That's exactly what's happening.

00:38:19.040 You know, the Daily Caller focused on this story.

00:38:22.540 They wrote a story entitled Russian Gas Sales to Europe Exceed U.S. Supply as Ukraine War Rages.

00:38:29.500 And let me just read the beginning of it.

00:38:30.860 Russia overtook the U.S. in terms of natural gas supplied to Europe in May as the war in Ukraine continues, according to Financial Times.

00:38:40.200 Once the leading supplier of gas to Europe, Russian deliveries fell off drastically following the start of the war in Ukraine as European states rushed to support the Ukrainian cause, according to Financial Times.

00:38:52.720 However, despite the West's sanctions and attempts to get off Russian fuels, Europe is still buying considerable amounts of gas from Russia,

00:38:59.680 while the Biden administration has paused approvals for new liquefied natural gas LNG export terminals for further complicating Europe's long-term energy supply.

00:39:11.020 If you look at what has happened, Joe Biden and the Democrats, and by the way, the Democrats in Congress are united in favor of this policy.

00:39:20.660 They are helping Russia, they are hurting our allies, they are hurting Europe, and they're hurting jobs in Texas and hurting jobs in America. 0.87

00:39:30.140 And listen, the United States is globally the number one producer of oil and the number one producer of natural gas in the world.

00:39:39.120 And we are and should be the dominant energy superpower on the face of the earth.

00:39:46.000 Bizarrely, Joe Biden and the Democrats have this incoherent view that they hate oil and gas produced in America,

00:39:52.820 which, by the way, produces jobs, raises wages here in the United States,

00:39:56.600 but they seemingly love oil and gas produced by our enemies.

00:40:00.780 They love Russian oil and gas.

00:40:02.220 They love Iranian oil and gas.

00:40:04.140 They love Venezuelan oil and gas.

00:40:05.720 And let me say, Ben, if someone presses back and says, come on, Ted, that's hyperbolic,

00:40:10.760 that they don't love oil and gas produced by our enemies, let me point to a simple data point.

00:40:16.000 Let's take, for example, Iran.

00:40:18.760 Iran, when Joe Biden became president, was selling roughly 300,000 barrels of oil a day in export.

00:40:25.220 It was the principal funder of their theocratic regime that is the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

00:40:30.960 When Joe Biden came in, he stopped vigorously enforcing the oil sanctions.

00:40:36.180 By the way, the Trump administration, at my vigorous behest, had been aggressively enforcing those sanctions,

00:40:42.360 which is why they had dropped the 300,000 barrels a day.

00:40:45.460 Today, Iran is selling two million barrels a day.

00:40:49.820 The Biden administration's policy, and every Democrat in Congress supports this,

00:40:56.120 is allowing the Ayatollah to reap. 0.93

00:40:59.860 They've made over 80 billion dollars because the Democrats won't enforce oil sanctions.

00:41:04.260 Likewise is Russia.

00:41:05.900 You know, the Democrats say Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine,

00:41:09.700 and yet Joe Biden is halting the sale of American natural gas to Europe,

00:41:14.400 which means the Europeans are buying them from Vladimir Putin.

00:41:17.800 The Democrats are literally funding Russia in the war against Ukraine.

00:41:22.820 It is incoherent, and it's indefensible.

00:41:25.860 When you look at this and you see what this administration has done,

00:41:28.900 they've empowered Putin.

00:41:31.720 They have empowered the terrorists in the Middle East. 0.99

00:41:36.340 They have allowed for sanctions to go just completely overlooked

00:41:41.640 and just look the other way and act like they don't even exist with Iran.

00:41:47.260 And you look at this.

00:41:48.820 This is a national security issue as much as it is an issue of oil and gas.

00:41:54.540 And all this, by the way, you talk about the other issue of safety here.

00:41:58.200 We have, I'm pretty sure right now, the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in this country

00:42:03.020 are at the lowest levels or close to the lowest level they've been in my lifetime.

00:42:07.100 Yeah, it's 40 or 50 years since the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been this low.

00:42:12.440 And the Biden administration is talking about releasing a bunch more oil right before the election,

00:42:17.600 trying to just goose the economy and cause gas prices to drop just a little bit 1.00

00:42:21.440 because they think voters are stupid. 0.99

00:42:23.160 It's the same thing they're doing with their fake student loan forgiveness. 1.00

00:42:27.860 Remember, they did that before the 2022 election.

00:42:30.040 They knew it was illegal. 1.00

00:42:30.900 They knew the courts would strike it down, but they thought voters were stupid. 1.00

00:42:33.780 They're doing it again. 1.00

00:42:34.880 They know it's illegal.

00:42:35.660 They know the courts are going to strike it down.

00:42:37.260 But they're trying to fool.

00:42:38.680 They do not have a high impression of young people.

00:42:41.840 The same thing with releasing oil to lower the gas prices.

00:42:44.900 They think people will forget.

00:42:46.340 But let me say two things in terms of Russia passing the United States as the supplier of gas to Europe.

00:42:55.580 Number one, when it comes to inflation.

00:42:58.200 You know, as you know, last Thursday, Donald Trump came to D.C.

00:43:00.980 I had lunch with him along with all the other Senate Republicans.

00:43:03.980 We spent a good chunk of the lunch talking about inflation

00:43:06.880 and talking about the Americans who were hurt by inflation.

00:43:09.260 And Trump rightly focused on that energy is a huge driver of inflation,

00:43:14.520 not just in terms of the bills people pay, whether it's their natural gas bill

00:43:20.440 or their heating oil bill or their gasoline bill.

00:43:23.900 But energy is a huge driver of the cost of everything else.

00:43:27.100 It's a huge driver of the cost of food, whether it is the oil and gas products that go into fertilizer,

00:43:34.480 so that drives up the cost of growing food, or whether it is the cost of transporting food.

00:43:38.800 All of that, or whether it's the cost of refrigerating food in the grocery store,

00:43:42.760 all of that drives up inflation.

00:43:44.960 And so one of the things Trump committed, and I will work hand-in-hand with him,

00:43:49.280 is leading the effort.

00:43:50.780 We're going to produce energy here at home, and that's going to drive inflation way, way down. 0.74

00:43:57.240 Bidenflation is hurting Americans across this country. 0.71

00:44:00.260 But let me say a second point, Ben.

00:44:01.860 The one justification Democrats could try to give, let's say for halting liquid natural gas exports,

00:44:10.220 is, well, yes, it hurts jobs.

00:44:12.180 Yes, it hurts national security.

00:44:13.680 Yes, it hurts our allies.

00:44:14.840 Yes, it benefits our enemies.

00:44:16.140 But, but, they might say, we're doing it because of the environment.

00:44:19.980 We're doing it because Mother Earth.

00:44:21.260 We're doing it because the world is going to end in 12 years.

00:44:23.760 As an aside, you notice how it's always 12 years?

00:44:27.040 Forty years ago, the world was going to end in 12 years.

00:44:29.320 Thirty years ago, the world was going to end in 12 years.

00:44:32.220 Five years ago, the world was going to end in 12 years.

00:44:34.400 The 12 years never seems to advance, and next year, my prediction is the world's going to end in 12 years,

00:44:39.080 because that's their talking point.

00:44:40.740 But, let's say you believed it.

00:44:44.380 Halting LNG sales hurts the environment.

00:44:47.260 Why?

00:44:48.860 Because it's not like the Europeans suddenly say,

00:44:51.560 okay, we're not going to heat our homes.

00:44:53.500 We'll just freeze to death in the winter. 0.93

00:44:54.860 We don't love our kids, so we'll just let them die. 0.99

00:44:57.260 No. 0.99

00:44:58.340 They're going to heat their homes.

00:44:59.760 So, what are they going to do?

00:45:00.800 They're doing what they're doing right now,

00:45:02.860 which is if they don't buy it from America, they buy it from Russia,

00:45:05.720 they buy it from Iran, they buy it from Venezuela,

00:45:07.800 they buy it from our enemies,

00:45:09.320 and every one of them produces oil and natural gas much, much dirtier than we do.

00:45:15.740 Or, secondly, they do what Germany has done. 0.57

00:45:18.120 They shift from natural gas to coal for electricity production.

00:45:22.000 That pollutes much more and emits much more carbon dioxide.

00:45:26.420 So, this policy is hurting everybody, including the environment.

00:45:30.860 Yeah, never forget that they're spending your money like crazy,

00:45:34.120 sending money to Ukraine while also helping fund with these policies.

00:45:39.000 Exactly what Vladimir Putin needs,

00:45:41.140 and that is a war chest for his military attack on Ukraine,

00:45:45.240 all because we're allowing them to be the big player.

00:45:47.880 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:45:51.440 Hit that subscribe auto-download button, number one.

00:45:54.060 Number two, and this is really important,

00:45:56.160 you can listen to the Weekend Review as well.

00:45:58.300 We do that as well.

00:45:59.140 In the center, I will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:46:03.460 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:46:06.360 Guaranteed Human.

00:46:06.980 This is an iHeart Podcast.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 19, 2024

Protecting Kids From Deepfake Exploitation, plus Trump Surges w Black Voters & Russia Passes USA in Europe Gas Sales

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