Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss judicial activism, the U.S. fencing investigation, and Mexico stealing our farmers' water supply in order to keep them from getting their livelihoods on the border. Ted and Ben also discuss the impact of the Supreme Court's temporary restraining orders against President Trump.
00:07:33.220There have been more nationwide injunctions in the past two months against President Trump than in the entire 20th century.
00:07:41.860There have been more nationwide injunctions against President Trump in the last two months than both terms of George W. Bush, both terms of Barack Obama, and Joe Biden's term.
00:07:53.400We saw during the Biden presidency lawfare, indicting President Trump four times, using the machinery of justice to attack him.
00:08:06.060Because Democrats today hate democracy.
00:08:11.620Democrats today are angry at the voters for re-electing Donald Trump and electing a Republican Senate and a Republican House, and they engage in lawfare to stop democracy from operating.
00:08:22.960Understand, this is the second phase of lawfare, second chart.
00:08:32.420Now that their efforts to indict President Trump and stop the voters from re-electing him have failed, they're going and seeking out individual radical judges to try to shut down policies.
00:08:45.900And they are forum shopping like crazy.
00:08:48.380Give me any loon judge put on the bench by Obama or Biden who disagrees with the policy.
00:08:54.880We just saw a judge flagrantly ignore U.S. immigration law concerning TPS being revoked.
00:09:03.900U.S. law explicitly said there's no judicial review for that.
00:09:06.980But, hey, they found a judge who says, you know what?
00:09:09.900We, the Democrat Party, we are the party of illegal aliens.
00:09:12.740We are the party of murderers and rapists and gang members, and the Democrat Party exists here to fight to keep murderers and rapists and gang members in your communities.
00:09:25.540There's a reason the Democrat Party is at 26% approval nationwide, because they put radical policies ahead of rule of law.
00:09:37.640Nationwide injunctions are an abuse of power.
00:09:40.740It is the judiciary acting as policy deciders, and it is incumbent on this committee and this body to rein in the abuse of power from these unelected radical judges who are trying to overturn the election because they disagree with what the voters decided.
00:10:00.500So here's my question. You just teased it at the end, and that is it's our job to look at reining them in.
00:10:07.540How long does that take? Can it be done through legislation?
00:10:11.380What are the options here, and how quick can we get this under control?
00:10:15.400Well, it can be done quickly. There's legislation. In fact, there's legislation we were talking about at that hearing that Chuck Grassley's introduced, and I'm a co-sponsor of,
00:10:22.440that would remove the power of a district judge to issue nationwide injunctions.
00:10:26.840I think that makes an awful lot of sense.
00:10:29.120Is that going to pass? Probably not, because for it to pass in the Senate would take 60 votes, which would mean we would need seven Democrats to support it.
00:10:38.280Every Democrat, they're enthusiastic about this lawfare.
00:10:42.140They want to see more of it, so they are dug in.
00:10:44.560That remedy is not there. The other remedy that you and I have talked about before is impeachment.
00:10:50.680Impeachment, you can impeach a judge in the House with a majority vote, 218 votes.
00:10:57.300It may well make sense that one or more of the most egregious district judges who are defying their oath of office should and perhaps will be impeached by the House.
00:11:09.620However, if and when that happens, it'll come over to the Senate for the trial, and under the Constitution, it takes two-thirds to convict.
00:11:17.180That means we need Democrats, and the Democrats are not going to convict.
00:11:21.360There may be value in impeaching one or more of these judges anyway to highlight the utter brazen lawlessness of it,
00:11:29.540and doing so would mean we could have a trial on the floor of the Senate to lay out just how lawless their conduct was,
00:11:36.960but the judge is not going to be removed because the Democrats are all in in support of illegal aliens and against the rule of law.
00:11:45.220That means the remedy are, number one, the court of public opinion making people understand just what an abuse of power this is,
00:11:53.100and number two, the appellate process, the courts of appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court.
00:11:58.140Now, I will say, immediately after I finished my questioning, Amy Klobuchar spoke next.
00:12:04.060And I think my comments rattled her because she tried to respond, and I got to say, what she was saying made so little sense,
00:12:13.780I couldn't resist jumping in, and we had some real fireworks.
00:16:10.660Now, as you know, I am the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
00:16:17.440The Commerce Committee has massive jurisdiction.
00:16:19.800It has jurisdiction over roughly 40% of the U.S. economy.
00:16:23.460One of the things we have jurisdiction over is sports.
00:16:27.300We have jurisdiction over collegiate sports, Olympic sports, and any kind of sports competition.
00:16:36.320And USA fencing is explicitly, it is the vehicle through which the American fencing team in the Olympics is chosen.
00:16:49.200And so last week, I launched an investigation, and I sent an oversight letter to USA fencing asking for the documents on what their policy is,
00:17:03.880how many transgender athletes have attempted to compete, how many women they have disqualified for declining to compete,
00:17:13.160Look, there are biological differences.
00:17:15.060Men are made differently than women, and we've seen in many other sports significant injuries from women being forced to compete against biological men.
00:17:25.500And at the end of the day, Congress has a very direct remedy, which is we have the ability to cease the designation of USA fencing as the organization that chooses U.S. Olympic athletes.
00:17:53.660And I don't think any woman should be forced to compete against a man in sports.
00:17:57.120I don't think any girl should be forced to compete against a boy in sports.
00:18:01.600What does it look like if they're actually held accountable for this?
00:18:04.900What it looks like is they change their policies.
00:18:07.100That is my objective here, is to change the policy so that you don't end up having women discriminated against
00:18:18.160and put in a position where they're competing unfairly, where they're put in a position where they're risking real injuries.
00:18:28.480It'll be very interesting to see what that injury report looks like.
00:18:31.580Is there a timeline for them getting back to you with this request?
00:18:34.900Sure. So here's what I said in my letter.
00:18:38.540I wrote it to the chief executive officer of USA fencing, and I said,
00:18:42.960Dear Mr. Andrews, it has come to my attention that USA fencing is still permitting men to compete in women's fencing in violation of federal law.
00:18:51.580Your organization is the recognized national governing body for fencing in the United States.
00:18:56.240But to remain so, it must comply with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee rules and procedures,
00:19:03.920its statutory obligations to protect women, and President Trump's recent executive order on keeping men out of women's sports.
00:19:11.800If it does not, and instead continues to put women at risk, Congress may be forced to terminate USA fencing's NGB certification.
00:19:21.540Last week, Stephanie Turner from the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia competed at the USA fencing-sanctioned Cherry Blossom Open Circuit at the University of Maryland.
00:19:31.960The young woman was set to face a man who now claims to be a transgender woman in a fencing bout.
00:19:37.960However, at the start of the match, Ms. Turner bravely took a knee and refused to compete against her male opponent.
00:19:43.960In response to this young woman's courage, tournament officials presented her with a black card and disqualified her from the entire tournament.
00:19:53.600USA's fencing's director of communications, Brian Wendell, said the young woman's disqualification was, quote,
00:20:01.660the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, a supposed violation of the International Fencing Federation rules.
00:20:10.160He reiterated the USA fencing remains committed to inclusivity.
00:20:15.500USA fencing's commitment to inclusivity is nothing less than a full-throated support for males competing in women's sports in violation of federal law.
00:20:25.440As the recognized NGB for fencing, USA fencing is required to provide, quote,
00:20:31.120support and encouragement for participation by women where separate programs for male and female athletes are conducted on a national basis.
00:20:39.380As well as, quote, safe environments in sports.
00:20:43.540Failure to do so is grounds for the United States Congress to terminate USA fencing certification as an NGB.
00:20:52.120And I go on to say that they have to comply with President Trump's executive order.
00:20:56.720And I point out that male fencers naturally possess inherent advantages over potential female competitors.
00:21:04.420Men tend to be taller, have greater muscle mass, and more testosterone.
00:21:09.380All advantages for fencing movements like lunges, jumping, or leg power measures.
00:21:15.220And I point out that under the rules of the Senate, the Commerce Committee has a duty and an authority to review and study on a continuing basis,
00:21:24.960both sports and sports agencies such as USA fencing.
00:21:28.320And so I ask, I ask a whole series of questions, and I want documents and answers by April 21st, 2025.
00:21:37.540And it's documents about their transgender policy, how many men or transgender women currently compete in the women's division.
00:21:45.160In the last four years, how many bouts have occurred between transgender women and women?
00:21:49.980How many times did the female athlete prevail?
00:21:53.140How many times did the female athlete suffer an injury?
00:21:55.940Does USA fencing comply with the President's executive order?
00:22:00.000And I have a whole series of additional questions.
00:22:02.660But this is an example of holding to account, and you've got throughout sports, these radical associations, organizations that have embraced the woke ideology.
00:22:16.020There's no difference between men and women.
00:22:18.700And that is profoundly unfair to women and girls competing in sports.
00:22:23.920And I'm going to do everything I can to stop it.
00:22:26.100As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:22:47.500And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:22:57.280So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:23:00.520Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:23:06.260I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:23:10.280I want to ask you about this other, I would just say, insane news because I can't believe that they've been allowed to do it for so long.
00:23:19.460And that is Mexico stealing water, which is suffocating farmers.
00:23:26.480Specifically, it's happening in Texas.
00:23:29.020And it's making farming industry collapse and farmers disappearing from areas because there is no water.
00:23:36.540So let me give you the background because this is a really important issue.
00:23:40.300It's important in Texas, but it's important to the country, which is there's a water treaty that we signed with Mexico in 1944, the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944.
00:23:49.320It obligates Mexico to provide 350,000 acre-feet of water a year to South Texas.
00:24:12.360They are right now in this five-year period, 1.3 million acre-feet in arrears, water they have not provided that they've committed by treaty to provide.
00:24:34.320So in South Texas, there is a massive drought going on.
00:24:37.600It is doing enormous damage to farmers, and I spent a lot of time in South Texas, and the damage to farmers, we're seeing a lot of South Texas farmers that are taking half of their acreage out of production.
00:24:53.940They're shutting down half of their farms.
00:24:56.420Just because they don't have the water to do it.
00:26:07.020I forced a vote on the Senate floor on an amendment to direct the State Department to use every lever point we have to force Mexico to comply with the water treaty.
00:26:18.280I got a majority of the Senate, a bipartisan majority.
00:26:21.800And then there's a water commissioner for the United States.
00:26:24.720I, like, leaned in with the water commissioner and said, look, the Senate has spoken, a bipartisan majority.
00:27:05.480I could not get the Biden administration to do a damn thing.
00:27:09.060In December, as part of the continuing resolution, I authored legislation that got adopted that provided $280 million in emergency relief for Texas farmers because they're they're going broke.
00:27:21.600And we're talking about generational farms, farms that have been three, four generations who are being bankrupted because their government is not enforcing the treaty and they're being starved of water.
00:27:32.880And so several weeks ago, I went down to South Texas with Brooke Rollins.
00:27:37.920Brooke Rollins is is the secretary of agriculture.
00:27:41.140Brooke has been a good friend of mine for 25 years.
00:28:01.000We did a press conference, number one, where she announced I've got $280 million I'm giving to South Texas farmers because your federal government has been screwing you by not getting the water back.
00:28:39.880I have spent an enormous amount of time and millions of dollars in the valley trying to flip the valley red because I saw the potential there.
00:28:48.500And so I think I've invested more than any elected official in Texas in terms of turning the valley red.
00:28:53.880Well, I got to say, sitting there at that roundtable, you got farmers and ranchers and you're just asking them, look, over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a damn thing for you?
00:29:06.140And that's how you that's how you turn this.
00:29:08.060And what I told them, as I said, listen, if there's one thing you know about Donald Trump, he will stand up to foreign countries and fight for you.
00:30:08.120And I said, Mr. President, it would make a huge difference if you leaned in personally with the president of Mexico and said, provide us the water.