Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 17, 2026


Regime Change Isn’t a Dirty Word, a Meeting with Machado & the Soldiers Who Changed a Hemisphere Week In Review

Topics
regime change bullet and shrapnel requests
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Donald Trump Ronald Reagan Pete Hegseth Ayatollah Tucker Carlson Saddam Hussein Dick Durbin Natan Sharansky Bernie Moreno Ben Ferguson Rick Scott Gaddafi Verdict Jennifer Stewart Caitlin Clark Bruce Pearl Marxism-Leninism Sam Harris Berlin Wall John Curtis and 7 more
Inside the Room with the Heroic Soldiers Wounded in the Maduro Raid & with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado Iran Revolution-Why this is Different...Trump is not Obama

Episode Stats


Length

30 minutes

Words per minute

175.91

Word count

5,351

Sentence count

414

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

15

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz's weekend review of the big foreign policy stories of the past week: Iran, Venezuela, and Venezuela's opposition leader, Henriquez Machado, joins him on the show to talk about what the future looks like for that country.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.420 Welcome to this verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.380 Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.360 And here are the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed.
00:00:12.880 First up, regime change.
00:00:15.060 There's a real possibility of it in multiple countries around the world.
00:00:18.800 So what role should America play?
00:00:21.000 We explain that in a moment.
00:00:22.640 Also, Senator Cruz had an incredible meeting with the opposition leader of Venezuela, Machado.
00:00:27.420 She talked about what the future looks like for that country.
00:00:31.300 And Senator Cruz brings you into the room.
00:00:33.680 And finally, an incredible day in San Antonio.
00:00:37.060 Senator Cruz met with the heroes of the Maduro arrest mission.
00:00:41.140 What do they have to say?
00:00:42.560 And how are they doing?
00:00:43.880 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
00:00:47.120 And so you're either a neocon warmonger or you're an isolationist like Tucker and his followers.
00:00:55.240 And I actually think most Americans don't fall into either category.
00:01:00.380 Most Americans, I think, agree with President Donald Trump and agreed with President Ronald Reagan.
00:01:07.220 Neither one of them were, to use the insult of the day, neocon warmongers.
00:01:13.180 You know, in eight years, the biggest country Reagan ever invaded?
00:01:17.080 Grenada.
00:01:18.180 Yeah.
00:01:18.400 He was not interested in invading foreign countries and sending our soldiers to die abroad.
00:01:24.240 But he understood peace through strength.
00:01:27.100 He rebuilt our military.
00:01:28.460 He developed SDI, Strategic Defense Initiative, what was called Star Wars, laser missile defense from space.
00:01:34.000 And he bankrupted the Soviet Union and won the Cold War without firing a shot. 0.72
00:01:39.040 Donald Trump, likewise, has had incredible foreign policy victories.
00:01:44.640 But he's not sending our soldiers to be boots on the ground and to die for years on end.
00:01:50.480 And I want to take a related term that on social media gets thrown around as an epithet, which is regime change.
00:01:59.100 And you'll have people, I'm not for regime change.
00:02:02.020 Well, let me be clear.
00:02:02.660 Should you be for regime change when the Soviet Union fell and the Berlin Wall fell to the ground?
00:02:08.800 I will submit the answer is unambiguously yes.
00:02:11.840 The world is better off when a cruel, tyrannical communist regime falls.
00:02:17.180 Should you be for regime change today in communist China?
00:02:21.040 I think unambiguously yes.
00:02:22.440 The world would be better off if China were no longer a communist country.
00:02:25.960 Should you be for regime change in Iran?
00:02:28.360 I would suggest unambiguously yes, the world would be a better place if Iran was not governed by a theocratic, murderous, religious zealot who has killed hundreds, if not thousands of Americans. 0.79
00:02:43.400 Now, what is the consequence of saying you're for regime change?
00:02:48.020 If it is that you're going to send hundreds of thousands of American troops to invade the country and be on the ground for years on end and die in IEDs and be killed, then I don't support that.
00:02:59.840 That is wrong.
00:03:01.220 And part of the reason regime change has become an insult is people hear it and they immediately think the Iraq war.
00:03:09.360 Remember, I've opposed the Iraq war for decades.
00:03:11.480 By the way, when Tucker Carlson was an interventionist cheerleader with pom-poms cheering on the Iraq war, which he did for years with his bow tie, I've said for years the Iraq war was clearly a mistake.
00:03:26.400 Why?
00:03:26.740 Because it did not advance U.S. national security interest. 0.98
00:03:30.000 Saddam Hussein was a cruel and oppressive dictator. 0.99
00:03:33.000 He was killing terrorists who hated America. 1.00
00:03:36.020 Yeah. 0.96
00:03:36.080 We came in, we toppled Saddam Hussein, and the terrorists who hated America took over and began killing Americans.
00:03:42.200 By the way, we did the same thing in Libya with Gaddafi. 0.98
00:03:45.080 Gaddafi was cruel and oppressive, but he was killing terrorists who hate Americans. 0.98
00:03:49.220 We toppled Gaddafi, and the terrorists who hate Americans took over. 0.75
00:03:52.940 I believe we should be America first, which means we should put America's national security interests first.
00:03:58.000 But just because you don't want to commit boots on the ground and have hundreds or thousands of Americans die in protracted ground combat does not mean that you should support every tyrannical enemy of America.
00:04:14.600 We should want regime change in Iran, and are there ways to promote regime change other than boots on the ground? 0.68
00:04:23.500 And yes, and I would say one of them is what Donald J. Trump said.
00:04:27.500 I want to read his tweet again.
00:04:29.480 Iran is looking at freedom, perhaps like never before.
00:04:32.680 The USA stands ready to help.
00:04:34.680 President Donald J. Trump.
00:04:36.040 I agree with President Trump, and Tucker and everyone else who is blasting that we should have nothing to do with Iran. 0.96
00:04:42.620 They're disagreeing with the president, and they are wrong.
00:04:45.560 We should use our voice.
00:04:46.960 That's why this podcast is a message to the people of Iran.
00:04:51.480 Freedom matters.
00:04:53.020 You're the ones in charge of fighting for your revolution, but know that America stands with you, and a free and peaceful Iran is better for Iran, and it's better for America.
00:05:04.180 Yeah, it really is.
00:05:05.300 It's an important show.
00:05:06.460 I hope the people in Iran, especially using Starlink, get this podcast.
00:05:10.960 They're able to listen to it, that we're standing with you.
00:05:12.760 We're supporting you.
00:05:13.600 We're advocating for you, and we want you guys to succeed in what you're doing right now.
00:05:18.020 It's going to be very interesting to see because things are changing so quickly.
00:05:21.140 There was a video that was put out, and it was also just one of those moments when you're – I love the Internet, and it shows a Russian jet and a Russian support plane from their military on the tarmac on the military side at the Tehran airport.
00:05:34.440 It's interesting because people are speculating that plane is sitting there ready to take out the leaders if they need to.
00:05:39.420 Ben, I've got to say, what was there in the windshield, the little Uber logo?
00:05:43.340 I'm just curious.
00:05:44.040 Yeah, it said Russian lift.
00:05:46.220 It was Russian – yeah.
00:05:47.200 Yeah, Russian lift.
00:05:48.700 Did they at least bring some, like, you know, Domino's pizza or something?
00:05:52.580 Yeah, yeah.
00:05:52.940 It's the same plane, I think, that they got when they grabbed Assad, right? 0.91
00:05:55.760 You know, it's like, oh, come on down.
00:05:57.260 We'll let you be an eye doctor.
00:05:58.380 It's fine. 0.98
00:05:58.780 You're one of our bad guys.
00:06:00.040 It's the dictator extraction plane.
00:06:02.400 Yeah, exactly.
00:06:03.440 It's those two.
00:06:04.280 And who knows?
00:06:04.760 Maybe Tucker will be on it one day.
00:06:06.060 He can go hang out there.
00:06:06.860 He's already bought a house in Qatar, so you never know.
00:06:09.420 But you see it, and it's just one of those moments where I love the Internet.
00:06:14.060 It's like that's how close we are to seeing genuine freedom back there that they haven't seen since 1979.
00:06:21.000 That is amazing and inspiring.
00:06:23.320 I hope for the best, and I hope that very few lives or any lives are lost in this fight.
00:06:28.420 Let me say something also, Ben.
00:06:29.540 You're right.
00:06:30.920 Let me also acknowledge I'm not Pollyannish about what comes next.
00:06:35.640 So if there is a revolution in Iran, if the Ayatollah is toppled, it doesn't mean that tomorrow it's suddenly utopia and peace and harmony.
00:06:46.560 There could be real conflict.
00:06:48.580 There could be warring sides.
00:06:51.460 Anytime you have a revolution, there is uncertainty, and the outcome can be good or bad.
00:06:57.860 I don't have a stake.
00:06:59.920 I don't have a preferred favorite for who the next leader of Iran is.
00:07:05.200 I don't think that's my place.
00:07:06.240 I'm not a voter in Iran.
00:07:09.200 Unlike Tucker, I'm not buying a home in the Middle East.
00:07:13.120 To be clear, you're not buying real estate there.
00:07:16.160 Okay.
00:07:16.460 I thought you guys were going to be neighbors, but okay.
00:07:19.280 Look, if the people of Iran topple the Ayatollah and the Mullahs, my hope is that we see free and democratic elections,
00:07:26.440 and they elect a leader who's a good leader, who treats his people well,
00:07:30.320 and who wants to be friends with America instead of enemies.
00:07:32.920 By the way, that's the exact same outcome I want in Venezuela.
00:07:35.960 I want them not to have a communist dictator.
00:07:38.420 Now, Donald Trump has taken care of that by arresting him and prosecuting him.
00:07:42.980 But I want to see free and fair elections in Venezuela where they elect someone, I hope,
00:07:47.440 who embraces freedom and free enterprise and wants to be friends with America.
00:07:51.500 The lens I look through all of this is how does it impact America?
00:07:54.500 It's America first. 0.94
00:07:55.900 But I'm not diminishing, could there be bad outcomes?
00:08:00.420 Could there be a civil war?
00:08:02.100 Yes, that's a possibility when you have revolution.
00:08:04.260 You could have a divided country like we saw in Iraq as well.
00:08:06.800 I mean, you see this where there's different, there's many different religious thoughts and backgrounds
00:08:10.720 and different towns that believe different things.
00:08:12.780 And let me draw a distinction on this also, which is there's a real difference between Saddam Hussein
00:08:19.600 and Iran in that Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, but he wasn't actively waging war on America.
00:08:26.560 The Ayatollah is actively waging war on America. 0.99
00:08:29.660 He's spending money today funding terrorists that are trying to kill Americans.
00:08:34.740 And there's a real difference.
00:08:36.980 There are regimes across this country, across the world, rather, that are cruel and oppressive,
00:08:41.660 but they're not trying to kill us.
00:08:44.920 The Ayatollah is.
00:08:46.200 And so, look, obviously, if the regime falls, you could end up with a bad outcome.
00:08:51.540 But in my view, there are very few outcomes that could be worse than the Ayatollah. 0.99
00:08:55.600 At this point, they are unmitigatedly our enemies.
00:08:59.440 And I am hopeful.
00:09:00.940 I think we should be a voice of encouragement towards better leadership.
00:09:05.940 But I want to close with this story.
00:09:08.160 So about a decade ago, I was in Jerusalem, and I had the opportunity to meet Natan Sharansky.
00:09:14.260 Now, Natan Sharansky is the famed Soviet dissident.
00:09:18.940 He was in the Soviet gulag.
00:09:21.240 And he told me the story about how, when they were in the gulag, and Reagan was president,
00:09:26.860 that the prisoners would pass from cell to cell notes.
00:09:31.940 And they would be notes saying, did you hear what Reagan said?
00:09:35.780 Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire.
00:09:38.360 They passed notes, evil empire, evil empire, evil empire.
00:09:41.180 Reagan was asked, what is your strategy on the Cold War?
00:09:46.440 He said, very simple.
00:09:47.760 We win, they lose.
00:09:50.060 Before that, everyone said, oh, we're going to have detente.
00:09:52.140 We're just going to do nothing.
00:09:53.060 And he's like, we win, they lose.
00:09:54.240 That's the strategy.
00:09:55.680 When he talked about Marxism-Leninism, he said, Marxism-Leninism will end up on the ash heap
00:10:00.820 of history, and then the most significant words any leader has uttered in modern times,
00:10:06.900 he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Germany and said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
00:10:12.240 this wall.
00:10:13.600 Which, by the way, I love that part of the story.
00:10:15.840 If you haven't looked at it, please go and look at it.
00:10:18.620 He was told by his staff and speechwriters to not say it.
00:10:23.700 And he added it back in.
00:10:25.440 After the State Department had taken it out.
00:10:27.700 Three times the State Department deleted that.
00:10:29.820 Three times Reagan wrote it back in.
00:10:31.880 And by the way, the State Department argued at the time of his speech, he said, you cannot
00:10:35.640 say this.
00:10:36.360 It is too aggressive.
00:10:37.240 It's too bellicose.
00:10:38.240 And here was their killer argument.
00:10:40.320 It's too unrealistic.
00:10:41.860 It will never, ever, ever happen.
00:10:44.660 And Reagan laughed and said, this is the whole point of the speech.
00:10:48.040 And it was less than three years from giving that speech that the Berlin Wall was torn to
00:10:52.420 the ground.
00:10:52.700 And by the way, Berlin Wall did not come down because Reagan ordered in the Marines.
00:10:58.340 We sent in tanks to knock down the wall.
00:11:01.000 It was the power of the bully pulpit of the voice for freedom of the president.
00:11:06.100 And one of the things, Ben, you've seen that is in my office.
00:11:09.520 It's actually in one of the offices of my staff.
00:11:12.100 I love it.
00:11:12.900 Is my first couple of years that I was in the Senate, someone came to the office and
00:11:17.520 gave me something.
00:11:18.340 And it's a silk painting of myself, which I don't generally hang paintings of myself
00:11:24.020 on the wall.
00:11:25.120 Yeah.
00:11:25.700 But the reason that I kept this one is the story behind it.
00:11:29.840 This was apparently made by a dissident, a prisoner in North Korea.
00:11:35.760 And I've been from the very first days I arrived in the Senate, I've been speaking out against
00:11:40.960 tyrants and communist oppression, whether in China or North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba
00:11:48.700 or Iran.
00:11:51.060 And much like Natan Sharansky, apparently the words that I had said here in the United States
00:11:56.240 had somehow made their way into a dark prison cell in North Korea.
00:12:00.980 And I don't know the name of this North Korean who made this. 0.74
00:12:04.860 I don't know his story.
00:12:06.480 I just know that it was smuggled out and they delivered it to my office.
00:12:10.620 And I periodically look at that and say, OK, like there's a responsibility.
00:12:15.180 This podcast, there may be someone who is risking their life or even, God forbid, loses
00:12:23.540 their life because they hear our words are inspired to fight against tyranny.
00:12:28.420 And so I think we have a responsibility to speak truth, to speak for justice.
00:12:34.580 And that's what I hope this podcast is doing every week, but especially today.
00:12:39.580 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to
00:12:43.380 the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:12:46.540 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00
00:12:50.940 leaders and the world around them.
00:12:52.680 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:12:56.020 First, I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.
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00:13:08.360 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:13:11.580 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:13:15.640 Now on to story number two.
00:13:19.780 You mentioned, by the way, that the meeting you had with her after she met with the president
00:13:23.300 of the United States of America, Donald Trump, was with 12 different senators.
00:13:26.940 So how does that room get made?
00:13:28.660 And it sounds like it was by Parson.
00:13:30.460 You mentioned a Democrat that was in that room.
00:13:32.540 Does everybody get an invite or only certain people?
00:13:34.900 How does that work?
00:13:35.700 So, no, it was a smaller subset.
00:13:38.940 And typically what happens when you have heads of state come to Washington, they will often
00:13:43.700 reach out to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:13:46.020 And I sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:13:48.260 And so often we will have, regularly we'll have like afternoon coffees or lunches with
00:13:54.900 heads of state when they come to town.
00:13:57.320 And in the Capitol, there's an office where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets.
00:14:01.420 There's a hearing room with this big ornate table that they'll set up and they usually
00:14:06.560 put, you have some coffee and some pieces of cheese and crackers and like a little bit
00:14:13.660 of fruit.
00:14:13.940 The good stuff.
00:14:15.020 Yeah, you know, it's, but it, look, it is, it's an opportunity to visit with world leaders.
00:14:21.980 In this instance, it wasn't the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:14:25.520 It ended up being, we met in the office of Dick Durbin, who is the number two Democrat.
00:14:30.320 He was the one hosting it.
00:14:32.340 And, and initially I think Durbin was making the invites.
00:14:36.480 And then this is actually something Marina Carina Machado did that I think was very wise
00:14:40.620 also.
00:14:41.380 She invited a number of people.
00:14:42.900 So, so the reason I was there is because she invited me.
00:14:45.880 And, and look, I just saying Durbin, you didn't make the cut on Durbin's, on his group
00:14:51.400 chat.
00:14:51.820 You're not in that group chat with him.
00:14:53.680 So look, I suspect that there were some Democrats that wanted to have it a meeting of just
00:14:59.880 Democrats in her.
00:15:01.380 Yeah.
00:15:01.560 And, and, and I think that would have been really unfortunate if that had happened, because
00:15:05.540 I think the Democrats would have wanted to use it to attack Trump.
00:15:08.600 And, and I think she realized that that would be, that would not further the people of Venezuela.
00:15:15.000 That would not be good for anyone.
00:15:16.420 And so, so she reached out and, and we had four Republicans who was there, were there.
00:15:21.200 So I was there.
00:15:22.180 Rick Scott from Florida was there.
00:15:23.880 Uh, Bernie Moreno, uh, from Ohio was there.
00:15:27.320 And, and then John Curtis from Utah was there.
00:15:29.680 So that was the four Republicans who were in the room.
00:15:31.860 And then there were about seven, eight, nine Democrats that were there.
00:15:35.480 So it was a larger group of Democrats.
00:15:37.940 Um, and they were all posing for the cameras and, and, and, and look, I, I think Rick Scott
00:15:44.740 had, had obvious reason to be, be there.
00:15:46.940 There's a big, big Venezuelan population in Florida.
00:15:50.260 Uh, Rick Scott has a lot of support from the Venezuelan population in Florida.
00:15:54.620 So it made sense for him to be there.
00:15:56.760 Bernie, his family's from Columbia.
00:15:58.580 And so, you know, he, uh, you know, Bernie and I are, are the two, two Hispanic Republicans
00:16:03.820 that are in the Senate.
00:16:04.740 Yeah.
00:16:05.480 Um, and, and since he's Colombian American, I'm Cuban American, we kind of talk smack at
00:16:10.240 each other quite a bit.
00:16:11.060 And, and Colombians and Cubans usually throw down a little bit. 0.96
00:16:15.040 Um, and, and, you know, when it, as for me, look, there's a significant,
00:16:20.240 significant Venezuelan population in, in Texas, uh, in particular because Venezuela has the
00:16:25.220 largest proven reserves of oil in the world.
00:16:28.540 Yeah.
00:16:29.060 Uh, and, and Houston is obviously the energy capital of the world.
00:16:33.140 And so there are a lot of Venezuelans who are in Houston, a lot of Houston oil companies
00:16:38.200 have been down in Venezuela over the years.
00:16:40.600 Uh, for many years, uh, there was a group called the Sitco Six that were Americans who were
00:16:46.660 imprisoned in Venezuela and they were Houstonians.
00:16:49.560 They, they worked for Sitco, the oil company and, and, and Maduro had put them in prison
00:16:53.500 and, and, and I was their leading advocate in the Senate.
00:16:56.340 I went to the Senate floor repeatedly.
00:16:58.020 I spoke out for them.
00:16:59.260 I, I, I leaned repeatedly, uh, on the, the regime and ultimately the Sitco Six were released, 1.00
00:17:05.720 but, but it had been, you know, I visited with, with Maria Corina Machado, um, previously
00:17:11.360 had been engaged.
00:17:12.660 I've been engaged with the opposition leaders for some time and, and part of that is, listen, 0.96
00:17:17.960 I hate communists.
00:17:19.440 It, it, it, it is, you know, my, my family was imprisoned and tortured by communists. 0.54
00:17:25.200 My dad was in prison and tortured by Batista, who was not a communist, but my aunt, my Tia
00:17:29.680 Sonia was imprisoned and tortured by Castro's goons.
00:17:33.440 And, and so when it comes to communists, my, my, one of the, I think they're in the, the
00:17:40.500 embodiment of evil and, and, and, and one of the real missions that I've had really
00:17:44.920 since, since the day I got elected to the Senate is trying to highlight dissidents.
00:17:49.060 I think there's a real power to dissidents.
00:17:52.020 There's a real power to those that stand up to tyrants that, that, that show courage and
00:17:57.240 that face prison and, and human rights abuses because we've seen tyrannies collapse because
00:18:04.820 of the threats to their legitimacy.
00:18:06.440 And so I've tried in my time in the Senate really to shine a light and amplify the message
00:18:11.240 of dissidents.
00:18:12.440 You and I, by the way, have talked about this this week when I was up in DC, we had Bruce
00:18:16.480 Pearl on, by the way, if you missed that show, go back and listen to it.
00:18:19.700 The famous basketball coach who's, who's, who's, is a man sitting up for Israel right 0.97
00:18:24.440 now.
00:18:24.920 And that was a fun podcast.
00:18:27.020 It really was go back and grab it.
00:18:28.900 But, but you and I have talked about this.
00:18:30.340 And by the way, I did, did talk with someone last night who said, said she loved the podcast
00:18:34.660 and she was, she cracked up the most by hearing that Bruce and I shared having both run around
00:18:40.140 naked in college streaking on campus.
00:18:42.560 So if you want to hear the story of that, go listen, go listen to the last podcast.
00:18:47.040 There you go.
00:18:47.860 That's an easy tease right there.
00:18:49.920 You and I have talked about the moment that we're living in right now could be one of the
00:18:55.640 biggest historical moments, certainly of my lifetime.
00:18:58.540 And that is, we have three countries that without Donald Trump being president right
00:19:04.820 now, if Kamala Harris was in the White House, we would not be having this conversation, I
00:19:08.620 believe, that are on the verge of quite possibly having free and fair elections within the next
00:19:13.140 12 months.
00:19:14.180 And that would be Iran. 0.88
00:19:15.860 That would be Venezuela. 0.70
00:19:17.060 That would also be Cuba.
00:19:18.660 People are standing up for themselves and standing up to their government because they're being
00:19:24.280 inspired by Donald Trump and what he's also said, which is we have your back.
00:19:29.380 Well, and I want to take a moment for us just to reflect on the incredible consequential
00:19:35.680 times we're living.
00:19:36.740 And this is a point that I made to Machado when she was in D.C.
00:19:40.360 I said, look, it is entirely possible that in the next few months, in the next six months,
00:19:46.540 we could see the regimes fall in Venezuela, in Cuba and Iran.
00:19:52.440 We could see elections in Venezuela, in Cuba and Iran.
00:19:58.420 We could see leaders elected by the people who stand for freedom and who want to stand
00:20:04.580 with America and be friends with America.
00:20:06.620 We could see that in Venezuela, in Cuba and Iran.
00:20:09.760 Iran, it could happen literally in the next few hours or the next few days.
00:20:15.700 What is happening in Iran is so consequential.
00:20:18.620 What is happening in Venezuela is so consequential.
00:20:21.060 And Cuba is not far behind.
00:20:23.660 And if that happens, that will be the single most significant foreign policy development
00:20:32.360 the world has seen since the Berlin Wall was torn to the ground.
00:20:37.040 It will literally remake the geopolitical map and the consequences of that.
00:20:43.620 Now, to be clear, there are a thousand things that can go wrong.
00:20:48.040 There are a thousand things that could go wrong in Venezuela, in Cuba, in Iran.
00:20:52.500 It's not guaranteed.
00:20:53.780 In fact, it is guaranteed to not be smooth and without challenges.
00:20:57.960 It is 100 percent.
00:20:59.400 It will be bumpy and there will be challenges.
00:21:02.040 But all three regimes are in a panic.
00:21:05.680 They are in a free fall.
00:21:06.820 And the people of all three countries are energized that if you were to pick three countries that for decades have been explicitly, passionately anti-American, the regimes, the rulers, have been responsible for terrorism, responsible for threatening the lives of Americans.
00:21:25.880 It would be difficult to find three more dangerous than Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. 0.93
00:21:32.900 And you're right.
00:21:34.100 This is the direct consequence of strong leadership from the commander in chief.
00:21:38.480 And it was interesting.
00:21:39.480 One of the Democrat senators who was in the meeting with me, he actually pulled me aside afterwards and said, you know, Ted, you made this point yesterday that this could be a time as consequential as the Berlin Wall being torn to the ground.
00:21:53.300 And he said, I hadn't really thought about it that way.
00:21:56.900 But you're right.
00:21:57.800 And it was an interesting point.
00:22:00.340 And I have to say, one of the things, look, I was really impressed with Machado, how she handled her message, by the way, to the senators, was that America's support is really important to Venezuela.
00:22:14.440 And seeing some unity, look, her message, she was not in any way chastising the Democrats, but she did say unity is really important.
00:22:25.080 And what is happening, the people of Venezuela, this would not have happened without President Trump.
00:22:30.600 And there were some very partisan Democrats in that room who were not thrilled to hear that message because their message every day is Trump bad, Trump bad, Trump bad.
00:22:38.920 But she didn't want to argue with him on that, but she just said, listen, this is a moment we've waited decades for.
00:22:49.700 And in the opposition, she said so many people in Venezuela, what they said is this day would never come.
00:22:55.400 This day would never come.
00:22:56.540 And it came and it is here.
00:22:58.600 And seeing unity from America right now is so important.
00:23:02.540 Look, I think the same is true for Iran, seeing unity standing with the protesters against the Ayatollah.
00:23:10.980 If we are six months from now with the governments and the leaders of those three countries being pro-American and wanting to be our friends, that is like, holy cow.
00:23:23.700 That makes the world much safer and that makes every American much safer.
00:23:27.620 As 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.
00:23:37.220 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:23:43.660 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:23:47.400 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:23:48.560 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:23:49.500 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:23:59.300 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:24:02.540 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:24:08.280 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:24:12.340 Let's get back to this just incredible meeting.
00:24:16.600 The heroes and the bravery, especially the stories that we've been told, going in after Maduro.
00:24:22.740 And look, the guy lived on a military base.
00:24:24.960 He had these fighters that were supposed to be protecting him from Cuba.
00:24:29.720 Seeing that what we had compared to what they had on the ground and the way that we came out without losing a single American life is just unbelievable.
00:24:37.560 There were those soldiers, however, that were injured and shot.
00:24:41.200 And you got to meet them as they were recovering in the hospital in San Antonio.
00:24:46.160 Talk about this, their story.
00:24:48.380 What did they have to say?
00:24:49.620 What was their perspective?
00:24:51.540 So we had three of our soldiers who were wounded during the raid.
00:24:56.540 And they're all at the hospital in San Antonio.
00:24:59.640 They're being treated.
00:25:00.400 The good news is that they're all in good condition.
00:25:03.560 None are in life-threatening condition now.
00:25:05.820 They were in good spirits.
00:25:06.960 We had the opportunity to visit with each of the three of them, with each of their wives as well.
00:25:11.300 They were there with their wives.
00:25:13.060 And I will tell you, the first one we met with was a soldier who was in charge of helping plan the entire raid.
00:25:21.080 He was leading one of the helicopters, and he had been shot in the leg.
00:25:24.800 And he continued, even in the midst of being shot in the leg, continued.
00:25:30.720 He did not step back from the fight, and he was critical in terms of his location, making sure, protecting his fellow soldiers.
00:25:40.300 You know, I got to tell you, he was in great spirit.
00:25:45.140 His wife was incredibly proud of him.
00:25:47.500 And with all three of the soldiers, I took an opportunity to tell them.
00:25:53.160 I said, look, you were part of history.
00:25:57.060 Yeah.
00:25:57.680 You were part of history in a way, without exaggeration, that changed the entire Western Hemisphere.
00:26:04.680 What you did was profoundly important.
00:26:07.640 And I also told them, I took the chance on behalf of Texans and Americans, just to say thank you.
00:26:12.800 Thank you for your bravery.
00:26:14.360 Thank you for your heroism.
00:26:15.760 Thank you for your heroism.
00:26:45.760 To thank them.
00:26:47.080 And then the first soldier who had been shot in the leg, I was there with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense.
00:26:54.960 And Pete said, you know, if there's anything you need, let me know.
00:27:00.380 And he said, well, actually, there is something you could do.
00:27:03.380 And Pete said, what? 0.98
00:27:04.440 And he said, I'd really like the bullet, the bullet that went into his leg.
00:27:09.460 And the hospital had it.
00:27:11.080 And the medical director at the hospital, he said, well, we have the bullet, but we're not allowed to give it over unless we give a waiver.
00:27:18.980 And Pete, to his credit, said the waiver is granted.
00:27:21.780 You could have the bullet.
00:27:22.680 And that soldier was beaming. 0.94
00:27:26.140 He was thrilled to have the bullet.
00:27:28.060 And actually, the second soldier we met, he had been shot, but he had also been cut by a piece of shrapnel.
00:27:33.560 He had a cut that ran the whole length of his arm.
00:27:35.580 And he had the exact same request.
00:27:40.240 He said, I'd really like the shrapnel.
00:27:41.780 So they had the piece of metal that had cut his arm open.
00:27:44.620 And again, the hospital said, we have it, but we're not allowed to give it to him without the waiver.
00:27:50.080 And again, Pete said, we're granting the waiver.
00:27:52.360 You can have it.
00:27:53.080 So both of those, I assume that they're going to frame it or otherwise keep it as just a memento to the injury,
00:28:00.420 the Purple Heart that they earned, fighting for their country, but also being a part of profoundly impacting history.
00:28:10.600 You mentioned their wives were there, and I don't know if you can tell us, but age range, 20s, 30s, 40s?
00:28:16.340 Like, how old are these guys?
00:28:19.400 One of the soldiers, the first soldier who helped plan the raid was a little bit older.
00:28:24.080 The other two were young guys, and they were, you know, they were young guys, and they were not someone like if you saw them walking down the street, you wouldn't do a double take.
00:28:35.040 The first guy kind of looked a little like Captain America.
00:28:37.240 He was a little—
00:28:37.680 Yeah, yeah.
00:28:38.700 But the other two, look, they were fit.
00:28:41.700 They were in good shape.
00:28:43.040 But the skill that you know they have, the heroism you know they have, if you just saw them on the street, you wouldn't immediately know that.
00:28:53.480 And their wives were young, and it was interesting.
00:28:59.680 Their wives were, you know, they said they were women of faith.
00:29:03.280 They were praying for their husbands.
00:29:05.360 They were really proud of their husbands, proud of everything that they had been through.
00:29:09.520 And I'll tell you, the first soldier, he said, you know, he asked—Hegseth asked him,
00:29:18.800 well, how are you feeling?
00:29:19.880 And he said, I'm ready to go again.
00:29:22.020 That's amazing.
00:29:22.880 And I said, great, can you do Saturday?
00:29:26.540 And he said, well, can we hold off till Monday?
00:29:29.740 So that kind of gives you a sense of the spirit.
00:29:33.280 They were really in good spirits.
00:29:36.040 And actually, with two of the soldiers, there was an additional soldier that was there in the hospital room
00:29:45.080 who said he used to be their commanding officer, and he had rotated off the unit about six months before the raid.
00:29:51.500 And he said, look, I'm really disappointed.
00:29:53.520 I mean, it broke his heart that he just missed going on the raid.
00:29:57.420 So he was there to be with his guys, but he did not go on the raid, and he was just cheering them on.
00:30:01.980 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:30:07.320 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day if you're not listening to Verdict,
00:30:11.920 or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:30:14.340 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:30:17.840 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:30:21.500 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:30:24.400 Guaranteed human.