Verdict with Ted Cruz - Schumer Shutdown-What to Expect plus Dem Rhetoric Keeps getting Worse, Inciting Violence & Endangering Law Enforcement

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.640 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.180 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.480 It's nice to have you with us.

00:00:09.640 And we've got a packed show for you on this Monday morning,

00:00:13.100 including the very sad news that is coming out of Michigan.

00:00:18.060 An attack there on a church, a Michigan church shooting attack.

00:00:22.520 The new numbers we have are four dead, ten wounded as of when we are recording this.

00:00:26.900 And Senator, it's just another tragic event we're witnessing.

00:00:30.680 Well, unfortunately, this is a pattern we're seeing over and over again of violent murderers attacking churches,

00:00:37.200 attacking Christian schools, targeting people of faith.

00:00:41.060 In this case, it was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

00:00:46.120 the Mormon Church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan.

00:00:49.780 A deranged man drove his truck through the front of the church while the church members were worshiping,

00:00:56.520 opened fire, murdered, as you said, four dead, ten injured as of right now,

00:01:03.920 and also set the church on fire.

00:01:07.580 All of us, I think, today saw the images of the church aflame.

00:01:11.960 And at this point, we don't know the details.

00:01:15.160 We don't know the motivations of why this deranged killer targeted this church.

00:01:21.200 But we've seen so much hatred for people of faith.

00:01:24.340 And I will say right now, my prayers, and I know yours too, Ben,

00:01:28.020 are with all of those who are wounded, that they would reach a swift recovery.

00:01:33.160 Our prayers are with the families of those who were murdered.

00:01:36.020 And everyone in the LDS Church that is really just hurting right now at this persecution,

00:01:42.420 it is another manifestation of the hate that we have seen day after day after day.

00:01:49.900 And I very much pray our nation gets beyond this vicious hate.

00:01:54.640 Yeah, no doubt.

00:01:55.740 And I've got to say, law enforcement did an unbelievable job of saving lives

00:02:00.740 and showing up very quickly after this heinous attack began

00:02:04.540 and probably saved countless lives based on the number of people that were inside.

00:02:09.200 And Senator, this just goes back to a really important point,

00:02:12.840 that we have got to stop demonizing law enforcement in this country

00:02:16.060 the way that Democrats have continued to do that.

00:02:18.380 ICE agents is a great example of what we saw last week,

00:02:20.860 because these men and women who put on a badge every day

00:02:24.100 are willing to go into situations where they don't even know what's going on

00:02:27.740 and save people's lives.

00:02:29.000 They did it yet again in Michigan.

00:02:30.740 Well, you're exactly right.

00:02:32.840 And I will say in Michigan, law enforcement responded within minutes,

00:02:37.540 came in and took out the shooter,

00:02:40.400 and no doubt saved a lot of lives, including a lot of children.

00:02:44.000 And later in the podcast, we're going to talk about

00:02:46.820 the consistent pattern of rhetoric and demonizing law enforcement,

00:02:53.760 demonizing ICE that we have seen from Democrats.

00:02:55.980 And even in the face of these horrific murders,

00:02:59.140 Democrats keep ratcheting up the rhetoric.

00:03:01.280 And tragically, that rhetoric is inviting violence.

00:03:04.980 We're going to lay that out in detail.

00:03:06.900 But before we do that, we're going to talk about the impending Schumer shutdown.

00:03:11.960 We are two days away from the expiration of funding for the federal government.

00:03:16.000 And I believe it is highly likely that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats will force a shutdown.

00:03:22.040 This Sunday on the Sunday shows, the Democrats were out in force,

00:03:27.720 all blaming the impending shutdown on Donald Trump.

00:03:31.240 Donald Trump, which is no surprise, because in their world, everything is Donald Trump's fault.

00:03:35.380 But we're going to break down, number one,

00:03:37.260 why it is so likely that the Democrats are going to force the Schumer shutdown.

00:03:41.640 But number two, what to expect?

00:03:43.000 What does it mean?

00:03:43.660 What are the consequences of a government shutdown if on midnight, September 30th,

00:03:48.620 the Democrats block funding the government?

00:03:51.660 We're going to explain it all to you on today's pod.

00:03:54.740 All of you know that I am a pro-Second Amendment guy.

00:03:58.020 I've shared on numerous occasions how carrying my firearms saved my life from a gang-related attack.

00:04:03.660 But for those of you out there with family members who may not be comfortable having a gun,

00:04:08.420 by their side, you still want them to be able to protect themselves and others in times of danger.

00:04:13.200 And that's where the Berna launcher comes in.

00:04:16.780 Berna is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker.

00:04:23.360 Berna is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from the attacker.

00:04:31.100 I'm here today with Josh Sherrard from Berna to share the true story of how a California homeowner

00:04:36.760 used a Berna launcher to stop a home intruder.

00:04:40.440 Josh, tell us what happened.

00:04:41.600 You know, Bob Bray was one of the earliest adopters of Berna back when we first started.

00:04:46.040 He lived in California in a residential suburb of L.A.

00:04:49.680 that was pretty prone to a lot of vagrancy, a lot of homeless walking up and down the street.

00:04:53.840 He kept a Berna in his living room, and one of these vagrants wandered in his home, 0.94

00:04:57.720 just confused, probably drunk and intoxicated, in the wrong house.

00:05:01.880 Bob was able to pull his Berna out, point it at the intruder,

00:05:05.480 who promptly backed out of the home, back into the yard.

00:05:08.680 And, of course, it was all caught on surveillance.

00:05:10.940 He didn't even have to use the Berna, and he was able to ward off this intruder

00:05:15.140 in a situation that could have ended incredibly badly had more force been used.

00:05:20.680 This is a great demonstration of how the lowest level of force can be used to rectify a situation.

00:05:25.900 And, of course, it was all caught on video,

00:05:27.620 which makes for a great illustration of how that Berna can be used on a day-to-day basis.

00:05:32.900 There's a lot of people that are going to say,

00:05:33.900 well, why wouldn't the homeowner just use a gun in this case?

00:05:36.840 Yeah, well, one, it comes down to legality.

00:05:38.740 You know, in this part of California, it may be very difficult to use a gun.

00:05:43.040 And then, two, we saw this intruder literally just stumbled into the wrong home

00:05:48.720 in an altered state of mind.

00:05:50.640 Nobody wants to kill anybody that doesn't need killing, that they absolutely don't have to.

00:05:56.080 So, this is a great instance where the Berna was able to be used,

00:05:59.260 the lowest level of less lethal force is able to use to rectify the situation

00:06:02.700 without bringing a gun into that situation.

00:06:05.900 Yeah, I tell you, I have one of these.

00:06:07.560 My family members do as well.

00:06:09.000 A lot of my friends, if you want more information on how you or a family member

00:06:13.680 can protect themselves with a Berna launcher, go to Berna, B-Y-R-N-A dot com.

00:06:19.900 That's Berna.com, B-Y-R-N-A dot com. 1.00

00:06:22.980 Again, protect yourself and your family, Berna, B-Y-R-N-A dot com. 1.00

00:06:28.640 All right, so let's get into this shutdown, Senator.

00:06:31.420 And this is a very interesting shutdown.

00:06:34.160 Democrats, obviously, they have a game plan.

00:06:37.800 They were rolling it out, as you mentioned, on the Sunday shows.

00:06:40.580 And what they're clearly aiming for is a shutdown where they can say,

00:06:44.460 this is Donald Trump's fault.

00:06:46.420 Hakeem Jeffries, he was on TV about the government shutdown,

00:06:49.760 unloading on the president and saying, look, Republicans have behaved as consistent rubber

00:06:55.180 stamps for Trump's extreme agenda.

00:06:58.640 And so, therefore, there has to be some accountability for that.

00:07:01.880 So this is a shutdown they're going to cause, even though, as you mentioned,

00:07:05.700 it's clearly a Democratic shutdown if it happens.

00:07:08.700 Well, let me explain what a shutdown is and why this is relevant.

00:07:12.640 So the way the federal government works is the executive branch cannot spend money

00:07:17.940 unless Congress has appropriated that money.

00:07:20.940 That's how the Constitution works, that Congress has to appropriate money 0.97

00:07:24.160 in order for the executive to make an expenditure of taxpayer funds.

00:07:29.860 And typically, those appropriations are for a period of time.

00:07:33.360 The fiscal year of the federal government runs from October 1st to September 30th.

00:07:38.980 So, at midnight on September 30th, the existing funding for the federal government will expire.

00:07:44.940 In order to continue funding, Congress has to act.

00:07:48.340 Now, the House has passed a continuing resolution.

00:07:52.000 It's also called a CR.

00:07:53.740 A continuing resolution essentially says nothing changes.

00:07:57.360 And the House's continuing resolution funds the government until the middle of November.

00:08:02.660 It changes no policy.

00:08:04.160 It does nothing.

00:08:04.760 It just says everything that's happening now, let's keep it going for a couple of months.

00:08:10.800 The House has passed it.

00:08:12.700 It is now in the Senate.

00:08:14.660 In order for legislation to pass the Senate, it takes 60 votes.

00:08:18.540 That's the ordinary filibuster rule.

00:08:21.440 A week ago, we took up the House's clean CR.

00:08:26.140 There's no riders, no attachments, nothing on it.

00:08:28.760 It's just a clean, let's keep the government open. 0.78

00:08:30.640 And the Democrats voted party line against it.

00:08:33.800 Now, we cannot pass funding for the government in the Senate unless at least seven Democrats vote for it.

00:08:41.420 We have 53 Republicans.

00:08:43.000 We need 60.

00:08:44.640 That means if seven Democrats won't vote with us, nothing passes the Senate.

00:08:50.700 And a week ago, the Democrats all lined up party line.

00:08:54.040 They are projecting right now, we're going to vote this week again on a clean CR.

00:08:58.800 And mind you, this is not a Republican piece of legislation with some major Republican priority.

00:09:05.480 I'd love to see some Republican priorities in there, but this is not.

00:09:08.240 This is simply let's keep the lights on.

00:09:09.940 Let's keep the government open.

00:09:11.660 And the Democrats are lining up to say no.

00:09:14.760 Now, let me tell you why the Democrats are, I think, very likely going to force a shutdown.

00:09:19.280 Because several months ago, when we had the last battle over government funding, Chuck Schumer agreed to keep the government open.

00:09:28.080 And the left wing of his party lost their mind.

00:09:30.940 AOC and all of the woke radicals, the socialists, got furious with Chuck Schumer.

00:09:38.120 Chuck Schumer's favorabilities plummeted.

00:09:40.040 And I've got to tell you, Chuck is terrified of being primaried by AOC.

00:09:44.260 His job is in real jeopardy.

00:09:46.660 And so I believe Schumer's made a decision.

00:09:48.480 He's going to shut the government down because that's the way he proves to the crazies in his party that he is a ferocious warrior.

00:09:56.880 Now, let me give you some quotes from multiple Democrats about government shutdowns.

00:10:01.240 And the only thing that was different on this is at the time of the quotes, you had a Democrat in the White House.

00:10:07.480 So here's what Chuck Schumer said in January of 2024.

00:10:10.600 Quote, passing a clean CR this week is important for two main reasons.

00:10:14.900 First, passing the CR, of course, will avert a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown.

00:10:21.120 No reasonable member on either side, Democrat or Republican, wants a government shutdown.

00:10:26.900 How about Chris Murphy, one of the biggest radicals in the Senate?

00:10:30.120 In September of 2013, here's what he said.

00:10:33.680 Quote, there is a time and place to debate health care, just like there is a time and place to debate energy policy and immigration and education.

00:10:41.460 But not when the funding of the federal government and all the lives are impacted by it hang in the balance.

00:10:47.300 How about Elizabeth Warren?

00:10:48.440 Same time, September 2013.

00:10:49.740 The least we can do, the bare minimum that we can do, would be to pass a continuing resolution to keep the doors open and the lights on.

00:10:59.120 Threatening a shutdown is the last resort for those who can't otherwise win their fights through elections, can't win their fights in Congress, can't win their fights for the presidency and can't win their fights in courts.

00:11:11.920 Here's what Brian Schott said in September of 2023.

00:11:16.760 I've seen the same thing over and over again.

00:11:19.740 Shutdowns don't work.

00:11:21.300 The government eventually reopens and neither side has accomplished a single thing.

00:11:25.820 No one wins, but Americans have a lot to lose.

00:11:29.440 Senator Mark Warner, September of 2024.

00:11:32.280 That's a year ago.

00:11:34.340 Government shutdowns unleash chaos on federal workers, delay pay for service members, and weaken our position on the global stage.

00:11:45.340 Bernie Sanders in January of 2018.

00:11:48.780 Shutting down the government is a serious and dangerous action.

00:11:53.240 That's a terrible Bernie Sanders impersonation.

00:11:55.480 Sorry about that.

00:11:57.060 That we must do everything possible to prevent.

00:12:00.480 Shutting down the government would impact tens of millions of our fellow Americans who would be unable to access government services.

00:12:06.580 It would severely impact federal employees who would not get the paychecks they expected.

00:12:12.900 It would also have a very significant impact on our armed forces.

00:12:16.860 In other words, we must do everything that we can to prevent a government shutdown.

00:12:22.180 Senator Mark Kelly, a supposed moderate from Maryland, September of 2023.

00:12:27.200 Quote, a government shutdown would have serious impacts.

00:12:31.040 Service members won't get their paychecks.

00:12:32.980 Airports could have major delays.

00:12:35.100 Nutrition assistance for children could be cut off.

00:12:37.640 We can't let any of that happen.

00:12:39.420 Congress needs to work together to prevent a shutdown.

00:12:42.700 I literally have 20 more of these quotes.

00:12:47.560 Senator Tim Kaine, January 2019.

00:12:50.060 I'm a senator from Virginia.

00:12:51.460 Some of the hardest effects of a shutdown would be seen in my state.

00:12:55.300 Well, you know what?

00:12:55.840 Every one of these guys, I think it is very likely, they're going to vote in the next 48 hours to shut the government down.

00:13:01.540 And it's not because they think a government shutdown is a good idea.

00:13:06.020 It's because their base just hates Trump and they want to have a primal scream.

00:13:12.180 And so I think the odds are very high.

00:13:15.260 The Schumer shutdown will happen because he will force the Democrats all to vote to shut the government down.

00:13:21.900 When you talk about this vote and when this goes down, what's the time frame?

00:13:27.000 And then how does he come out of this getting – is it just a few days, you think?

00:13:32.260 Is this one of those that could turn into weeks that we've seen in the past?

00:13:35.980 Or is it just, hey, I did it, therefore I really am a radical Democrat, so therefore you should keep voting for me instead of AOC?

00:13:44.240 Yeah, look, I think there's a chance this extends to weeks.

00:13:46.820 Now, let me explain what a shutdown means.

00:13:50.200 A government shutdown doesn't shut down every function of government.

00:13:54.140 So the basic principle is essential functions continue even when government funding has expired.

00:14:01.480 So what does that mean?

00:14:02.860 The military continues to serve and protect this nation.

00:14:06.100 Law enforcement continues to serve.

00:14:08.240 Border patrol continues to serve.

00:14:10.360 FBI agents continue to serve.

00:14:12.080 Anyone who is essential for the public safety continues to serve.

00:14:16.300 Air traffic controllers continue to serve.

00:14:18.300 The Coast Guard continues to serve.

00:14:19.960 Throughout the government, what happens agency by agency is the agency heads have to designate employees who are, quote, essential and employees who are, quote, non-essential.

00:14:34.720 And the non-essential workers stay home.

00:14:37.920 They stay home.

00:14:39.580 They're not paid.

00:14:40.700 The government paychecks stop.

00:14:42.100 Now, typically, after a shutdown, and shutdowns can extend weeks or even longer, typically at the end of the shutdown, the workers all come back, and they're paid back pay.

00:14:54.320 So it actually costs the federal government a lot of money and a lot of functions that are non-essential.

00:14:59.900 So one of the classic areas that will be shut down if Schumer forces the Schumer shutdown will be national parks.

00:15:07.620 So I will say, if you were planning this weekend to take your family to a national park, if you're going to Yellowstone, I would watch the news very closely.

00:15:17.080 Because if the Schumer shutdown happens, Yellowstone Park will be closed.

00:15:20.400 If you're planning to bring your family to D.C. to go to the Smithsonian, the Smithsonian museums will be closed if the Democrats force a shutdown.

00:15:29.920 That being said, I will tell you something that has changed the terrain very significantly.

00:15:35.300 So last week, Russ Vogt, who is the head of OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, put out a memo to federal agencies and said,

00:15:45.760 I want you to lay out a plan, if the Democrats force a shutdown, to terminate workers who are working, government workers, who are working in areas that are not consistent with the president's agenda and the priorities of this administration.

00:16:03.200 I got to tell you, I got to tell you, I got to tell you, I got to tell you, I feel a little bit like Br'er Rabbit, throw me in that briar patch. 0.99

00:16:10.120 I think if Schumer and the Democrats force a shutdown, we're going to see the Trump administration give pink slips, not furloughs, but terminate workers.

00:16:20.780 And in particular, terminate workers in government agencies that are critical to Democrat priorities.

00:16:26.960 So you could see workers in the EPA being terminated.

00:16:31.540 You can see workers in the Department of Labor being terminated.

00:16:34.380 You could see workers in the IRS being terminated and not just furloughed for a few days, but handed a pink slip, given a reduction in force, saying your services are no longer required.

00:16:45.380 And I will tell you, if that happens this week, we will hear a collective howl of agony from Democrats.

00:16:53.880 And I'm willing to bet.

00:16:55.860 So.

00:16:57.760 Senators will all return to Washington on Monday.

00:17:00.440 Our first vote will be at 530 Monday evening, Tuesday.

00:17:04.940 All the Democrat senators will have lunch together.

00:17:07.160 All the Republican senators will have lunch together.

00:17:09.040 Given this memo from the Trump White House, I'm going to predict that the Democrat senators are going to be screaming at each other in that lunch because they're going to be some Democrat senators who say, do not give Trump the excuse to lay off a bunch of workers who are doing who are fighting for Democrat priorities and what we care about.

00:17:31.520 And I think Schumer is scared for his own political survival.

00:17:36.220 So I think he's going to try to force a shutdown anyway.

00:17:38.920 But that memo has changed the dynamic in a very real way.

00:17:44.040 And so there is a nonzero chance that that seven Democrats decide to heck with it.

00:17:49.780 I'm going to break with Schumer and vote to keep the government open.

00:17:52.800 That would be a good thing if it happens.

00:17:54.420 But but we'll see what happens this week.

00:17:55.880 So let me ask you this question, because I think it's an interesting one.

00:17:58.920 And that is, should we secretly be hoping this happens so that we get those jobs that many people say, hey, let's lay them off and let's get leaner as a government and stop all the waste and abuse and the fraud and the overspending?

00:18:14.140 This would be in that kind of doge mentality. 1.00

00:18:16.480 Or is that a cautionary tale of like, hey, you may think this is great, but it's really not.

00:18:22.480 Yeah, look, I think that could end up being a very good outcome.

00:18:25.360 If the Democrats force this, it would be worthwhile for them to feel a very real consequence in terms of their constituencies who fund fund their endeavors, losing the ability to promote their priorities.

00:18:41.440 And listen, within the federal government, within the deep state, there are a great many bureaucrats who are left wing bureaucrats who are fighting for the teachers unions, who are fighting for the radical environmental groups.

00:18:54.320 And it would be good for America for anyone that is actively undermining the country, actively undermining jobs, actively undermining the ability of kids to get a good education.

00:19:06.700 It would be good for America for those folks to be terminated. 0.94

00:19:10.680 And I do think if the Democrats force a shutdown that President Trump will view that as all the justification he needs to make permanent reductions in force, which could be a very good outcome.

00:19:24.760 Well, I think what will happen then is the Democrats will cave and the government will be funded.

00:19:29.140 And if the government shuts down for a few days because the Democrats want to have a temper tantrum, at the end of the day, the consequences of that are not enormous.

00:19:38.440 They're going to blink.

00:19:40.100 They're going to give in because simply keeping the lights on at the end of the day, they don't have an argument against that.

00:19:47.640 So final question on this, and that is, if if this does extend and everything happens in the shutdown, the way that you described it and what this really looks like, at what point does this hurt the Democrats?

00:20:02.260 Like, is it weeks or months in?

00:20:04.160 I mean, I mean, we've seen longer shutdowns.

00:20:06.100 It does seem that shutdowns now are just automatically taking a little bit longer.

00:20:11.320 So, look, in the first Trump administration, we had a lengthy Schumer shutdown.

00:20:16.360 And at the time of the Schumer shutdown in the first Trump administration, the federal government had funded the military, had passed funding for the military.

00:20:28.720 And so our active duty military soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were getting their paychecks.

00:20:34.280 But unfortunately, we had not funded the Coast Guard.

00:20:38.320 And the Coast Guard is funded in a different title than the remainder of the military.

00:20:44.820 And so I went to the to the Senate floor and fought to to fund our Coast Guardsmen.

00:20:51.020 Our Coast Guardsmen are often left out.

00:20:53.940 And by the way, the Coast Guardsmen were going to work.

00:20:58.120 They were protecting our border.

00:21:00.180 They were rescuing people in distress.

00:21:03.840 They were doing the heroic work that the Coast Guard does every day, but they were not getting their paychecks.

00:21:08.880 And I'll tell you, the Democrats stood up and objected and said, no, we will not pay the men and women of the Coast Guard.

00:21:16.940 I think you'll see some of that that that same effort.

00:21:20.180 If there is a shutdown, you can anticipate that that multiple Republicans, myself included, will go to the Senate floor and try to fund individual portions of the government.

00:21:31.000 Say, OK, Chuck Schumer, you want to shut the government down.

00:21:34.260 And how about the Coast Guard? Will you pay for them? And the Democrats will probably object.

00:21:38.640 How about NIH, the National Institutes for Health? Do you want to fund them?

00:21:41.860 Do you want to do cancer research or do you want to shut that down?

00:21:44.560 And my prediction is the Democrats will object over and over and over again to each of these individual funding efforts.

00:21:52.420 And part of the reason they'll do that is they're counting on the media to be dishonest, to try to blame the shutdown on Trump.

00:22:02.520 I think that is very hard to do when the bill on the floor is a clean CR.

00:22:08.100 All it is doing is continuing the status quo. Will CNN and MSNBC and the corporate media try to say that means it's Trump's fault that really, to keep the government open, he should spend over a trillion dollars and give in to the Democrats' demands of passing their extreme agenda?

00:22:28.600 Sure, they'll try to say that, but that's a hard argument. And so I think you'll see lots of spinning.

00:22:36.340 But part of the problem is I think Democrats feel there are no consequences to them when they embrace extreme positions.

00:22:44.800 And so you could see an extended shutdown because the first Schumer shutdown in the first Trump administration, I think the Democrats felt they paid no political price for it.

00:22:54.300 And that probably emboldens them to force another shutdown.

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00:23:29.140 You know, you talk about the extremism of the Democratic Party.

00:23:33.280 You're witnessing it now on this issue on Capitol Hill.

00:23:36.140 But we're also witnessing it with their rhetoric that has not been toned down even since the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

00:23:44.060 And Democrats act like they're being moderates, that they're not being radical or extreme.

00:23:48.020 Well, we've got the tapes now to prove that's just absurd.

00:23:52.900 That's exactly right.

00:23:54.500 It is no matter how much violence we see, the Democrats keep leaning in on their extreme rhetoric.

00:24:00.640 Just this weekend, Gavin Newsom tweeted out in all caps, 0.97

00:24:06.100 Stephen Miller is a fascist. 0.95

00:24:08.880 That's the entirety of the tweet. 0.99

00:24:10.580 It's in all caps.

00:24:12.060 Stephen Miller is the deputy White House chief of staff.

00:24:14.300 And it is, by the way, as of the time that we are recording this, it has 27 million views.

00:24:21.700 So people are seeing Gavin Newsom saying Stephen Miller is a fascist.

00:24:24.980 And just to remind you, the bullet casings from the rounds that were fired and murdered Charlie Kirk, 0.62

00:24:32.800 among the things etched on the bullet casings were, hey, fascist, catch.

00:24:37.280 Gosh, Gavin Newsom knows that.

00:24:40.560 His staff knows that.

00:24:42.500 And labeling Republicans they disagree with as fascist is tragically, it is inviting more and more violence.

00:24:50.440 And I wish I could tell you that Gavin Newsom was an outlier.

00:24:55.260 He's not.

00:24:56.100 Democrats across the board are doing this.

00:24:58.840 I want you to listen to Hakeem Jeffries on CNN and listen to just how he's ratcheting the rhetoric up and up and up.

00:25:07.420 Give a listen.

00:25:08.480 When he was greeted formally by former President Joe Biden and then, of course, at the Capitol during the inauguration,

00:25:16.060 which, by the way, was like a supervillain convention that the American people had to witness.

00:25:20.600 And it's been a national nightmare ever since.

00:25:23.020 One question.

00:25:24.120 By the way, supervillain convention.

00:25:26.700 So Charlie Kirk's assassinated.

00:25:29.420 Democrats say they need to down, you know, tone down the rhetoric.

00:25:32.280 And then we're what, 14 days later.

00:25:34.560 And he's saying that this was a supervillain convention.

00:25:38.540 That's not that.

00:25:39.400 That was Friday night, by the way, where he says that the inauguration is supervillain, villain convention.

00:25:46.140 Tim Waltz, governor of Minnesota, obviously was Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee,

00:25:50.000 has described ICE as, quote, the modern day Gestapo.

00:25:54.980 JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, claimed the country is becoming, quote, Nazi Germany because ICE is, quote, grabbing people off the street and disappearing them. 0.97

00:26:07.400 Now, Jasmine Crockett, who manages to never find a level too idiotic, too inflammatory, too over the top that she's willing to go. 0.96

00:26:21.600 She compared ICE to, quote, slave patrols. 0.99

00:26:26.020 And look, this is so extreme.

00:26:29.540 You know, there was something remarkable that happened in the last couple of days.

00:26:32.380 I don't know if you saw this Ice Cube, the rapper.

00:26:38.440 Yeah, his bus was attacked. 0.99

00:26:40.460 His bus was in Portland, Oregon, and it was firebombed because these idiots saw the word ICE and thought that Ice Cube was ICE, the immigration enforcement agency. 0.98

00:26:52.660 But, like, these Antifa leftist knuckleheads, you know, by the way, like Ice-T and Ice-Ice Baby better, like, you know, cover up their name tags because the folks that are angry are not terribly bright. 0.98

00:27:09.140 But it is a consequence of this demonizing, of treating them.

00:27:15.980 Look, it's fine for one side or the other to say, I disagree with my opponents.

00:27:21.240 They're wrong.

00:27:21.900 Their policy positions are harmful.

00:27:24.480 They're a mistake.

00:27:25.640 That's the normal give and take of political discourse.

00:27:30.120 And there's something fundamentally different when you scream fascist Nazi Gestapo and you direct it not only to your political opponents who keep being the victims of violence, but you direct it to law enforcement and to ICE.

00:27:43.720 You know, I was just in Dallas at the ICE facility where another deranged shooter unloaded on an ICE facility, and it seems no matter how bad it gets, the Democrats keep it up.

00:27:58.700 We put together a montage.

00:28:00.320 I want you to listen.

00:28:01.140 I'm going to apologize to this.

00:28:02.580 I apologize for this.

00:28:03.440 I'm going to subject you to several minutes of Democrats gone wild just to show just how elevated their rhetoric is and how harmful it is.

00:28:16.260 So give a listen to this montage.

00:28:19.540 Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets.

00:28:24.840 They're in unmarked vans wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons.

00:28:29.580 No chance to mount a defense.

00:28:31.480 Not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye.

00:28:33.440 Just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.

00:28:37.360 When you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland, and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that student, that graduate student, it does look like a Gestapo operation. 0.76

00:28:56.080 You know, my dad served in the Second World War.

00:28:59.240 He fought the Nazis, and I think he's looking down right now, and he's happy that I'm fighting today's Nazis. 0.83

00:29:05.400 Because if we just rolled this clock on the wall back 75 years, we'd be looking at a time in Nazi Germany where people ran around with signs like this new ICE sign that says, report all foreign invaders to ICE, with Uncle Sam there holding up the sign.

00:29:25.540 This could have been a Gestapo member 75 years ago, report all Jews. 0.99

00:29:29.920 As somebody who understands history, when I see ICE, I see slave patrols.

00:29:34.540 The dangers that we saw in Nazi Germany are the dangers that we need to react to now.

00:29:43.220 And another $30 billion to hire and train ICE agents who have functionally become a secret federal police force with expanding domain.

00:29:53.480 An authoritarian government in Washington, D.C. is dispatching masked agents to abduct immigrants from our streets.

00:30:01.400 To be coming out of our country? 1.00

00:30:04.340 I mean, I grew up in a dictatorship, and I don't even remember ever witnessing anything like that.

00:30:12.220 To have a democracy, a pecan of hope for the world to now be turned into one of the worst countries where the military are in our streets without any regard for people's constitutional rights.

00:30:31.620 While our president is spending millions of dollars, prompting himself up like a failed dictator.

00:30:38.500 Every single ICE agent who's engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that.

00:30:50.560 This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We're not behind the Iron Curtain.

00:30:54.960 This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes,

00:31:00.660 will of course be identified.

00:31:02.180 This is not Germany. That's the SS and the Gestapo. This is the United States of America. Unmask yourselves.

00:31:12.380 It's just been overwhelming. I mean, just watching everything online now, the ICE, you know, thugs, and people do not want to continue to watch people fund this kind of extraction.

00:31:26.480 It's kind of violence.

00:31:27.440 Yeah, it's violence.

00:31:28.140 The other things and all the other cuts pays for a massive increase in the masked, secret police that are terrorizing our communities.

00:31:41.320 ICE.

00:31:42.300 This is despicable. It's un-American. I called ICE the modern-day Gestapo a few months ago, and some people thought that was going too far, thought that was too extreme, got angry at me for saying that.

00:31:54.320 Well, come on. Like, that's literally what's going on.

00:31:56.960 You have called to abolish ICE. How do we achieve a future that's post-ICE?

00:32:05.760 How do we achieve a future free of terrorism? By abolishing ICE. ICE is a terrorist organization. It needs to be defunded. It needs to be abolished.

00:32:15.600 We're seeing aggressive Gestapo-type tactics in people being approached on the street, in their home, at the clinic, at church, at all kinds of locations.

00:32:29.320 That's why this morning, on the house of the floor, I warned the American people that this is looking like the American Gestapo in the making.

00:32:39.920 I think we need to be really active at, like, challenging what ICE is doing on every front we can.

00:32:44.640 I can't see how anybody can say they're a Christian and treat someone from another land, in their own land, this way.

00:32:59.040 It's mean, is what it is. It's mean-spirited.

00:33:03.060 A lot of these folks are being picked up by, you know, hooded thugs in the street in the most un-American ways.

00:33:09.720 ICE agents without visible ideas, without any official markings on them, with masks, they're acting more like vigilantes than of agents of our government.

00:33:24.400 Because we don't live in a country, an authoritarian country, where we have secret police who are masked, who are intimidating, who are scaring people.

00:33:36.160 That's the stuff of authoritarian states. That is not the stuff of the, that's not how the United States operate.

00:33:43.840 He sent out ICE and Border Patrol to intimidate folks from walking in to our event.

00:33:51.620 He ended up arresting this poor soul that was just trying to sell strawberries as collateral damage to intimidate us.

00:33:57.400 That is a preview, Stephen, of things to come in voting booths and polling places across this country.

00:34:02.520 And the ICE issue is alarming beyond words.

00:34:07.360 It is the private, largest private domestic army of its type, police force anywhere in the world.

00:34:13.440 He'll have 30,000 people that increasingly appear to be swearing an oath of office to him, not the Constitution of the United States.

00:34:21.140 Again, wake up to what's going on in this country.

00:34:24.980 That's happening in the United States of America.

00:34:27.180 Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing, no due process, no oversight, zero accountability.

00:34:34.980 Happening in the United States of America today.

00:34:37.020 People ask, well, is authoritarianism, you're being hyperbolic? 1.00

00:34:40.100 Bullshit, we're being hyperbolic. 1.00

00:34:42.020 If you're a black and brown community, it's here in this country. 1.00

00:34:45.100 I have heard enough in the last couple of weeks about ICE agents and wearing masks that I think when we win the majority in the House,

00:34:57.560 you're going to see enough Democrats make it a priority for ICE enforcement, that they are no longer faceless.

00:35:05.620 It looks too much like some 1800s bank robber or, you know, some KGB officer in Russia, you know, pulling protesters off the streets.

00:35:16.340 Senator, you listen to that, and it's very clear that Democrats get talking points and they stick with them.

00:35:23.560 And when they do this, they're doing it on purpose to undermine the rule of law, to undermine law enforcement.

00:35:29.640 We've seen them do this with the Supreme Court as well.

00:35:31.700 There's quite a few examples recently of them really just using their words to turn people to hate someone, to hate law enforcement, to hate police, to hate the Supreme Court, to hate law and order.

00:35:46.320 And yet they say they want to ratchet down, but they're not.

00:35:48.940 They're doing the complete opposite of that.

00:35:51.020 So, and Ben, let me ask you.

00:35:52.720 So one of the key Democrat talking points that they keep repeating is they say that ICE or fascists or Nazis or Gestapo because they're wearing masks.

00:36:01.180 Let me ask you, why is ICE wearing masks?

00:36:04.860 So they're not doxed.

00:36:06.540 That's what it boils down to.

00:36:07.800 So that they're not outed by the same people that have maps of where ICE agents are so that you can go after them if you want to.

00:36:15.600 I mean, that's what this is about.

00:36:16.780 So Democrats, including Hakeem Jeffries, have called for unmasking ICE, identifying them and going after them.

00:36:22.720 And look, that's putting ICE law enforcement officers at risk.

00:36:27.180 That's putting their spouses at risk. 0.98

00:36:29.140 That's putting their children at risk.

00:36:30.820 This lunatic in Dallas used an app, the ICE Finder, to go find the facility to get up on the roof with a bolt-action rifle and fire multiple rounds, murdering two people.

00:36:43.740 And look, I understand.

00:36:47.460 I think it's perfectly reasonable if you're an ICE agent not to want a bunch of angry radicals who want to harm you and your family to be able to dox you.

00:36:56.660 This is a direct result.

00:36:58.100 And it's not fringe people.

00:37:00.500 Hakeem Jeffries stood at the podium and said, unmask these guys and go after them. 0.89

00:37:04.840 And that, tragically, lunatics are listening to them. 0.97

00:37:08.980 Yeah, they really are.

00:37:09.740 So we're going to keep exposing it and keep calling them out when they do it.

00:37:13.120 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:37:15.760 So hit that subscribe or auto-download button wherever you get your podcasts.

00:37:20.980 And The Center and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

00:37:24.980 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:37:27.880 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 29, 2025

Schumer Shutdown-What to Expect plus Dem Rhetoric Keeps getting Worse, Inciting Violence & Endangering Law Enforcement

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