Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 14, 2025


Shutdown Finally Over, Protecting Nigerian Christians & ANTIFA Violence Targets Turning Point


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

160.37509

Word count

6,442

Sentence count

472

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

27

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz reacts to the government being reopened after 43 days of the longest government shutdown in history and calls for a termination of the Democratic's filibuster rule that prevents compromise on legislation to reopen the government and pay the 800,000 federal workers who were held hostage.

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 .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.620 Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.940 So nice to have you with us.
00:00:09.400 Many of you listening on the radio across the country.
00:00:12.120 And it was, well, one interesting week.
00:00:14.820 I guess that's the best way you can put it.
00:00:16.460 The sausage truly being made for all the American people to see.
00:00:19.960 With the longest government shutdown in history finally over.
00:00:25.140 Senator, your reaction to that?
00:00:26.780 Well, hallelujah, hallelujah.
00:00:30.460 After 43 days of the government being shut down.
00:00:34.080 43 days of the Schumer shutdown where federal employees didn't get their paychecks.
00:00:39.200 And yet thousands went into work.
00:00:41.500 43 days of parks being closed.
00:00:44.940 Museums being closed.
00:00:46.360 Government services being highly limited.
00:00:49.400 43 days of delays in airports.
00:00:52.660 Of air traffic controllers not being paid.
00:00:54.740 TSA agents not being paid.
00:00:56.780 Flights being canceled.
00:00:58.620 All because the Democrats were throwing a gigantic temper tantrum.
00:01:03.340 Because Chuck Schumer has a political crisis.
00:01:06.040 And this shutdown.
00:01:07.920 The Democrats got nothing.
00:01:10.340 But the purpose was not to actually get a concession.
00:01:14.800 The purpose was simply to inflict a whole lot of pain on the American people.
00:01:19.040 To demonstrate that, man oh man, Schumer and the Democrats hate Donald Trump.
00:01:24.120 And they hate Donald Trump so much they're willing to hurt their own constituents.
00:01:29.300 President Trump, Wednesday evening, signed the legislation.
00:01:34.480 We passed it out of the Senate Monday night.
00:01:37.800 The House came back on Wednesday.
00:01:40.360 They voted on Wednesday.
00:01:41.700 They passed the legislation that we had passed.
00:01:44.040 And President Trump signed it into law.
00:01:46.480 Listen to him as he's signing the legislation reopening the government Wednesday night.
00:01:50.040 With all of that, I just want to tell you, the country has never been in better shape.
00:01:55.420 We went through this short-term disaster with the Democrats because they thought it would be good politically.
00:02:01.200 And it's an honor now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again.
00:02:08.520 Thank you.
00:02:09.360 Thank you.
00:02:09.420 Thank you.
00:02:31.200 Senator, you can hear Republicans there cheering in the Oval Office.
00:02:42.540 It's not every day you actually hear real cheering like that in the Oval Office.
00:02:46.400 It's a little more formal, usually.
00:02:48.660 Obviously, Republicans surrounding the president, they were happy this is finally over and the American people aren't being held hostage anymore.
00:02:55.560 Yeah, look, the Democrats, they inflicted pain on millions of Americans.
00:03:02.880 They also wasted billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
00:03:07.280 Just the thousands upon thousands of government workers who stayed home for 43 days.
00:03:12.160 They didn't go to work.
00:03:13.500 They're all going to get paid back pay now.
00:03:15.580 So 43 days now.
00:03:17.500 For 43 days, they had the challenge of not having a paycheck, not knowing how they'd pay their mortgage, not knowing how they'd pay their rent.
00:03:23.200 But now they'll get paid for all those 43 days.
00:03:26.060 But you know what the American people didn't get?
00:03:27.980 They didn't get any work from all the workers who stayed home for over a month because Chuck Schumer and the Democrats wanted to throw a tantrum.
00:03:36.180 President Trump, at the signing ceremony, he describes some of some of the real harms that the Schumer shutdown caused.
00:03:42.900 Here, give a listen.
00:03:44.340 The past seven weeks, the Democrats shutdown has inflicted massive harm.
00:03:48.880 They caused 20,000 flights to be canceled or delayed.
00:03:53.300 They departed so many times, so late.
00:03:57.360 People were hurt so badly.
00:03:59.740 Nobody's ever seen anything like this one.
00:04:01.900 This was a no-brainer.
00:04:03.520 This was an easy extension.
00:04:06.300 But they didn't want to do it the easy way.
00:04:07.820 They had to do it the hard way.
00:04:08.940 And they look very bad, the Democrats do.
00:04:10.720 They deprived more than one million government workers from their paychecks and cut off food stamp benefits for millions and millions more Americans in need.
00:04:20.140 They caused tens of thousands of federal contractors and small businesses to go unpaid.
00:04:26.180 And the total effect of the damage their antics caused will take weeks and probably months to really calculate accurately, including the serious harm that they did to our economy and to people and to families.
00:04:39.540 So I just want to tell the American people you should not forget this.
00:04:44.260 When we come up to midterms and other things, don't forget what they've done to our country.
00:04:48.060 I also want to call for a termination to the filibuster so that this can never happen again.
00:04:56.180 You know, Senator, this really was about inflicting pain.
00:04:59.860 I was on CNN the night the shutdown ended as the president was talking this live.
00:05:05.980 And it was amazing to see the disconnect from so many of the liberals on the show.
00:05:10.060 And I'm like, what did you guys get out of this?
00:05:12.880 This was the same deal that was on the table before the shutdown.
00:05:16.960 So you just wanted to try to score political points.
00:05:20.060 You hate Donald Trump so much that you just wanted to shut down the government and see if you could bring his approval rating down.
00:05:25.480 You didn't give a damn about the kids and their food, because if you did, you would have at least made sure that those on food stamps would have gotten those benefits.
00:05:33.020 You didn't care about those waiting on flights and having canceled flights and their lives being changed.
00:05:37.940 Many of them go into things that are hard, like funerals or sick family members.
00:05:41.560 Not everything's a vacation when you're at the airport.
00:05:43.760 You took countless dollars out of our economy, small businesses that were hurt.
00:05:47.920 There's a long list of people that were hurt during this, and this was all just for one reason.
00:05:52.120 They hated Donald Trump, and they didn't care who got hurt in the process.
00:05:57.220 Yeah, look, the shutdown had real negative effects on the economy, on the GDP.
00:06:03.240 It had real negative effects on small businesses.
00:06:05.640 It had real negative effects on millions of ordinary Americans.
00:06:10.360 And all of that was inflicted to score political points for the Democrats with a handful of really the crazies.
00:06:18.360 You know what's amazing? After 43 days, after the longest government shutdown in history, virtually every Democrat still voted against reopening the government.
00:06:29.780 So in the Senate, the vote was 60 to 40.
00:06:34.880 Only eight Democrats voted to reopen the government.
00:06:40.060 Thirty-nine Democrats voted to keep the government closed.
00:06:43.580 Chuck Schumer voted to keep the government closed.
00:06:46.160 Every potential presidential candidate on the Democrat side voted to keep the government closed.
00:06:52.640 So Cory Booker voted to keep it closed.
00:06:54.320 Amy Klobuchar voted to keep it closed.
00:06:56.380 Kirsten Gillibrand voted to keep it closed.
00:06:58.260 Chris Murphy voted to keep it closed.
00:07:00.120 Bernie Sanders voted to keep it closed.
00:07:02.160 All of those are possible and even likely Democrat presidential candidates.
00:07:08.420 And they all voted to keep it closed.
00:07:10.920 In the House, the same thing was true.
00:07:12.720 So the vote in the House was 222 to 209.
00:07:21.580 But of the 222, only six were Democrats.
00:07:27.500 The six Democrats who voted to reopen the government in the House were Adam Gray of California, Jared Golden of Maine, Tom Susie of New York,
00:07:38.260 Marie Gluson Camp Perez of Washington State, Don Davis of North Carolina, and Henry Cuellar of Texas.
00:07:45.160 Other than that, every single Democrat in the House voted, keep the government shut, keep food stamps off, keep pay stopped, don't pay air traffic controllers, keep the delays, keep the cancellations.
00:08:00.260 By the way, just on flights, the FAA said it was going to reduce flights 10%.
00:08:07.080 But if the shutdown had continued, the FAA had already said it would phase into 20% or more.
00:08:12.800 And virtually every Democrat in both chambers said, that sounds good by me.
00:08:17.660 Let's keep this going.
00:08:18.980 Let's keep the shutdown. 0.86
00:08:20.380 I suppose through Thanksgiving, through the busiest travel time of the year, it is amazing.
00:08:27.060 The question you have to ask is, who are the Democrats listening to and who are they working for?
00:08:33.580 Yep.
00:08:33.720 Because I think it's obvious on the face of it, they're not listening to the American people or working for the American people.
00:08:41.040 Instead, they're listening to their radical base and they're working for their radical base and, frankly, their own political self-interest.
00:08:48.440 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:08:55.600 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:08:59.340 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:09:00.500 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:09:01.740 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:09:05.480 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:09:11.220 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:09:14.220 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:09:20.700 Senator, I want to get back into the shutdown aspect of this for just a moment.
00:09:24.600 There is one, I do think, silver lining that's come out of this.
00:09:28.800 And that is, one, I think we now really know who the Democratic Party is.
00:09:33.340 Chuck Schumer is going to be out of a job.
00:09:34.840 Nance Pelosi is not running for re-election.
00:09:37.060 The Democratic Party has gone full socialist or Marxist or communist, depending on who you talk to.
00:09:41.780 But it's very clear there's an excommunication happening of the old establishment Democratic radicals.
00:09:48.500 That is Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
00:09:50.540 So that's one thing that I do think has come out of the shutdown.
00:09:52.800 The other part of this is there's a lot of talk right now about Obamacare and the financial disaster that it is, the Affordable Care Act.
00:10:01.120 It's not affordable.
00:10:02.100 And that's a grand debate that's now happening in this country.
00:10:05.980 Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful, you know him from Shark Tank.
00:10:08.840 We talked about this.
00:10:09.840 He said this may be the biggest thing Democrats didn't plan for, is that now the spotlight is on Obamacare, the subseason, how unaffordable it is, even though they said it was supposed to be a great thing.
00:10:20.440 Yeah, I will say that there are a couple of things.
00:10:23.980 You're right that Nancy Pelosi next year will be her last year in Congress.
00:10:29.440 I think Chuck Schumer, my prediction is Chuck Schumer doesn't even run for re-election.
00:10:33.520 I think he is not electable in a Democrat primary in the state of New York.
00:10:38.560 Although he's tenacious, he may well try, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Schumer announce his retirement at the end of his term.
00:10:46.600 But look, one of the infuriating things of realizing that virtually every Democrat, even after 43 days, voted to keep the government shut down, we're going to replay this whole thing like Groundhog Day on January 30th.
00:11:01.820 Because the continuing resolution that President Trump just signed expires January 30th.
00:11:07.580 So we'll get through Thanksgiving, we'll get through Christmas, we'll come back January.
00:11:11.680 And I think there's a very real possibility the Democrats try this again.
00:11:15.020 Maybe not, maybe the same eight who ultimately said, okay, reopen the government, maybe they'll say, we don't want to do this again.
00:11:22.520 And maybe they'll start right at the beginning by agreeing to fund the government.
00:11:26.060 We'll see where things are.
00:11:27.620 And I think the answer to that depends on what you just raised, Ben.
00:11:31.200 What happens with Obamacare and health care?
00:11:33.680 And listen, they claimed every day of this 43-day shutdown that they had to have major concessions on Obamacare to save that failing government health program.
00:11:46.600 Well, they didn't get those major concessions.
00:11:48.640 They got nothing whatsoever.
00:11:49.960 The government's now open.
00:11:51.000 But listen to what President Trump said when he signed the legislation opening the government, because he talked about Obamacare and what's going to happen next.
00:11:59.740 Give a listen.
00:12:00.560 I'm always willing to work with anyone, including the other party.
00:12:04.020 We'll work on something having to do with health care.
00:12:06.800 We can do a lot better.
00:12:08.220 We can do great.
00:12:09.640 So much money is involved.
00:12:11.580 And we're willing to pay so much money to the people.
00:12:14.380 So we're going to pay a lot of money to the people.
00:12:16.100 They're going to go out and buy their own health care, and we're going to forget this Obamacare madness. 0.73
00:12:22.340 You hear him talking about madness.
00:12:24.460 He's not wrong. 0.53
00:12:26.180 Even liberals are saying, well, we know that premiums have gone up 100%, 200%, 300% with Obamacare.
00:12:33.220 So that's why we need the subsidies.
00:12:35.040 That is the definition, Senator, of a disaster.
00:12:38.040 It is insolvent.
00:12:41.160 Look, that was the predictable result of Obamacare.
00:12:44.940 That's what I and the other critics of Obamacare said would happen.
00:12:48.840 It's exactly what's happened.
00:12:50.120 Even the Washington Post admits the so-called Affordable Care Act is not affordable.
00:12:56.100 And that was – the Democrats' solution to that is give $50 billion in subsidies from the taxpayers straight to giant health insurance corporations.
00:13:06.560 It's just corporate welfare.
00:13:07.700 And mind you, these health insurance corporations, their stock prices have increased in some instances more than 1,000% since Obamacare was signed into law.
00:13:19.640 The executives that are running these companies are making tens of millions of dollars in salary.
00:13:24.340 Their stock has increased, presumably, if they had stock that whole time.
00:13:28.580 Their stock has increased in hundreds of percents, if not more than 1,000%.
00:13:33.880 And the Democrats – I mean, they're craving – by the way, virtually all of the political contributions from the health insurance companies go to Democrats.
00:13:42.280 So the Democrats are delivering $50 billion of cash to their political donors.
00:13:47.380 And what President Trump said there is really important.
00:13:50.300 And we talked about this on Wednesday's podcast.
00:13:53.460 During the shutdown, I hosted a dozen senators for dinner Friday night.
00:13:58.260 And we got the president on the phone.
00:13:59.900 And we asked the president if he would engage and help make the argument that their demands for $50 billion for health insurance companies were unreasonable and a bad idea.
00:14:09.680 And he sent out a series of tweets, which I helped him write, that said, we're not going to give this money for the Obamacare scam to health insurance companies.
00:14:19.820 Instead, the money ought to flow to individuals, to real people, in health savings accounts that you control, that you own, that you're the one making the choice of how to spend money on your health care.
00:14:34.160 That is a fundamental reform in health care that will lower prices, lower costs.
00:14:39.140 That actually will help keep things affordable.
00:14:42.500 And I think we have an opportunity to really increase competition, increase consumer choice, and put consumers in a significantly better situation.
00:14:54.040 Now, there are two ways that can happen.
00:14:57.120 One, we could see eight, nine, ten reasonable Democrats willing to work with Republicans on something that does that.
00:15:06.280 And we could have legislation that gets 60 votes, because to do that through ordinary procedures takes 60 votes, just like it takes 60 votes to fund the government.
00:15:17.080 I think that's unlikely, although I'm sure in the next month there will be some Republicans who try.
00:15:23.020 If the Democrats are not willing to do that, the other avenue we have to address this problem is reconciliation.
00:15:29.920 And we can take up another budget reconciliation.
00:15:32.820 That only takes 50 votes.
00:15:34.560 And it may well be that we have to do a budget reconciliation, which is how we passed the one big, beautiful bill this summer,
00:15:41.080 to fix Obamacare and effectively to repeal the mess that is Obamacare and instead expand consumer choice and enhance affordability and give people access to health savings accounts,
00:15:58.200 where the money that would have gone to enrich the health insurance companies instead is going to you, the patient, you, the consumer.
00:16:04.900 And if we can do that on reconciliation, that would be a major victory for our constituents.
00:16:13.300 It's actually why I think the Democrats are not going to have any interest in doing it.
00:16:16.860 They're much more interested in taking care of their fat cat political donors than they are actually in making health care affordable for real people who are struggling.
00:16:26.520 Remember, these are the same people that were happy to see food stamps shut down because it was more important to them to make a political point to their activists than to help people who were in need of food to actually get the food they needed.
00:16:39.920 And so I think when it comes to health care, my prediction is we'll have to do it on reconciliation because I think the Democrats will not be willing to do anything reasonable.
00:16:49.540 But but we'll see in the next couple of months.
00:16:51.640 I want to talk to you real quick about our amazing sponsor, and it is Patriot Mobile.
00:16:56.900 I just went to Israel and people ask me all the time, how good is the coverage?
00:17:00.800 Because you want to stay with the big mobile companies.
00:17:03.160 I've been saying now for years and they've been in business for well over a decade that it is amazing coverage.
00:17:09.300 If you've got coverage right now you love, you're going to love your coverage of Patriot Mobile even more.
00:17:13.480 But you get rid of the woke left agenda.
00:17:15.280 I am proud to report to you that my phone worked in Israel.
00:17:19.180 I traveled internationally and had zero issues with my cell service.
00:17:25.120 Whether I was in Bethlehem or literally calling from Gaza at the Gaza Strip, this is not a joke.
00:17:30.880 I had amazing coverage everywhere that I went.
00:17:34.820 I flew back to the U.S.
00:17:36.060 My phone worked perfectly.
00:17:37.380 My emails, all the data.
00:17:39.160 I was posting on social media from my phone.
00:17:41.960 Tel Aviv last night.
00:17:43.200 It was phenomenal.
00:17:44.660 So if you're worried about coverage, don't be.
00:17:47.580 Now, why should you switch to Patriot Mobile?
00:17:49.440 Not only are you probably going to save real money every month, but then the magic happens.
00:17:53.600 A portion of your bill every month goes back to support conservative causes, candidates, organizations that fight for our first and our second amendment rights, the rights of unborn children.
00:18:04.000 And they do something that's really special.
00:18:05.960 They stand with our men and women in uniform.
00:18:07.900 Whether it's police officers or law enforcement in general or our men and women that fight for this country overseas.
00:18:14.780 They stand with our wounded warriors and our fallen families who have lost a loved one so that there is the financial need and aid that is needed.
00:18:22.440 So that's why I want you to switch to Patriot Mobile.
00:18:25.220 Because every time you pay that bill, you're making a real difference.
00:18:28.480 Now, I also want to give you a free month of service.
00:18:30.640 Go to PatriotMobile.com slash verdict.
00:18:33.280 That's PatriotMobile.com slash verdict.
00:18:35.780 Or call them 972-PATRIOT.
00:18:39.640 That's 972-PATRIOT.
00:18:41.140 For a free month of service.
00:18:43.200 Switch today.
00:18:43.940 Make a difference.
00:18:45.000 PatriotMobile.com slash verdict.
00:18:46.560 Or 972-PATRIOT.
00:18:48.420 And get a free month of service with a promo code VERDICT.
00:18:51.860 Senator, one of the reasons why you do this show and why I love co-hosting it with you is we get to talk about issues that are not getting the attention they deserve.
00:19:01.620 One of those right now is the persecution of Christians.
00:19:05.460 And Nigeria, it is shocking what is happening there. 0.93
00:19:09.020 And I just came back from Israel.
00:19:10.640 We haven't got to talk about that as much as we thought because the government shut down.
00:19:14.060 And we're going to get to that.
00:19:15.020 But one of the things that you see when you see that people are under attack because of their faith.
00:19:18.880 And I witnessed it going into the kibbutz, into the homes of those that were killed, including that nine-month-old child.
00:19:25.440 When I met with the parents who lost their loved ones on that soccer field as their kids were just playing soccer.
00:19:30.640 When I went to the north and I saw the homes that were destroyed and met with people whose lives were destroyed by Hamas there. 0.73
00:19:38.680 And you witnessed this type of persecution and death and destruction.
00:19:43.060 And went to the site where the music festival was and watched people die just because they were Jews.
00:19:47.760 It makes me angry to now see what's happening in Nigeria.
00:19:52.700 You're shining a light on that.
00:19:54.200 The White House is doing that as well.
00:19:55.920 And the American people need to know what's going on. 1.00
00:19:58.800 Yeah, listen, radical Islamic terrorists, they hate Christians and they hate Jews. 1.00
00:20:04.260 And they have murdered vast numbers of Christians. 1.00
00:20:07.460 They have murdered vast number of Jews. 0.98
00:20:09.540 They continue to do so. 0.97
00:20:10.560 And they also murder a significant number of Muslims. 0.98
00:20:13.280 Radical Islamic terrorists, if you don't embrace their radical jihadist view, 0.99
00:20:17.660 their ideology justifies violence or even murder to force you to submit.
00:20:24.820 And the 13 years I've been in the Senate, I've spent a lot of time fighting for persecuted Christians,
00:20:30.480 fighting for persecuted Christians all across the globe,
00:20:33.680 especially those being persecuted by radical Islamic terrorists. 0.78
00:20:38.000 Boko Haram, that is in Nigeria, is a vicious radical Islamic terrorist group. 0.87
00:20:43.080 And if you look at, there is no country on planet Earth where more Christians have been murdered 0.89
00:20:50.020 in the last 20 years than Nigeria.
00:20:54.180 Since 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been murdered in the country of Nigeria.
00:21:01.280 I mean, literally, these Christians are being hunted down.
00:21:04.120 Yeah, they absolutely are.
00:21:06.360 Over 20,000 Christian churches and schools have been burned to the ground or otherwise destroyed.
00:21:13.760 I mean, this has been mass murder, and it is horrific.
00:21:18.240 And so I filed legislation in the Senate to direct the administration to designate Nigeria
00:21:23.920 a country of particular concern and to impose in particular sanctions on the government officials
00:21:29.580 because there are many government officials who are acquiescing in this mass murder against Christians.
00:21:35.120 And so my legislation would impose sanctions on particular government officials.
00:21:41.440 There are 12 states in the north where Sharia laws or blasphemy laws are enforced.
00:21:47.420 There's also federal Sharia and blasphemy laws that are enforced,
00:21:51.100 and the government officials use those laws to discriminate against and to persecute Christians.
00:21:56.800 In some instances, they simply just turn a blind eye, 0.97
00:22:00.300 as Boko Haram and other radical Islamic terrorist murder Christians.
00:22:03.700 In other instances, they actually use the law to facilitate the persecution.
00:22:09.860 But after I filed the legislation and I began pressing the administration to designate Nigeria
00:22:17.100 as a country of particular concern, President Trump did so.
00:22:20.200 And he sent out a tweet.
00:22:21.760 Here's what his tweet says.
00:22:23.640 It says,
00:22:24.420 Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. 0.95
00:22:28.040 Thousands of Christians are being killed. 0.98
00:22:29.920 Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. 1.00
00:22:34.180 I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern, but that is the least of it. 0.93
00:22:40.620 When Christians or any such group is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria,
00:22:46.220 3,100 versus 4,476 worldwide, something must be done.
00:22:51.960 I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee,
00:22:58.220 to immediately look into this matter and report back to me.
00:23:01.920 The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria and numerous other countries.
00:23:08.800 We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world.
00:23:15.520 Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.
00:23:17.480 That was exactly the right thing to do.
00:23:20.560 I saw President Trump shortly after he issued that designation, and I thanked him.
00:23:25.940 I said, it really makes a difference.
00:23:28.140 It's the right thing to do.
00:23:29.860 He was happy to do it.
00:23:31.440 And I'll tell you, the government in Nigeria is deeply dismayed.
00:23:36.460 And their response, their main defense, they say, well, they argue it's not a genocide.
00:23:42.220 And what they say is, well, yes, 50,000 Christians have been killed, but you know what?
00:23:47.920 Boko Haram has also killed Muslims, so it's all fine. 1.00
00:23:50.880 Well, it is true. 0.99
00:23:51.860 They have killed Muslims. 1.00
00:23:52.940 Nobody's disputing that they've killed Muslims as well. 1.00
00:23:55.760 But radical Islamic terrorists target Christians in particular for persecution, 0.96
00:24:01.200 and the government is complicit in that persecution.
00:24:05.480 That's what this is designed to address.
00:24:07.420 And, you know, I got to say, you and I have talked about before that those who hate Jews
00:24:16.420 hate Christians, and those who hate Israel hate America. 0.55
00:24:20.220 That is true. 0.78
00:24:21.640 We've also talked about rising anti-Semitism, and we've talked quite a bit about Tucker Carlson,
00:24:26.000 because I think Tucker has unfortunately gone down a very, very dark path, a path where
00:24:31.660 he brings on Hitler-praising nutjobs onto his show over and over and over again.
00:24:38.100 But it also results, not only does he attack Israel in almost every show he does, 0.68
00:24:45.500 but when you go on the path of hating Israel and blaming everything on the Jews,
00:24:52.100 that often that same dark path leads you to embrace the enemies of America.
00:24:57.120 So Tucker has said, we should apologize to the family of Osama bin Laden.
00:25:02.440 No, no, we should not.
00:25:04.140 Tucker has said he doesn't know that Hamas is a terrorist organization.
00:25:07.840 They might just be a political group. 0.94
00:25:10.180 I'm sorry, but when you murder 1,200 innocent civilians and rape women and children, 0.96
00:25:14.840 you are most definitely a terrorist group, and Hamas has killed a great many Americans. 0.88
00:25:19.960 But it really was striking. 0.90
00:25:22.020 Just recently, Tucker did a show where he talked about Nigerians,
00:25:25.720 and he disputed that Christians in Nigeria are being persecuted.
00:25:29.480 I want you to give a listen, because he took the chance to basically defend Boko Haram.
00:25:35.800 Give a listen.
00:25:37.000 But he's all of a sudden, kind of out of nowhere,
00:25:39.640 deeply concerned about the play of Christians in Nigeria,
00:25:41.480 which I want to restate.
00:25:42.640 Maybe a totally valid concern, I don't know.
00:25:44.820 But that's weird.
00:25:46.320 What is that?
00:25:46.820 All of a sudden, everybody's concerned about people who clearly have no track record
00:25:49.440 of being interested in Christians at all, including Ted Cruz.
00:25:51.560 What is going on?
00:25:53.340 That, to me, was pretty unhinged, Senator.
00:25:56.660 Look, I gotta say, listen, I understand that Tucker's told the world there's no one he hates
00:26:02.040 more than Christian Zionists, and he singled out me and Mike Huckabee as the people he hates
00:26:06.960 the most in the world.
00:26:08.520 But that's truly a bizarre claim, what he says there, which is that I have no interest
00:26:13.440 in defending persecuted Christians.
00:26:15.680 I've literally spent 13 years doing that.
00:26:18.440 You know, I might ask Tucker, does he have any idea who Miriam Ibrahim is?
00:26:22.560 And I suspect he doesn't.
00:26:24.760 So Miriam Ibrahim was a Christian woman in Sudan, and she was imprisoned, and she was sentenced
00:26:32.380 to receive 100 lashes and then to hang by the neck until dead for the crime of being a Christian. 0.99
00:26:39.240 And this was during Barack Obama's presidency. 0.97
00:26:41.440 This was early in my time in the Senate.
00:26:43.220 And I spoke out vocally for Miriam Ibrahim, and she had two little kids.
00:26:49.900 She had a son named Martin, and she actually gave birth to a daughter, Maya, while she was
00:26:54.660 in leg irons.
00:26:55.720 And I'll tell you, I repeatedly, practically begged the Obama administration for President
00:27:01.540 Obama to just say her name. 0.92
00:27:03.580 He would not do it.
00:27:04.680 He never once said her name.
00:27:05.900 I went to the Senate floor.
00:27:07.040 I gave floor speeches.
00:27:09.040 I shined a light.
00:27:10.420 And globally, many, the Pope got involved shining a light, defending her.
00:27:14.880 And the pressure became so great, Sudan released her.
00:27:19.040 And Ben, I'll tell you, it's an amazing thing.
00:27:20.900 I actually got to meet Miriam Ibrahim when she came to Washington.
00:27:25.140 And I asked her, she was a little bitty woman. 0.98
00:27:27.260 She's not very tall, maybe 5'1".
00:27:29.540 She couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds.
00:27:32.160 And I asked her, I said, Miriam, tell me, when you were in that prison cell, and your
00:27:38.160 babies are in front of you, and you've been sentenced to die for your faith, how did you
00:27:44.320 not give up hope?
00:27:46.020 And she looked at me with a peace that I'll never forget, and she just said, Jesus was
00:27:51.420 with me.
00:27:52.700 And I mean, it was powerful.
00:27:54.140 That's incredible.
00:27:54.780 But I think this illustrates how anti-Semitism is a poison that ends up poisoning every other
00:28:04.300 view.
00:28:04.860 So now Tucker is running around defending Hamas, defending Boko Haram, saying, well, I don't
00:28:10.480 know that Nigerians or Christians are being killed in Nigeria, and why does anyone care 1.00
00:28:14.520 about that?
00:28:15.440 And apparently Tucker is only interested in atrocities if he can blame them on Israel.
00:28:21.080 And since it's not Israel that's killing Christians in Nigeria, it's not a concern
00:28:24.980 for him.
00:28:26.000 Look, I think we should defend Christians when they're being persecuted.
00:28:30.300 I think we should defend Jews when they're being persecuted.
00:28:32.820 I think we should stand up and make a difference.
00:28:37.200 Now, that doesn't mean that we invade every country in which there's injustice, but it does
00:28:42.540 mean we use our voice as a voice to stand up for those.
00:28:48.800 Look, as you know, my dad was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba.
00:28:53.780 And so I have a particular heart for people who are unjustly detained and have spent a
00:29:01.660 long time highlighting and doing everything we can to get people out of unjust detentions,
00:29:08.380 whether in Sudan or China or Lebanon or anywhere.
00:29:15.360 And I'm very glad President Trump is standing up for the Christians in Nigeria.
00:29:21.520 I want to take a moment and just talk to you real quick about an incredible opportunity
00:29:25.300 for you to continue to expand your mind and learn no matter what your age is.
00:29:31.920 Senator Cruz and I were at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, and one of the people that
00:29:36.500 spoke was the president of Hillsdale College.
00:29:38.480 And he talked about meeting with Charlie early on and how he said, you're going to have to
00:29:43.420 work hard, you're going to have to suffer, and you're going to have to continue to learn
00:29:49.060 when he was so young.
00:29:50.100 And he talked about all of the classes that Charlie ended up taking at Hillsdale.
00:29:55.760 I immediately said, I want the listeners of this show to be able to have the same opportunity
00:30:01.580 to do that.
00:30:02.340 There are amazing classes, history, economics, the great works of literature, the meaning
00:30:07.420 of the U.S. Constitution.
00:30:09.400 And if you didn't study these things in school, or maybe you did, but you were like, you know,
00:30:12.760 just trying to check the box and make the grade when you're 20, now is a great time for
00:30:17.320 you to go back and learn so much more.
00:30:20.160 Hillsdale College is offering more than 40 free, I want to say that again, 40 free online
00:30:27.280 courses.
00:30:27.960 That's right.
00:30:28.820 More than 40 free online courses.
00:30:31.180 You can learn about the works of C.S.
00:30:32.780 Lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis, the meaning of the U.S. Constitution.
00:30:37.680 I'm doing that one.
00:30:38.380 It's incredible.
00:30:39.940 The rise and fall of the Roman Republic or the history of the ancient Christian church
00:30:43.800 with Hillsdale College's free online courses.
00:30:46.840 Now, I'm also looking at the Constitution 101.
00:30:49.320 It's amazing.
00:30:50.320 A refresher course.
00:30:52.000 And you can see and explore the design, the purpose of the Constitution, the challenges it
00:30:57.120 faced in the Civil War, and how it's been undermined for more than a century.
00:31:01.180 By progressives and liberals.
00:31:03.340 This 12 lecture course is self-paced, so you start whenever you want to, and it is truly
00:31:10.900 amazing.
00:31:11.940 So, how do you do this?
00:31:13.680 You can go right now to hillsdale.edu slash verdict to enroll.
00:31:20.700 There is no cost, and it's easy to get started.
00:31:24.540 That's hillsdale.edu slash verdict, V-E-R-D-I-C-T, to enroll for free and take any one of these
00:31:34.460 classes.
00:31:35.160 Take advantage of it.
00:31:36.100 It's free.
00:31:37.260 Hillsdale.edu slash V-E-R-D-I-C-T verdict, and go check out the amazing classes they have
00:31:44.000 there.
00:31:44.580 All right.
00:31:45.320 I want to end the show with talking about something else that has really made me sad
00:31:50.200 this week.
00:31:50.700 It's also, I think, really telling you where we are as a country with a radical left.
00:31:56.820 We have seen violent protesters at a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley.
00:32:04.740 I wish it wasn't what we witnessed, but it was radical leftists.
00:32:08.960 I want to know who's funding them, Senator.
00:32:11.440 I want to know who's behind this, but it is shocking to see this level of rhetoric and
00:32:18.700 attacks on conservatives who are just going to have a conversation, and it's very eerily
00:32:25.000 close to what we witnessed with the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:32:28.280 Yeah, look, the pattern of left-wing violence continues, and it continues across the country,
00:32:33.380 and it continues with the acquiescence and support of many on the far left, far too many
00:32:40.180 on the far left.
00:32:41.820 This week, Turning Point USA had a rally at UC Berkeley.
00:32:47.020 Now, the speakers at the rally were Dr. Frank Turek, who's a Christian pastor, and Rob Schneider,
00:32:53.960 who's a comedian and actor, so it's not like either of these speakers were particularly
00:32:59.620 controversial in any normal or sane place, but UC Berkeley is not necessarily a normal
00:33:08.600 or sane place, and Antifa targeted them, targeted the people coming into the rally, coming in
00:33:15.840 to listen to the speakers, and they were violent.
00:33:20.580 But let me read how Fox covered it.
00:33:25.100 A bloody fight broke out near the University of California, Berkeley, on Monday afternoon
00:33:29.100 ahead of a Turning Point USA event on campus.
00:33:31.880 The event, which featured Dr. Frank Turek and Rob Schneider, marked the end of the This
00:33:36.540 is Turning Point tour.
00:33:38.300 It took place just two months after Turning Point USA's founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated
00:33:43.500 at a campus event in Utah on September 10th.
00:33:45.960 The confrontation erupted around 4.30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
00:33:51.240 During the brawl, two men were seen fighting each other, one of whom had blood gushing from
00:33:57.460 his face.
00:33:58.440 And you can watch the video.
00:33:59.980 Video taken by Fox News Digital also shows a crowd of agitators gathered around the fight.
00:34:05.980 These were left-wing Antifa activists.
00:34:13.840 They were chanting obscene chants.
00:34:19.540 They were celebrating that Charlie Kirk had been murdered.
00:34:22.600 They were chanting how happy they are about that.
00:34:25.360 Most of them had masks, and you can watch the video online of one of the people coming to
00:34:36.460 the Turning Point event who they beat the hell out of him, and his face is bleeding profusely,
00:34:43.840 and they engaged in violence.
00:34:45.200 And I'll tell you, what is frustrating is where was the administration of Berkeley?
00:34:52.280 Where was the police?
00:34:53.980 Why are they allowing violent protesters?
00:34:56.280 And look, these are the same administrators.
00:34:58.620 This is the same faculty that allowed their campuses to be taken over for weeks and months
00:35:04.020 on end by radical anti-Semitic protesters, by Antifa communists, who again engage in threats
00:35:10.860 of violence.
00:35:11.800 And in both instances, these are not organic.
00:35:15.280 They're being paid for.
00:35:17.300 There is, I've been saying for a long time, follow the money.
00:35:20.780 I've been urging the Department of Justice and the FBI to follow the money.
00:35:24.720 I've introduced legislation, the Stop Funders Act, to add rioting as a predicate act to RICO
00:35:29.980 to let us go after the money that is behind these violent anarchists.
00:35:34.880 And I'll tell you what's being reported now.
00:35:36.480 This is another story Fox News covered.
00:35:39.500 UC Berkeley's bloody protest of Turning Point USA, allegedly funded by far-left non-profit.
00:35:46.140 Attorney General Pam Bondi opens anti-terrorism investigation into campus clash outside Turning
00:35:52.480 Point USA event.
00:35:54.180 And here's what Fox reports.
00:35:55.760 Last month, a band of demonstrators marched across West Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles
00:36:02.240 in the national anti-Trump No Kings protest, carrying a banner that read,
00:36:08.300 Defeat Trump's fascist takeover, stop ICE raids, and deportations by any means necessary.
00:36:15.420 And in one corner, four bold letters stood out.
00:36:20.300 B-A-M-N, an acronym for by any means necessary.
00:36:26.620 The rest of the banner spelled out clues to the group's full name in smaller print.
00:36:32.400 Quote, coalition to defend affirmative action, integration, and immigration rights
00:36:37.220 and fight for equality by any means necessary.
00:36:40.660 That organization, one of 266 groups with combined annual revenues of $2.9 billion,
00:36:51.120 $2.9 billion, identified by Fox News Digital, leading the No Kings protests, would soon reappear
00:37:00.120 at this week's flashpoint on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.
00:37:05.160 And so this group, a flyer circulated before the demonstration, urged participants to, quote,
00:37:12.180 end fascist Turning Point's youth-oriented campaign of incitement to violence.
00:37:16.660 Now, ironically, they're accusing Turning Point of incitement to violence, and they show
00:37:21.020 up and violently assault the people who are going to Turning Point.
00:37:24.300 This is, it's classic Marxist technique of projecting and accusing your opponents of doing
00:37:30.580 what you're doing.
00:37:32.000 And this flyer announced a rally outside of Zellerbach Hall an hour before the doors opened
00:37:38.600 for the event.
00:37:39.320 Well, the good news is, and a QR page printed on the flyer leads to a page on BAMN.com, which
00:37:50.520 is a domain of this group that was helping fund the No Kings rallies.
00:37:54.480 And so there is an entire ecosystem with money flowing to promote violence.
00:38:01.560 And thankfully, the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi has announced that they're doing
00:38:07.580 an anti-terrorism investigation to go after, to follow the money.
00:38:11.940 And I'll tell you also, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights is questioning,
00:38:19.080 is questioning why Berkeley allowed this to happen.
00:38:26.140 In fact, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dillon, formally demanded that
00:38:32.420 UC Berkeley preserve all records regarding their response to the mob violence at Berkeley's
00:38:40.460 Turning Point USA event.
00:38:41.820 All records.
00:38:43.720 Good.
00:38:44.720 And that's because I suspect they're going to find, they're going to find emails, they're
00:38:49.920 going to find administrators saying, communicating back and forth, just like we did with the anti-Semitic
00:38:55.880 protesters, where it is clear that the administrators do not want to protect the people at Turning
00:39:02.260 Point USA, do not want the police to stop violence if it's directed against conservatives.
00:39:07.880 And there's a real moral decay at our universities, and I'm glad we have a Department of Justice
00:39:13.120 that's willing to enforce the law and go after, number one, the money behind the left-wing 0.98
00:39:20.400 violence, but number two, the administrators who are facilitating.
00:39:23.660 And I got to say, it is not dissimilar to what's happening in Nigeria.
00:39:28.620 We talked about a minute ago, where you have government officials who look the other way
00:39:33.060 and refuse to enforce the law to protect Christians.
00:39:35.820 In Berkeley's case, I suspect the evidence will indicate the school administrators look
00:39:41.120 the other way and refuse to protect the students at Turning Point USA because they're rooting for
00:39:47.200 the Antifa rioters who are physically assaulting those students.
00:39:52.840 Amen.
00:39:53.440 Don't forget, we do this show three days a week.
00:39:55.300 Make sure you share the podcast wherever you can, and you can watch on YouTube as well.
00:40:00.160 It's Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:40:02.080 Be safe.
00:40:02.560 We'll see you back here on the podcast in a couple of days.
00:40:06.560 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:40:09.440 Guaranteed Human.