Verdict with Ted Cruz - Terrorist Nidal Hasan to be Executed by Military Firing Squad, plus When USAID Funding Halted, Marxists STOPPED WINNING in Latin America

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00:02:44.580 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:02:48.140 It's nice to have you with us. And Senator, I tell you what, finally, we're going to have a

00:02:52.740 death penalty for a terrorist that killed innocent people here in America. That is the big breaking

00:02:58.240 news we start the show with. Well, justice will be served when Nadal Hassan, who 17 years ago

00:03:05.180 murdered 14 innocent souls at Fort Hood in a grotesque act of terrorism. This week, 0.71

00:03:13.220 the Department of War, and President Trump has set a date for his execution by firing squad by 0.89

00:03:19.580 the military. We're going to break down what to expect and why this is carrying out justice for

00:03:26.620 a horrific attack that should have occurred long, long ago, this sentence, and it is now scheduled

00:03:33.000 to occur in the next two months. We're also going to talk about a remarkable consequence of President

00:03:39.320 Trump being re-elected and Elon Musk going into the administration and leading Doge, and in

00:03:44.340 particular shutting down much of USAID, shutting down the funding that flowed, the billions of

00:03:50.460 dollars that came out of USAID. And what we have seen, since those dollars stopped over and over

00:03:56.940 again throughout Latin America, right-wing conservative candidates have prevailed.

00:04:01.740 Previously, you had left-wing, you had Marxist, you had communist candidates prevailing, and

00:04:07.160 Without the USAID flow of money, suddenly Latin American countries are picking pro-America, pro-freedom, pro-free market candidates.

00:04:15.680 We're going to break that down as well.

00:04:17.100 All of that on today's pod.

00:04:19.060 Yeah, absolutely on that one.

00:04:20.860 I also want to talk to you about a very important date that is coming up.

00:04:24.240 And it is a way that you can stand with the people that were attacked on October the 7th, 2023.

00:04:31.460 Israeli firefighter Danny faced a nightmare no parent should have to ever endure.

00:04:36.660 A terrorist attacked his community.

00:04:38.980 He and his wife sheltered in their safe room.

00:04:41.400 And unfortunately, just yards away, his daughter and son-in-law were trapped inside their home

00:04:46.120 as it burned during the horrific attacks on that day.

00:04:49.860 Now, there was nothing he could do to save them.

00:04:52.220 Danny had dedicated his life to rescuing others.

00:04:54.720 Yet in the midst of unimaginable grief, he stepped forward to help evacuate survivors

00:04:59.580 and care for his shattered community, even with his own loss.

00:05:03.360 Today, he continues helping rebuild.

00:05:05.520 Now, his story reminds us that behind every headline is a real family, a mother, a father, a son, or a daughter whose life mattered.

00:05:14.400 And that's why thousands of churches across America are joining the Flags of Fellowship movement started by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

00:05:23.820 Each flag planted as part of this powerful movement honors a life lost.

00:05:28.380 Each flag stands against hatred, and each flag declares to the world that Israel is not alone.

00:05:34.880 Join believers across America in this powerful act of remembrance and solidarity with Israel.

00:05:40.340 Learn how you or your church can make a difference at joinfof.org.

00:05:46.960 That's joinfof.org.

00:05:50.740 All right, Senator, let's go back to this first big story.

00:05:53.700 And the justice, I think, is finally going to be served.

00:05:56.920 That's the blessing here for the victims' families.

00:05:59.840 President Trump has approved the execution of Nandal Hassan.

00:06:03.460 but we got to go way back to 2009 and there's a lot of people that listen to the show that that

00:06:09.400 may have been too young to even remember this horrific terrorist attack and the fact that this

00:06:13.800 was done by someone that was in our own U.S. Army so let's remind them of exactly what happened back

00:06:20.140 then. Well Nadal Hassan was a major in the army and he was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas and in

00:06:27.600 2009, he walked into Fort Hood, and he murdered 14 innocent souls, all shouting, Allahu Akbar. 0.89

00:06:40.020 It was an act of radical Islamic terrorism. It was obviously an act of radical Islamic terrorism. 0.67

00:06:45.920 And yet, to add insult to injury, Barack Obama was president at the time, and the Obama Department

00:06:52.280 of Defense categorized this killing not as an act of terrorism but as a quote act of workplace

00:07:02.100 violence. Now there was a consequence to that because it was deemed workplace violence and

00:07:07.900 not terrorism the soldiers who were murdered the soldiers who were injured were not eligible for

00:07:14.920 the Purple Heart. It was outrageous but but this was the Obama administration was engaged in in an

00:07:21.980 effort of revisionist history, they were trying to erase the concept of radical Islamic terrorism.

00:07:28.800 They were trying to erase the fact that Nadal Hassan was a jihadist. Now, several aspects of

00:07:36.600 this are notable. Number one, one of the very first pieces of legislation I ever passed. I was

00:07:45.400 elected to the Senate for the first time in 2012. I was sworn in January 3rd of 2013 and I introduced

00:07:52.500 legislation to reverse this miscarriage of justice and in particular to mandate that the soldiers

00:07:59.360 killed by Nadal Hassan receive the Purple Heart. At the time we were in a Democrat Senate and yet

00:08:07.200 the Democrat Senate I was able in the Senate Armed Services Committee to get the support of

00:08:12.960 republicans and democrats they adopted my legislation passed it into law and and i will

00:08:20.280 tell you i i was there in 2015 when the army finally awarded the purple heart uh to those

00:08:28.660 who were injured and to the families of those who were murdered and and i was there and to each one

00:08:32.780 of them i shook their hands or i hugged them and i looked them in the eyes because at this point it

00:08:37.180 was years after the killing. And I said to each of them, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your country

00:08:43.340 took so long to acknowledge this was an act of terrorism. Now I'll tell you a second aspect of

00:08:51.080 this killing. Nadal Hassan had been radicalized while serving in the army. And in particular,

00:09:00.420 he had reached out to a radical Islamic cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki. And he had inquired of

00:09:06.660 this cleric about the permissibility of waging jihad against his fellow servicemen and women,

00:09:15.600 murdering other soldiers in the army. And Anwar al-Awlaki had informed him on email

00:09:22.140 that yes, it was permissible to wage jihad and murder the other soldiers. Now here is what is

00:09:29.020 astonishing. The Obama administration had those emails. They knew that Nadal Hassan was asking

00:09:39.640 this radical Islamic cleric, can I murder my fellow soldiers? And they did nothing in any sane

00:09:45.740 world. They would have shown up and arrested Nadal Hassan before he carried out his act of

00:09:51.140 jihad, and they would have saved 14 innocent souls. By the way, you will see in the press

00:09:56.980 the number 13 in terms of who he murdered the reason I use 14 is one of the 13 people he

00:10:03.240 murdered was a pregnant woman and so not only did he murder her but he murdered her unborn child

00:10:09.100 it's why I use 14 because 14 people died that day although the press consistently omits the unborn

00:10:15.800 child now years ago when I was running for president in 2016 I was doing an interview with

00:10:23.480 Jake Tapper for CNN and I was doing the interview on the campaign bus he came and I think we were

00:10:29.460 on the trail in Iowa I'm not sure but I think it was Iowa and and we had reached an agreement

00:10:35.160 that we would record I said look we'll either record the Sunday show live or live to tape but

00:10:42.780 you can't edit it because I had had a bad experience with Bob Schieffer from CBS who had

00:10:48.240 done a Sunday show and it was taped and then I had made several points that were quite damaging

00:10:53.260 to Obama and CBS just edited them out they're just like no we don't like those so we're just

00:10:58.420 going to remove them and ever since then my press team when we did an interview for a Sunday show

00:11:02.780 we'd say look you can decide how long you want me on if you want me on six eight six minutes eight

00:11:07.040 minutes ten minutes whatever but whatever the time period you use exactly what I say not one word

00:11:13.820 different if you don't like what I said tough cookies and so CNN had agreed they would use

00:11:18.900 exactly what I said live to tape and so we're talking about Nadal Hassan on this interview

00:11:22.800 and I said what I just said a minute ago which is that the Obama administration had his

00:11:27.940 communications with Anwar al-Awlaki and they did nothing and Jake Tapper interrupted me he said

00:11:33.260 that's not true that's just false he said what you're saying is not accurate it's not true

00:11:38.360 and I sort of laughed John Adams famously said facts are stubborn things and I said Jake I'm

00:11:45.160 right and the facts will bear me out and so we finished the interview and and Jake left the

00:11:50.660 campaign bus and a few minutes later he came back and he knocked on the door of the campaign bus

00:11:55.180 and he was chagrined he was embarrassed and he said he he said senator i i went and researched

00:12:02.060 it and and it turns out you were right and i was wrong and he said i didn't know that i genuinely

00:12:06.840 thought you were mistaken in what you were saying i i had not seen that the pentagon had these email

00:12:12.500 communications so when i interrupted you and and contradicted you i i was mistaken and he said look

00:12:18.700 we agreed to play what you did live unedited and so he said I'm going to give you two options

00:12:24.740 he said number one we will play exactly what we just interviewed and then after we play it on

00:12:32.440 Sunday I will chime in and say after the interview I researched it and it turned out

00:12:38.160 Senator Cruz was right and I was wrong he said that's option one and he said I'm willing to do

00:12:43.720 that he said option two and what I would rather do is simply erase the I don't know minute or two

00:12:51.640 where you and I talk about this and just remove it from the interview and Ben I remember thinking

00:12:56.180 at the time I said look option one is obviously better for me to have Jake Tapper and CNN admit

00:13:02.260 they were wrong they were caught that was unequivocally better for me but I actually

00:13:08.200 respected this is before Jake Tapper his mind had melted and he'd gone crazy because he hates

00:13:12.620 Donald Trump. And so at the time, this is 2015, 2016, he was trying to be a real journalist.

00:13:21.220 And I respected what he said to me. And I said, you know what? You can delete the segment. And

00:13:25.720 even though it hurt me in the short term, my view was I'm playing the long game. I intend to do

00:13:32.660 lots and lots of interviews. And the goodwill that is earned by letting him take out something

00:13:38.720 that was embarrassing to him was worth it it's interesting how cnn has gone from here

00:13:44.400 it really is and you look at this story now and and this is going to be something i think the left

00:13:50.260 is going to have a hard time reconciling that is the death the death penalty here to me it's beyond

00:13:56.580 warranted i think he should be executed they're going to say he shouldn't and i think that tells

00:14:01.680 you a lot about the difference between law and order and standing up to terrorists and sympathizing

00:14:06.680 with him we know what this individual was trying to accomplish he was able to accomplish a lot of

00:14:11.100 what he wanted to do he was yelling on akbar during the attack and and and this uh again the

00:14:16.840 secretary of the army is going to set the time and place execution this to me it should be looked as

00:14:22.440 a deterrent to anyone else thinking about doing something like this that as long as is conservatives

00:14:27.200 are in charge this will be your fate if you survive that day look and i believe the death

00:14:33.060 penalty is a matter of justice it's a matter of of of punishing those who commit premeditated

00:14:39.220 murder in this case it was an act of terrorism now in terms of the specifics i actually pulled

00:14:44.700 out grok and i typed in when will nadal hassan be executed and here's what grok came back came up

00:14:50.000 with nadal hassan is scheduled to be executed by army firing squad on december 3rd 2026 at 1 p.m

00:14:57.880 Central Standard Time at Fort Hood, the base where he carried out the 2009 attack. I'm going

00:15:03.820 to mention as an aside, I think it is particularly just that he is scheduled to be executed at Fort

00:15:10.720 Hood where he carried out this act of terrorism. Grok continues, that date comes from an army

00:15:17.420 execution order in a statement by Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Tell reported on October 6,

00:15:22.240 2026 after families of victims were notified by email. President Trump approved the death

00:15:28.360 sentence on October 2nd. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended a firing squad and Trump

00:15:33.560 approved that method. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the approval publicly on October

00:15:39.420 5th. Hassan, a former army major and psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated

00:15:46.720 murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the november 5th 2009 shooting that

00:15:52.420 killed 13 people note that grok says 13 and not 14 the unborn child never makes it in this

00:15:57.680 and wounded 32 a military jury sentenced him to death he has been on military death row

00:16:04.700 at the u.s disciplinary barracks at fort leavenworth the supreme court declined to review

00:16:10.700 case in 2025, ending his direct appeals. If the execution is carried out, it would be the first

00:16:18.960 U.S. military execution since Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth in 1961.

00:16:25.660 1961 was a long time. And the first Army firing squad since World War II. And so then I typed in,

00:16:34.300 how likely is it to be delayed? Look, having litigated a number of death penalty cases on

00:16:40.840 behalf of the state of Texas, delay in litigation is always likely. Here's what Grok said.

00:16:46.560 A delay is plausible and a long one is possible, but it is not automatic. The December 3rd date

00:16:52.880 is real on paper. Whether it holds depends almost entirely on a federal court in Kansas.

00:16:58.280 His military appeals are finished. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed the

00:17:03.340 conviction in the sentence and the Supreme Court denied review in March of 2025. What remains is

00:17:09.820 collateral review, a habeas corpus petition in federal district court in Kansas, which could

00:17:15.100 include a request for stay. The only modern comparison is Ronald Gray. President George W.

00:17:23.400 Bush approved his military death sentence in July of 2008. The Army set his execution for December

00:17:29.160 10, 2008, and a federal judge stayed it days beforehand. Now, that was 2008. What happened

00:17:35.660 to Gray? Gray is still on military death row. Now, two things cut the other way that say that

00:17:43.140 Hassan may well be executed in December of this year. Hassan has long said he wants to die and

00:17:49.820 has not fought the case the way most Capitol defendants do. He's represented himself at trial

00:17:55.000 and framed the shooting as jihad.

00:17:58.200 Courts have sometimes let lawyers press review anyway

00:18:01.140 when a prisoner's competence to waive is in doubt,

00:18:04.200 so his wishes are not fully controlling.

00:18:06.980 On the merits, military justice analysts

00:18:09.460 at the National Institute of Military Justice

00:18:11.380 have described the odds in the Tenth Circuit

00:18:14.020 as low to none.

00:18:16.760 A weak claim can still buy time

00:18:18.620 if a judge grants a stay while it is litigated.

00:18:20.560 so it's not 100 certain by any means that that the execution will happen on december 3rd but i

00:18:28.460 think president trump is exactly right it is way past time and i i think this sentence which a jury

00:18:34.340 of his peers entered in in the military trial should have been executed should have been carried

00:18:39.640 out long ago and and i very much hope finally for for the families of the victims who were murdered

00:18:45.880 we see justice on December 3rd of this year.

00:18:49.360 Yeah, amen to that.

00:18:50.300 I couldn't agree with you more.

00:18:51.660 All right, I want to take a moment

00:18:52.720 and talk to you real quick

00:18:53.740 about the midterm elections.

00:18:55.280 They're here.

00:18:56.540 And if the DSA Democrats win,

00:18:58.940 they'll push a radical socialist agenda

00:19:01.220 and drown President Trump

00:19:03.160 in endless investigations.

00:19:05.000 How do we know this?

00:19:05.700 Because that's what they said

00:19:06.800 they're going to do.

00:19:07.960 Now, we've seen their playbook before.

00:19:09.720 They tried impeaching him.

00:19:10.900 They tried putting him in prison.

00:19:12.360 They've tried everything.

00:19:13.720 So don't let them win.

00:19:15.880 Because if we lose, they'll undo everything our movement has fought for.

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00:19:26.140 Go to GOPVotes.org right now and find out when you can vote.

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00:19:53.640 Paid for by SLF PAC, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

00:19:59.580 All right, Senator, I want to move to the second story that we mentioned earlier.

00:20:02.700 And I got to tell you, the news coming out of USAID and how Elon Musk was able to have a major impact on the left's chokehold in Latin America,

00:20:12.600 This story is really interesting, and it's one that shows you if you're committed to a cause, you can have a really big impact if you focus on the facts.

00:20:24.340 Well, this is a story I want everyone listening to really understand because it is profound and it is completely unreported in the press.

00:20:34.100 As you know, when President Trump came in for the second term, he appointed Elon Musk as the head of Doge.

00:20:39.540 one of the first things Elon Musk did is is essentially zeroed out USAID so the billions

00:20:45.760 of dollars that had been flowing out in foreign aid just stopped and and the left the democrats

00:20:51.100 the press they all screamed blue murder they they described it as as chicken little the sky is

00:20:56.460 falling the world is ending people are dying it is horrible well they nonetheless succeeded in

00:21:01.840 cutting the vast majority of that money here is an interesting consequence of this that very few

00:21:08.480 people are noting. Since the USAID money stopped flowing, leftists, communists, America-hating

00:21:18.780 zealots have stopped winning elections in Latin America. During Joe Biden, while the USAID money

00:21:27.860 was flowing, we saw leftists and communists and people who hate America winning election after

00:21:32.900 election after election and implementing socialism and marxism throughout latin america

00:21:37.580 that has ground to a halt and and the obvious inference is that usa id the federal taxpayers

00:21:46.020 were flowing money millions if not billions of dollars to marxists to hate america to elect

00:21:52.880 communists that not only hurt latin american countries but fight against the united states

00:21:58.260 I want to read to you a very interesting tweet from Breville Le Pogam now I don't know Breville

00:22:06.020 Le Pogam he is a French entrepreneur apparently from an AI company but he sent a tweet that I read

00:22:13.040 on X and and it was striking and and it really it made this point in a way that was powerful I want

00:22:18.980 to read it to you it's a long tweet but it but it has a lot of substance to it in 50 years history

00:22:25.380 books will say that Elon Musk won a war that no one even knew we were losing. A war that began

00:22:33.680 100 years ago in an Italian prison cell. In 1926, Mussolini had a 35-year-old Sardinian

00:22:42.500 intellectual arrested. At the trial, the prosecutor reportedly said, quote, we must stop this brain

00:22:49.980 from working for 20 years. His name was Antonio Gramsci. His brain never stopped working. In

00:22:59.760 prison, he filled thousands of pages that became one of the most influential political texts of

00:23:04.960 the 20th century. I think we're living through the moment when the theory is collapsing. Let me

00:23:11.320 explain. Gramsci asked a simple question. Why did the communist revolution succeed in Russia

00:23:18.360 but fail everywhere in the West?

00:23:21.740 His answer, in the West, power isn't just held by the state,

00:23:26.560 the police, and the army.

00:23:28.480 It's held by culture.

00:23:30.560 But what people find normal, obvious, common sense,

00:23:35.260 he called it cultural hegemony.

00:23:38.280 So, to seize power, you don't first take the palace.

00:23:41.880 You first take the minds, the schools, the universities, the newspapers, the theater, publishing, the courts.

00:23:52.460 That's the war of position, a slow conquest, institution by institution.

00:23:59.560 When the culture is flipped, the politics follows on its own.

00:24:05.120 Forty years later, the German activist Rudi Doischke would turn it into a slogan.

00:24:10.520 the long march through the institutions. For decades, we've lived with a puzzle that no one

00:24:19.400 could really explain. Why are almost all artists on the left? The actors, the singers, the teachers,

00:24:26.960 the journalists, a good chunk of the judiciary. Why could a country vote right election after

00:24:32.200 election and still see its culture speaking with one voice? We were told it's because educated

00:24:39.240 people are on the left? I think the answer is simpler. Gramsci had written the recipe and it

00:24:46.200 was applied. When you control who gets the grant, the job, the good review, the prize,

00:24:53.620 the invitation on the set, you control what becomes, quote, the culture. The same puzzle

00:25:02.420 existed on a global scale. Why did so many developing countries, especially in Latin America,

00:25:08.500 keep voting again and again for socialist or radical left governments.

00:25:15.560 Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Argentina of the Kirchner's, Petros, Colombia.

00:25:22.460 The economy was collapsing.

00:25:25.880 The cartels were thriving.

00:25:28.060 Chaos was setting in.

00:25:29.140 And yet the same vote kept coming back.

00:25:32.980 My conviction.

00:25:34.680 Poverty wasn't an accident of the system.

00:25:38.500 It was an electorate.

00:25:40.300 And around it, there was a whole ecosystem of NGOs.

00:25:44.600 Quote, independent media and quote, civil society programs, funded largely by Western money.

00:25:52.720 Then, in early 2025, something happened that no one had ever dared to do.

00:25:58.540 Elon and Doge opened up USAID's books.

00:26:02.540 An agency that had been virtually untouchable since 1961.

00:26:06.380 tens of billions of dollars a year the vast majority of programs were cut and the agency

00:26:13.480 was absorbed into the state department the faucet was turned off and look what has happened since

00:26:21.460 bolivia mas loses power after nearly 20 years ecuador noboa re-elected honduras the right

00:26:34.720 takes back the country. Chile, caste elected. Argentina, Malay wins the midterm elections

00:26:44.440 by a landslide. And two days ago, Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro is ineligible, sentenced to 27 years

00:26:54.520 in prison. The left thought they'd close the chapter. Lula, 80 years old, was running for a

00:27:01.160 fourth term against a country that was said to be in the bag. On Sunday, his son Flavio came in

00:27:10.660 the first in the first round, over 47% against nearly 45% for Lula. Lula himself acknowledged

00:27:19.080 a quote, unexpected result. The largest country in Latin America is one runoff away from flipping.

00:27:27.660 the biggest rightward turn on the continent in decades. Coincidence? I don't think so.

00:27:35.740 When the funding dries up, the narrative loses its megaphones. There's one last real stronghold

00:27:44.620 left, Europe. Brussels funds its own network of NGOs with an opacity that even the European

00:27:53.240 Court of Auditors has pointed out. The big foundations like Soros' Open Society. The

00:28:00.100 supranational entities that produce norms without ever facing a voter. It's the last fortress

00:28:06.660 of cultural hegemony and it's starting to crack. I'm convinced all of this is going to collapse

00:28:15.040 and faster than we think. Gramsci was right on one essential point. Culture precedes politics

00:28:22.020 but he forgot that it works both ways when an artificial culture loses its iv drip

00:28:29.320 what's real underneath rises to the surface what comes next i believe is a renaissance

00:28:37.680 a culture that starts loving beauty ambition science the civilization that gives it birth

00:28:45.520 again and in the history books we'll remember that it all started when one man decided

00:28:51.520 to look at the accounts it took someone rich enough not to depend on anyone crazy enough

00:29:00.060 to take it on and free enough to weather the hate that would follow thanks elon you listen to that

00:29:10.680 and i gotta tell you it goes back to just focus and it's one of the things i think that is so

00:29:15.740 really important uh about what he was able to accomplish the way that you describe it and it's

00:29:22.300 it is it's incredibly important that we have a that we have leaders that step up and do things

00:29:28.100 do bold things uh you and i have talked numerous times about how i think elon must save free

00:29:33.880 speech in this country by buying x and what a massive impact that had on this country as well

00:29:39.320 now before i get your response to that all right i want to take a moment here and just talk to you

00:29:44.560 the midterm elections. Look, the Democratic Socialists of America, they won primaries across

00:29:49.340 the country. Next, they're coming for Congress, and they're coming for you. If they win the

00:29:55.400 midterms, they'll defund the police. They've already said it. They'll reopen the borders

00:29:59.500 and force men into women's sports. You are the last line of defense, and gopvotes.org 1.00

00:30:06.220 is your partner in the fight. So go to gopvotes.org right now and make a plan to vote early.

00:30:14.560 Now, if you live in the critical Senate battleground states of Maine or Ohio, early voting is already underway starting this week.

00:30:23.460 Democrats, they're energized and the stakes have never been higher.

00:30:27.600 We can't afford to have people like AOC and her communist cronies running the show.

00:30:32.840 That's why I need you to make a plan to vote early right now.

00:30:36.540 Go to GOPVotes.org to find your polling location.

00:30:40.740 vote early and stop the socialist takeover of america paid for by slf pack not authorized by

00:30:48.980 any candidate or candidates committee all right senator i i want to get your reaction again this

00:30:54.560 is this is so much of the legacy of elon musk and i go back to him saving i think free speech in

00:30:59.420 many ways in this country with buying x look there's no doubt that when elon musk purchased

00:31:04.800 twitter it was i believe the greatest step in defense of free speech at least in a generation

00:31:10.740 and and if elon had not bought twitter i don't know that that donald trump gets re-elected in

00:31:16.740 2024 there was such a stranglehold on free speech and and x has become the public square

00:31:22.420 and and and when you have propaganda from the left that that the news media the corporate media tries

00:31:28.180 to force down our throat x is now the vehicle that the truth gets out but but if you look at

00:31:33.880 what USAID is doing. And by the way, I want to pause. Ben, have you heard a single news anchor,

00:31:41.520 a single newspaper like the Washington Post, New York Times, like a major newspaper,

00:31:46.980 comment on the massive shift in Latin America that happened since the billions stopped flowing

00:31:51.360 through USAID? Not a single one. It's absolute silence. And I want to read,

00:31:57.700 this is from a column in in the daily caller uh by by by mary rook and and and it says and this

00:32:05.960 makes the same point but i want to read this as well following the trump administration's

00:32:09.660 aggressive restructuring of the u.s agency for international development a striking pattern

00:32:13.720 emerged across latin america left-wing governments long dominate and dominant in several countries

00:32:18.840 suddenly stopped winning national elections center-right and conservative presidential

00:32:24.320 candidates have swept to victory in Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombia

00:32:30.840 since Trump ordered the cancellation of the bulk of USAID's programs. While it's normal to see

00:32:37.260 some political pendulum swinging, the speed and uniformity of the recent shift

00:32:43.020 coinciding with President Donald Trump's neutering USAID's democracy and governing

00:32:50.060 funding apparatus raises uncomfortable questions. On day one of Trump's second term, he signed an

00:32:58.420 executive order pausing most foreign assistance as a first shot across the bow. USAID eventually

00:33:06.360 ceased independent operations, was effectively absorbed under the State Department. Secretary

00:33:11.980 of State Marco Rubio oversaw the cancellation of approximately 83 percent of USAID programs,

00:33:17.360 which were worth tens of billions of dollars quote after a six-week review we are officially

00:33:23.880 canceling 83 percent of the programs of USAID the 5,200 contracts that are now canceled spent

00:33:30.580 tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve and in some cases even harmed the core

00:33:37.100 national interest of the United States Rubio said after a six-week review we are officially

00:33:42.220 canceling 83 percent of the programs at USAID. A substantial portion of these now-canceled

00:33:48.740 contracts fell under the democracy, human rights, and governance portfolio. These initiatives

00:33:53.840 funded election support, legislative strengthening, local governance reforms, anti-corruption efforts,

00:34:01.260 independent media, civil society capacity building, and human rights advocacy. This is me making an

00:34:07.040 observation. In other words, all BS designed to advance leftist causes. In short, this funding

00:34:13.940 often helps prop up left-leaning social agendas in foreign countries. Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neill

00:34:22.960 testified during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February 2025 that USAID

00:34:29.660 had, quote, troubling ties to the left's dark money network. Quote, USAID spent millions propping

00:34:36.860 up the Marxist ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the unfair and divisive transgender

00:34:43.400 orthodoxy, and the climate alarmist movement. Some of these grants arguably undermine America's 0.58

00:34:49.920 standing in the world. USAID awarded a roughly $2 million cooperative agreement in 2024

00:34:56.860 to Asociación Lambda in Guatemala to help strengthen so-called gender-affirming health

00:35:04.240 care. The agency also awarded funding to support other LGBTQ projects such as transgender-themed

00:35:10.560 artistic initiatives in Colombia and Peru. While framed as human rights work, USAID funded NGOs to

00:35:18.160 promote far-left ideologies in culturally conservative countries, with DRG's election

00:35:25.060 integrity arm working alongside them. And here's a simple question. Has a left-wing government

00:35:32.560 won an election in Latin America

00:35:35.440 since the USAID NGO complex was defunded.

00:35:39.620 The answer to that is no.

00:35:41.720 Center-right Senator Rodrigo Paz Piera

00:35:45.500 defeated candidates tied to the long-ruling

00:35:48.740 Socialist Moss Party in 2025,

00:35:51.380 ending nearly two decades of dominance in Bolivia.

00:35:55.980 Chile's presidential race delivered a victory

00:35:58.140 for Jose Antonio Cass' right-wing coalition.

00:36:01.700 Honduran voters chose conservative Nasri Asfura.

00:36:07.580 Costa Rica elected right-wing populist Laura Fernandez Delgado in February.

00:36:14.080 Peru's June contest produced a narrow win for Kiko Fujimura on the right.

00:36:21.020 Colombia's June runoff saw hard-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espiera prevail over the leftist candidate.

00:36:30.740 It wasn't that the region hadn't already seen the mood shift from left to right, as Javier Millet famously won the president's seat in Argentina in 2023.

00:36:40.680 Still, the post-Trump USAID restructuring stands out for the complete absence of left-wing political breakthroughs after its implementation.

00:36:52.040 A shift happens slowly over time.

00:36:54.140 And while correlation does not equal causation, the rapid acceleration of right-wing successes only makes sense if the entire left-wing support apparatus was astroturfed by USAID funding.

00:37:07.880 Let me read that sentence again. The rapid acceleration of right wing successes in Latin America only makes sense if the entire left wing support apparatus was astroturfed by USAID funding.

00:37:25.920 This is a big, big deal. And it's an enormous success, not just for America, but for the countries throughout Latin America.

00:37:33.400 Senator, this is exactly why I love doing this show with you,

00:37:35.960 because we get to highlight stories like this.

00:37:37.940 As you mentioned, no one else is talking about,

00:37:40.260 and this is one of those stories where I said,

00:37:42.080 everyone listening, this is what you need to be sharing.

00:37:45.740 That's exactly right.

00:37:46.780 And I want to encourage you guys, look,

00:37:48.860 Verdict listeners, you're smart, you're informed,

00:37:51.820 and you know things other people don't.

00:37:54.160 I want to encourage you when you're talking to your friends,

00:37:56.160 when you're talking to your colleagues around the water cooler at the office,

00:37:59.040 when you're talking to your kids,

00:38:00.340 to say hey have you noticed that every election since we cut off the USAID funding in Latin

00:38:07.780 America has gone not to the leftist but to the to conservatives what does that tell you about

00:38:13.980 what the people of Latin America want and and there are two points that are really important

00:38:18.180 if it is right that USAID funding was sending billions to elect communists in Latin America

00:38:25.940 the federal government the american government was hurting the people of latin america communism

00:38:31.360 is the most destructive ideology mankind has ever uh invented if the people of latin america don't

00:38:38.760 want it and the fact that once the money stops they keep voting for conservative free market

00:38:42.860 candidates suggests they don't want it then america was exporting harmful ideology to the

00:38:49.780 entirety of latin america and by the way i think more broadly the rest of the world

00:38:53.080 but but but look latin america the western hemisphere is our backyard but secondly the

00:38:59.240 the people that were being elected in latin america with the support of usa id were not

00:39:04.420 just left-wingers it's one thing to say okay each party they get in power and they want their team

00:39:09.200 to win okay that their differences higher taxes lower taxes we can disagree on some of that

00:39:14.120 but the people who were being elected in latin america were viciously anti-american they hated

00:39:20.980 the United States of America. So you literally had the federal government taking the taxpayer money

00:39:26.920 of Americans and sending it to help support the election of communists in Latin America

00:39:35.120 who hate America, who fight America. We were fighting against ourselves.

00:39:41.280 Very few people realized that was happening. And I will say, Ben,

00:39:44.760 the chances of USAID being zeroed out or largely zeroed out under any president other than Donald

00:39:53.020 Trump were essentially zero there was not another president who would have had the guts to do this

00:39:58.900 and his doing this it revealed the absolute crock the lie the manipulation the destruction of our

00:40:06.800 nation from the deep state and it was Donald Trump plus Elon Musk who had courage and I'll tell you

00:40:12.980 They benefited certainly all of Latin America, but they benefited America, too.

00:40:17.500 We're not electing leaders now in our hemisphere who hate America.

00:40:22.340 That's a really good thing to have instead leaders who want to stand with America and be our friends.

00:40:28.060 Amen to that. Don't forget, we do this show three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

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00:40:45.100 And the center and I will see you back here in a couple of days.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 07, 2026

Terrorist Nidal Hasan to be Executed by Military Firing Squad, plus When USAID Funding Halted, Marxists STOPPED WINNING in Latin America

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