Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 31, 2025


The Gravy Train is OVER-Trump Cutting Billions that was Funding the Left-wing Activists, NPR CEO gives Disastrous Congressional Testimony & Signalgate Dem Attack Fails


Episode Stats


Length

32 minutes

Words per minute

166.0782

Word count

5,425

Sentence count

417

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Toxicity

16

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins me to talk about what's happening in Washington, D.C. and how the left is panicking as the gravy train is coming to an end and the Democrats are scrambling.

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.
00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.020 Good Monday morning.
00:00:06.360 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.260 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.700 Senator, it's nice as always to be chatting with you.
00:00:12.540 And this was a very interesting week for the Democrats,
00:00:16.740 whose secret weapon has always been use the media to Jedi mind trick the American people.
00:00:22.420 Seems to not be working.
00:00:24.420 And they could also be losing their funding when it comes to NPR and their propaganda.
00:00:29.460 And PBS.
00:00:31.000 Well, the gravy train is over.
00:00:32.820 And I got to say, we're two and a half months into the Trump administration.
00:00:36.120 And we have never seen such a concerted onslaught on the entire wall of left wing control,
00:00:46.260 the elites of left wing control.
00:00:48.100 And in particular, going after the money, what Doge is doing, what Trump is doing,
00:00:53.380 what Elon is doing is going after the billions and billions of funding, whether at USAID,
00:00:59.460 whether at EPA, whether throughout the administration, that are funding the entire apparatus of the left wing.
00:01:06.020 And that is proving incredibly effective.
00:01:09.380 It is sorely needed.
00:01:10.580 And it is causing absolute chaos and panic and terror.
00:01:16.460 Not only that, we saw truly catastrophic testimony from the head of NPR before the House.
00:01:22.180 NPR and PBS are both hard left propaganda networks funded by the taxpayers.
00:01:27.960 And they're both on the chopping blocks.
00:01:29.840 And the left is panicking because, again, the gravy train is over.
00:01:34.100 And what we're seeing among Democrats right now is chaos, is fear, is absolute disarray and panic.
00:01:42.400 And the Democrats are scattering.
00:01:43.760 We're going to break all of that down.
00:01:45.460 And finally, the Democrats' big attempt, the media's big attempt to take down President Trump in these first couple of months was Signalgate.
00:01:55.080 Signalgate, they thought, OK, we've got him.
00:01:57.200 We can take you down the entire national security team.
00:02:00.420 It was breathlessly reported on every TV station around the clock.
00:02:04.360 Democrats called for resignations.
00:02:06.580 Every one of them went out and bought pearls just so they could clutch those pearls.
00:02:10.280 And yet the polling has come through now and the president's approval ratings remain historically strong.
00:02:17.720 Signalgate has failed despite the Democrats' and the media's full-court press.
00:02:23.540 Yeah, it really is incredible.
00:02:25.360 And we're going to dive into all of that as well.
00:02:27.560 I want to talk to you real quick about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
00:02:30.980 after more than a year of war, terror, and pain in Israel.
00:02:34.960 The need for security essentials and support for first responders is still critical.
00:02:39.320 Israel must be prepared for the next attack, wherever it may come from, as Israel is surrounded by enemies on all sides.
00:02:48.360 That is where the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported
00:02:52.240 and will continue to support the people of Israel with life-saving security essentials.
00:02:57.600 And your gift today will help save lives by providing bomb shelters,
00:03:01.340 armored security vehicles, armored ambulances, firefighting equipment, flat jackets, and bulletproof vests, and so much more.
00:03:10.860 Your generous donation today will help ensure the people of Israel are safe and secure in the days to come
00:03:16.380 as threats of terror remain imminent.
00:03:18.800 So give a gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting supportifcj.org.
00:03:26.440 That's one word, supportifcj.org.
00:03:31.300 You can also call to give 888-488-IFCJ.
00:03:37.080 That's 888-488-IFCJ.
00:03:40.580 888-488-4325 or supportifcj.org.
00:03:48.180 All right.
00:03:48.520 So, Senator, let's start with something.
00:03:51.360 And again, this goes back to money is power.
00:03:54.120 The Democratic Party has figured this out.
00:03:56.200 They've exploited it to their advantage.
00:03:58.240 And there was a very interesting article that was written about the money and the shutting off of that valve
00:04:03.840 by Donald Trump, by government-funded patronage networks.
00:04:07.800 Explain this to everybody listening.
00:04:10.220 Well, it's an article that was in the Daily Signal, and it's entitled
00:04:13.180 How Trump is Decimating the Left's Patronage Networks by Jarrett Stepman.
00:04:18.320 I want to read the beginning of it because it's really, I think, quite powerful.
00:04:21.720 President Donald Trump has launched a political counter-revolution in the early days of his second presidency.
00:04:26.540 One of the most profound ways he's doing this is by effectively cutting off the left's massive government-funded patronage networks.
00:04:35.680 What's making Trump's moves so effective is that many of these networks are based on government functions
00:04:41.080 that long ago either waned in usefulness or have completely abandoned their purpose.
00:04:46.860 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared on One America News Wednesday
00:04:51.820 and explained how the left has insidiously transformed the federal government into a Democratic Party funding apparatus.
00:05:00.080 Zeldin explained how the EPA, under the Biden administration, was used as a slush fund to give money to activists.
00:05:07.980 Quote, the EPA was absolutely being used to push out this green slush fund to their friends, Zeldin said.
00:05:15.180 Quote, by design, the director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund leaves one of these NGOs,
00:05:21.820 goes to work for the Biden administration to design this whole setup and then sees his former employer get $5 billion.
00:05:32.680 Zeldin said the scheme applied to contracts, large and small, to both green, non-governmental organization executives and to low-level activists.
00:05:41.220 The EPA has been acting as a conduit to transfer huge amounts of taxpayer money to the left's base.
00:05:48.260 Quote, are we providing clean air, land, and water?
00:05:51.020 Zeldin asked rhetorically.
00:05:52.760 This wasn't money spent towards remediating environmental issue.
00:05:56.040 This was money going through their friends.
00:05:59.120 Indeed it was.
00:06:00.480 Zeldin has canceled hundreds of contracts worth $1.5 billion that were tabbed to go essentially
00:06:09.940 to left-wing activist networks focused on, quote, environmental justice.
00:06:15.020 Democrats are apoplectic about the move, of course.
00:06:19.300 Big surprise.
00:06:20.880 Zeldin is going hard on other climate change initiatives, too, where the big money is at stake for the left's green client network.
00:06:30.340 This is only the tip of the iceberg.
00:06:32.460 One of the real misunderstandings about the modern administrative state was demolished in recent years is that it's operated by nonpartisan experts.
00:06:43.860 Instead, it is now a funding stream, and this is me talking and not the article in it.
00:06:51.900 It's a funding stream for the left.
00:06:53.440 And understand what's gone on, whether it was USAID, whether it was the EPA, whether it was every single department, the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice, every cabinet agency.
00:07:07.380 What the left has done is taken these funding spigots and spent billions and billions of dollars funding all of their friends, funding all of the attack apparatus.
00:07:19.480 If you wonder why things seem sometimes so skewed left and right, a big part of the reason is the left has been addicted to this funding.
00:07:29.000 But, Ben, that's what's so powerful about cutting it off.
00:07:32.480 Listen, the right, you know, when conservatives are in power, when Republicans are in power, we don't do this.
00:07:38.160 We don't fund our buddies, and I'm glad we don't.
00:07:40.280 I don't want us to.
00:07:41.780 But one strength of that is that means conservative organizations are not addicted to the government cash.
00:07:49.220 We're not suckling at the teat of the federal government.
00:07:52.500 The left right now, they don't know what to do because their entire ecosystem, everybody,
00:07:58.900 and understand this is from the big senior poobahs to the most junior green-haired left-wing radical who dropped out of school.
00:08:09.580 They're all dependent on the government money, and it's why, you know, when you and I interviewed Elon Musk,
00:08:16.000 and he was saying, you know, I asked him, why do they hate you so much?
00:08:20.440 And if you remember his answer, he said, well, I'm taking away their goodies.
00:08:25.100 I'm taking away their money.
00:08:27.220 This is what's fundamentally happening.
00:08:29.720 Well, and the way you said it is exactly the way he was just kind of like, look, they're in deep trouble
00:08:37.040 because they don't know how to operate on their own without it.
00:08:41.880 And if you take it away, then it can literally disappear, and also their reach disappears overnight.
00:08:48.320 That is so powerful.
00:08:50.040 Make it on your own, but not with my tax dollars subsidizing your radical agenda.
00:08:54.020 Yeah, that's exactly right.
00:08:55.480 Let me read a little more of this Daily Signal article.
00:08:57.540 Like many of the federal government's projects, USAID is in many ways a relic of a bygone era
00:09:02.880 when the U.S. aimed to stop the influence of communism around the globe.
00:09:07.260 Sometime after the fall of the USSR, it became a vehicle to fund various leftist projects around the globe
00:09:13.580 with little relation to U.S. national interest.
00:09:16.640 In fact, many of these projects were downright loathed in countries that weren't too pleased
00:09:23.820 with the U.S. government funding pride parades in their capital city.
00:09:28.560 The Trump administration is also pulling the plug on the unofficially established Church of the Left II.
00:09:35.940 They are withdrawing, or threatening to withdraw, hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money
00:09:41.960 directed at colleges and universities that fail to protect their students from anti-Semitism on campus.
00:09:48.000 They are threatening schools with removing even more funds if they continue their illegal,
00:09:53.320 racially discriminatory DEI programs, too.
00:09:56.500 And one might add that the problem goes far beyond anti-Semitism and DEI.
00:10:01.960 American universities, which have in many cases become hedge funds with schools attached,
00:10:08.100 are increasingly failing to serve the public good.
00:10:12.420 Much of what they call vital quote-unquote research is bogus.
00:10:17.480 In addition, there's no question that taxpayer-funded research grants
00:10:21.480 allow universities to fund their obnoxious humanities departments
00:10:25.400 that are politically monolithic at nearly every school.
00:10:29.840 They are in the business of gatekeeping the American elite
00:10:33.100 and turning out generations of activists who not only run the show on campus,
00:10:37.400 but populate newsrooms, corporate boardrooms, and government institutions.
00:10:42.600 Want to know what nearly everyone who runs an elite institution sounds the same,
00:10:47.320 spouts the same dogmas, and went along with every insanity of the 2020 Great Awakening?
00:10:53.620 There's your source.
00:10:55.500 And this is fundamentally what is going on,
00:10:58.000 that Trump is targeting the power at the source.
00:11:02.360 He's targeting the money.
00:11:04.940 That is a big, big deal.
00:11:06.300 Which brings us to another aspect of this,
00:11:09.420 and that was what happened in Congress last week with NPR's CEO and PBS's CEO
00:11:15.620 there in front of Congress having to deal with what Doge is doing,
00:11:20.860 which is cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.
00:11:24.480 And it did not go very well for those CEOs.
00:11:27.640 It reminded me an awful lot, Senator,
00:11:29.920 of when the presidents of the Ivy League schools had to come and answer questions
00:11:36.240 about anti-Semitism on college campuses after the attacks on Israel.
00:11:41.640 And people were just in shock how radical they were and how they were not stopping it. 0.58
00:11:46.340 That was very reminiscent of that with NPR CEO, very arrogant, PBS CEO, very arrogant.
00:11:52.520 Like, this is what we do.
00:11:53.640 We take your money.
00:11:54.520 We put out propaganda.
00:11:55.620 And so sue us.
00:11:57.080 That's what we've been doing forever. 0.96
00:11:59.240 Well, and Catherine Maher, who's the CEO of NPR, is arrogant, drippingly arrogant. 1.00
00:12:06.360 She is hard left. 0.97
00:12:08.460 And it was exactly like it.
00:12:10.600 You're right.
00:12:11.300 The president of Harvard, the president of Penn,
00:12:13.260 both of whom lost their jobs over their arrogant, out-of-touch testimony before the House,
00:12:19.620 where she is, look, she's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
00:12:24.500 She worked for UNICEF.
00:12:25.760 She worked for the National Democratic Institute.
00:12:28.320 She worked for the World Bank and Access Now.
00:12:30.560 She worked for Wikimedia Foundation.
00:12:33.520 She joined the Atlantic Council.
00:12:35.460 She was part of the Department of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
00:12:39.100 She is a hard leftist.
00:12:41.700 But, look, don't take my word for it.
00:12:44.160 Listen to it out of her own mouth.
00:12:46.400 And I want you to listen in particular for this back and forth with Brandon Gill.
00:12:52.600 Brandon Gill is a freshman House member from Texas.
00:12:56.360 He's a good friend.
00:12:57.360 I campaigned hard for Brandon.
00:13:00.040 I endorsed him in the primary.
00:13:01.380 Brandon is a rising star in the House.
00:13:03.100 And just listen to this back and forth as he questions her and hangs her on her own petard with her own words.
00:13:10.540 Give a listen.
00:13:11.480 Do you believe that America is addicted to white supremacy? 0.51
00:13:15.080 I believe that I tweeted that.
00:13:17.220 And as I've said earlier, I believe much of my thinking has evolved over the last half decade.
00:13:22.120 It has evolved.
00:13:22.660 Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop.
00:13:24.240 I want you to notice something she says there.
00:13:27.100 Much of my thinking has evolved over the last half decade.
00:13:31.680 Ben, what's a half decade?
00:13:34.040 Five years.
00:13:35.020 That would be five years.
00:13:35.980 Doesn't a half decade sound long?
00:13:37.700 I believe much of my thinking has evolved over the last half decade. 0.99
00:13:41.760 Oh, crap! 0.57
00:13:42.460 What I said five years ago? 1.00
00:13:43.760 Uh-oh, no, that's a real problem.
00:13:45.140 Run away, run away. 0.91
00:13:45.900 All right, go back to what he's playing with that has evolved. 1.00
00:13:48.220 I just, like, that comment, her idiocy only gets worse. 1.00
00:13:51.780 It made me laugh. 1.00
00:13:52.320 As soon as I heard, I was like, this is not going well.
00:13:54.600 Keep listening.
00:13:55.080 It gets worse.
00:13:56.300 Why did you tweet that?
00:13:57.640 I don't recall the exact context, sir, so I wouldn't be able to say.
00:14:01.720 Okay.
00:14:02.240 Do you believe that America believes in black plunder and white democracy? 0.84
00:14:06.580 I don't believe that, sir.
00:14:09.480 You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time, apparently, The Case
00:14:14.080 for Reparations.
00:14:15.560 I don't think I've ever read that book, sir.
00:14:17.760 You tweeted about it.
00:14:19.640 You said you took a day off to fully read The Case for Reparations.
00:14:23.980 You put that on Twitter in January of 2020.
00:14:27.340 Apologies, I don't recall that I did.
00:14:28.820 I have no doubt that your tweet there is correct, but I don't recall that.
00:14:34.000 Okay.
00:14:34.840 Do you believe that white people inherently feel superior to other races?
00:14:38.760 I do not.
00:14:39.640 You don't?
00:14:40.140 You tweeted something to that effect.
00:14:42.260 You said, I grew up feeling superior.
00:14:44.540 Ha, how white of me?
00:14:45.940 Why did you tweet that?
00:14:47.040 I think I was probably reflecting on what it was to be, to grow up in an environment where
00:14:53.540 I had lots of advantages.
00:14:54.840 It sounds like you're saying that white people feel superior.
00:14:57.980 I don't believe that anybody feels that way, sir.
00:15:00.900 I was just reflecting on my own experiences.
00:15:02.840 Do you think that white people should pay reparations? 0.62
00:15:05.140 I have never said that, sir.
00:15:07.180 Yes, you did.
00:15:08.280 You said it in January of 2020.
00:15:10.220 You tweeted, yes, the North.
00:15:11.980 Yes, all of us.
00:15:12.760 Yes, America.
00:15:14.000 Yes, our original collective sin and unpaid debt.
00:15:16.840 Yes, reparations.
00:15:18.060 Yes, on this day.
00:15:19.180 I don't believe that was a reference to fiscal reparations, sir.
00:15:22.220 What kind of reparations was it a reference to?
00:15:24.440 I think it was just a reference to the idea that we all owe much to the people who came before us.
00:15:29.180 That's a bizarre way to frame what you tweeted.
00:15:34.200 Okay, how much reparations have you personally paid?
00:15:38.600 Sir, I don't believe that I've ever paid reparations.
00:15:42.600 Okay, just for everybody else.
00:15:44.400 I'm not asking anyone to pay reparations.
00:15:45.800 Seems to be what you're suggesting.
00:15:47.840 Do you believe that looting is morally wrong?
00:15:49.800 I believe that looting is illegal, and I refer to it as counterproductive.
00:15:53.600 I think it should be prosecuted.
00:15:54.600 Do you believe it's morally wrong, though?
00:15:56.360 Of course.
00:15:57.120 Of course.
00:15:57.600 Then why did you refer to it as counterproductive?
00:16:00.440 It's a very different way to describe it.
00:16:03.320 It is both morally wrong and counterproductive, as well as being illegal.
00:16:06.720 You tweeted, it's hard to be mad about protests in reference to the BLM protests
00:16:11.400 not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression.
00:16:16.740 You didn't condemn the looting.
00:16:17.980 You said that it was counterproductive.
00:16:20.760 NPR also promoted a book called In Defense of Looting.
00:16:24.740 Do you think that that's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars?
00:16:27.600 Uh, I'm unfamiliar with that book, sir.
00:16:29.620 And I don't believe that was at my time at MPR.
00:16:31.520 You tweeted that you read that book, but...
00:16:33.560 I don't believe that I did read that book.
00:16:35.420 It's amazing.
00:16:36.660 She tweeted that she read the book.
00:16:38.400 She's like, I don't believe that I ever read that book.
00:16:40.980 So you're either lying now, or you're lying, what, a half a decade ago,
00:16:45.560 if she likes to describe it.
00:16:46.660 Right, Senator?
00:16:47.180 Look, that is a crushingly effective cross-examination.
00:16:54.040 And if you look at, at, she is running away from everything she's ever said,
00:17:01.000 everything she's ever believed, because it is indefensible.
00:17:03.820 When she says, you know, she claimed on Twitter she took an entire day off to read a book on reparations.
00:17:10.040 It was so important that she devoted a day of her, and now she has no recollection.
00:17:13.400 I'm sorry, I, you know, this will be before you were watching TV, but there was an old series.
00:17:18.880 Did you ever watch Hogan's Heroes?
00:17:20.420 Yeah, oh gosh, yes.
00:17:21.560 Okay, well, do you remember Sergeant Schultz?
00:17:23.800 Yes.
00:17:24.540 Sergeant Schultz, he would say,
00:17:25.640 I see nothing, I hear nothing.
00:17:28.320 That is, that is, that is Catherine Marr.
00:17:30.220 She sees nothing, she hears nothing,
00:17:32.580 and, and yet, this is someone charged with spending millions of taxpayer dollars
00:17:40.180 running what is a left-wing propaganda network.
00:17:44.100 You know, her statement, I've never called for reparations.
00:17:48.100 I, I gotta say, Brandon, I think does a fabulous job.
00:17:50.260 Well, yes, you did.
00:17:51.160 Let me read you the tweet.
00:17:52.180 And she says, reparations, yes.
00:17:53.860 Oh, oh, well, well, other than when I called for reparations,
00:17:56.800 but I haven't called for it other than when I've called for it.
00:17:59.120 But, but, but, no, no, it's not fiscal reparations.
00:18:02.260 It's, it's, I mean, I, I mean, I mean repairing the tires on their cars.
00:18:05.940 That's, that, that, those are the reparations.
00:18:07.620 I, I, I mean, it, she has no answer because her answer is she desperately wants to run away 0.99
00:18:16.660 from everything she has ever said or done.
00:18:19.320 But, but let, let me actually, let's actually go to something else.
00:18:23.860 Something else that, that, that, that she said and did, which is, what do you think she
00:18:29.380 has cited as the number one challenge, uh, that, that, that is facing, uh, that, that,
00:18:37.320 that is facing journalism right now?
00:18:41.020 Knowing this woman, have no idea.
00:18:44.160 Okay.
00:18:45.040 Here, here is a quote from her at a panel at the Atlantic Council Research Lab.
00:18:49.720 Quote, the number one challenge that we see here is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States.
00:18:56.720 It's, it's so, like, it's so on brand for her that's almost unbelievable.
00:19:01.680 Though, like, a woman who says that she believes in, in the public and radio and free speech says 0.87
00:19:08.720 that's the real problem is, is the First Amendment.
00:19:12.100 In fact, Senator, here's the NPR CEO, in her own words, saying exactly that.
00:19:16.560 The number one challenge here that we, we see is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States
00:19:22.180 is a fairly robust, um, right, uh, protection of rights, and, and that is a protection of rights
00:19:29.180 both for platforms, which I actually think is very important that platforms have those rights
00:19:32.480 to be able to regulate what kind of content they want on their sites, but it also means that it is
00:19:37.520 a little bit tricky to really address some of the real challenges of where does bad information come
00:19:43.380 from, and sort of the influence peddlers who have made a real market economy around it.
00:19:47.160 I mean, you listen to her, and it's just amazing.
00:19:49.700 If we could just do what we want and get rid of everything we don't want, and silence anybody
00:19:56.200 that says something that is disagreeing with us, then everything would be fine in, in,
00:20:00.940 in media and with our government, right?
00:20:03.260 We could just control everybody and shut everybody down we don't like.
00:20:06.960 That is the NPR CEO saying it.
00:20:09.440 Look, the, the left believes in censorship.
00:20:11.860 They, they don't believe in journalism.
00:20:13.240 They don't believe in media.
00:20:14.300 They believe in propaganda.
00:20:15.180 And, and you and I on this podcast covered last year, um, a, a, a, a story that was written in,
00:20:21.840 in the free press by, by Uri Berliner, and, and, and it was in April of 24, and it was entitled,
00:20:27.740 I've been at NPR for 25 years.
00:20:30.260 Here's how we lost America's trust.
00:20:32.020 And I just want to read the beginning of it again, because we, we did a good chunk of a podcast just
00:20:35.460 on this story, but it really sets up the, the, the, the absolute disaster that is NPR today.
00:20:40.740 Here's how, how, how Uri Berliner began.
00:20:43.680 You know, the stereotype of the NPR lister, an EV driving, wordle playing, tote bag carrying,
00:20:49.020 coastal elite.
00:20:49.960 It doesn't precisely describe me, but it's not far off.
00:20:53.360 I'm Sarah Lawrence educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother.
00:20:57.700 I drive a Subaru and my, and Spotify says my listing habits are most similar to people in Berkeley.
00:21:03.660 I fit the NPR mold.
00:21:06.320 I'll cop to that.
00:21:07.520 So when I got a job here 25 years ago, I never looked back.
00:21:10.240 As a senior editor on the business desk, where news is always breaking, we've covered upheavals
00:21:14.360 in the workplace, supermarket prices, social media, and AI.
00:21:17.540 It's true, NPR always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded,
00:21:22.740 curious culture prevailed.
00:21:24.480 We were nerdy, not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding.
00:21:27.840 In recent years, however, that has changed.
00:21:30.400 Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different.
00:21:35.880 The distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.
00:21:41.080 If you are a conservative, you will read this and say,
00:21:44.740 duh, it's always been this way.
00:21:47.380 But it hasn't.
00:21:48.700 For decades since its founding in 1970, a wide swath of America turned into NPR
00:21:53.340 for reliable journalism and gorgeous audio pieces with birds singing in the Amazon.
00:21:57.880 Millions came to us for conversations that exposed us to voices around the country and
00:22:02.600 the world, radically different from our own, engaging precisely because they were unguarded 0.97
00:22:07.800 and unpredictable.
00:22:09.160 No image generated more pride within NPR than the farmer listening to morning edition from
00:22:14.440 his or her tractor at sunrise.
00:22:16.660 Back in 2011, although NPR's audiences tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance
00:22:23.780 to America at large.
00:22:24.900 26% of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23% as middle of the road, and 37% as liberal.
00:22:33.320 By 2023, the picture was completely different.
00:22:36.720 Only 11% described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21% as middle of the road, and
00:22:43.460 67% of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal.
00:22:47.100 We weren't just losing conservatives.
00:22:48.960 We were also losing moderates and traditional liberals.
00:22:52.060 An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR.
00:22:56.400 And now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America.
00:23:01.200 So you see where we are with this.
00:23:03.760 It's very clear that she was exposed for what she believes and just how radical.
00:23:09.680 You even had a congressman, William Timmons, who was asking her a basic question about,
00:23:14.680 hey, you claim that you guys aren't biased, and he asked her about her editorial board.
00:23:19.400 I want people to hear what she said about her editorial board members.
00:23:24.160 Listen.
00:23:24.920 You're a rabid progressive.
00:23:26.900 Do you not think it's a problem that your political leanings make it seem to the American
00:23:33.700 people that you're not biased and you're not doing your job?
00:23:36.820 Because you agree that your job is to have journalistic integrity, right?
00:23:40.200 Absolutely.
00:23:40.860 But there is a strong firewall between the newsroom and anything that I do.
00:23:44.240 Let's talk about the newsroom.
00:23:45.280 You have 87 registered Democrats, not a single Republican in your editor boards.
00:23:50.980 I mean, how does that work to give us the perception that you're doing your job of actually delivering
00:23:56.340 unbiased information?
00:23:57.820 I would agree with you that that number is a concern if it is accurate.
00:24:01.000 I do believe that we need to have journalists who represent the full breadth of the American
00:24:05.000 society so that we can report well for all Americans.
00:24:07.640 Well, I think that you are failing.
00:24:10.120 I realize you've only been there for a year, but I just really think that while it is a
00:24:14.080 small portion of your budget, you very much should expect to restructure your revenue
00:24:19.580 streams because I don't think that NPR is necessarily worth saving.
00:24:23.600 I love that he says, I don't think NPR is necessarily worth saving.
00:24:27.020 The fact that their editorial board has 87 members, all of them registered Democrats.
00:24:33.380 Senator, there's not even independents or like non-registered people on their board.
00:24:37.640 You don't apparently become an editorial board member unless you are a card carrying Democrat. 0.98
00:24:43.020 Even independents be damned. 0.98
00:24:45.180 Forget Republicans. 1.00
00:24:46.420 You got zero.
00:24:47.960 NPR is blatantly partisan and balanced.
00:24:51.100 That's obvious.
00:24:51.920 But then the question becomes, OK, what happens next?
00:24:57.020 We know it.
00:24:57.980 We've confirmed it.
00:24:59.100 We've witnessed it.
00:25:00.400 We heard her testimony.
00:25:01.800 I don't think she's going to lose her job over this.
00:25:04.000 But will she actually lose our taxpayer dollars that are funding them? 0.99
00:25:08.200 Well, and the stat of the 87 registered Democrats actually comes from that article that Uri Berliner
00:25:16.600 wrote in the free press.
00:25:17.880 And he wrote last year, he said, quote, concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity.
00:25:22.980 I looked at voter registration for our newsroom in D.C., where NPR is headquarters and many of us live.
00:25:29.940 I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans.
00:25:37.220 None.
00:25:38.460 So on May 3rd, 2021, I presented the findings at an all hands editorial staff meeting.
00:25:44.080 Now, no, this is a senior editor at NPR who's reporting this.
00:25:48.720 Here's what he writes.
00:25:49.780 The response was when I suggested we had a diversity problem with a score of 87 Democrats and zero Republicans.
00:25:56.420 The response wasn't hostile.
00:25:59.080 It was worse.
00:26:00.360 I was met with profound indifference.
00:26:03.640 I got a few messages from surprised, curious colleagues.
00:26:06.940 But the messages were of the oh, wow, that's weird variety.
00:26:10.440 As if the lopsided tally was a random anomaly rather than a critical failure of our diversity North Star.
00:26:16.760 In a follow-up email exchange, a top NPR news executive told me that she had been skewered for bringing up diversity of thought when she arrived at NPR.
00:26:26.140 So she said, I want to be careful how we discuss this publicly.
00:26:31.380 Look, NPR is nothing but a left-wing propaganda outlet.
00:26:35.480 PBS is the same.
00:26:36.680 And the very best witness to demonstrate this is Catherine Marr, who is an absolute zealot. 0.79
00:26:44.580 She's someone who, when Tim Waltz said, let's put tampons in boys' bathrooms, I'm sure Catherine Marr said, oh, you hero, you social justice warrior. 0.59
00:26:54.120 That's the world she's coming from.
00:26:56.080 She's someone who I suspect only refers to Latinx because Latinos and Latinas do not exist in her elite, left-wing, blinkered, bizarre world. 0.83
00:27:12.040 And you know what?
00:27:13.400 Catherine Marr is entitled to her opinions.
00:27:15.600 I will defend her right to spout inanities for the rest of her life. 1.00
00:27:20.180 I just don't want to pay for them.
00:27:22.320 And I don't think you should have to pay for them. 0.96
00:27:24.660 If she wants to spout idiocies, she needs to find some left-wing billionaire to pay for her. 1.00
00:27:30.120 It shouldn't be the American taxpayers forced to subsidize her efforts at propaganda. 0.92
00:27:36.600 So will we actually have defunding of these two platforms?
00:27:40.940 What is your best guess now after these hearings were so clear?
00:27:44.620 Look, I very much hope so.
00:27:46.720 This gets to the $64,000 question coming out of all of Doge, which is how much of what Doge is doing right now will be memorialized in legislation that Congress can pass.
00:27:58.780 And that is an open question right now, Ben, because anything that goes through what's called regular order in the Senate means that it takes 60 votes to pass, which means that Democrats can block it.
00:28:11.780 And so we will try to use exceptions to the filibuster rule, the most important of which is budget reconciliation, to do as much of that as possible.
00:28:23.060 But I don't know if Congress will succeed on getting the job done.
00:28:26.860 I certainly hope so.
00:28:27.940 And I can tell you this, I'm fighting tooth and nail to make it happen.
00:28:31.040 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:28:38.160 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:28:41.900 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:28:43.060 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:28:44.300 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:28:48.060 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:28:53.780 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:28:56.780 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:29:02.840 Which, Senator, brings us to another story, and it may have been one of the biggest fails that we've seen in a long time from the media.
00:29:09.120 They grabbed on to what they described as signal gate.
00:29:12.380 They were demanding that people resign or be fired by the president.
00:29:15.520 That was never going to happen.
00:29:17.240 But really what it was, they were hoping that the American people would turn on Donald Trump.
00:29:21.380 It would tank his approval rating and stop the momentum with Doge and everything else.
00:29:26.780 It turns out the American people actually care more about killing terrorists than they do about who's on a signal chat.
00:29:33.900 And CBS poll numbers are proving that to be true.
00:29:37.120 Well, you know, the left is not subtle.
00:29:39.920 The Democrats and the media, they tell you exactly what they're doing.
00:29:43.320 And they're all monolithic because they believe in censorship.
00:29:46.120 They believe in propaganda.
00:29:47.280 Every one of them says exactly the same thing 100 percent of the time.
00:29:51.100 And listen, it's clear they hate Donald Trump.
00:29:53.860 They want to destroy him.
00:29:56.700 They hate everything he's doing.
00:29:58.400 And they looked at this signal text thread as their big chance.
00:30:02.920 This was going to be their Russia, Russia, Russia. 0.99
00:30:05.380 That they were going to use it to go after the president, to go after every one of his appointees.
00:30:10.140 And so we've seen, for the better part of a week, breathless coverage in the media.
00:30:15.380 Every Democrat demanding investigations, demanding firings.
00:30:19.500 You know, one of the funniest was Eric Swalwell, who, even among left-wing nutcases, managed to really stand out.
00:30:27.260 You know, he tweeted out, every person on the signal thread should be fired.
00:30:31.220 Yeah, OK, I'm sure that's a great idea there.
00:30:33.300 The vice president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, every national security official in the entire administration.
00:30:37.880 OK, sure, I know why you want that.
00:30:40.520 I understand.
00:30:42.080 But America is not the same guy that slept with a spy.
00:30:46.080 I just want to make sure I get the connection here.
00:30:48.540 Right.
00:30:48.880 I don't know why you'd hold that against him.
00:30:52.400 I mean, I got it.
00:30:53.360 Yeah, that's a little rich from that guy.
00:30:54.960 But keep going.
00:30:55.580 Look, everything, they wanted to destroy Trump, and they were convinced this was their opportunity.
00:31:06.900 And, look, you and I did a podcast immediately after this broke where we pointed out, yeah, it was a screw-up to include the editor of The Atlantic on it.
00:31:14.580 That was a mistake.
00:31:15.460 It was an embarrassing mistake.
00:31:17.600 But the underlying substance of the text exchange was great.
00:31:20.260 It was actually the president and the national security team taking out terrorists who were attacking Americans, who had been attacking American shipping lanes, who Biden had ignored and done nothing, and who had been driving up costs for American consumers because it was so expensive to get through the Suez Canal.
00:31:36.160 And President Trump said, open up the shipping lanes, take out the Houthi radical Islamic terrorists.
00:31:41.140 And they did, and it was an incredible success.
00:31:42.900 So the substance of it was all strong and successful, but yet the media and the Democrats thought, aha, we finally got through this mistake, the way to go after Trump.
00:31:54.800 Well, on Sunday, CBS released a new poll, and it turns out their entire attack on SignalGate failed.
00:32:04.360 CBS polls shows 50% of Americans approve of Donald Trump, 50% disapprove.
00:32:09.400 In other words, their entire effort to take him down failed utterly.
00:32:15.600 Got to love it.
00:32:16.540 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
00:32:18.880 Hit that subscriber auto-download button and share this podcast, please.
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00:32:32.240 And the Senate and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
00:32:36.300 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:32:37.920 Guaranteed Human.