00:07:30.420Anti-Semitism is evil, it is wrong, and it is flourishing with the acquiescence and, in many cases, active participation of students, of faculty, of administrators, and government officials.
00:07:45.260And sadly, the Democrat Party has a deep and pervasive problem confronting this evil.
00:07:51.180For the last two years, in the wake of October 7th, this committee held zero hearings on anti-Semitism in the United States, despite the fact that Republicans repeatedly called for it.
00:08:00.760The acts of violence, prior to October 7th, 3,669 anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the United States.
00:08:09.540Following October 7th, in less than three months, that number spiked to over 5,000.
00:08:15.100In 2024, that number skyrocketed to 10,005 anti-Semitic incidents.
00:08:21.960This problem is particularly acute on our college campuses.
00:08:26.640Columbia University, Columbia University was a major epicenter where they encouraged, tolerated, and celebrated this vicious and vile anti-Semitism.
00:08:38.440Rabbi Eli Bueller emailed every Jewish student on campus and said,
00:08:42.560quote, the events of the last few days have made it clear that Columbia University's public safety cannot guarantee Jewish students' safety in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy.
00:08:52.440I would strongly recommend you return home.
00:08:55.320This is the rabbi at the university saying, your school will not protect your safety.
00:09:02.220And Columbia didn't do a damn thing about it.
00:09:04.060And I'll tell you what, the rabbi wasn't crazy.
00:09:07.760Here is one picture taken on the campus of Columbia.
00:09:10.960In the back are Jewish students waving American flags and Israeli flags.
00:09:15.980In the front is a Columbia student wearing a mask because these cowards are oh so brave they cover their faces.
00:09:22.740holding a handwritten sign that says Al-Qasam's next targets.
00:09:28.120Al-Qasam is the military branch of Hamas.
00:09:34.500Understand what this student is saying.
00:09:36.680She is calling for the murder of her Jewish classmates.
00:09:40.680And by the way, this student, the internet being what it is, she's been identified now on the internet.
00:09:47.060This is not a Palestinian who's subject to oppression.
00:09:50.840This is a rich blonde girl from Atlanta whose parents are multimillionaire real estate developers.
00:09:56.980And they got so proud, I'm sending my child to an Ivy League education where she'll be indoctrinated to dress up and advocate Hamas murdering Jewish students because they are Jews.
00:10:10.440Now, if you agree that is evil and vile, let me ask you something.
00:10:19.880And it's because the Democrat Party has decided the pro-Hamas wing of the party is more important than protecting Jewish students in America.
00:10:27.380And if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Chuck Schumer.
00:10:32.320Chuck Schumer, texting with Columbia, said the following.
00:10:36.280On January 4th, then President of Columbia, Shafik, explained to Shipman and her fellow co-chair, David Greenwald, that she had met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who advised Shafik that universities' political problems about anti-Semitism are really only among Republicans.
00:10:55.100We, the Democrats, we don't care about this anti-Semitism stuff.
00:10:58.360Ms. Lewin, am I the only person that has noticed that these anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic protests, that the tents all match?
00:11:08.340No, you are not the only one to have noticed.
00:11:11.040Is it clear that there is significant money funding these attacks on Jewish students and attacks on America?
00:11:16.800It is clear that there is coordination and there must be some common funding.
00:11:21.340In the last two years, under the Biden Justice Department, are you aware of any investigation to follow the money behind these protests?
00:11:35.580Are you aware of any university that has had their Title VI federal funds cut off because they've tolerated welcome, celebrated, and as Senator Hawley put out, had their own officials cheering on anti-Semitism as even one university lost their funding?
00:11:49.420I am not aware of any university having actually lost their funding.
00:11:53.140And I'll point out also, some of the defenders say free speech, free speech.
00:12:02.700If a university student went into the public square, dressed up in a Klan outfit, burned a cross, and said we should murder African-American students, do you have any doubt the university would expel that student?
00:12:13.900I am fairly certain that the universities would take action and ensure that their policies would follow.
00:12:20.240If they're foreign students, they should be deported.
00:12:23.180And mark my words, if you are horrified at the anti-Semitism, you will see the Trump Department of Justice, follow the money, prosecute the people who are paying for this, prosecute those engaged in violence, and cut off the money from universities that are tolerating and celebrating this.
00:12:40.820That is the rule of law, and ask yourself, why did the Biden Justice Department do absolutely nothing about this horror that is unfolding?
00:12:49.580Senator, it was unbelievable to hear you call it out, and I do think we just have to remind people this is systematic on our college campuses, especially the Ivy Leagues.
00:13:00.180I go back in my head to Harvard, and just the defiance of some of these individuals, when they were testifying before Congress, they had no problem standing with these anti-Semitic protesters.
00:13:15.080Look, because they believe the same things.
00:13:17.480The administrators, they have been teaching the same poison.
00:13:21.140The faculty has been teaching the same poison.
00:13:23.000And I'll note, that clip you played while I was questioning at the hearing on anti-Semitism, as I noted, not a single Democrat senator was in the room.
00:13:40.260And the problem is a political problem.
00:13:42.220In today's Democrat Party, there is a real and meaningful pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party.
00:13:48.980And the Democrats are terrified of that pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party.
00:13:53.720The question I've asked repeatedly, and look, most of the people who listen to verdict are, I think, politically right of center or conservative or libertarians.
00:14:02.400But we actually have a fair number of reporters who listen to verdict.
00:14:05.320And, you know, I'm hoping we have a handful of open-minded, free-thinking liberals, people who consider themselves left of center, but recognize that if you want to actually have an intelligent understanding of the issues, then you want to hear from a wide spectrum of views and try to process and ascertain what is right.
00:14:26.400If you at home are one of those, let's say you're a Democrat who lives in New York City, let's say you voted for Kamala Harris, you voted for Joe Biden, maybe you voted for Barack Obama.
00:14:37.160Now, if you disagree with the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, if you don't like the vile anti-Semites that have flourished on college campuses and that have threatened the safety of Jewish students, you ought to ask yourself very seriously what happened in the last week.
00:14:54.880Colombia got its money cut off a one of the organizers of the protests is going to be deported.
00:15:03.760Why didn't any of that happen under Joe Biden?
00:15:07.380There was nothing to prevent the Biden administration from doing this.
00:15:10.600They had every bit of legal authority.
00:15:12.500As far as I can tell, they didn't even investigate it.
00:15:15.020They didn't ask where the money came from.
00:15:17.960I certainly asked the attorney general and the FBI repeatedly if they were doing that.
00:15:21.700If they were investigating it, they refused to tell the Senate.
00:16:10.220So, Senator, let's take people back in time to a campaign promise from the president.
00:16:15.580He made it clear that if you are one of these students that is from overseas, has gotten a special invitation, the ability to come and study in America.
00:16:25.580And you are on campuses and you're, you know, actually going out there and advocating for violence and and taking over buildings on college campuses.
00:16:37.160We're going to kick you out of this country.
00:16:57.020And let's look at what happened in the United States following October 7th.
00:17:01.260Following October 7th, we saw protests on college campuses across this country, predominantly in left wing college campuses in blue states, where radical pro-Hamas protesters stood up and they denounced Israel.
00:17:16.900They chanted things like, we love Hamas.
00:17:23.200They engaged in acts of violence and they threatened even more acts of violence.
00:17:28.760And astonishingly, Ben, the Democrats were silent.
00:17:32.540You know, there are some folks who said in the wake of these protests, well, gosh, it's terrible, but they're happening all over the country.
00:18:08.660The places that it happened, it happened because the university administrators agreed with the protesters and the elected officials.
00:18:17.200They had been indoctrinated in the leftist ideology that said Israel is the bad guy and Hamas is the good guy.
00:18:24.480Now, one of the things you and I have talked about at length, and by the way, if you did not listen to Monday's podcast, you should listen to Monday's podcast because we did a deep dive on the Trump administration, rightly cutting off $400 million of grants to Columbia University.
00:18:40.120Columbia was probably the single worst actor in all of these universities in terms of tolerating and celebrating these anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests.
00:18:50.600But not only that, arresting a pro-Hamas protester.
00:18:59.040I believe we will see many more of the pro-Hamas protesters arrested and deported.
00:19:05.420And what I've said from the beginning, if you are threatening other students, if you are attacking America, if you are embracing terrorists, and you're a foreign student, you should be expelled and you should be deported.
00:19:19.040And what happened, Mahmoud Khalil, who is from Syria, he came to the United States, my understanding is in 2022, he came to be a student at Columbia.
00:19:31.460He married a woman from the United States.
00:20:15.900If you hate America, if you want to undermine America, do not come to this country.
00:20:21.140And the Trump administration rightly arrested and plans to deport Mahmoud Khalil for organizing anti-Israel, anti-America, pro-Hamas protests.
00:20:33.640And what's stunning, Ben, what do you think the reaction of the Democrats is to this?
00:20:40.180They stand with the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters.
00:20:44.120So if you want to know where you stand, if you stand with Israel, if you stand with American Jews, if you stand with freedom, if you stand with the right to be free from oppression and violence, that ain't the Democrats.
00:20:58.220They stand with those engaged violence.
00:21:01.200As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:21:09.500I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.
00:21:14.880I want to move to this other story, and the headline is one that is not a joke.
00:21:50.540Quote, Doge said it identified the Small Business Association administration, I assume, granted nearly 5,600 loans for $312 million to borrowers who only listed owner was 11 years old or younger at the time of the loan.
00:22:12.740The loans were issued in 2020 and 2021, and it is unclear what they were used for.
00:22:18.620Quote, while it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, 593 loans, as they all also used a Social Security number with the incorrect name.
00:22:32.540Doge and the SBA government are working together to solve this problem this week.
00:22:36.480While making the announcement, Doge shared a post on X from Tuesday, where it also revealed that in 2020 and 2021, the SBA issued 3,095 loans for $333 million to borrowers over 115 years old.
00:22:58.880The borrowers were still marked as alive in the Social Security database.
00:23:04.740In one case, a 157-year-old individual received $36,000 in loans, the agency said.
00:23:14.760Look, this is, I feel very confident that nobody is 157 years old, and if they are and they're getting $36,000, that is fraud.
00:23:29.620And look, this goes back to what President Trump said in his address to Congress on Tuesday.
00:23:34.280When he talked about, he said there was millions of people aged over 100 that were listed on Social Security databases, with one being as old as 360 years of age.
00:23:59.880And this goes back to Elon Musk and a job that he's doing that I got to say, rarely in my life I thought there's a job that only one guy could do well.
00:24:08.320No, it seems to be Doge and Elon Musk, because finding this type of waste, fraud, and abuse is exactly what Donald Trump promised, and they're paying off on it.
00:24:18.200But every American that pays taxes should be enraged by the fact that we're giving this much money to people that are children, or this much money to someone that's as old as 360 years of age.
00:24:32.100To be clear, if you're giving millions of dollars to a five-year-old, you're not.
00:24:49.140What this report indicates is that the Biden administration didn't give a damn about whether the money was actually going to real people who had real needs, who were engaged in the purposes for which Congress appropriated the money.
00:25:03.420Instead, they were just shoveling money out the door, and tragically, the fraud was rampant.
00:25:10.140In many instances, the fraud was going to radical left-wing Democrat groups because the Biden administration believed in paying off their buddies.
00:25:21.520When a six-year-old puts in an application for government money, the answer should be no, because you're six, and you ought to be playing with blocks in kindergarten and not trying to get millions of dollars from the government.
00:25:33.700But if you're a corrupt Democrat, you give the millions of dollars and let the parents use it for the political purposes they want.
00:25:40.460As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:25:45.340Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict,
00:25:49.900or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:25:52.360I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and we will see you back here on Monday morning.