Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trump⧸Biden Debate Analysis, 50 ISIS Related Illegals Roaming America & Unlawful Appointment of Jack Smith Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.320 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.840 Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.600 And my oh my, was it a crazy week with one of the worst debates we've ever seen in history.

00:00:16.700 Joe Biden now on defense.

00:00:19.100 And we're going to cover exactly what this means moving forward.

00:00:22.480 As Democrats are now pushing to get rid of Joe Biden altogether.

00:00:27.260 Will it work? We're going to break that down.

00:00:29.300 Plus another important story that you may have missed.

00:00:33.500 We now have unknown the whereabouts of 50 ISIS related illegal immigrants that were smuggled into this country by an ISIS human smuggling network.

00:00:45.940 The White House wants you to believe that everything's under control.

00:00:49.500 Well, where are these 50 people with ties to ISIS?

00:00:52.820 We'll give you the details on that.

00:00:54.340 And finally, the unlawful appointment of the special counsel and what this could mean for Donald Trump.

00:01:01.700 It's the Weekend Review and it starts right now.

00:01:04.580 Let's also talk about, there was two moments that I think really speak to the demise of the cognitive client of Joe Biden.

00:01:13.700 And it was subtle but significant.

00:01:16.780 And I want to get your reaction to it.

00:01:19.320 There was one moment when he was asked about Social Security.

00:01:22.600 And he gave a very, very short answer.

00:01:26.160 And then the moderators looked at him like, what are you doing?

00:01:28.180 You still have, I think they said, 84 seconds left or something like that.

00:01:32.300 There was another time he was talking about African-American voters, African-American community and African-American issues.

00:01:36.900 And they're like, sir, you still have like another minute and X number of seconds, 64 seconds left.

00:01:43.020 He couldn't even fill two minutes.

00:01:44.300 And by the way, he spent eight days at Camp David preparing and he could not fill the two minutes with an answer.

00:01:48.900 The two minutes on two vitally important issues.

00:01:52.180 Like, Social Security, any politician should be able to fill for two minutes. 0.74

00:01:56.300 In fact, you should be able to fill for 20 minutes.

00:01:57.660 These were not subtle.

00:01:58.640 These were not gotchas.

00:01:59.700 These were obvious questions.

00:02:01.220 He had nothing to say.

00:02:03.280 He was scared.

00:02:04.500 He was a deer in the headlights.

00:02:09.960 So you said deer in headlights.

00:02:12.320 Let's go to the next conversation that's being had right now.

00:02:16.140 And I'm sure it's being had at the White House, at the EOB, at the campaign headquarters.

00:02:22.000 Who goes to the president first and says, step down?

00:02:25.140 And then you're also dealing with a guy that's very stubborn, though.

00:02:29.280 Like, can't he just look at them and say, I'm not going to do it?

00:02:32.360 He is absolutely stubborn.

00:02:35.620 I think it is Barack Obama.

00:02:37.020 I think it is Nancy Pelosi.

00:02:38.220 I think it is Chuck Schumer.

00:02:39.400 I think it is every leader in the Democrat Party.

00:02:42.240 It's not Kamala Harris.

00:02:43.300 Kamala's not allowed in the room. 0.99

00:02:45.060 But I think it is.

00:02:45.980 And they go to him and they're pitched to him.

00:02:47.960 They say, Joe, you were an historic president.

00:02:49.960 You saved America from Donald Trump.

00:02:52.000 You wanted to be the next FDR.

00:02:53.500 I think they will appeal to his vanity and say, you are the next FDR.

00:02:57.960 You are consequential.

00:02:59.900 Right now, if you stay in the race, you risk undoing your entire legacy and giving that

00:03:05.520 legacy, going down in history as the man who made Donald Trump president.

00:03:09.580 If you stay in this race, it will be your fault that Trump is president.

00:03:13.340 I think they'll appeal to his vanity.

00:03:15.340 And look, that is, I think, to Joe Biden, a really powerful pitch.

00:03:20.300 Look, you look at the debate tonight.

00:03:22.120 He said things at one point.

00:03:23.620 He said during Trump's presidency, we had a thousand trillionaires.

00:03:27.760 By the way, there are no trillionaires on planet Earth.

00:03:29.940 At another point, he said during Donald Trump, we had 50 percent unemployment.

00:03:34.760 No, that is wildly wrong.

00:03:37.140 At another point, he said he created Joe Biden, created hundreds of millions of jobs.

00:03:42.580 Mind you, there are 330 million Americans.

00:03:44.620 And apparently he's created hundreds of millions of jobs.

00:03:47.020 So more more jobs than there are working Americans like it is. 0.99

00:03:52.120 Every answer was a problem.

00:03:54.960 At another point, he said the Border Patrol endorsed me.

00:03:57.460 Let's be clear.

00:03:57.980 The Border Patrol union immediately tweeted out to be clear.

00:04:00.940 We have never and will never endorse Biden at every stage.

00:04:05.020 And what's interesting, he was also trying to insult Trump.

00:04:09.680 Yeah.

00:04:10.060 And Trump didn't take the bait.

00:04:12.060 Yeah.

00:04:12.300 And that was smart.

00:04:13.040 It was really and actually when Trump poked Biden, Biden freaked out.

00:04:19.380 He couldn't not take the bait.

00:04:21.600 And so the contrast and I'll say something else.

00:04:23.460 You mentioned African-American votes.

00:04:26.960 Trump's numbers are surging in the black community.

00:04:29.260 And I think tonight he made a very hard pitch for black voters and his most significant pitch.

00:04:34.400 He had a lot of points about how bad Trump, how bad Biden has been for the African-American community.

00:04:39.840 He talked about inflation, how it's hammering black families.

00:04:43.180 But then he also tied it to illegal immigration.

00:04:45.620 And he said, look, the millions and millions of illegal immigrants that are coming into this country, 0.98

00:04:50.540 they're taking jobs from black Americans. 0.98

00:04:53.320 That is a powerful argument. 0.94

00:04:55.400 That is an argument.

00:04:56.220 And by the way, Biden had no response to that.

00:04:59.540 It was silent.

00:05:00.440 It was on the substance.

00:05:03.740 Trump prosecuted the case and Biden crashed and burned.

00:05:08.860 And in fact, the Wall Street Journal just sent out their key takeaway, their story that they wrote tonight.

00:05:15.700 And it's now 1047 p.m.

00:05:17.820 And their headline is Biden crashed in first debate with Trump.

00:05:22.280 That's not an editorial.

00:05:23.280 That's the news headline in the Wall Street Journal, because it is just objectively.

00:05:28.560 If you watch the Hindenburg explode, you don't say Zeppelin landed tonight.

00:05:34.500 Yeah.

00:05:35.480 Well, let's also talk about those that have been lying.

00:05:38.980 The media center has been lying.

00:05:41.800 Congressmen have been lying.

00:05:44.020 Staff members have been lying.

00:05:46.140 They've been going on TV telling you that Joe Biden can run circles around me.

00:05:50.080 The White House press secretary saying over and over again, saying there's no cognitive decline here, saying that he's in perfect health. 0.96

00:05:56.760 This guy is a beast. 0.67

00:05:58.420 He's, you know, he's jacked up.

00:05:59.860 Aviator Joe.

00:06:01.240 Now they're all actually having to admit they're wrong.

00:06:03.920 But no one's going to, I think, hold them accountable for that.

00:06:06.500 They're just going to run out there and say, clearly, it's time for him to step aside, step aside, step aside.

00:06:10.760 Which is also weird, because if you're not cognitive, you don't have the cognitive ability to be president in the future, right?

00:06:20.620 And they're saying he can't be the president come January again.

00:06:24.400 Then when does the 25th and does that even come up?

00:06:28.560 Because you're admitting that he's basically incapacitated now.

00:06:32.120 Yeah, listen, we have seen reporters and we've seen Democrats lying about Joe's mental capacity for a long time.

00:06:41.700 And nobody fair and objective who watched tonight could conclude anything other than this is a man who is seriously mentally diminished.

00:06:49.860 You know, it's interesting.

00:06:50.940 Andrew Yang, who you remember, ran for president against Joe in 2020.

00:06:54.620 He tweeted out tonight, quote, look, I debated Joe seven times in 2020.

00:07:00.260 He's a different guy in 2024.

00:07:03.100 Hashtag swap Joe out.

00:07:06.180 That's from one of the alternative, one of the other candidates who ran against 2020 for a prominent Democrat.

00:07:13.820 Two of the top trends that were trending tonight right after the debate were dementia and Michelle Obama.

00:07:21.000 Now, that's bad news if that's if that's what's what's what's what is trending.

00:07:28.980 And all right, I want to wrap up tonight's pod with this.

00:07:33.080 I'm going to do something I have rarely if ever done.

00:07:35.920 I may never have done this before.

00:07:38.020 I'm going to praise CNN.

00:07:39.260 This morning's debate, you and I both thought Jake Tapper and Dan Abash would do a terrible job.

00:07:47.500 They both hate Donald Trump.

00:07:48.860 They both have become hard partisans.

00:07:52.200 CNN did an excellent job tonight with this debate.

00:07:54.720 Jake Tapper and Dan Abash.

00:07:57.420 That was the best debate moderation they have ever done.

00:08:01.220 They asked good questions.

00:08:02.780 They asked substantive questions.

00:08:05.060 They didn't make the debate about them.

00:08:07.260 One of the interesting things, no one is debating about the moderators.

00:08:10.900 Bad debate moderators.

00:08:12.440 When Chris Wallace debated, moderated, the whole debate was about him because he wanted to be right in the center of the show.

00:08:17.820 When Candy Crowley from CNN was the moderator between Obama and Mitt Romney, she made it all about her.

00:08:26.880 Jake and Dana, they asked good questions.

00:08:29.200 They moved subjects along.

00:08:30.380 They would press the candidates, but not in a jerky way.

00:08:34.660 They'd just say, I asked you the following question.

00:08:37.560 You have another 60 seconds to answer it when they didn't get their questions answered.

00:08:40.440 That's a perfectly reasonable thing for a debate moderator to do.

00:08:44.500 I've been in multiple debates that each of them have moderated.

00:08:47.560 I think they both were incredibly sensitive to everyone laying out the facts that they have shown wild bias.

00:08:54.960 And tonight, tonight they didn't.

00:08:57.660 And they did an excellent job.

00:08:58.900 And I think that was a service to the country.

00:09:00.760 I have to ask you one other question because everyone's asking it in their head right now.

00:09:05.900 What is the likelihood?

00:09:06.720 Hold on a second, Ben.

00:09:07.420 You didn't respond to that.

00:09:08.520 And since you're a former employee of CNN, I'm not going to let you.

00:09:12.520 Ben, you have 62 seconds.

00:09:14.560 The question is, do you think Jake and Dana did a good job?

00:09:18.220 I think they did a decent job.

00:09:20.040 And here's why I'm not going to give them as much credit as you did.

00:09:22.280 You ready for this?

00:09:23.220 All right.

00:09:23.560 Good.

00:09:24.160 But I'm going to make you answer it.

00:09:25.420 I'm not going to let you wiggle away.

00:09:27.020 Fair point.

00:09:27.940 Here's what I'll say. 0.99

00:09:28.820 I think they were in as much shock as we were going, holy crap. 0.98

00:09:32.660 I'm watching an incapacitated president of the United States of America. 0.98

00:09:36.540 And they were caught so off guard.

00:09:38.600 They said, just stick to the script.

00:09:39.780 Just stick to the script.

00:09:40.520 Just stick to the script.

00:09:41.180 Like, it was a default mode because it was such a glaring disaster with Biden

00:09:47.280 that none of the moderators were honestly paying attention to Donald Trump

00:09:51.820 or anything else happening.

00:09:53.500 But Jake and Dana were more measured than I've ever seen them.

00:09:57.460 They were deliberately controlled.

00:09:59.940 They knew that half the country viewed them as wild-eyed partisans.

00:10:04.380 Look, we played this morning Jake analogizing Trump to Adolf Hitler.

00:10:10.360 Yes, and I still believe that too he is.

00:10:12.940 I think he believes it, but tonight that didn't come out.

00:10:18.240 And so if we're going to criticize him when he's not doing a good job, I will say,

00:10:23.040 I was impressed that they did their job tonight.

00:10:27.460 They were doing the biggest political train wreck in American history, and they were in it,

00:10:32.800 and it was like, I don't know what to do.

00:10:35.340 How do you triage this?

00:10:37.780 And so they got rid of some of that.

00:10:40.440 I think if Joe Biden would have showed up, jacked up like he did at the, say, the Union,

00:10:45.120 I think it would have been a completely different debate from the moderator's standpoint.

00:10:48.040 But I think they saw what everybody else saw, which was,

00:10:51.560 we have a president that is incapacitated, and the whole world is watching it now,

00:10:55.420 and no one can stop it.

00:10:57.200 There was no one to step in and lead him off the stage.

00:11:00.320 Like Barack Obama did two weeks ago, which brings me back to that question that everyone's asking.

00:11:05.580 How quickly will we find out if the conversations with Joe Biden are going to work to get him to step aside,

00:11:12.980 number one, okay?

00:11:14.580 And number two, how quickly do Democrats have to fall back in line and stick with this guy

00:11:21.840 if he doesn't decide to step down?

00:11:24.620 And those are the two most important questions maybe the entire night.

00:11:28.160 Three weeks.

00:11:29.140 21 days.

00:11:30.280 This happens or doesn't happen in three weeks.

00:11:32.140 I think you're going to have massive chaos following this debate.

00:11:37.020 You're going to have massive panic.

00:11:38.240 People are going to go to Michelle Obama.

00:11:39.620 People are going to go to Joe Biden.

00:11:42.960 I don't think, given the train wreck that happened tonight,

00:11:48.680 I don't think they'll wait until after the Democrat convention.

00:11:51.680 I think they feel a panic right now.

00:11:53.460 I think they're going to want Michelle Obama to be the keynote speaker at the Democrat convention, not Joe Biden.

00:11:59.080 So I think we have 21 days for this to play out.

00:12:01.440 And, look, over the course of the last year, I've handicapped this.

00:12:06.220 I initially laid it out as a possibility.

00:12:08.180 I then shifted as the Democrats and the media were starting to get nervous about Joe Biden.

00:12:13.040 I shifted to about 50%.

00:12:14.640 As we sit here today, I put the odds at north of 80%

00:12:18.040 that Michelle Obama is the Democrat nominee on the ballot in November of this year.

00:12:23.320 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

00:12:25.980 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:12:29.780 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:12:32.640 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:12:36.780 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:12:40.420 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:12:41.680 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:12:42.900 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:12:46.640 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:12:50.220 All at different stages of their journey.

00:12:52.400 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:12:55.380 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:13:01.440 Now, on to story number two.

00:13:04.020 Senator, I want to move to another shocking story.

00:13:08.640 And it is one that I wish I could say I didn't think we would see.

00:13:15.900 Unfortunately, you predicted it.

00:13:17.660 We've talked about it, that this was going to keep happening.

00:13:20.740 This one, though, is extremely concerning.

00:13:23.180 The Department of Homeland Security has identified now, quote,

00:13:26.860 over 400 migrants brought to the U.S.

00:13:31.200 by an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network.

00:13:34.920 And now they are desperately trying to find people they had caught and released.

00:13:42.020 Now, over 150 of them have been arrested.

00:13:44.660 But the whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown.

00:13:50.180 Your reaction?

00:13:51.080 Look, this is a shocking story that in some ways is not shocking.

00:13:56.660 Because we know that this administration, that Joe Biden and the Democrats, have effectively rolled out the red carpet

00:14:02.820 and with open borders have given an invitation to terrorists to come into the country.

00:14:08.380 But even so, the degree of naivete and reckless disregard for the safety of Americans is remarkable.

00:14:16.620 So, here's the story according to NBC.

00:14:19.700 And I'm just going to quote NBC.

00:14:21.940 Quote,

00:14:22.200 While over 150 of them have been arrested,

00:14:42.120 The whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown, the officials said.

00:14:46.300 And Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to arrest them on immigration charges when they are located.

00:14:52.200 One of the U.S. officials and people said people affiliated with ISIS are operating as human smugglers in Central Asia

00:15:00.580 and helping people there leave their countries and travel to the West where they are smuggled into the U.S.

00:15:06.580 It is not known whether the human smuggling activity directly funds ISIS activities

00:15:11.200 or whether ISIS members are making personal money through human smuggling on the side, the U.S. official said.

00:15:18.260 The official added that the U.S. has no indication that the more than 400 migrants brought to the U.S. by the network

00:15:26.180 had plans to carry out terrorism in the U.S.

00:15:29.500 But immigration agents are looking to arrest them out of an abundance of caution.

00:15:34.840 And here's a quote from the Biden administration.

00:15:37.480 Quote,

00:15:38.360 In this case, it was the information that suggested a potential tie to ISIS

00:15:42.860 because some of the individuals involved in smuggling migrants to the borders

00:15:47.060 that led us to want to take extra care.

00:15:50.440 And out of an abundance of caution, make sure that we exercised our authority

00:15:53.880 in the most expansive and appropriate way to mitigate risk

00:15:57.100 because of this potential connection being made.

00:16:00.400 Now, that's the quote. 0.99

00:16:01.940 And what utter and complete garbage. 0.99

00:16:04.500 Out of an abundance of caution. 0.99

00:16:06.220 Yeah.

00:16:06.520 We let 400 people go that ISIS had smuggled into the country because we're so cautious.

00:16:10.900 And then we realized, wait a second, there's an election.

00:16:14.480 There's an election coming up in five months.

00:16:16.440 And all these people that ISIS smuggled in, if they carry out a terrorist attack

00:16:19.640 and people realize we let them go, that's going to be a real problem. 0.99

00:16:23.560 Oh, crap. 0.82

00:16:23.980 Does anyone know where they are? 1.00

00:16:25.420 Like, what an insane statement.

00:16:29.800 Well, and not just insane, but it's also interesting to see now how the media is covering this.

00:16:34.900 NBC Nightly News actually ran this on the Nightly News and called it an NBC investigation.

00:16:43.140 Listen.

00:16:43.900 Tonight, NBC News has learned more than 50 migrants with potential ties to an ISIS-affiliated smuggling network

00:16:50.500 are at large in America.

00:16:52.800 Many illegally crossed the border and were released into the U.S. by Border Patrol

00:16:56.740 because there was no information suggesting terror ties at the time.

00:17:00.420 Now, their whereabouts are unknown as immigration agents look to arrest them.

00:17:05.040 U.S. officials tell us, saying they're among a group of over 400 migrants DHS identified in the U.S.

00:17:11.220 from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Russia as subjects of concern

00:17:18.400 because they were brought to the U.S. by an ISIS-affiliated smuggling network,

00:17:22.780 something the FBI director warned about earlier this year.

00:17:25.720 Some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about.

00:17:32.640 ICE has located and arrested over 150 of the 400 migrants so far, with some already deported from the U.S.,

00:17:39.520 officials say.

00:17:40.660 Adding authorities are not panicking because their ties to ISIS are not certain,

00:17:45.200 but they're prioritizing their arrest out of an abundance of caution.

00:17:48.460 The problem is the volume of people coming across the southern border,

00:17:52.860 individuals from ISIS and other affiliated groups, have recognized it as a weak point in our defense,

00:18:00.040 and they're using this opportunity to try to sneak in.

00:18:03.840 NBC News was first to report on a similar arrest of a Uzbek man in Baltimore,

00:18:08.500 whose country alerted the U.S. he was affiliated with ISIS.

00:18:12.160 That man, like the others apprehended so far, was arrested on immigration charges,

00:18:16.240 not terrorism-related charges.

00:18:18.800 ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for deadly terror attacks in Russia and Iran in the past year.

00:18:24.860 And recently, the DHS inspector general sharply criticizing vetting at the U.S. southern border,

00:18:30.200 saying DHS is at risk of admitting dangerous persons into the country

00:18:33.880 or enabling asylum seekers who may pose significant threats to public safety 1.00

00:18:38.680 and national security to continue to reside in the United States.

00:18:42.680 Two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News they are not tracking a terror plot from this group of migrants,

00:18:48.880 but their arrest on immigration charges come out of an abundance of caution.

00:18:53.120 Lester?

00:18:54.060 They sure do like that word, Senator, abundance of caution.

00:18:56.860 I also love in there that one line that really just made me laugh is, quote,

00:19:02.480 authorities are, quote, not panicking.

00:19:04.980 Really? That's supposed to make me feel better?

00:19:07.360 Well, remarkably, though, what they're not panicking about is not the actual public safety threat.

00:19:15.060 It's not keeping Americans safe.

00:19:17.120 It's the political exposure.

00:19:19.440 They're freaked out because there's an election in a few months,

00:19:22.940 and they realize, oh, no, this could look really bad for us.

00:19:27.740 It has been the consistent pattern of this White House that they do not prioritize national security.

00:19:34.080 Everything, everything, everything is partisan politics.

00:19:37.740 And, okay, what I'm about to say, it's not hyperbole.

00:19:41.880 It is accurate.

00:19:43.700 Day after day, week after week, month after month, for three and a half years,

00:19:48.700 Joe Biden and the Democrats have released illegal immigrants who are murderers, 0.97

00:19:55.300 who are rapists, who are child molesters, who are gang members, 0.93

00:19:59.060 and who are being smuggled in by ISIS-K, a known terrorist organization, 0.86

00:20:07.020 and they're letting them go.

00:20:10.160 They're letting them go.

00:20:11.560 The 400 notice, notice in that NBC report, they said they were released by the Biden administration,

00:20:16.720 so we apprehended them, said, oh, look, ISIS-K bringing someone in.

00:20:20.700 All right, let's let them go.

00:20:21.520 Like, that is, it defies words, and if there were not an election in five months,

00:20:31.040 I don't think the Biden administration would be doing anything at all about it.

00:20:34.800 This is all about cover it up until after election day, and then we can let them go again.

00:20:40.900 And I don't get, actually, I do not understand the thought process.

00:20:45.640 If you're Alejandro Mayorkas, help me on this, Ben, seriously.

00:20:50.680 If you're Alejandro Mayorkas, you're like, hey, 400 people ISIS-K smuggled in. 0.77

00:20:54.840 Should we let them go?

00:20:56.440 Like, what is, how do the brain synapses fire for your answer to be, yep, let them go?

00:21:02.920 Yeah, and the scary part is, I think they just say, this is just part of the,

00:21:07.120 you've got to take the bad with the good, and their definition of good is letting millions in.

00:21:12.220 So, hey, we know there's going to be bad actors in those millions.

00:21:15.020 We can't check them all out fast enough as we're allowing them to flood into this country. 1.00

00:21:19.680 So, that's just our policy.

00:21:21.840 There may be terrorists to get in here.

00:21:23.560 Oh, wait, there are terrorists to get in here.

00:21:25.160 We know there's people on the terrorist watch list, and we're just going to do it anyway.

00:21:28.420 But right before the election, we're going to clean it up a little bit and look like we're being proactive.

00:21:33.740 I've said this multiple times, but I very much believe it.

00:21:37.420 We are today at a greater risk of a major terrorist attack than we have been any time since September 11th.

00:21:43.660 And the director of the FBI has been saying that over and over and over again in congressional testimony.

00:21:51.600 What the FBI is looking at, I'm confident, is even worse than what we're talking about.

00:21:57.100 And that is the direct consequence of utterly reckless policies of open borders.

00:22:05.480 And to tie this to what we started at the beginning, I think this should be front and center what Trump is talking about tonight at the debate.

00:22:13.540 I was going to ask you, that was going to be my final question for you is, if CNN doesn't bring it up, do you force the issue?

00:22:21.040 Because I have a feeling they're going to be playing defense for Joe Biden.

00:22:24.860 So, does the president go all in on these type of issues, even if they don't bring them up?

00:22:29.720 Yes.

00:22:30.400 Yes, absolutely yes.

00:22:31.720 As 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.

00:22:41.860 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:22:43.620 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:22:48.080 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:22:51.800 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:22:52.980 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:22:54.200 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:22:57.580 entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:23:03.700 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:23:06.920 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:23:12.660 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:23:17.340 It brings us to story number three.

00:23:19.200 It's an important one.

00:23:19.960 And that's the unlawful appointment argument that's been made about the special counsel, Jack Smith.

00:23:26.080 I want you to walk us through this because it is complicated.

00:23:30.960 And I want you to make the argument that is, why is there a possibility that this may work for Trump's legal team?

00:23:39.420 They're the ones that are basically raising the argument about this special, the unlawful appointment of Jack Smith.

00:23:46.600 Walk us through the argument that his legal team is making and why they're making it now.

00:23:50.580 Well, let me start by watch and listen to how it was laid out in a TV interview with Andy McCarthy,

00:23:58.800 and then we'll talk about it as soon as we listen to this.

00:24:01.140 Well, Jackie, I think it's deceptive coverage.

00:24:03.960 The difference between the issue about Smith's status that's been raised in this case that distinguishes it from other cases

00:24:12.260 is that prior independent counsels were appointed under a congressional statute.

00:24:18.180 This independent counsel, Jack Smith, has been appointed under a Justice Department regulation.

00:24:24.120 And what the Constitution says is that when you're talking about an officer of the United States carrying out these kinds of duties,

00:24:31.060 either the person has to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate,

00:24:37.000 or has to occupy a position that Congress has established by law.

00:24:40.960 So this actually is a pretty novel and important argument,

00:24:46.520 which is why people like former Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey have filed briefs

00:24:52.900 saying that Smith doesn't have adequate legal constitutional basis to proceed with this case.

00:24:58.720 It's not at all a frivolous argument. 0.82

00:25:01.740 And I think the rap on Judge Cannon is just ridiculous. 0.52

00:25:06.000 This is a classified information case. 0.53

00:25:08.560 They're very hard to get to trial.

00:25:10.320 She could have satisfied the media and said, you know, we'll have an August 1st trial date that everyone would have known was illusory.

00:25:18.480 Instead, she's trying to move through a massive pretrial work that has to be done so that she can set a realistic trial date. 0.97

00:25:25.640 And for that, she's being accused, I think, falsely of postponing the case because she's trying to help Trump's electoral effort.

00:25:33.180 I want to ask you about Meese and these others that have filed these amicus briefs.

00:25:37.920 But before we do that, I want to talk to you about our incredible organization called Preborn.

00:25:43.020 For two years, it has now been since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

00:25:47.540 And over 65 million babies have fallen with thousands more taken every day.

00:25:53.900 Preborn honors these precious souls who never had a chance to take their first breath.

00:25:59.340 Who would they have become is the question we should all ask.

00:26:02.880 Every one of them was special.

00:26:04.800 We lost a generation.

00:26:06.860 With the abortion pill now accounting for over 63% of abortions, ending a baby's life is all too convenient. 0.96

00:26:14.280 That's why every day, Preborn's networks of clinics stand strong with these little defenseless babies, 0.97

00:26:20.160 offering love, support, and a free ultrasound to introduce mothers with unplanned pregnancies to the life growing inside of them.

00:26:29.340 Once a mother sees her baby and hears their heartbeat, she is twice as likely to choose life.

00:26:35.740 So that's why I want you to join with me and Preborn in defense of these babies. 0.99

00:26:41.980 One ultrasound costs just $28.

00:26:45.120 And $140 helps to rescue five babies.

00:26:49.820 Now, giving is easy.

00:26:51.620 You just dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby.

00:26:55.780 That's pound 250, say the keyword baby.

00:26:59.680 Or you can go online to preborn.com slash verdict.

00:27:04.260 That's preborn.com slash verdict.

00:27:07.380 And rest assured that 100% of your tax-deductible donation will actually go directly towards saving babies and mothers.

00:27:16.560 That's preborn.com slash verdict.

00:27:20.620 Or pound 250, say the keyword baby to give today.

00:27:24.340 Senator, I want to get your reaction to the point he said about these briefs that were filed.

00:27:30.200 They're important briefs that are being filed.

00:27:33.320 And yet, for many Americans, they can still sound very overwhelming to understand.

00:27:38.720 So what's the goal here?

00:27:40.520 Yeah, and let me say, by the way, we just played a clip from Andy McCarthy.

00:27:43.160 Andy's a good friend of mine.

00:27:44.100 One question I'd be interested from verdict listeners, we could certainly have Andy as a guest on this podcast.

00:27:51.740 We could also have law professor Jonathan Turley as a guest on this podcast.

00:27:55.700 Both of them I know very well.

00:27:57.480 So if you all think those would be good guests to have a detailed discussion about these issues, let us know on Twitter.

00:28:03.960 Let us know.

00:28:04.860 We'll reach out to Ben and me and let us know.

00:28:06.760 And either or both of them we could have on, and it could be a very interesting discussion.

00:28:11.600 Listen, so the judge in Florida has set an oral argument on the question of whether Jack Smith's appointment is legal and constitutional.

00:28:19.520 And that's going to be argued by Gene Scher and Josh Blackman.

00:28:23.280 Josh Blackman is a law professor.

00:28:25.220 Gene Scher is a very, very well-respected Supreme Court litigator.

00:28:30.900 Scher is the name partner in Scher Jaffe.

00:28:33.480 Jaffe is Eric Jaffe, who clerked with me.

00:28:36.080 He was a Clarence Thomas clerk the same year I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist.

00:28:40.040 I've known both of them a very, very long time.

00:28:43.120 Ed Meese, former attorney general, who has brought this argument and has filed an amicus brief,

00:28:49.540 arguing that Jack Smith is not appointed legally.

00:28:52.960 And the argument, first of all, they say there's no federal statute that establishes an office of special counsel in the Department of Justice.

00:29:01.680 So there's not a statutory basis for creating this role.

00:29:07.220 Secondly, they argue that even if you ignore that there isn't a statute,

00:29:12.180 there is also no statute authorizing the attorney general rather than the president

00:29:16.760 with the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint such a special counsel.

00:29:20.760 The special counsel, the way it's structured right now,

00:29:24.560 has more power than any of the 94 U.S. attorneys who prosecute cases across the country.

00:29:31.180 So all across the country, there are 94 U.S. attorneys.

00:29:33.580 Every single one of them has been nominated by the president of the United States,

00:29:37.860 and every single one of them has been confirmed by the Senate.

00:29:41.260 That's the structure.

00:29:42.540 When you have a prosecutor with that level of power, you go through the checks and balances.

00:29:46.860 Well, Jack Smith was not confirmed by the Senate, and their authority is limited to the jurisdictions where they're appointed.

00:29:54.680 So if you are confirmed to be the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York,

00:29:58.500 you can't prosecute someone in California.

00:30:00.800 You don't have the authority to bring any case outside of whatever district you're confirmed to.

00:30:07.960 Jack Smith has nationwide authority to pursue his prosecutions anywhere in the country he wants.

00:30:13.580 And he's indicted Trump in two separate jurisdictions, in D.C. and in Florida.

00:30:19.000 He was not nominated by the president.

00:30:21.320 He was not confirmed by the Senate.

00:30:23.760 And that, the amicus brief argues, violates the requirements of the Constitution.

00:30:29.380 General Meese also acknowledges, quote,

00:30:31.660 There are times when the appointment of a special counsel is appropriate.

00:30:37.720 But federal statutes in the Constitution only allow such appointments through the use of existing United States attorneys.

00:30:45.440 So it's worth noting there have been other special counsels, but they were sitting U.S. attorneys.

00:30:49.700 So, for example, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed as a special counsel.

00:30:54.360 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.

00:30:56.320 Rod Rosenstein was appointed as a special counsel.

00:30:59.000 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.

00:31:00.240 John Huber was appointed as a special counsel.

00:31:02.880 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.

00:31:04.400 John Durham was appointed as a special counsel.

00:31:07.180 He was a sitting U.S. attorney.

00:31:08.500 Every one of them had been nominated by the president, had been confirmed by the Senate at the time of their appointments.

00:31:16.140 And so what they argue is you can't just make an appointment as attorney general

00:31:20.500 and create a roving U.S. attorney with national authority greater than any U.S. attorney without the Senate having the right to engage in advice and consent.

00:31:34.000 That argument.

00:31:34.840 Is that a legitimate argument?

00:31:36.760 I mean, you're obviously a guy that did this for a very long time in that role as a lawyer.

00:31:42.100 So the question I ask you is when you hear this argument, you see names like Meese and others that are getting involved and you hear the argument they're making.

00:31:50.180 Is it a legitimate one?

00:31:51.240 It's a real argument and a serious argument.

00:31:54.240 It doesn't mean it will necessarily prevail.

00:31:56.000 It doesn't mean it will be a slam dunk.

00:31:58.000 There are real arguments on the other side.

00:32:00.340 But look, I think there is a possibility this argument prevails.

00:32:05.080 There's a long history dealing with special counsels.

00:32:08.120 And before that, there was something called the Independent Counsel.

00:32:11.540 There was a statute that allowed independent counsels to be appointed.

00:32:14.960 And that was created by Congress.

00:32:16.320 So you'll recall Ken Starr was appointed as an independent counsel to prosecute Bill Clinton.

00:32:23.440 Yeah.

00:32:24.440 And at the time, so there was a case that was brought challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Counsel statute.

00:32:31.680 It was a case called Morrison v. Olson.

00:32:34.320 The Olson was Ted Olson, who at the time was the head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice.

00:32:40.500 He later became the Solicitor General of the United States under George W. Bush.

00:32:45.420 Ted is a good friend.

00:32:47.500 That case went to the Supreme Court.

00:32:49.720 And eight to one, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Independent Counsel statute.

00:32:55.760 The dissent was authored by Justice Scalia.

00:32:58.380 And Justice Scalia laid out an argument why having an independent counsel who is not subject to the authority of the attorney general,

00:33:07.040 not subject to the authority of the president, is contrary to Article 2 of the Constitution and exceptionally dangerous.

00:33:12.640 What's interesting is the view of Scalia's dissent, a lone dissent 8-1, I think has been vindicated over the years and over the decades.

00:33:23.260 More and more people realize Scalia made some very effective points, so much so that when the Independent Counsel statute expired,

00:33:31.600 so it was written so it would expire, I don't remember if it was 10 years or 20 years, but it had a date certain where it expired.

00:33:38.660 When it expired, Congress didn't reauthorize it.

00:33:42.920 So it is no longer the law.

00:33:44.700 The Independent Counsel statute is no longer the law.

00:33:47.160 And neither Democrats nor Republicans wanted to authorize it.

00:33:50.560 I think Democrats were really unhappy with the job Ken Starr had done going after Bill Clinton, so they didn't want that to happen again.

00:33:58.300 Republicans had seen it abused going after Republicans.

00:34:01.700 And so both parties said, let's let this statute expire, which means you don't have a special statute authorizing Jack Smith the way you would otherwise.

00:34:11.680 So I think this is a real argument.

00:34:13.780 We'll see what Judge Cannon does, but these are serious arguments that deserve to be considered seriously on the merits.

00:34:19.960 How quickly will we find out?

00:34:20.960 I think we'll get a decision relatively quickly.

00:34:23.320 My suspicion is that we'll get it within the next few months.

00:34:26.900 Best case scenario for Trump, what would that look like?

00:34:29.840 Well, if Judge Cannon rules that Jack Smith is illegally appointed, that he does not have the authority to bring the case, that decision presumably would be appealed.

00:34:42.340 But that would permanently put on hold the case in Florida, but it would naturally have an implication on the D.C. case because Jack Smith is the prosecutor who's brought the D.C. case as well.

00:34:55.920 Now, technically speaking, the D.C. judge would not be bound by the decision of the Florida judge.

00:35:02.960 Nonetheless, how those two interact, it would become a major issue in every case, both cases being brought by Jack Smith.

00:35:10.320 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:35:15.540 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:35:19.200 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:35:22.160 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:35:26.320 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:35:29.900 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:35:32.780 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 29, 2024

Trump⧸Biden Debate Analysis, 50 ISIS Related Illegals Roaming America & Unlawful Appointment of Jack Smith Week In Review

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript