Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.600 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.440 Welcome.

00:00:06.160 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.480 Weekend Review.

00:00:08.560 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.740 And here are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:12.980 First up, Donald Trump and the governor of Maine, they come to blows over men in women's sports.

00:00:19.260 The president making clear he's going to protect women in sports no matter what.

00:00:23.220 So what happens on the legal front next?

00:00:25.280 We'll have that for you.

00:00:26.540 Also, there is now a big question after the House passed a huge budget resolution and a big, beautiful bill.

00:00:34.380 So what does the time frame look like to actually have a real budget that is passed?

00:00:38.940 And what does it mean for the taxpayers?

00:00:41.100 Will there be a chance that this can get through the Senate and to the president's desk to sign it?

00:00:46.240 I'll explain that in just a moment as well.

00:00:48.300 And finally, there's new information out of Butler, Pennsylvania, and an accusation, the New York Post,

00:00:54.840 that the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, that shooter, may have actually had help from others.

00:01:01.740 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:01:04.640 There was a badass moment at the White House where the president straight up called out a governor

00:01:11.600 who was in attendance for the governors.

00:01:14.000 A bunch of governors come to the White House.

00:01:15.480 They had their big governors meeting.

00:01:16.540 They invited these governors to come to the White House.

00:01:19.180 And the president just straight out called out one of the governors for the plan that had leaked, in essence,

00:01:25.880 that he was going to defy the directive from the federal government about protecting women from men playing in their sports,

00:01:35.300 transgendered individuals claiming that they're a chick.

00:01:38.080 And the president just said, like, I don't care. 0.75

00:01:41.620 You're here.

00:01:42.200 Glad you're here.

00:01:43.020 Are you going to not go along with what I told you to do?

00:01:45.260 And it was one of those flashpoint moments just showing you, I think,

00:01:48.540 the difference is time and the mentality of this president.

00:01:51.720 Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

00:01:53.020 Trump is not backing down.

00:01:54.420 And I got to say, the Democrats, it seems they've learned nothing from the election.

00:01:58.140 Here, give a listen to the exchange between the governor of Maine and President Trump.

00:02:02.500 The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way.

00:02:06.000 That's good.

00:02:06.620 But I understand Maine.

00:02:08.700 Is Maine here?

00:02:09.560 The governor of Maine?

00:02:11.560 Are you not going to comply with it?

00:02:14.480 I'm complying with the state and federal law.

00:02:16.760 Well, we are the federal law.

00:02:19.080 Well, you better do it.

00:02:20.260 You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.

00:02:23.520 And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there,

00:02:28.200 your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. 1.00

00:02:31.560 So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding.

00:02:37.480 Every state.

00:02:38.620 Good.

00:02:38.820 I'll see you in court.

00:02:39.500 I look forward to that.

00:02:40.380 That should be a real easy one.

00:02:43.320 And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics. 0.98

00:02:47.780 I mean, the trash talking. 0.97

00:02:49.580 I just got to say, looking at the female governor Maine saying like, hey, the people there want this too. 1.00

00:02:55.520 You should listen to the people.

00:02:56.620 I'll see you in court.

00:02:57.700 All right, great.

00:02:58.420 Look forward to it.

00:02:59.320 I don't think you're going to be in politics much longer either if you keep this up.

00:03:02.540 This is just a different Donald Trump this time around.

00:03:06.060 Well, it is.

00:03:08.280 And by the way, there's also real teeth to it.

00:03:11.660 So simultaneously with this exchange, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine.

00:03:21.080 And the state could be in jeopardy of losing $100 million in federal USDA funding over noncompliance with the executive order on keeping males out of female sports.

00:03:31.360 And at the end of the day, and by the way, this is not hypothetical.

00:03:37.200 This is happening in Maine.

00:03:40.680 In Maine, there was a transgender boy who identifies as a girl who took first place in the girls' pole vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship.

00:03:53.040 And it's a win that helped the high school take first place overall.

00:03:58.960 And so, you know, how would you feel if it's your daughter who's in second and she's the best pole vaulter in the state who's a girl, but there's a dude who says,

00:04:11.800 No, I'm a girl who beats her and dominates. 0.83

00:04:15.480 It's just fundamentally unfair.

00:04:17.900 And I got to say, overwhelmingly, 80, 90 percent of Americans agree with that proposition.

00:04:24.260 And what's striking is this is not Democrats fighting on some issue where where the voters are with them.

00:04:32.820 I promise you, even in Maine, the voters don't want this.

00:04:37.560 They're not happy about this.

00:04:39.260 And today's Democrat Party, this election, if there is an elected Democrat who learned anything from this election, I don't know who it is.

00:04:50.220 Because not only are they doubling down.

00:04:52.480 This has become like the new litmus test, though, of the extreme left, right?

00:04:55.760 Yeah, but they're also doubling down on open borders.

00:04:58.280 They're also doubling down on anti-Israel.

00:05:00.620 No, look, the Democrats in the Senate voted against sanctioning the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which has gone after Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

00:05:10.360 Every Democrat but one, every Democrat but John Fetterman voted against Israel.

00:05:15.020 And they did that after the election.

00:05:16.320 They did that just a few weeks ago.

00:05:17.640 I mean, that's where the Democrats are right now is they're still open border.

00:05:22.860 They're still anti-Israel.

00:05:24.360 They're still pro boys and girls sports.

00:05:27.460 And it's look, look, this is the same issue.

00:05:30.280 We started with fundamentally, I think, you know, the Democrats love to prattle on about democracy.

00:05:37.440 But when they prattle on about what democracy, what they really mean is they want power.

00:05:42.640 And they don't care what the voters want.

00:05:46.960 They don't care about respecting the will of the voters.

00:05:50.560 Instead, they want to fight against the will of the voters.

00:05:54.260 It's why they indicted Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.

00:05:58.240 It was designed to stop democracy. 0.97

00:06:01.120 It's why you had multiple Democrats, judges and state officials trying to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot because nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters for voting for your opponent and making it impossible. 0.95

00:06:15.800 This is all intertwined, which is it is a lack of of humility, a lack of understanding that. 0.96

00:06:25.680 And. You have a boss and the boss.

00:06:30.440 Is the men and women who elected you, I'm trying to figure this out.

00:06:34.560 Is this pure arrogance or is this a political move by the radical left to say we're not going to comply and we think it's going to be good for us to raise money and for our base?

00:06:45.700 It break this down for us.

00:06:47.560 What do you think?

00:06:49.140 Well, listen, unfortunately, elected Democrats remain radical that they have not learned any lessons from the November election.

00:06:57.520 So if you look at Democrats in Congress, if you looked at Democrat governors, they continue to support open borders.

00:07:04.560 They continue to support releasing murderers and rapists and child molesters into this country.

00:07:10.400 You look at we talked about this in last week's pod, how Massachusetts is literally releasing violent child rapists who are illegal immigrants rather than turn them over to ICE to be deported.

00:07:25.240 And I got to say, look, this is not a 60 40 issue.

00:07:29.140 It's not a 70 30 issue.

00:07:31.380 This is an 80 20 or a 90 10 issue.

00:07:34.660 I mean, if you ask any rational, insane person, a violent child rapist, should we release him into our community? 0.99

00:07:45.180 Any rational person, most normal Democrats would say, hell no, that's a dumbass idea. 0.99

00:07:52.560 And yet the elected Democrats in Massachusetts, their answer is, let them go. 0.97

00:07:58.060 We are opposed to deporting anyone, no matter how vile. 0.57

00:08:01.580 Well, they're continuing the same position on on they continue to support the Democrats in Congress, continue to support sterilizing and castrating children for sex change operations.

00:08:16.120 Again, that's an 80 20 issue.

00:08:18.060 They're on the wrong side of it, but they're listening to their radical base.

00:08:21.500 And when it comes to men and women's sports, this is another 80 20 issue.

00:08:27.120 The American people don't want boys competing against their daughters. 1.00

00:08:31.180 They don't want men competing against women. 1.00

00:08:34.040 And yet the Democrats are all in on that.

00:08:36.800 And I've been amazed.

00:08:39.400 Normally, when your party gets clobbered in election, you go and reassess, gosh, maybe we we miscalibrated.

00:08:46.800 Maybe we should change where we stand.

00:08:49.580 The Democrats are not doing that.

00:08:51.080 And so what happened this week is Pam Bondi, the new attorney general, targeted in particular three states, targeted Maine, California and Minnesota.

00:09:03.180 And she issued a warning to them that those states have to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws that require them to keep boys at a girl's sports.

00:09:12.800 And here's what Pam Bondi said, quote, this Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law. 1.00

00:09:23.720 We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump's executive order protecting women's sports.

00:09:35.380 And she continues, the Department of Justice says, quote, as President Trump's recent executive order 14201 on this subject explains, allowing men and boys to compete in women's and girls sports, quote, is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls.

00:09:54.360 This practice is also illegal under federal law.

00:09:59.040 It denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports in violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972.

00:10:10.540 And so understand the Department of Justice is making clear they intend to sue these states and they intend to cut off federal funds to these states if they continue to embrace the radical notion that they're going to let boys compete in girls sports.

00:10:24.840 We talked about in Monday's pod how the governor of Maine is in open defiance, saying to hell with you.

00:10:31.580 We'll see you in court.

00:10:33.500 It's amazing.

00:10:34.760 Democrats continue to embrace these radical positions.

00:10:37.440 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:10:44.620 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:10:50.960 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:10:54.780 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:10:55.860 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:10:57.080 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:11:06.280 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:11:09.820 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:11:15.700 Now on to story number two.

00:11:17.980 So for people that say, OK, this passed, how quick is this going to move forward or how long is this going to take?

00:11:24.160 There's a long way to go.

00:11:25.020 So what's the timeline on this?

00:11:26.800 So we so we limit expectations or be realistic.

00:11:29.760 So the budget resolution just starts this process.

00:11:32.940 Now what's happened in the House is they've directed each of the House committees to draft the underlying bill.

00:11:40.400 So what was voted on tonight was not securing the border.

00:11:43.660 It was not rebuilding the military.

00:11:45.560 It was not cutting taxes.

00:11:47.300 It was the opening resolution to say, go draft that legislation.

00:11:53.420 That was a real fight.

00:11:55.700 So this is the first inning to use a baseball analogy.

00:11:58.000 Yes.

00:11:59.200 Now it actually gets your your batter at the plate.

00:12:02.580 Like if they'd failed, they don't even get a batter at the plate.

00:12:06.080 So so now we can start swinging.

00:12:08.340 We're in the game.

00:12:09.320 But but they're going to be harder steps forward.

00:12:13.380 And I believe we're going to get this done.

00:12:15.920 I believe we're going to get this done.

00:12:17.720 We're going to secure the border.

00:12:18.900 We're going to rebuild the military.

00:12:20.120 We're going to unleash American energy.

00:12:21.520 And we're going to extend the tax cuts.

00:12:24.120 But but it is going to be a lot of tradeoffs.

00:12:27.080 It's going to be hard.

00:12:29.300 It's going to be hard because the House majority is so excruciatingly tiny that on any issue, if you lose two votes, you're you're out of luck.

00:12:38.660 But but but I think we will get the job done.

00:12:42.500 And I will say both Mike Johnson, the speaker and Steve Scalise, the majority leader, they're both good friends.

00:12:48.540 I work very closely with both of them.

00:12:50.460 And I think we will go through some difficult paths to get there.

00:12:58.860 But all of us, from the most conservative Republican to the most moderate, squishy, wobbly Republican, all of us want to produce these victories.

00:13:09.380 We get there was a mandate from the election and we can't fail.

00:13:13.920 And by the way, if we fail, if we don't secure the border, if we don't rebuild the military, if we don't unleash energy, if we don't extend the tax cuts, we'll get killed in November of next year.

00:13:28.180 Yeah. And that's I'm a big believer, probably a lot of what Donald Trump said on the floor, right?

00:13:32.380 Like, hey, you don't want to be involved in this.

00:13:34.640 Right. Get it done.

00:13:36.280 We made a promise to the voters.

00:13:38.360 Let's deliver on the voters.

00:13:39.660 And I think today was an important step to doing that.

00:13:42.020 Well, let's talk about the border for a second.

00:13:44.240 There was there was another big story.

00:13:46.200 And I want you to just read part of this for people, because it truly is heartbreaking.

00:13:52.340 It makes me angry.

00:13:53.900 It's what you see in war in the Middle East.

00:13:57.000 And it's happening now against ranchers and people in agriculture.

00:14:01.740 The warning is very real now that the cartels are acting like what they are, terrorist organizations.

00:14:09.060 I think this is another example of the president getting it right, saying we're going to declare them as terrorist organizations because they that's what they do. 0.52

00:14:16.340 They are terrorist organizations.

00:14:18.300 And now we have another data point of saying, here's the proof.

00:14:21.960 So let me read from a story in the New York Post.

00:14:25.320 Texas rancher killed by suspected cartel IED on Mexican border as authorities warn of growing threat.

00:14:33.460 Here's what the New York Post reported, quote, a Texas border rancher was killed near the border by a suspected cartel IED earlier this month.

00:14:44.680 The Texas Department of Agriculture told the Post Tuesday, as officials issued an urgent safety warning for the Rio Grande Valley.

00:14:54.680 Rancher Antonio Gaspérez Saldierna, 74, who worked on both sides of the border, along with Horatio Lopez-Pena, was killed in the blast in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was just south of Brownsville, Texas.

00:15:14.680 Lopez's wife, Ninfa Griselda Ortega, was hospitalized with injuries.

00:15:21.940 Saldierna was driving on his ranch when he hit the explosive device, causing it to detonate, according to KRGV.

00:15:31.440 Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the deadly explosion is part of a, quote,

00:15:36.600 growing threat posed by cartel activity along our southern border and encourages ranchers to, quote, exercise extreme caution in the area.

00:15:47.660 Quote, I encourage everyone in the agricultural industry to stay vigilant, remain aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.

00:15:57.340 Additionally, you can avoid dirt roads and remote areas, refrain from touching unfamiliar objects that could be explosive devices, limit travel to daylight hours, stay on main roads and avoid cartel controlled regions, said Miller.

00:16:14.040 However, this is happening right at the Texas-Mexico border.

00:16:19.900 It, I got to say, it is dangerous and it shows, you know, some in the media say, gosh, it's hyperbole, it's rhetoric to call the cartels terrorists.

00:16:30.500 They are terrorists and they're murdering Texans. 1.00

00:16:34.000 What does this mean moving forward if they continue this and how could this change the way that we interact with them?

00:16:41.100 Because I think there's a lot of Americans right now.

00:16:43.420 They're like, look, if we're going to call them terrorists, let's go after them like they're terrorists.

00:16:48.240 How dare them be allowed to do this?

00:16:51.400 Well, I believe we're going to do that.

00:16:52.680 I believe we're starting with we saw on January 20th President Trump securing the border.

00:16:58.940 We've seen the numbers of illegal crossings plummet, drop 90 percent.

00:17:05.380 We're going to go after them.

00:17:06.780 We're going to go after them. 0.99

00:17:07.820 We're going to go after the people who are here, the murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, the gang members. 0.98

00:17:13.660 We're arresting them. 0.95

00:17:15.000 We're deporting them.

00:17:15.860 We're going to send them back.

00:17:17.500 But we're also stopping the traffic coming in.

00:17:20.040 The human traffickers, the drug traffickers, that is impacting the cartel's bottom lines.

00:17:25.280 But I think we're going to use leverage to go after the cartels directly and try to.

00:17:32.320 Joe Biden and the Democrats gave billions of dollars to the cartels, a stat you and I have talked about multiple times, but it's a stunning stat.

00:17:43.360 In 2018, the Mexican drug cartels made roughly five hundred million dollars from human trafficking.

00:17:50.780 Five hundred million dollars is a lot of money.

00:17:52.140 Last year, they made thirteen billion dollars, a two thousand six hundred percent increase that is ending now.

00:18:04.400 And I have every confidence the Trump administration is going to go after their money.

00:18:08.980 It's going to go after them directly.

00:18:10.320 And you are going to see the cartels targeted just like we target al Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah.

00:18:17.220 The days of the cartels terrorizing Americans, those days are ending.

00:18:22.140 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.

00:18:30.640 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:18:37.880 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:18:41.600 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:18:42.780 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:18:44.000 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:18:53.500 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:18:56.480 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:19:02.320 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:19:06.700 There was another shocking headline that also came out today, and that deals with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

00:19:16.380 The headline from the New York Post is, quote, would be Trump assassin may have had an accomplice.

00:19:23.860 And data shows, as investigators say, FBI suppressed info.

00:19:28.680 I wouldn't believe that headline if I wouldn't have just had the conversation with you for the last 10 minutes that we just had about the FBI covering up Epstein information as well.

00:19:37.720 Well, this is a stunning article.

00:19:40.420 I do not know if it is true, but if there is evidence that the attempted assassin, the man who shot Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an accomplice or multiple accomplices, that would be a big damn deal.

00:19:57.200 And, you know, I got to say, it has been a long time.

00:20:03.080 It has been 229 days since President Trump was shot at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

00:20:10.500 And yet we know next to nothing about the shooter.

00:20:15.540 It's almost as if it just dropped into a memory hole and disappeared.

00:20:19.220 And I want to read some of this article from the New York Post because it has some very interesting information in it.

00:20:26.360 It's not clear what's true or not, but let me read from the New York Post.

00:20:33.140 Quote, it's been almost nine months since a seemingly mild-mannered 20-year-old attempted to assassinate then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler.

00:20:43.480 And we still have no good reason why.

00:20:46.980 Sources told the Post the FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did.

00:20:58.320 It's left local law enforcement as well as Crooks' former friends, classmates, and teachers frustrated.

00:21:05.080 Those who may know Crooks' parents, Matthew and Mary, have refused all interviews and remain in their small three-bedroom home, sealed off from the world like hermits.

00:21:16.980 Neighbors say they only leave the house at 3 a.m. to buy groceries.

00:21:21.600 Quote, by the way, why do we know nothing about that guy in Butler?

00:21:26.980 Elon Musk yelled out to the audience at CPAC last week before warning that FBI Director Cash Patel is going to get to the bottom of it.

00:21:37.100 A veteran private investigator from Erie, Pennsylvania, who was hired shortly after the fateful July 13th event at Butler Farm to look into crooks by a private client, told the Post he believes a, quote,

00:21:51.440 criminal network was operating with him at the time of the assassination attempt, is still in existence and still wants to kill President Trump.

00:22:02.440 Doug Hagman, whose team of six other investigators have been working the case for months and have interviewed more than 100 people,

00:22:12.740 said they also conducted extensive geofencing analysis of cell phones and tablets not belonging to Crooks that were found with him at his home,

00:22:22.660 at the rifle range where he took target practice, at the rally, and at Bethel Park High School where he graduated in 2022.

00:22:31.940 Quote, we don't think he acted alone, Hagman told the Post.

00:22:36.100 Quote, this took a lot of coordination.

00:22:39.480 In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual and he was used for this assassination attempt.

00:22:46.860 And I wouldn't preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him.

00:22:53.000 Hagman said one of the electronic devices geolocated with Crooks at several different places at the time of the shooting

00:22:59.800 is still pinging today at Bethel Park High School.

00:23:05.300 Look, I don't know if this is true or not.

00:23:08.200 I don't know any background about this private investigator.

00:23:12.700 And I don't know if his allegations are right or not.

00:23:17.160 But it is frustrating that the American people, look, I'm on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

00:23:23.080 I have no information that isn't public about who this would-be assassin was, what his motivation was,

00:23:30.460 what evidence there is of anyone else being involved.

00:23:33.300 And I'll tell you, when I sat down with both Kash Patel and with Pam Bondi when they were preparing for their confirmation,

00:23:41.380 I had an extensive conversation with both of them about the need for transparency.

00:23:45.740 That when you've had four years of both the Department of Justice and the FBI politicized and weaponized,

00:23:55.380 the result is that people don't trust the FBI.

00:24:00.160 I mean, this article in The Post repeatedly argues that the FBI is obstructing efforts to get to the bottom of what happened.

00:24:07.760 That's infuriating if true.

00:24:12.220 And it is very much my hope that we'll see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel make significant information about this assassination attempt public.

00:24:21.240 The American people have a right to know, have a right to know if anyone else was involved with this.

00:24:28.560 And I don't know if the FBI, if they didn't put a priority on it, I don't know if they didn't investigate.

00:24:35.660 I don't, I guess it is possible this kid acted alone.

00:24:40.380 But the absolute dearth of information is frustrating and infuriating.

00:24:47.800 Well, and it goes back to the point that I think Pam Bondi made at the White House with many of these conservatives,

00:24:54.980 which is we're doing everything we can now to be transparent.

00:24:58.560 But there is still a very deep state rebellion.

00:25:04.880 And they are hell-bent on not letting the American people know what's going on.

00:25:08.700 They're above us.

00:25:09.680 They think they're more important than us.

00:25:11.400 They don't believe they have to play by the rules.

00:25:13.440 They don't have to be transparent.

00:25:14.660 And until you get that fixed, there's going to be a lot of doubting from the American people in these institutions.

00:25:22.400 I think that's exactly right.

00:25:24.600 You know, the article says that Hageman, this private investigator,

00:25:30.300 said that he was personally escorted to the Butler County line and told to leave twice during the course of his team's investigation.

00:25:39.020 The people who did so were either federal agents or some type of private security.

00:25:45.860 And so, look, and I actually, I can understand an FBI investigation that they would be frustrated with having a private investigator interviewing the same people.

00:25:56.700 So that actually, the fact that the FBI was telling this guy, you know, buzz off, that's not shocking to me.

00:26:02.980 But I don't know what investigation the FBI conducted.

00:26:08.240 I certainly don't know the results of the investigation.

00:26:10.840 They haven't made anything public to the American people.

00:26:13.780 And I think the FBI's attitude has been in recent years, they don't know the public answer.

00:26:19.000 You don't get to know anything if they don't want to tell you.

00:26:23.760 Yeah, great point.

00:26:25.120 I want to move also to another story, and this goes back to the issue of trust.

00:26:29.860 Elon Musk and Doge, new poll numbers are out saying that the majority of American people actually approve of what Elon Musk is doing.

00:26:37.720 And they think that Doge is having a real impact in a positive way for this country and for taxpayers.

00:26:42.840 And the waste, fraud, and abuse, they want them to keep moving forward.

00:26:47.220 What we're also seeing, Senator, at the exact same time is, I would now describe it as a clearly well-organized, orchestrated effort by the media and the Democrats to ramp up their smears against Trump early on.

00:27:04.080 Or I should say against Elon.

00:27:05.680 And early on, they were trying to drive a wedge between Elon and Trump.

00:27:10.080 You could see it in their rhetoric where it's like, well, you know, Elon thinks he's the president.

00:27:14.160 Oh, yeah, the Time magazine cover story that put Elon at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office was obvious in a clumsy attempt to piss Trump off and get Trump mad at Elon.

00:27:25.220 And it was so transparent that I think it did not remotely have the effect they were trying to have.

00:27:32.140 Yeah, it backfired.

00:27:33.060 But that was where you could tell the first step was, well, maybe we can drive a wedge here.

00:27:38.120 That hasn't worked.

00:27:39.040 So now what we're witnessing is just a full-on smear campaign against Elon Musk, even on The View.

00:27:48.000 And this was an interesting moment for me because it's like you're getting real close to slander and libel when you do what The View does against Elon Musk.

00:27:57.840 I don't know if they care.

00:28:00.180 They have to apologize pretty regularly now for things they say on the air with legal notes they keep having to make.

00:28:05.860 But Joe Behar had this to say on The View about Elon Musk.

00:28:11.880 And I want to play it and then get your reaction to it. 0.98

00:28:14.640 And Elon Musk kisses his butt and strokes his tiny ego or big ego, whatever it is. 0.99

00:28:21.500 And he doesn't get to do it. 0.99

00:28:23.280 He can take a nap while the guy was not born in this country, who was born under apartheid in South Africa, so has that mentality going on.

00:28:32.040 He was pro-apartheid, as I understand it.

00:28:34.520 But he's a naturalized citizen.

00:28:37.000 Right.

00:28:37.680 He's a naturalized citizen.

00:28:38.400 Now he's a naturalized citizen.

00:28:39.520 Oh, really?

00:28:39.940 How did he do that?

00:28:41.260 Did he come over the border legally?

00:28:42.760 He had an H-1B visa.

00:28:43.740 He flew in.

00:28:44.640 Yeah.

00:28:44.840 He allegedly overstayed that visa.

00:28:47.200 But I think this is just perfectly wonderful for Trump.

00:28:50.160 He's going to take a nap and let this foreign agent, you know, an enemy of the United States, do his job.

00:28:57.200 I mean, not only does she say he's an enemy, but then she says he's in favor of apartheid.

00:29:01.900 By the way, not true.

00:29:03.000 Came back on the air later in the show and tried to undo that and said, Elon, don't sue. 0.97

00:29:10.020 Well, look, I mean, the view, they are unhinged lunatics and they don't care about truth. 0.86

00:29:16.460 But they, you know, the crazy thing is Joy Behar believes what she says. 0.93

00:29:22.180 You know, it's amazing.

00:29:23.440 Apparently, Elon Musk is the only immigrant that Joy Behar and the crazies on The View dislike. 0.98

00:29:32.020 If you're an MS-13 gang member, if you're a murderer or a rapist, they're perfectly fine with you. 0.96

00:29:37.520 They don't have a problem with Joe Biden and the Democrats releasing millions of criminals into America.

00:29:43.080 That they have no problem with.

00:29:44.260 But if someone comes legally to this country, if someone builds multiple incredible companies, creates thousands and thousands of jobs, is an incredible innovator, and then volunteers his time to serve his nation, that merits being called a foreign agent and an enemy of the United States.

00:30:06.740 You know, at the end of the day, what The View was saying doesn't say much about Elon Musk, but it says a lot.

00:30:14.640 About the media and the left and how terrified they are of him.

00:30:19.020 And I'll tell you, Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat congresswoman, had very similar comments.

00:30:26.980 Listen to what she said about Elon Musk.

00:30:29.040 Apparently, she and Joy Behar are reading from the same talking points.

00:30:32.660 Yeah, and this was in front of the United States Capitol where she said it.

00:30:36.480 Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years, and he's a citizen of three countries.

00:30:42.440 I always ask myself the question, with the damage he's doing here, when push comes to shove, which country is he loyalty to?

00:30:48.860 South Africa, Canada, or the United States?

00:30:52.480 And he's only been a citizen, I'll say again, 22 years.

00:30:55.820 By the way, I thought it was Democrats for the last four years that were obsessed with illegal immigrants coming into this country and saying, who is anyone else to say that they aren't Americans?

00:31:06.980 And we don't even call them illegals.

00:31:08.700 You must call them immigrants. 1.00

00:31:09.620 And they're just like you and I.

00:31:10.880 But all of a sudden, a guy by the name of Elon Musk is actually getting things done, and now they're just going to slander him and say, which country is he really loyal to?

00:31:18.340 Like he's some sort of secret agent or bad actor for another nation.

00:31:22.760 Well, look, I spent a good chunk of this morning with Elon over at the White House, and he met with a number of senators talking about what he's doing on Doge.

00:31:32.380 And it was a very interesting meeting, and it's stunning some of the things that they're finding.

00:31:37.160 They're finding, for example, they're going into agencies and finding agencies that have more electronic subscriptions than they have employees.

00:31:49.800 Wow.

00:31:50.520 And in many instances, thousands and thousands more, like 30,000 licenses for different electronic applications, 30,000 licenses and 15,000 employees.

00:32:04.480 That order of magnitude.

00:32:05.940 And so they're going in and canceling the ones that aren't used.

00:32:11.480 They also went and checked, and they said hundreds and hundreds of them had never been opened, had never even been installed.

00:32:16.700 So even of the employees, not everyone is using them.

00:32:20.580 They've never logged in, and so they can go and check.

00:32:22.740 All right.

00:32:23.300 And so anyone who's not using it, they're canceling those.

00:32:26.080 Those are the sorts of things they're finding that are really just astonishing.

00:32:32.100 When you met with him today, does it seem that he's even shocked by what he's finding?

00:32:38.560 You know, there are things like he talked today about ghost payments, about the Treasury has computers that transfer funds that make federal payments.

00:32:48.540 And he says that there are ghost payments that are going out that a program officer puts in for a payment to a contractor, to somebody.

00:33:00.660 And then the program officer retires, dies, leaves, is gone, and the payments just keep on going.

00:33:08.740 And, you know, he said it's stunning.

00:33:13.420 The Treasury computers have a field where you categorize, okay, what is this payment for, and what in the congressional appropriation is it going for?

00:33:29.080 And he said routinely that field is left blank.

00:33:34.340 He said USAID, they always left it blank, he said.

00:33:37.260 So there's no way, he said many ways, it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to audit the billions of dollars that are going out the door because they don't keep the records.

00:33:48.820 And it was interesting, Elon's comments, he said, if any public company did this, he said they would be massively fined and the executives would be put in jail.

00:33:58.260 So, as always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:34:03.880 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:34:10.900 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:34:14.640 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:34:17.260 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:34:20.660 Guaranteed Human.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 01, 2025

Trump dukes it out w Maine, Time Frame on a Big Beautiful Budget Bill & Assassin may have had Help Week In Review

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