Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 12, 2025


Trump Federalizes DC Police & Dems' Heads Explode plus Admin Directs the Military to Take Out Terrorist Drug Cartels


Episode Stats


Length

29 minutes

Words per minute

169.94623

Word count

5,015

Sentence count

451

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins Ben and Ben to discuss President Trump's decision to federalize the D.C. Police Department and take control of law enforcement in order to fight crime in the nation's capital.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.300 Welcome.
00:00:05.960 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.280 We are a day late, but it's because when we tried to do the show last night,
00:00:13.560 we had major technical difficulties and couldn't get the connections right.
00:00:17.880 So that's why we're coming with you today on this show, putting out on Tuesday.
00:00:22.920 The good news is we've had some unbelievable news.
00:00:25.500 It's broken.
00:00:26.220 And so they could be a blessing in disguise.
00:00:28.300 And one of the big issues that is broken, Senator, is the president of the United States of America
00:00:33.520 has made every liberal lose their mind because he's actually trying to fight crime in Washington, D.C.
00:00:37.960 And they're saying he's a dictator and a tyrant for doing this.
00:00:41.400 Well, today on Monday, the president made a bold announcement that the federal government
00:00:46.560 is federalizing the D.C. police force, that they are going to fight violent crime in D.C.
00:00:52.840 They're going to tackle the out-of-control murder rates, the violent crimes, the carjackings
00:00:57.280 that have plagued that city, plagued that city because of left-wing policies
00:01:01.900 that have undermined the ability of the police to actually protect the residents there.
00:01:06.560 And you're right.
00:01:07.740 This has Democrats and this has the media losing their minds.
00:01:12.660 How dare a president of the United States actually stand up against violent criminals?
00:01:16.880 We're going to break that down.
00:01:17.940 We're going to explain to you exactly what he did.
00:01:19.720 We're going to explain to you the legal basis for why he can do so.
00:01:22.800 We're also going to explain why D.C. is different.
00:01:25.720 One of the talking points you're seeing on television right now is, well, he's going to
00:01:29.440 do this in every country, every city in the country.
00:01:33.080 He's just going to take over every city in America.
00:01:35.660 And I don't think that's right.
00:01:37.160 I don't think that's going to happen.
00:01:38.880 D.C. is qualitatively different constitutionally and legally.
00:01:43.380 We're going to explain to you why.
00:01:45.120 We're also going to talk about another order President Trump put out, again, targeting bad
00:01:49.560 guys, but in this case, drug cartels, where he has directed the military to use military
00:01:54.460 force to go after drug cartels as terrorists, terrorists who are endangering American lives.
00:02:01.520 Again, this is something that Democrats are deeply upset about.
00:02:04.940 It seems there's nothing that could upset a Democrat more than law enforcement actually
00:02:09.640 going after murderers or rapists or gang members.
00:02:14.360 And that's exactly what President Trump is doing.
00:02:16.480 And by the way, that's exactly what he promised the voters he would do if he was elected.
00:02:22.220 Yeah, no doubt about it.
00:02:23.360 We're going to get into all of that.
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00:04:24.620 All right.
00:04:25.040 So, Senator, you and I are doing this show.
00:04:26.700 And just a half hour ago, I got off of yelling at the commies over at CNN.
00:04:32.960 They're literally unhinged right now going insane over the fact that Donald Trump's trying
00:04:37.860 to fight crime.
00:04:39.140 That would be all of them.
00:04:40.300 Yes.
00:04:40.540 That would be all of them.
00:04:41.880 And it was hysterical because they're like, well, this is what dictators and tyrants do.
00:04:45.760 I was like, hold on a second.
00:04:46.860 Dictators and tyrants are trying to put criminals in jail and save people's lives.
00:04:51.680 That's your talking point?
00:04:52.800 They're like, well, where is he going to stop if he does this in D.C.?
00:04:55.720 I'm like, well, he did it in D.C. because there's special rules for D.C.
00:04:59.900 There's a reason why he did it there, and he's not done it anywhere else.
00:05:02.860 They're like, well, you know he's just going to do this and be a dictator and take over
00:05:05.940 L.A. or Baltimore. 0.99
00:05:07.600 I'm like, you guys are crazy. 0.97
00:05:09.020 And again, you're angry at Donald Trump for fighting crime, which is out of control in 0.97
00:05:13.400 D.C., a place you spend a large part of your week every week.
00:05:16.440 Well, look, D.C. has gotten seriously dangerous, and I'll tell you, people going to work in
00:05:24.480 D.C., people living in D.C. are concerned for their safety.
00:05:27.220 They're concerned for the safety of their families.
00:05:28.900 They're concerned for the safety of their spouses and their children.
00:05:33.360 You know, Rand Paul had a Capitol Hill staffer who was stabbed walking along the sidewalk
00:05:39.180 in the middle of the afternoon.
00:05:40.560 There was a man who served in the first Trump administration who was in his car at 5 p.m.
00:05:46.820 on the streets.
00:05:47.860 He was shot in the head and murdered.
00:05:50.380 This violence is the direct result of disastrous Democrat policies that have handcuffed the police,
00:05:58.500 that have limited the ability of the police to go after violent criminals.
00:06:03.840 And the result is D.C. has become a very dangerous place.
00:06:06.780 So what happened?
00:06:07.700 And President Trump, Monday morning, he announced at a press conference, quote,
00:06:12.280 this is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our Capitol back.
00:06:16.900 And he declared a public safety emergency, and he took two actions.
00:06:22.400 Number one, he invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, placing the D.C. police directly under federal control.
00:06:30.920 And number two, he signed a memorandum to the Secretary of Defense to utilize the National Guard.
00:06:36.660 He placed DEA Administrator Terry Cole as the interim federal commissioner of D.C. police,
00:06:42.780 and he also announced plans to temporarily reassign 120 FBI agents in D.C. to nighttime patrol duties.
00:06:54.420 All of that was announced today, and the reason he did it is he walked out the statistics about D.C. crime.
00:07:01.640 D.C.'s murder rate is higher than that of many cities around the globe.
00:07:08.440 D.C.'s murder rate is higher than Bogota, Colombia.
00:07:12.660 D.C. has one of the highest murder rates among large U.S. cities nationwide.
00:07:17.100 The homicide rate is more than 27 murders per 100,000 residents.
00:07:22.280 That was in 2024. Vehicle theft in D.C. is more than three times the national average,
00:07:30.080 with 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents.
00:07:35.500 It is among the most dangerous cities globally, and in recent years, the number of car thefts has doubled,
00:07:44.300 and the number of car jackings has tripled.
00:07:48.340 Look, I had actually, while I was recording Verdict, I don't know if you know this story,
00:07:52.720 but years ago when Verdict just started, while I was recording Verdict,
00:07:56.700 we had the truck that I was driving in parked on the D.C. streets,
00:08:02.260 and we went down to the TV studios in the basement.
00:08:04.640 I don't remember that.
00:08:05.900 And while the truck was on the streets, someone broke into the windows,
00:08:10.700 shattered them open, and stole my briefcase.
00:08:12.600 Took my briefcase with my computer and my iPad, and took the whole thing.
00:08:17.600 You didn't have classified documents in there, did you?
00:08:19.880 You know, like Joe Biden.
00:08:20.560 I did not.
00:08:21.020 You didn't just have them randomly there.
00:08:22.680 Okay, just making sure.
00:08:24.140 Otherwise, that would have been some big news here.
00:08:26.720 Unlike Joe Biden, I've never removed classified documents from a secure compartmentalized facility.
00:08:31.800 Unlike Sandy Berger, who was Bill Clinton's national security advisor,
00:08:35.560 I've never stuffed classified documents in my underwear or in my socks to try to smuggle them out.
00:08:40.980 So, no, it was just annoying.
00:08:43.080 And by the way, here's a stat about carjackings.
00:08:46.940 In recent years, the number of carjackings in D.C. has tripled.
00:08:54.020 And one of those victims of carjackings was Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas congressman.
00:08:59.900 Again, it was evening time.
00:09:02.460 He was just coming home with his dinner, and he was carjacked in front of his apartment,
00:09:08.900 where apparently numerous members of Congress live in this apartment building.
00:09:16.140 And a member of Congress was carjacked.
00:09:18.740 And so President Trump is acting directly.
00:09:22.040 And apparently one of the motivations from this is that a White House staffer named Edward Corristine, 0.89
00:09:32.500 he's a Doge staffer, and his nickname is Big Balls.
00:09:36.400 And I will say, by the way, one of the funniest things I've ever seen is because he was working in Doge,
00:09:40.860 it forced Dana Bash and CNN to say the words Big Balls like 19 different times on air,
00:09:46.220 which I have to admit, I couldn't watch the segment without doubling over laughing.
00:09:52.420 Well, apparently this young man, unfortunately, was assaulted over the weekend
00:09:56.680 by about 10 juveniles near DuPont Circle.
00:10:00.000 And so when a 19-year-old staffer in the White House can't be safe in D.C.,
00:10:04.620 the president, I think, should act.
00:10:06.560 And that's what President Trump has done so.
00:10:08.360 It's amazing how mad they are that he's actually trying to fight crime.
00:10:11.920 And it's actually pretty simple.
00:10:13.420 He's saying it's out of control.
00:10:15.200 The numbers are out of control.
00:10:17.140 The data shows it's out of control.
00:10:19.140 And, yes, the numbers have come down this year, thank goodness par.
00:10:21.800 That's because I think Law & Order and the president advocating for law enforcement all over the country
00:10:25.560 and allowing law enforcement to be empowered to do their job and ICE agents to do their job.
00:10:29.900 But they're actually angry at him because he's doing something that they say is out of his job description.
00:10:40.380 And they're like, this is what dictators and tyrants do.
00:10:43.400 And I go back to that line.
00:10:44.520 I'm like, wait, dictators and tyrants are fighting crime?
00:10:47.440 Like, that's a bad thing?
00:10:48.700 Really?
00:10:49.900 Well, and the federal government has authority over D.C. explicitly under the Constitution.
00:10:56.300 Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution gives Congress, quote,
00:11:02.000 exclusive legislation over D.C. 0.61
00:11:05.300 And Congress, through its delegee, the D.C. Council, designated that the president serves as the D.C. National Guard's commander-in-chief.
00:11:15.680 And that's in D.C. Code Section 49-409, which reads, quote,
00:11:20.500 The president of the United States shall be the commander-in-chief of the militia of the District of Columbia.
00:11:26.520 There's an executive order from 1969 that delegates the day-to-day authority over the D.C. Guard
00:11:31.640 from the president to the Secretary of Defense, who further delegates it to the Secretary of the Army.
00:11:36.760 So there's explicit authority to authorize the National Guard.
00:11:41.260 And also Congress, in 1973, passed a law called the Home Rule Act.
00:11:47.320 And what the Home Rule Act does is it gives the president explicitly the power to take control of the D.C. police, quote,
00:11:56.400 Whenever he determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist,
00:12:02.040 which require the use of the Metropolitan Police Force for federal purposes.
00:12:06.540 And that statute, the Home Rule Act further says the mayor shall provide, shall, not may,
00:12:12.540 shall provide the police, quote, as the president may deem necessary and appropriate,
00:12:19.500 not as the mayor deems, not as the city council deems, as the president may deem.
00:12:24.360 And the authority is limited to 48 hours unless the president sends notice to the congressional committees on D.C.
00:12:32.680 justifying the action, at which point the authority is limited to 30 days.
00:12:36.000 Trump has said he sent that notice this morning.
00:12:39.660 This section's never been invoked before, but it is explicit, unequivocal statutory authority to do what he did.
00:12:46.480 And the fact that Democrats in the media are losing their mind is they don't like the fact that he's exercising clear legal authority
00:12:52.800 and clear legal authority that he's using precisely because the D.C. mayor and the D.C. city council have refused to do their jobs.
00:13:02.940 It's amazing that they refuse to do their job.
00:13:05.400 And even now, the police union coming out, this is part of that story I think is really important so people understand reality compared to how the media is covering this.
00:13:14.360 The police union has come out and said thank you to the president and said we need your help because we have so many officers down.
00:13:22.660 And they're like, we are asking and telling the president thank you.
00:13:25.760 And that's the police union who is saying this.
00:13:28.360 And yet the mayor's still like, well, I don't know about this.
00:13:31.540 I'm like, if your police union is telling you you need the help, why would you not just say, let's put politics aside here.
00:13:38.720 Let's work with the president.
00:13:40.560 Let's work with the National Guard.
00:13:42.540 Let's get things safe at the metro stations where we've seen a large uptick in crime.
00:13:47.420 Let me tell you where I could use this National Guard, where you could put it and do this in a bipartisan way.
00:13:53.500 But again, it goes back to this Trump derangement syndrome that white orange man is always bad, even if he's fighting crime. 0.77
00:13:59.300 Yeah, but it's not just that. 0.58
00:14:02.280 It's that today's Democrat Party can't stand the police.
00:14:07.140 It used to be there was a time when when police unions, many of them were Democrats.
00:14:12.900 I will tell you, as I travel the country everywhere I go, and especially blue cities, when I arrive in a city like New York and a city like Chicago, when I when I got off the plane on in Chicago, I'm often greeted by four or five, six, eight police officers, unified cops, uniformed cops who will come up to me.
00:14:31.460 And they just say thank you. They'll give me their patches and they feel so beleaguered.
00:14:37.580 And I tell them this is something I try to make a point.
00:14:40.380 And you've traveled with me, Ben. You've seen this.
00:14:42.460 When I see a police officer, I'm in Dallas today.
00:14:45.420 When I landed in Dallas Love Field, there were several officers there, I thanked shook the hands of every officer there, said, thank you.
00:14:54.120 Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for fighting to defend us.
00:14:57.160 And I'll tell you what I tell the officers in Chicago and everywhere else, which is it's my job to have your back.
00:15:03.520 And why has D.C. undermined the police so systematically?
00:15:09.480 Because the Democrat Party has been taken over by the nut jobs. 1.00
00:15:14.860 It's been taken over by the abolish the police crazies, the defund the police crazies.
00:15:20.400 D.C. has in place no cash bail policy so that people commit violent crimes and get released on no cash bail.
00:15:28.180 That is madness. And one of the things President Trump asked Congress to do is abolish D.C.'s no cash bail.
00:15:36.760 I would certainly vote to do so. I think that's absolutely the right thing to do.
00:15:41.140 I will tell you I think the odds are very high that Senate Democrats will filibuster any effort to get rid of no cash bail in D.C.
00:15:51.840 because the Democrats today are the party of criminals. 0.90
00:15:56.260 They are. And look, when I say that, Ben, that sounds hyperbolic. 0.99
00:16:00.900 That sounds, oh, come on. How can they really be the party of criminals?
00:16:04.360 Well, they're the ones that tell you they are.
00:16:06.660 They're the ones that their dismay is how dare the president be committed to arresting murderers and rapists and gang members.
00:16:16.640 And I want to be clear about something. D.C. is qualitatively different.
00:16:20.660 So there's a statute, a longstanding statute, called Posse Comitatus.
00:16:25.040 Posse Comitatus bars the use of the U.S. military for civilian law enforcement,
00:16:30.880 except when authorized by the Constitution or another provision of federal law.
00:16:36.380 And so if the president were to do this in New York City or Chicago,
00:16:42.140 there would certainly be a challenge under Posse Comitatus that using the military for law enforcement violates that.
00:16:51.700 Importantly, however, the Department of Justice in 1989,
00:16:55.600 the Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion that found that President George Herbert Walker Bush
00:17:01.740 could use the D.C. Guard to carry out law enforcement missions in D.C.
00:17:07.360 as part of the so-called war on drugs.
00:17:10.240 And so you've got a Department of Justice opinion longstanding from decades ago
00:17:15.460 that says D.C. is different because it's not a state.
00:17:19.520 It is a federal enclave.
00:17:21.000 The federal government has blanket authority over D.C.
00:17:24.560 And so this is an instance where the president is acting pursuant to his authority.
00:17:29.500 And I expect that his actions are going to prove highly effective,
00:17:35.020 which I got to tell you, Ben, I think that scares Democrats even more.
00:17:38.560 Well, and that brings me to the second part of this,
00:17:40.560 which is you look at how big of a success this could be pretty quickly.
00:17:45.900 And if it is a success, it's just going to expose so many other sanctuary city leaders,
00:17:53.680 the Gavin Newsoms, the L.A. mayor, the Baltimore mayor, Chicago mayor,
00:17:57.540 the Memphis mayor, the Detroit mayor, the New Orleans mayor,
00:18:00.420 all of these top crime cities for exactly what they've done.
00:18:03.980 It's the policies.
00:18:05.180 You look at just D.C. and how soft they've been on crime with juveniles.
00:18:09.220 And juvenile crime exploded in D.C. during COVID and after COVID
00:18:15.720 because they refused to hold juveniles accountable for their actions.
00:18:19.720 We've seen this happen a lot of other places around the country.
00:18:21.940 So if this turns into a major success for the president
00:18:25.320 and people feel safe in D.C.,
00:18:28.260 how big of a political victory for law and order?
00:18:31.960 I'm not talking about Republican or Democrat.
00:18:33.140 I'm talking about for law and order.
00:18:35.360 Could this be in precedent moving forward?
00:18:37.680 The president say, hey, I'm willing to help you.
00:18:40.000 You just got to ask for the help
00:18:41.300 because we can do what we just did in Washington, D.C.
00:18:44.920 Yeah, look, that's exactly right.
00:18:47.100 And I think the obvious analog is border security.
00:18:51.360 We spent four years under Joe Biden and the Democrats
00:18:53.720 with the Democrats saying they were helpless to secure the border.
00:18:57.280 It was impossible to do.
00:18:58.420 I was there a year ago at the State of the Union address
00:19:01.440 when Joe Biden said he needed new legislation.
00:19:04.800 The only way to secure the border is if Congress passed new legislation.
00:19:08.620 Now, I was there this year when Trump gave his State of the Union address.
00:19:12.300 And it was after border crossings with Trump being sworn into office
00:19:15.660 had dropped more than 99 percent.
00:19:19.560 And Trump, my favorite line from his whole State of the Union address,
00:19:22.540 is he said, it turns out we didn't need new legislation.
00:19:26.040 We just needed a new president.
00:19:28.280 Well, the same thing is true here.
00:19:29.600 Look, President Trump has demonstrated conclusively
00:19:33.020 the border can be secured,
00:19:35.580 and it could have been secured four years ago,
00:19:37.700 except Joe Biden and the Democrats wanted open borders
00:19:41.160 because they saw a political benefit.
00:19:43.200 If we see the kind of successes that I know President Trump hopes we'll see,
00:19:47.500 that I think we are likely to see,
00:19:49.560 it will demonstrate, not just every resident of D.C.,
00:19:52.420 but every resident of every other high-crime city in the country,
00:19:55.640 wait a second.
00:19:57.340 This can be stopped.
00:19:58.880 My family can be protected.
00:20:01.660 And the fact that the murder rates in my city are so high,
00:20:05.300 that the rape and child molestations and the carjacking rates are so high,
00:20:09.240 that is a choice, a voluntary choice from Democrat politicians
00:20:14.300 who put partisan priorities above protecting their citizenry.
00:20:19.020 That, at the end of the day,
00:20:21.380 is, I think, one of the biggest reasons Democrats are freaking out.
00:20:24.200 And I want to make another point about this,
00:20:26.180 which is there used to be an implicit agreement about D.C. home rule,
00:20:30.540 which is that Republicans wouldn't interfere day to day,
00:20:33.300 and the Democrat officials in D.C. wouldn't run the city as a social experiment
00:20:38.600 driven by progressive self-indulgence, like in other blue cities.
00:20:43.320 And the D.C. mayor and city council broke that implicit agreement.
00:20:49.040 D.C. is fundamentally different from other major cities
00:20:52.360 because it's the nation's political capital,
00:20:54.860 and if you are serving in the federal government, you have to be in D.C.
00:20:58.660 If the residents of New York or San Francisco want to elect crazy Soros district attorneys,
00:21:07.420 if they want their officials to implement their combination of communism and anarchy
00:21:13.800 and woke policy shutting down schools and businesses,
00:21:20.480 you know what?
00:21:21.600 If you don't like it, you can leave.
00:21:24.240 And leaving that, you can get out of a blue city.
00:21:30.260 To the extent voters anywhere in America elect representatives to represent them.
00:21:34.920 Look, the people of Texas, 31 million Texans have sent me to represent them in the Senate.
00:21:40.220 I have to go to Washington, D.C. to do that.
00:21:42.840 That's where the Senate is. 0.94
00:21:44.140 My staff, many of whom are Texans,
00:21:46.580 they have to be in D.C. to do that job.
00:21:49.400 And so the lawlessness, the president is acting, look, fine,
00:21:53.460 if you've got San Francisco Democrats who want to go from one lawless hellhole to another,
00:21:58.180 that's their choice.
00:21:59.600 But the nation's capital, there is an obligation to keep it safe.
00:22:04.040 And I think the president is doing the exactly right thing by acting boldly.
00:22:08.360 I want to commend him.
00:22:09.800 This is a bold step, and I think it's a really important one.
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00:22:42.440 It also goes back to the second part of the show,
00:22:47.540 and it deals with the president making very big steps, bold steps here.
00:22:51.480 And look at what he has decided to now do when it comes to dealing with drug cartels.
00:22:58.320 He's made them, some of them have been named terrorist organizations,
00:23:02.780 and this was done deliberately on purpose by this president to be able to go after the drug cartels,
00:23:10.400 which these cartels are clearly killing Americans each and every day with the drugs coming across the border
00:23:18.040 and also the violence that comes across the border.
00:23:20.620 And the president now has enough.
00:23:22.600 He put out a tweet, and he's ordering now the U.S. military to destroy not only the drug cartels,
00:23:28.700 but the New York Post is reporting as well that the president has apparently authorized military force
00:23:33.900 against Latin American drug cartels classified as foreign terrorist organizations.
00:23:38.840 Pete Hedgeth went on Laura Ingraham's show tonight, was asked about it.
00:23:42.320 He's like, look, we know a lot more about these cartels than they realize.
00:23:46.300 We know a lot more about where they are, what they're doing, where they're moving.
00:23:49.080 And the president said this is a top priority, and I'm working on it.
00:23:53.340 And that was a pretty bold statement from the man in charge of the Pentagon.
00:23:58.100 Absolutely, yes.
00:23:59.100 Here's what the New York Post reported.
00:24:00.620 Quote, President Trump has secretly authorized the military to use force against Latin American drug cartels
00:24:06.120 classified as foreign terrorist organizations.
00:24:09.460 The move is the most aggressive action Trump has taken yet against gangs trafficking drugs like fentanyl
00:24:14.940 across the U.S.-Mexico border,
00:24:16.440 the activities of which were previously the purview of federal law enforcement.
00:24:20.860 The order, first reported Friday by the New York Times,
00:24:24.620 gives U.S. forces official permission to engage cartels on land and sea.
00:24:32.080 Quote,
00:24:32.440 The president is determined to not just dismantle, but completely destroy Maduro's Cartel de los Soles
00:24:41.720 and to obliterate their operations in the Western Hemisphere, a source close to the White House said.
00:24:48.180 The State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations involved in drug trafficking include Venezuela's Tren de Aragua
00:24:56.020 and Cartel de los Soles, as well as El Salvador's routed Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13.
00:25:04.220 And that is incredibly consequential because it now sets up the stage.
00:25:12.740 I would expect to see military action taking out the cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations.
00:25:20.640 That takes this to a whole new level.
00:25:23.600 And just like what the president is doing in D.C., that has Democrats beside themselves,
00:25:29.140 because given a choice between siding with law-abiding American citizens or murderers and gang members,
00:25:35.480 today's Democrats side with the murderers and gang members,
00:25:38.220 and given a choice between siding with international gangs and drug cartels that are trafficking poison to our kids
00:25:46.340 and murdering Americans or standing with American families, 0.77
00:25:50.080 sadly the Democrats choose to get on a plane and go down to El Salvador 0.71
00:25:53.600 and have daiquiris with MS-13 human traffickers.
00:25:56.980 Well, let's talk about the narrative as well on this.
00:26:00.300 Today I was watching and they were saying,
00:26:03.120 well, this is the president sanctioning World War III.
00:26:06.560 This is the president sanctioning an attack on Mexico.
00:26:12.660 And that's going to start a war.
00:26:14.820 I think those might be two of the most egregious and just absurd statements.
00:26:19.260 The president, if we attack the cartels of terrorist organizations,
00:26:22.400 that's not an attack on Mexico.
00:26:24.360 That's not going to war with Mexico,
00:26:25.640 even though the Democrats and those in the media are trying to explain it that way.
00:26:29.780 I don't think the American people would see it that way either,
00:26:32.220 especially with Americans dying on a daily basis.
00:26:34.820 Look, I think that's right.
00:26:37.160 And I'll point out also that there is a clear precedent for this.
00:26:41.600 When George W. Bush was president, you had the nation of Colombia just racked by drug cartels,
00:26:47.520 the Medellin cartel, the Kali cartel.
00:26:50.060 And the result of these cartels is crime in Colombia was out of control.
00:26:54.740 The murder rate was out of control.
00:26:56.200 You had acts of terrorism that were attacking and the cartels were murdering, were blowing up,
00:27:05.420 were shooting police officers and judges and elected officials and mayors.
00:27:12.100 And it was really in bad shape.
00:27:14.120 And the people of Colombia elected President Uribe as the president of Colombia.
00:27:18.500 And he asked President George W. Bush, will you help us?
00:27:23.560 And Bush launched what was called Plan Colombia.
00:27:27.380 Plan Colombia sent the military in and just decimated the cartels. 0.88
00:27:33.180 Turns out our military is really good at killing the bad guys.
00:27:36.800 And we did so.
00:27:39.160 And it ended up turning Colombia around.
00:27:41.640 It made a massive difference in the nation of Colombia.
00:27:44.320 So our military knows how to do this.
00:27:46.620 There's clear precedent with some of these with some of these cartels.
00:27:54.340 We will be asked in by the governments with open arms with in other instances.
00:27:59.800 You may have elected officials and governments that resist America coming in. 0.82
00:28:04.620 That becomes more complicated.
00:28:06.560 The United States has acted against terrorists in foreign nations,
00:28:09.800 even when the sovereign government is less than thrilled about that.
00:28:13.760 But it's more complicated if the government is asking us not to.
00:28:17.480 But but but it is nonetheless how exactly the Trump administration navigates that.
00:28:22.120 That will be an open question over the next three years.
00:28:25.460 But I got to tell you this.
00:28:26.660 If you're a Mexican drug lord, if you're a drug lord anywhere, but particularly in one of these gangs that has been designated a terrorist organization by the president,
00:28:37.040 I would sleep with one eye open because, you know, a predator drone is really good at making things go boom in the night.
00:28:45.100 And I think the terrorists and the drug cartels are all sleeping a lot less comfortable right now.
00:28:52.820 Amen to that.
00:28:53.960 And they have not had to worry about this threat in my entire lifetime.
00:28:58.280 And I think that's another part of the story where they've never been treated the way that now the president's treating them.
00:29:04.540 And the American people are clearly behind this.
00:29:06.780 This is two major examples of the president promising law and order and national security and safety.
00:29:11.720 And he's definitely backing it up.
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