Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trump's Iran Address, Pam Bondi Leaving & ActBlue Facing Criminal Liability

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00:00:05.020 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

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00:00:23.680 And the president addressed the nation this week,

00:00:26.300 made it very clear, we're gonna wrap things up with Iran,

00:00:29.200 but we also got some work still to get done. Well, the president gave a national address

00:00:33.640 talking about Iran, what we're accomplishing and what the goals are. And I got to say,

00:00:37.600 if you're a caveman, the president's address was very, very good news. But if you're an Ayatollah,

00:00:44.100 if you are a radical mullah who chants death to America, the president's address was terrible

00:00:49.480 news. We're going to break it down, tell you exactly what he said, what it means for the Iran

00:00:53.460 war, where things are going. We're also going to talk about the fact that this week, the president

00:00:58.920 asked Pam Bondi for a resignation. He's going to move to a new attorney general. Pam is a good

00:01:04.680 friend. She has been a guest on this show. We're going to talk about Pam's record, and we're going

00:01:09.820 to talk about what's next at DOJ. And finally, the New York Times has a bombshell report that

00:01:16.100 ActBlue, the big Democratic left-wing fundraising online apparatus, may well have committed multiple

00:01:24.480 criminal acts may well be laundering foreign money and could face criminal liability could

00:01:29.920 be shut down this is from the new york times we're going to break that story down because it has

00:01:34.980 potentially enormous consequences for the midterms yeah it's a really big story and it's

00:01:40.820 really interesting to see who is reporting on it before we get to all that though i want to talk

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00:02:58.300 earn up to a thousand dollar bonus right now so senator president trump came out he addressed

00:03:04.260 the nation about 31 days after he kind of told us what was going to go on when we were going

00:03:09.060 into iran and what the goals and objectives were he was giving an update the american people i

00:03:14.820 really genuinely love this this level of transparency and also explaining where we are what is still

00:03:21.120 left and I think it landed pretty well especially with people that voted for the president yeah I

00:03:25.960 think that's right the president said exactly what we're doing and what's coming next here give a

00:03:31.100 listen thanks to the progress we've made I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of

00:03:37.200 America's military objectives shortly very shortly we're going to hit them extremely hard over the

00:03:44.140 next two to three weeks we're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong

00:03:50.280 senator for anybody that wants transparency you don't get any more transparent than this president

00:03:55.560 he's like yes we have the upper hand to the level where he can literally just say to iran

00:03:59.560 this is what we're going to do to you if you don't agree to this if you don't open the strait

00:04:03.740 of the hormones well guess what we're going to bomb the living snot out of you and we're not

00:04:07.640 bluffing i love the fact that this president is just being like this transparent not just with us

00:04:12.900 but like with the rest of the world as well. Look, that's important for our enemies to hear.

00:04:17.960 It's important for our friends to hear. Imagine for a second you are the current Ayatollah. The

00:04:24.200 previous Ayatollah has gone to meet his maker. You're the new Ayatollah. And you're thinking,

00:04:28.760 okay, we've made it through four weeks of this. This is about to be over. The Americans are about

00:04:32.940 to stop. And then you turn on the TV, you turn on the internet, and you see him say,

00:04:38.420 we're going to bomb you back to the stone age look that's not encouraging for the people who

00:04:45.500 chant death to america that that is that that is extremely dismaying they're holding on by

00:04:52.320 their fingernails and he's being clear that they're going to hit very very hard he's also

00:04:56.660 being clear this is going to last a couple of weeks it's not going to last months more it's

00:05:01.140 not going to last a year or longer he's going to pound the hell at them for the next couple of

00:05:05.280 weeks. And, you know, for the handful of online critics, and I do want to say the press loves to

00:05:10.780 say there's a civil war among Republicans on President Trump attacking Iran. That is objectively

00:05:18.900 false. If you look at the polling, the support is between 85 percent and 90 percent of Republicans

00:05:24.760 support what the president is doing. That's not a civil war. They're just a handful of really loud

00:05:30.560 voices self-proclaimed influencers and podcasters by the way can you stand a podcast podcaster what

00:05:37.100 an annoying class of human being the podcasters um yeah they get quoted a lot when you need them

00:05:45.040 right like they love there's a lot of republican podcasters that i describe as useful idiots for

00:05:49.960 the left whenever they need one their people it's like they raise their hand like oh i'll do that

00:05:53.560 for you like i'll say that for you as long as you get my name out there it's truly incredible

00:05:57.820 Yeah, these self-proclaimed podcasters are fond of saying, oh, President Trump has changed his view.

00:06:03.840 He's changed his view because he's a puppet that others are pulling his strings.

00:06:08.280 Well, look, the president was clear also in his national address.

00:06:10.720 This has been his view for a long, long time.

00:06:13.120 Here, give a listen.

00:06:15.080 From the very first day I announced my campaign for president in 2015,

00:06:21.760 I avowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

00:06:26.120 this fanatical regime has been chanting death to america death to israel for 47 years their

00:06:36.060 proxies were behind the murder of 241 americans in the marine barracks bombing in beirut

00:06:43.200 the slaughter of hundreds of our service members with roadside bombs they were involved in the

00:06:49.660 attack on the USS Cole and they carried out the countless other heinous acts including the blood

00:06:57.180 just horrible bloody atrocities of October 7th in Israel something that most people have never

00:07:06.060 seen anything like it. This murderous regime also recently killed 45,000 of their own people

00:07:12.500 who were protesting in iran 45 000 dead for these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an

00:07:20.500 intolerable threat the most violent and thuggish regime on earth would be free to carry out their

00:07:27.940 campaigns of terror coercion conquest and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield i will never

00:07:35.440 let that happen and neither should any of our past presidents you know the only difference

00:07:42.460 between Donald Trump and the past presidents he just mentioned there is every other president has

00:07:47.800 said that that you can't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and that they are a threat to

00:07:52.280 this country directly the only difference is Donald Trump actually did what he said he was

00:07:56.640 going to do and he was going to stop them the other ones did not they tried appeasement they

00:08:00.720 tried just kind of looking the other way none of it works since 1979 so now he's doing it that's

00:08:05.920 literally the only difference here well listen President Trump has been absolutely clear as he

00:08:10.840 pointed out going back to when he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015. 2015 was 11

00:08:16.660 years ago. So the naysayers online who claim there's some like magical realization Donald

00:08:22.520 Trump has had have not listened to him year after year after year for more than a decade. When he

00:08:28.720 said Iran will not get nuclear weapons he meant it and he's acting he's carrying out on that right

00:08:34.000 now. I want to play devil's advocate with you because there's a lot of people and some of

00:08:39.220 those on the right that have said this, like, we didn't need to go now. This was just Donald Trump

00:08:44.540 wanting to get into some sort of war. And this was bad timing by him. So let me ask you, for people

00:08:51.660 that are saying, why now? Explain why now made sense. Well, there were two factors that were

00:08:58.060 really critical. Number one, as President Trump mentioned just a minute ago, and as he said for

00:09:03.620 11 years, we cannot allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. That when the Ayatollah chanted death

00:09:09.980 to America, we have every reason to believe him. The Iranian regime has killed nearly a thousand

00:09:15.000 Americans. They have been the number one state funder of terrorism worldwide. If they had a

00:09:20.020 nuclear weapon, the odds are unacceptably high they would use it. Now, a month ago, they were

00:09:26.120 not on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Last year, during the 12-day war, President Trump

00:09:32.140 ordered our B-2 bombers to fly halfway around the world, and we dropped bunker busters on their

00:09:38.140 nuclear weapons research facilities, particularly Fordow, which Fordow is a secret research bunker.

00:09:43.780 It was built under a mountain, and it was built to withstand bombing attacks because Israel did

00:09:48.880 not have bombs big enough to take out Fordow. No other country on earth had bombs big enough to do

00:09:53.820 that except for the United States. We're the only ones that had the bunker busters big enough to

00:09:57.740 take it out. The ordinance we dropped on their nuclear research facilities last year were the

00:10:03.800 equivalent of one-third of a nuclear weapon. We're talking big, big bombs, and we took out their

00:10:10.000 nuclear weapons facilities. So a month ago, they were not on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons

00:10:16.200 facilities, or nuclear weapons, rather. Why did President Trump act? Because Iran was building

00:10:23.200 missiles short range and medium range ballistic missiles at an incredibly rapid clip over 100

00:10:28.960 missiles a month they were building they were also building by the way put that in perspective i think

00:10:33.280 people need to understand building 100 a month that is like warp speed in the ballistic missile

00:10:38.620 world people need to understand that like if you're building that many it's it's for a reason

00:10:43.780 you're going to war it's not even a defensive that's like an offensive posture and everybody

00:10:48.920 in the world basically agreed with that. Well, we also know now that they had missiles that were

00:10:54.680 sufficient that they could go all the way from Iran to Diego Garcia, because during this war,

00:10:59.920 they fired a missile at Diego Garcia, which is a British-American military base in the Chagos

00:11:06.180 Islands in the middle of the Indian Oceans. That's a couple thousand miles away. That is the same

00:11:11.140 distance from Iran that Paris and London are, which means they had missiles far enough to get

00:11:16.480 to the capital cities in Europe, they were building over 100 missiles a month. They were

00:11:21.440 also building vast numbers of drones. And their plan was to have so many missiles and so many

00:11:27.480 drones that it would become prohibitively costly to go in and take out their next nuclear weapons

00:11:35.000 research facility. They wanted enough missiles and drones that if we came in and took out

00:11:40.860 phase two of the nuclear weapons research facility, they could inflict massive casualties

00:11:47.000 on their neighbors. And look what they did when this conflict started. They fired missiles at

00:11:52.180 everybody, not just at Israel, at every one of their neighbors. And so the Trump administration

00:11:57.740 made the determination they needed to act now before they had so many missiles and so many

00:12:03.080 drones that there would be a massive loss of life if we acted subsequently to take out nuclear

00:12:09.800 weapons research facilities. That's number one. Number two, the Iranian regime is weaker right

00:12:16.560 now than it has been at any time during our lifetime. As you know, I spent the entire day,

00:12:21.480 the day before this conflict began, with President Trump. He and I were together in Air Force One. We

00:12:26.660 flew from D.C. to Texas together, and then he asked me to join him in the Beast in the presidential

00:12:32.020 limo. It was just the two of us one-on-one. The entire time we were talking about what should he

00:12:36.740 do in Iran. And what I was arguing to him, I support this attack, and I urge this attack

00:12:42.800 vigorously. And I said, listen, the regime has never been more vulnerable. It is teetering,

00:12:49.140 and there is very little, if anything, that you could do that would more greatly enhance

00:12:54.480 American national security than to see this radical Islamist regime collapse, to remove

00:13:00.780 from power an Ayatollah who chants death to America, who has been murdering Americans for

00:13:07.000 years, and who wants to kill as many Americans as he can. All right, let me go back to another

00:13:11.500 big question, and I would say a fallacy that's been out there that a lot of people have been

00:13:15.620 talking about, and that is, well, it wasn't America's role to do this. If the neighbors

00:13:20.760 were afraid, then they should have been the ones. We already went after their nuclear facilities.

00:13:26.680 That's where America should have stopped.

00:13:28.820 And if others in Europe were concerned about being hit by these missiles that could reach them, capital cities,

00:13:34.780 then that's on them to do it, not America.

00:13:37.560 Why did we have to do this?

00:13:39.000 That's the isolationist viewpoint I've heard.

00:13:41.140 Right.

00:13:41.580 Look, we weren't doing it for Iran's neighbors.

00:13:44.220 We weren't doing it for Saudi Arabia or UAE or Qatar.

00:13:47.960 We weren't doing it for Europe, and we weren't doing it for Israel.

00:13:50.960 I know all of the Jew haters online like to say it's for Israel, it's for Israel, it's for Israel.

00:13:56.220 The Ayatollah chanted death to America.

00:13:59.160 He also chanted death to Israel.

00:14:00.860 But there's a reason the Ayatollah called Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan.

00:14:06.340 I believe if the Ayatollah had a nuclear weapon, he might have detonated it in Tel Aviv and killed vast numbers of Israelis.

00:14:13.900 But I actually think it is more likely if he could, he would detonate a nuclear weapon in New York City or Los Angeles and kill as many Americans as possible.

00:14:23.000 That is, look, when he calls us the great Satan, and understand this is not hypothetical,

00:14:29.140 and I want to underscore, my view, I am, as a general matter, very reluctant to use military

00:14:34.860 force. I think the Iraq war was a mistake. I have been vocal for a long time that the Iraq war was

00:14:41.200 a mistake. Why do I think it was a mistake? Because Saddam Hussein was not waging war against

00:14:46.140 the United States. He was not killing vast numbers of Americans. He was not pledging to

00:14:50.560 kill vast numbers of Americans. The Ayatollah was. Over 90 percent of the funding for Hamas,

00:14:56.320 Hezbollah, and the Houthis had come from Iran. They were murdering Americans year after year

00:15:01.500 after year. They were trying to murder President Trump. And that is why the president acted. And

00:15:07.640 look at all we've accomplished. Give a listen to the president on everything we've accomplished so

00:15:11.240 far. Tonight, Iran's Navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of the

00:15:20.540 them terrorist regime they led are now dead their command and control of the islamic revolutionary

00:15:30.780 guard corps is being decimated as we speak their ability to launch missiles and drones is

00:15:38.380 dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces

00:15:45.020 very few of them left never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and

00:15:51.340 devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks president trump being very clear there

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00:16:23.460 honest talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts I want to move on to

00:16:30.140 one of the big headlines it's never fun when someone loses their job in the administration

00:16:35.580 the headline from the New York Post Pam Bondi speaks out for the first time after Trump fired

00:16:40.980 her as the attorney general. I want to get your take on this. You know her well. I know her. We've

00:16:46.020 had her on this show before. Look, in cabinets, there's always people that come and go. That's

00:16:51.460 just part of Washington and politics. It is what it is. There's a lot of people on the left that

00:16:57.220 are just thrilled about this, that there's a turmoil and everything. I don't think it's that

00:17:02.760 way at all. I think this is the president just saying, OK, I want to do something a little bit

00:17:06.380 different, and he's going to move on pretty darn quick. Yeah, listen, Pam Bondi is a good friend

00:17:11.220 of mine. I think she took on what may be the single hardest job in the entire administration.

00:17:16.960 The Department of Justice, there is a deep state at DOJ and at the FBI who fought her from day one,

00:17:24.480 who have been waging war, trying to prevent her efforts to bring back integrity to take the

00:17:29.360 politicization out of the Department of Justice, and it's been an uphill battle. It's been a

00:17:33.860 difficult battle. Pam was someone who, she was a guest on Verdict literally when she was just a

00:17:40.540 couple of weeks into the job. At a very beginning, brand new AG, she came on Verdict and was a guest

00:17:47.320 and talked to us about everything she was trying to accomplish. You know, she put out a tweet

00:17:53.360 saying farewell. Here's what Pam had to say. Over the next month, I will be working tirelessly

00:17:59.180 to transition the Office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an

00:18:04.360 important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President

00:18:08.900 Trump and this administration. Leading President Trump's historic and highly successful efforts

00:18:14.480 to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime, and easily the most

00:18:21.060 consequential first year of the Department of Justice in American history. Since February 2025,

00:18:27.320 We have secured the lowest murder rate in 125 years, secured first-ever terrorism convictions against members of Antifa, shattered domestic and transnational gangs across the country, taken custody of more than 90 key cartel figures, and won 24 favorable rulings at the Supreme Court.

00:18:52.280 I remain internally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to make America safe

00:18:59.380 again. And listen, I think Pam served honorably. It is the president's prerogative to choose if he

00:19:05.660 wants new leadership at the Department of Justice, and he's made that choice. But I think Pam served

00:19:10.220 honorably in a very difficult job, and I think her results, particularly in terms of crime,

00:19:16.860 in terms of going after murderers and rapists and gangbangers and illegal aliens and the resulting

00:19:24.980 20% drop in the murder rate is staggering and unprecedented and is something she should be very

00:19:31.800 proud of. I'm certain that she is because between that and the rate of drug overdose deaths

00:19:40.520 dropping 20% nationally. There are literally thousands of Americans right now who are alive

00:19:46.940 today because of the policy she and President Trump and a Republican Congress put in place,

00:19:53.340 securing the border and removing dangerous criminals. That's something to be really proud of.

00:19:57.460 It is. And you look at my hometown, for example, where I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Pam was

00:20:01.660 there multiple times. Crime there is down 40% year over year. The president just went to Memphis,

00:20:07.620 gosh less than a week ago uh and talked about the success there of what he did there in washington

00:20:13.140 dc pam was a large part of that as well uh and as you mentioned like that's part of a legacy

00:20:18.380 look you and i have known people that have come and gone in cabinets before uh some of them

00:20:22.420 actually ags i've known a couple that have lost their job after a while it is it's one of the

00:20:27.520 hardest jobs uh to do my former mentor in dc was john ashcroft and he always didn't get along with

00:20:33.060 The president of the United States of America, George Bush, 43.

00:20:36.400 And afterwards, Alberto Gonzalez came in.

00:20:38.780 I mean, you know, it is part of what happens.

00:20:42.860 I also think, though, based on the names we're hearing right now, somebody's going to get this job and they're going to do probably one hell of a job for the president.

00:20:50.960 And I do think even now, you know even more to find what the president's going to want out of you on the second go round on this one.

00:20:58.940 That also can be good for that individual coming in.

00:21:01.340 Yeah, look, at least right now what's been announced is that Todd Blanche, who's the deputy attorney general, is going to be the acting attorney general.

00:21:09.000 I don't know how long that's going to last.

00:21:11.160 It wouldn't surprise me if President Trump gives him a little bit of time to see what kind of job he does.

00:21:15.620 He may end up leaving Todd Blanche in that role.

00:21:18.280 That would not shock me.

00:21:19.860 Todd is a serious lawyer, has been doing a good job as deputy attorney general.

00:21:23.420 He has been focused on a lot of the law enforcement mission, in particular locking up criminals.

00:21:29.260 And so I could see him being given a shot at the top job.

00:21:34.200 There's been other chatter that Lee Zeldin.

00:21:36.280 Lee Zeldin has also been a guest on this podcast.

00:21:38.820 He's the administrator of the EPA.

00:21:41.220 A lot of people, by the way, didn't realize he's a lawyer.

00:21:43.460 I had multiple people text me.

00:21:45.100 They're like, how is the guy in the EPA?

00:21:46.880 I'm like, well, he's a lawyer.

00:21:48.400 And they had no idea he was a lawyer.

00:21:49.960 I mean, his name has been circulating inside of Washington and outside of Washington as well.

00:21:55.440 Well, listen, Lee has done a very effective job at EPA.

00:21:58.700 And by the way, it is hard to do the job of head of the EPA if you're not a lawyer because it's dense and complicated laws and regulations and understanding it.

00:22:07.280 And Lee's been really effective in the regulatory reform agenda in pulling back the job-killing regulations that did so much damage under the Biden administration.

00:22:18.040 And I suspect that's one reason I haven't had this conversation with President Trump, but I suspect that's one reason why he's considering Lee is because he's been very, very effective in a complicated, difficult cabinet position.

00:22:30.620 Now, DOJ is qualitatively different. And listen, I'll say, as for me, you know, in the first Trump administration, I talked to the president quite seriously about possibly being a G.

00:22:45.000 And in Trump one, I went in and spent about four and a half hours in Trump Tower the week after the election in November 2016.

00:22:54.920 And I had a conversation with him on a number of fronts.

00:22:58.360 And I made what I would say would be a half-hearted play for AG.

00:23:03.580 What I told him at the time is I said, listen, I recognize back then that I was pretty late on the train.

00:23:10.200 and I said there are others like Jeff Sessions or Giuliani or Christie if they want to be AG you

00:23:18.060 probably should should give it to them but if you if you wanted to talk to me about this I'd be

00:23:23.260 willing to have that conversation we did talk about it we had a good conversation the president

00:23:27.320 made the decision to go with Jeff Sessions Jeff was a good friend of mine was a colleague in the

00:23:31.500 Senate I was happy for him and I will tell you in the 11 years since that conversation I have been

00:23:37.940 grateful every day since then that i did not go down that path because let's be clear if i had

00:23:44.660 become ag i was gonna ask that question i was gonna ask the question like did you ever look

00:23:49.060 back and you're like that was the best conversation ever had to be late on the train oh yes yes yes

00:23:54.320 and look i made a half-hearted play on purpose i know how to make a full-throated play but i

00:23:59.620 thought i perceived the downsides of the job and i liked what i was doing then so i was like but

00:24:05.860 But to be honest, the reason I made the half-hearted play is just for love of the game.

00:24:11.180 I mean, frankly, the job of attorney general, I would really enjoy that job.

00:24:15.780 It didn't make any sense.

00:24:17.300 It wasn't consistent with what I wanted to do, but it just would be fun.

00:24:22.780 In hindsight, so I will tell you nine months into it, there was a story in the New York Times.

00:24:29.180 This would have been, I think, August of 2017.

00:24:33.120 Oh, I remember well where you're going with this.

00:24:35.520 keep going and the story said Trump is thinking about firing Jeff Sessions and he's talking to

00:24:41.860 Cruz about replacing him and look Sessions has been a friend of mine forever so I called Jeff

00:24:47.620 and by the way Jeff knew that I talked to him about it he was in Trump Tower the day I was

00:24:52.820 there talking to him about it we were very open and transparent with each other and I called Jeff

00:24:58.000 the day that story came out and I said hey Jeff I just wanted you to hear from me this is BS like

00:25:03.480 I said, you knew I had a conversation with the president back November of last year.

00:25:08.880 I said, since then, I've not had another conversation about AG.

00:25:12.360 And I just told Jeff, I want you to hear from me.

00:25:14.420 I don't want the job, and I wouldn't take it if offered.

00:25:16.720 So this is not coming from me.

00:25:19.460 And listen, Jeff had a rough time in that position.

00:25:23.320 Bill Barr, who succeeded him, started out really well.

00:25:26.020 But at the end, he had a rough time in that position.

00:25:28.580 That has been a job.

00:25:29.840 Pam Bondi did a lot of good, but getting fired in front of the world is not fun.

00:25:36.380 It's not fun.

00:25:37.220 I put out a statement saying how much I support and like her, and I sent her a text just saying,

00:25:43.360 hey, I'm praying for you and thinking of you, and thank you for being a patriot and answering the call.

00:25:50.400 But all of which is to say I am immensely glad that I stayed in the Senate.

00:25:55.720 I've been Donald Trump's single strongest ally in the Senate for more than a decade, but I very much like the arrangement of working hand-in-hand with the president from the Senate rather than DOJ.

00:26:07.560 Whoever gets the nod, whether it's Todd Blanche or Lee Zeldin or whoever, I will work with them to help them get confirmed.

00:26:14.800 I will work hand-in-hand with them, just like I did with Pam Bondi and Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, because the mission of DOJ is massively important.

00:26:24.060 and President Trump deserves a strong, effective, incredibly principled attorney general.

00:26:31.880 Mark Wayne got confirmed. It was actually pretty easy. Do you expect the same thing for whoever

00:26:36.500 the president picks real quick in this position as well, even with a slim majority? Probably,

00:26:41.820 although like Mark Wayne, I think it'll be largely a party line vote. Mark Wayne got only two

00:26:46.260 Democrats who voted for him. I think no matter who the president appoints, the Democrats will

00:26:52.700 will party-line vote against them with a possible exception of one or two.

00:26:57.020 But if it's anything like, if it's any reasonable appointment,

00:27:01.180 I think you'll see the Republicans line up and give the president at least 51 votes.

00:27:05.240 All right, Senator, there was something very interesting that happened this week.

00:27:08.620 No one was really covering it.

00:27:10.340 The New York Times, however, did report on this,

00:27:15.220 that that radical leftist organization, ActBlue, may have misled Congress on,

00:27:21.240 and I'm quoting here, vetting foreign donations, its lawyer said.

00:27:25.820 So just to be clear, another example of Democrats taking foreign interference,

00:27:30.400 something I thought they were totally against in our elections and in our laws.

00:27:33.600 But yeah, not on this one, apparently.

00:27:35.440 Foreign dollars coming in, and they may not have vetted the money at all.

00:27:39.280 So in a shocking development, rain fell upwards.

00:27:44.560 Fish began flying.

00:27:47.100 Yeah.

00:27:47.340 Birds began swimming.

00:27:49.920 Yes.

00:27:50.320 and the new york times actually reported news do we do a golf club for that like little masters

00:27:57.940 golf club it is shocking this story and this is actually a bombshell story that that could

00:28:05.200 potentially have very real consequences it's in the new york times uh the headline is act blue

00:28:11.160 may have misled congress on vetting foreign donations its lawyers warned so understand

00:28:17.020 And the source of this is Covington and Burling, which is a blue chip law firm in D.C.

00:28:24.040 that where Joe Biden's former White House counsel was the lawyer for Act Blue.

00:28:29.660 And Act Blue is is a powerhouse.

00:28:32.600 It is raised billions and billions of dollars for Democrats.

00:28:36.400 Say that again.

00:28:37.380 People understand not millions, billions of dollars raised just for Democrats.

00:28:42.100 They flood money and they have all of these donors who their credit card information is set in.

00:28:47.240 They're on auto contribute month after month after month, and it just floods cash.

00:28:52.620 Now, here's what The New York Times reported.

00:28:54.240 The Democratic fundraising group is facing investigations from the Justice Department and congressional Republicans ahead of midterm elections.

00:29:01.560 In early 2025, a law firm working for ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising behemoth, delivered the organization a startling warning.

00:29:08.780 the firm concluded that ActBlue's chief executive had given a potentially misleading response to

00:29:15.980 congressional Republican investigators in a 2023 letter explaining how the organization

00:29:21.380 vetted donations to ensure that they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens.

00:29:29.420 Quote, this presents a substantial risk for ActBlue, the law firm Cummington & Burling

00:29:34.880 wrote in one of the two memos. One memo raised the specter of criminal investigation if

00:29:40.120 prosecutors believe that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent

00:29:45.300 foreign contributions. The memos instigated a meltdown at the highest levels of ActBlue,

00:29:51.400 one of the Democratic Party's most vital financial organs. A series of top officials

00:29:56.960 resigned in quick succession. ActBlue is now all but declaring war on its past lawyers,

00:30:03.860 an extraordinary turn of event at a moment when President Trump has already ordered a Justice

00:30:09.180 Department investigation into the organization. Democrats are nervous that any additional upheaval

00:30:15.160 at ActBlue could destabilize the critical fundraising apparatus ahead of the midterm

00:30:20.420 elections. All levels of Democratic candidates, from incumbent presidents to school board aspirants,

00:30:28.640 use act blue to raise campaign money from online donors the platform has processed get this number

00:30:36.720 nearly 19 billion with a b billion dollars in contributions since its founding in 20 2004

00:30:46.580 building a donor database with millions of credit card numbers that is unmatched in american

00:30:52.440 politics. Nearly 23,000 candidates and groups used the site in 2025, in one year, nearly 23,000

00:31:03.300 candidates and groups, and raised almost $1.8 billion from 52 million contributions, some of

00:31:11.920 which recur every month. And what is striking is the Covington memos said, and here's the really

00:31:21.320 killer sentence. Quote, it can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and or facilitated the acceptance

00:31:30.920 of foreign national contributions into American elections. In addition, because ActBlue's staff

00:31:38.600 was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these

00:31:44.700 violations were knowing and willful a standard that both increases the penalties the fec might

00:31:51.720 seek and gives the justice department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation this is a

00:32:00.780 big big deal yeah when you say big deal and i'm i'm a pessimist now like a lot of people

00:32:08.000 and and every time we see something like this happen then it's like all right well is there

00:32:12.320 going to be people that go to jail and be arrested and then it seems like nothing ever happens so

00:32:16.620 when you say this is a big big deal are you saying that there could actually genuinely be people that

00:32:22.620 get in trouble for this or is it just going to be like some little fine and we move on or even

00:32:26.300 nothing at all look there could be people criminally prosecuted there could be people going to jail but

00:32:31.520 that's not really the biggest consequence the biggest consequence is if there's a criminal

00:32:35.920 investigation and and this is this is covington and burling a big democrat law firm that was the

00:32:42.580 lawyer for act blue telling them holy crap you guys have screwed up and you've got real exposure

00:32:48.680 and then this is the new york times the official mouthpiece for the democrats reporting on it

00:32:55.660 the biggest political consequence would be if a criminal investigation shuts down act blue

00:33:02.000 between now and the election because act blue if nothing else happens act blue will raise

00:33:08.880 billions of dollars for democrats between now and november and and by the way act blue's defense

00:33:16.360 one of their defense is well what well we we we we less than one percent of contributions

00:33:23.640 in 2024 were from foreign countries well less than one percent out of 19 billion dollars is a

00:33:32.720 crap ton of money and it is illegal and and that dynamic and i'll give you some other other stats

00:33:39.700 so here here's something greg price tweeted with all the headwinds facing the gop national democrat

00:33:46.280 groups have a serious fundraising problem going into the midterm the dnc currently has more debt

00:33:53.220 than cash on hand while the rnc has over 100 million dollars on hand the slf clf nrcc and

00:34:01.720 nrsc which are all the different committees on the republican side all have more cash than their

00:34:07.860 democrat counterparts and now this with act blue the democrat crown jewel of their fundraising

00:34:14.800 The big, big political consequence, if ActBlue has committed criminal conduct, laundering foreign money into American elections, and if they actively covered it up, which is what Covington and Burling suggest there's evidence of, that could be more than sufficient for the Department of Justice to shut ActBlue down.

00:34:36.300 And if that money spigot is cut off from Democrat candidates in November, that has massive, massive consequences for the election.

00:34:46.380 And it shuts off the foreign money, right?

00:34:48.680 That's also another big part of this.

00:34:50.240 And so even if they try to morph into a new group, right, people leave that glue.

00:34:54.420 And by the way, look, the foreign money is not just some hypothetical specter.

00:34:58.240 It's a fact.

00:34:59.020 If you're the Chinese, if you're the Russians, if you're the Iranians, if you're the Venezuelans, if you're the Cubans, it is objectively in your interest to have Democrats win in November. Donald Trump has made your life a living hell. And so you want Congress to declare war on President Trump. You want a Democrat House and Senate that impeaches the president, that investigates the president, that prevents the president from doing what he's done to the enemies of America.

00:35:25.480 Yeah, you're exactly right. You've been listening to Verdict with Ted Cruz,

00:35:28.660 Ben Ferguson with you. We'll see you on the podcast this week.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 03, 2026

Trump's Iran Address, Pam Bondi Leaving & ActBlue Facing Criminal Liability

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