Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 20, 2026


Trump Tightens Grip on Strait of Hormuz Putting Enormous Pressure on Iran plus Qatar Hires DC Lobbyists as the Heat Rises


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

153.28856

Word count

5,181

Sentence count

362

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

36

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is joined by Ben Fergus (D-NJ) to discuss Iran's attempt to run a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. Navy's response. They also discuss Qatar and the Supreme Court.

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.
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00:00:20.140 Welcome.
00:00:20.800 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:22.440 Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:24.020 Senator, we've got a lot to talk about, especially what's going on in the Middle East right now.
00:00:28.280 And then we've got some issues at home with the Supreme Court. 0.71
00:00:31.720 Well, Iran continues to screw around to believe that Donald Trump is bluffing.
00:00:36.600 And if there's one thing that has been made absolutely clear, it's that President Trump is not bluffing.
00:00:42.200 In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran tried to have a tanker run the Strait of Hormuz.
00:00:46.500 That did not work well, and it resulted in a big hole being blown in that tanker.
00:00:50.820 We're going to break down exactly what's happening with the Strait of Hormuz and all the pressure that President Trump is putting on Iran 0.93
00:00:56.640 to end the threat that they pose to the United States of America. 0.75
00:01:00.220 We're also going to talk about Qatar, 0.97
00:01:02.500 which has been the number one foreign funder of U.S. universities for many, many years.
00:01:07.840 And they realized they got a problem. 0.84
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00:01:13.020 the funder to anti-American sentiments to tearing down our nation, 0.95
00:01:19.240 being a foreign nation. 0.82
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00:02:54.300 All right, so where do you want to start with what's going on with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz?
00:02:58.000 There's two different issues here.
00:02:59.520 One, the Strait was open, Senator. 0.99
00:03:02.060 Then Iran was like, all right, maybe not.
00:03:04.040 We're not going to do that deal.
00:03:04.980 Now we're going to run boats through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:03:07.000 They got a six-hour warning to not do it with the same boat over and over again saying,
00:03:11.760 you need to turn around, you need to turn around.
00:03:13.300 And then finally, we just blew a hole in the middle of it and said, all right, well, now what are you going to do?
00:03:16.800 And we have now taken, from the president's words, we have taken that ship.
00:03:21.900 Well, here's what President Trump put out on Truth Social.
00:03:24.680 Today, an Iranian-flagged carbo ship named Tuska, nearly 900 foot long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, 0.69
00:03:34.960 tried to get past our naval blockade, and it did not go well for them. 0.98
00:03:38.780 The U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the Tuska in the Gulf of Oman and gave them fair warning to stop. 0.98
00:03:49.580 The Iranian crew refused to listen. 0.86
00:03:52.740 So our Navy ships stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in their engine room. 0.96
00:03:59.860 Right now U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.
00:04:02.800 The Tuska is under U.S. Treasury sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity.
00:04:08.780 We have full custody of the ship and are seeing what's on board.
00:04:13.760 That is clear and unequivocal. 0.97
00:04:16.000 It'll be interesting to see tomorrow if the Iranians try to run the blockade again. 0.86
00:04:19.660 I predict if they try to run the blockade again, the same thing will result. 0.77
00:04:23.840 And at the end of the day, if you're a tanker full of oil, you're not going to do very well against the United States Navy.
00:04:30.020 Yeah, what was also interesting about this attack on this ship,
00:04:33.280 and this is the part where I laugh because online they're like,
00:04:36.700 oh, this is going to be Exxon Valdez, and I can't believe America is doing this.
00:04:41.300 No, no, no.
00:04:42.200 This was a very surgical strike.
00:04:44.300 We knew what we were aiming for.
00:04:45.880 We knew we were going to take the ship.
00:04:47.280 We knew it was going to be dead in the water.
00:04:49.160 This was flawlessly done and well planned out beforehand.
00:04:53.480 And so for all those who are like, I can't believe America did this,
00:04:56.040 you should be proud of this moment.
00:04:58.260 And we also gave six hours of warning.
00:05:01.500 We did radio calls.
00:05:03.120 We had flares.
00:05:04.280 We even had boats go in front of it.
00:05:05.960 Like, we did everything that we could have done in a six-hour time span, clearly on video.
00:05:12.880 I love that this video has been put out because it's important that people see exactly.
00:05:16.220 We did everything we could to make sure this ship turned around and stopped.
00:05:20.300 It refused, and there are consequences for those actions.
00:05:24.920 Yes, that's right.
00:05:26.100 And look, it's not an accident that we hit the engine room.
00:05:28.520 We incapacitated the ship, made it unable to move forward, and then boarded the ship and took over the ship.
00:05:33.320 and you could fully anticipate if any other ships tried to run the blockade the same,
00:05:38.120 the same thing will result.
00:05:39.620 At the same time, we have a second story that broke,
00:05:42.640 which is the federal government has arrested an Iranian woman at LAX
00:05:47.060 right before she was about to get on a flight to Turkey.
00:05:51.980 Charmaine Mafi is accused of brokering Iranian bombs, weapons, drones, and ammunition to Sudan.
00:06:01.300 Mafi, who lives in L.A., allegedly brokered, quote, millions of rounds of ammunitions for Iran.
00:06:08.900 The feds say one of her contracts was worth 60 million euros, and it was to broker the sale of Iranian-made drones between Iran and Sudan.
00:06:20.480 In another instance, Mafia and her co-conspirator allegedly sold 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese military.
00:06:32.540 That is a lot.
00:06:35.280 And here's what President Trump put out concerning Iran.
00:06:39.700 Look, we're cutting off their money.
00:06:41.140 We're arresting people who are trafficking in arms.
00:06:43.720 And President Trump put out on Truth Social, quote,
00:06:47.480 quote, we're offering a very fair and reasonable deal. If they don't, the United States is going
00:06:56.340 to knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran. And then in all caps, 0.76
00:07:06.400 no more Mr. Nice Guy. I got to say, pause for a second if you're an Iranian mullah. 1.00
00:07:13.640 you read that and you got to think mr nice guy holy crap yeah like in two months just about every 0.96
00:07:22.260 single ballistic missile's been taken out just about every single factory manufacturing ballistic
00:07:26.820 missiles have been taken out all of their air defenses have been taken out all of their drones
00:07:31.600 have been taken out all of their drone manufacturing capabilities been taken out their air force has 0.97
00:07:36.400 been taken out their navy is sunk and sitting at the bottom of the ocean the ayatollah is dead the
00:07:42.980 entire senior military leadership is dead and now they have a blockade where iran can't take in or
00:07:49.040 out any oil and by the way we're about a week away from iran having to shut in wells and if and when
00:07:55.320 iran shuts in wells the consequences that means so people understand the like how significant
00:08:00.500 shutting in wells is right so they're producing oil and when you're producing oil you're pumping
00:08:06.960 it out you're loading it in tankers and it's moving now the problem is they don't have enough
00:08:10.620 storage capacity. They're continuing to pump millions of barrels of oil, and they've got to
00:08:15.540 have a place to put it. And if they're not allowed to put it on tankers and take it out, they're
00:08:19.060 running out of storage capacity. So their only choice then is to shut it down, is to cap off
00:08:24.500 the well. Now, the problem is once you do that, what happens is water comes into the formation
00:08:31.320 and reduces the pressure in the formation. And when you shut in a well, when you come back a
00:08:37.160 week or a month or a year later and you try to get it producing again, typically it produces at a
00:08:42.760 much lower rate. So Iran is risking doing permanent damage to its oil fields, which is a source of
00:08:49.900 revenue. That is massive leverage. And the impact on Iran's oil production and economy is going to
00:08:58.120 be profound. And I want to do a little bit of a deep dive into what the impact of this blockade
00:09:03.280 is having. So Daniel Akal is an economist who tweeted the following out, quote, blocking the
00:09:09.740 Strait of Hormuz with the support of Amman and other Gulf nations may have two objectives.
00:09:14.480 One, block Iran's exports and inflow of hard currency. And two, make China force Iran to 0.73
00:09:24.160 negotiate in realistic terms, being a strategic partner of Iran and the most impacted by any
00:09:30.620 shutdown. Understand, cutting off the oil, it hurts Iran badly, but most of that oil was going
00:09:34.940 to China. That hurts China too. Yeah. The reason to do it now and not before, this may be because
00:09:42.360 80% of the crude supply of the Strait of Hormuz has already been replaced or rerouted.
00:09:50.260 So the impact on supply and demand for most OPEC partners and customers is as small as possible
00:09:57.680 with the highest negative impact for the Iran regime.
00:10:01.720 Furthermore, OPEC has already agreed to lift quotas
00:10:05.340 by exactly the amount that Iran exports,
00:10:10.060 right, about 2 million barrels per day.
00:10:13.040 And let me do a little more deep dive
00:10:15.820 in terms of what this means.
00:10:20.160 And this is a thread from Miad Malecki,
00:10:22.620 who's a senior fellow at FDD,
00:10:24.360 which is a fantastic think tank on the Middle East.
00:10:27.100 here's what he put out and this is this is really this detail is really useful
00:10:31.780 the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cost Iran approximately 276 million dollars
00:10:38.420 a day in lost exports and disrupt 149 million dollars a day in imports a combined economic
00:10:46.900 damage of 435 million dollars a day or 13 billion dollars a month wow over 90 percent of iran's 109.7
00:10:59.080 billion in annual trade transits the persian gulf oil and gas account for 80 percent of government
00:11:07.140 export earnings and 23.7% of GDP. Karg Island alone generates $53 billion a year,
00:11:18.400 or as I noted at the time, $78 billion a year in energy revenue, crude oil. Iran was exporting
00:11:27.060 1.5 million barrels a day, earning $139 million a day at wartime pricings, about $87 a barrel.
00:11:35.440 though with minimal proceed repatriation due to banking sanctions a blockade zeros that out
00:11:43.920 overnight karg island which handles 92 percent of the exports sits deep inside the gulf with no
00:11:50.520 viable alternative that's 139 million is it a day gone how about petrochemicals petrochemicals
00:11:57.640 Iran exported $19.7 billion in petrochemicals in nine months of 24 and 25, $54 million a day.
00:12:07.940 Virtually all of it ships through Asalua, Iman Khomeini, and Shahid Rajai.
00:12:14.740 Sorry about my pronunciation, it's not great on that.
00:12:18.020 All inside the blockade zone.
00:12:21.340 No overland route can move these volumes.
00:12:24.780 that's another 54 million a day gone all right how about non-oil exports
00:12:31.340 which is a lot by the way yeah iran's non-oil trade hit 51.7 billion in 2025
00:12:40.560 after subtracting petrochemicals 88 million a day in goods minerals minerals metals etc
00:12:48.480 of flow-through Persian Gulf ports.
00:12:51.020 Roughly 90% would be blocked.
00:12:54.520 That's another $79 million a day in lost revenue.
00:12:59.200 Over 90% of Iran's seaborne trade transits the Strait of Hormuz.
00:13:04.700 Shahid Rajai Bandar Abbas alone handles 53% of all cargo operations.
00:13:11.180 Imam Khomeini handles 58% of basic goods imports.
00:13:16.360 Boucher ports moved 57 million tons last year, all deep inside the Gulf.
00:13:23.420 Alternatives? 0.77
00:13:24.900 Iran's options outside the strait are negligible.
00:13:29.220 JASC, the must-touted bypass, operates as a fraction of its 1 million barrels a day design capacity.
00:13:37.220 Only 10 out of 20 storage tanks were built.
00:13:40.780 Effective throughput? 70,000 barrels a day.
00:13:45.500 Uh, Chabahar handles just 8.5 million tons a year. The five Caspian ports combined
00:13:52.720 handle 11 million tons versus 220 million through the Gulf. How about on the import side?
00:14:01.720 Iran imported 58 billion in goods in 2025, 159 million a day. A blockade chokes off industrial
00:14:09.020 inputs machinery and consumer goods food inflation already hit 105 percent in february 2026
00:14:18.740 rice prices are up 7x yeah this this gets dramatically worse under a blockade blockade
00:14:28.300 will hopefully allow offloading of the humanitarian cargos final couple of points extremely important
00:14:36.020 topic is the storage clock. Iran has 50 to 55 million barrels of total onshore oil storage,
00:14:43.960 roughly 60% full. Spare capacity, about 20 million barrels. With 1.5 million barrels a day
00:14:52.140 of surplus production that normally exports, storage fills in 13 days, and that was from
00:14:58.860 the start of the blockade. After that, Iran must shut in wells. This is what we were talking about
00:15:04.900 just a minute ago. Why is this very important? When mature oil wells shut down, bottom water
00:15:11.440 rushes in, a process called water coning. Oil droplets get permanently trapped in rock pores.
00:15:20.040 This oil can never be recovered. Iran's fields already declined 5% to 8% annually.
00:15:28.260 Forced shut-ins could permanently destroy 300,000 to 500,000 barrels a day of production capacity.
00:15:36.860 That's $9 billion to $15 billion a year in revenue, gone forever.
00:15:44.180 And to be clear, you can't get it back.
00:15:46.080 I think people need to understand the point you're saying there.
00:15:48.220 It's not like you can go, okay, we'll go over here and then drill,
00:15:50.540 and then we'll go get what we lost earlier in capacity.
00:15:53.180 Like you said, once you shut them in, that capacity never comes back.
00:15:58.340 Yeah, you can reopen it.
00:15:59.700 It'll produce some, but it will produce at a much lower rate.
00:16:02.980 All right, what happens to currency?
00:16:05.380 Currency collapse accelerant.
00:16:07.720 The real has already cratered from 42,000 to what do you think it is now?
00:16:13.940 It was 42,000 to the dollar.
00:16:16.380 It's now 1.5 million to the dollar.
00:16:19.660 Wow.
00:16:20.780 Banks are limiting withdrawals to $18 to $30 a day.
00:16:25.960 Overall inflation right now, 47.
00:16:28.300 Hold on.
00:16:28.940 The family of four, $18 to $30 a day is the max you can get out of the bank right now.
00:16:33.400 Yep.
00:16:34.540 Overall inflation, 47.5%.
00:16:38.280 A blockade eliminating all Forex earnings pushes the real into terminal hyperinflation.
00:16:46.240 the regime issued its largest ever banknote 10 million reals what do you think that's worth
00:16:53.300 i have no idea what is that now about seven bucks 10 million reals seven bucks the bottom line is
00:17:00.560 this a naval blockade imposes 435 million dollars a day in combined economic damage
00:17:07.700 storage fills in 13 days forcing well shut-ins that cause permanent reservoir damage the real
00:17:14.960 enters terminal collapse, Iran's alternatives outside the strait can replace less than 10%
00:17:20.760 of the Gulf through point. The blockade makes continued resistance economically impossible.
00:17:28.060 That is the leverage President Trump is applying right now. Every day, Americans make choices that
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00:19:03.500 Let's talk about the timeline here about we're talking about not months of survival economically.
00:19:08.780 We're talking about catastrophic blows to their economy center each and every day and certainly each week that goes by.
00:19:18.040 And when you say that's the leverage, like you're not that's not hyperbole.
00:19:21.660 That's I mean, on the ground there, when you're limiting people taking out under thirty dollars a day, that's how bad it is.
00:19:28.780 they're forcing people to make those types of decisions because otherwise the entire economy
00:19:33.620 will collapse instantly. That's right. And the pressure on the regime. And remember,
00:19:38.120 the Chinese are pressuring them, too, because the Chinese want the oil. And by cutting off the oil, 0.86
00:19:42.800 the Chinese are facing a real problem as well. And I think President Trump is just gradually
00:19:48.160 ratcheting up the pressure more and more and more. It's probably why they decided to risk
00:19:53.440 trying to run the blockade, because they desperately needed to move that oil. And it
00:19:57.640 turned out that is not an option they have in front of them. Well, final question on this,
00:20:01.880 and obviously we're going to have a lot more, but Democrats have been using, and I had dealt
00:20:05.540 with this on TV the other day, the word they keep trying to use is this is Trump's quagmire.
00:20:11.080 If this is the definition of quagmire, count me in for the rest of my life. I want to be a guy
00:20:15.460 that does quagmires because this has been incredibly successful so far. But they're
00:20:21.080 saying that clearly trying to sway political opinion of the president, that this is somehow
00:20:25.000 disaster these guys into a never-ending war this is iraq afghanistan 2.0 that is not the case here
00:20:32.920 but they're using it also for the midterms i i truly believe we're on the cusp of something
00:20:38.440 happening significant in a positive way for the u.s because of all this just from what you laid
00:20:44.060 out which is why i would tell people take this show share it wherever you can because when you
00:20:48.600 do hear how close uh the iranian economy is to like total collapse and disaster you realize just
00:20:55.640 how close and also how smart the president is to keep doubling down on the pressure because you're
00:21:01.540 just getting them even closer and close to the brink this is in no way a quagmire this is a
00:21:06.100 success on economic pressure oil pressure military pressure the list goes on and on
00:21:12.140 look in the iraq war we had boots on the ground hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground for
00:21:17.360 multiple years. In Iran, we have zero boots on the ground. That's a hell of a difference.
00:21:22.860 This is not remotely Iraq. The Democrats know that. Listen, the Democrats started the day
00:21:28.600 President Trump began this military assault. The Democrats began attacking, not Iran,
00:21:33.820 attacking him. It used to be that politics ends at the water's edge. I got to say,
00:21:38.760 we did a classified briefing with all the top national security officials of the admin just
00:21:43.180 in the first few days of this military conflict, and it was disgraceful. Democrat senator after
00:21:48.140 Democrat senator stood up and just attacked, attacked, attacked. They were totally opposed.
00:21:52.600 The only Democrat senator who's not is John Fetterman. John has shown a lot of courage
00:21:57.780 standing up and saying, of course this makes us safer. It does, and in terms of what's happening
00:22:02.580 already, we have seen a massive military success. Is there even one Democrat other than Fetterman
00:22:07.660 who will acknowledge the massive military success that the military goals President Trump laid out
00:22:13.160 have been virtually 100 percent accomplished. That is an unprecedented military victory. And
00:22:21.320 then the major goals of getting Iran to permanently stop enrichment, to hand over their enriched
00:22:26.840 uranium, to stop funding terrorism, and ultimately to remove, to cause this regime to collapse and
00:22:33.660 get out of power Islamists who are killing Americans, all of that is massively important
00:22:39.020 in terms of making America much safer.
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00:23:42.080 i want to move to qatar real quick and that is another big story here qatar is a country that's
00:23:48.440 very interesting how they spend their money they certainly do it to influence um our opinion of
00:23:53.840 them as a nation that is something that's very important to them and they spend millions and
00:23:58.580 millions and millions of dollars on our universities trying to gain favor to have
00:24:02.640 people think of them in a positive light. Qatar is now hiring PR firms, big ones in D.C. to help
00:24:11.100 cover and to whitewash them right now with their support of terrorist activities in the Middle
00:24:16.440 East. Let's just expose that for everybody right now so you understand. And plus, Qatar has been
00:24:20.920 interesting because it also deals with our friend, a guy by the name of Tucker Carlson.
00:24:25.040 Yeah, look, Qatar is the number one foreign funder of U.S. universities.
00:24:30.620 More than China, by the way, which is something that is a point, a massive asterisk,
00:24:35.840 because China has also tried to buy a significant amount of influence in the U.S. and our universities as well. 0.64
00:24:40.220 And think about the size of China and compare it to Qatar,
00:24:44.740 and that tells you just how important Qatar believes getting the minds of our kids and our colleges to look at them in some positive way.
00:24:53.780 Let's give you a sense of the scope.
00:24:56.580 The number one foreign donor to U.S. universities is Qatar.
00:24:59.620 between 1986 and 2005.
00:25:03.360 What do you think they've given?
00:25:05.540 I want to say billions.
00:25:06.920 Is that too much?
00:25:08.500 7.7 billion.
00:25:11.040 There you go.
00:25:12.140 Yeah.
00:25:12.340 You know how much they gave in 2025?
00:25:14.700 How much?
00:25:15.740 Over 1 billion.
00:25:17.140 Yeah.
00:25:17.540 They are flooding cash.
00:25:18.920 Number two is China.
00:25:21.000 Where do you think China is? 0.75
00:25:22.540 I'm going to guess a little bit below them,
00:25:25.480 but definitely close to a billion.
00:25:27.220 Well, in terms of the overall window.
00:25:29.620 I'll give you the 25 numbers in a second.
00:25:32.360 In terms of the window, 86 to present, the total is $6.4 billion.
00:25:37.220 There you go.
00:25:38.420 The next ones are Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada.
00:25:43.000 Now, what about this last year?
00:25:47.100 The most recent disclosures from 2025 identify Qatar, over $1.1 billion.
00:25:53.060 The United Kingdom, over $633 million.
00:25:56.820 China, over $528 million, Switzerland, over $451 million, Japan, over $374 million, Germany, over $292 million, and Saudi Arabia, over $285 million.
00:26:14.260 The top university recipients of those foreign funds in 2025 are Carnegie Mellon, almost a billion dollars, MIT, almost a billion dollars, Stanford, over $775 million, and Harvard University, over $324 million.
00:26:33.240 And if you look at the entire window from 1986 to the end of 2025, Harvard University has disclosed that it has received more money from counterparties located in countries of concern, which are countries that are enemies of America, than any other institution of higher education totaling over $610 million.
00:26:56.420 And Harvard is followed by MIT, $490 million, NYU, $462 million, Stanford, $418 million, and Yale University, over $400 million.
00:27:09.180 By the way, translation, our universities are for sale to the people that hate America the most.
00:27:14.200 They are, and the list of those universities that receive the most money from the countries that hate us
00:27:21.540 are almost exactly the list of the universities that had the worst anti-Semitic protest.
00:27:26.940 I mean, Qatar knows what it's getting.
00:27:29.360 $7.7 billion ain't cheap.
00:27:33.600 And, you know, what is fascinating on this also is you look at all the countries that invest real money.
00:27:43.660 And if you look at that, the number one is Qatar, who, among other things, funds Hamas.
00:27:49.120 do you know what who is what country is not on the top 70 countries what is that israel 0.56
00:27:56.720 yeah and i just want to say for all the knuckleheads online or it's like oh israel
00:28:01.880 runs everything israel's paying for everything israel's the money bags it they're buying 0.59
00:28:06.820 influence yeah it actually is really funny if you look at the list of countries i'm just going to 0.59
00:28:12.020 read it in descending order because i'm going to show you all the countries that put more money in
00:28:15.880 U.S. universities than Israel does. Qatar, England, China, Saudi Arabia, Bermuda, Canada,
00:28:24.480 Bermuda, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, India, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France,
00:28:31.700 Singapore, Australia, Kuwait, Denmark, the Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, South Korea,
00:28:36.500 Spain, Norway, Thailand. Oh, there is Israel. I'm sorry. I misspoke. Israel falls right below 0.51
00:28:43.360 thailand and below even bermuda there you go that's where they fall and i i separately uh
00:28:51.580 jumped online on ai to ask you know just how where does israel rank as a foreign funder of
00:28:58.800 u.s universities and the the answer from from google ai israel is not a top tier foreign funder
00:29:04.960 of u.s universities by volume while middle eastern nations like qatar and saudi arabia
00:29:09.420 have donated billions. Israel's contributed significantly less, with estimates of roughly
00:29:14.260 $300 million in donations over the past 25 years, often focused on specific research
00:29:19.660 or academic partnerships. And so it's just worth underscoring, because if you live in the twisted
00:29:27.240 world of Twitter and Twitter comments, you think Israel's paying for everything. 0.61
00:29:33.420 Yeah. You would think they'd be 10x Qatar or any other country. 0.87
00:29:37.440 So there's a reason Qatar has hired these two Washington PR firms. So one of the firms, it's the Qatar Foundation, a state-run nonprofit that Doha uses to peddle influence at American higher education, hired the Washington Media Group at a rate of $40,000 per month.
00:29:55.420 So good business to be a lobbyist to provide, quote, strategic communication support that enhance public understanding of its longstanding academic partnerships with U.S. universities located in Education City, Qatar, according to the firm's March 30th federal disclosure, registering it as a foreign agent.
00:30:15.260 the washington media group describes itself as quote a female female and minority-owned company
00:30:22.660 that crafts solutions to high-profile crises and protects and repairs reputations 0.99
00:30:28.460 its ceo and president and the agent listed on the contract with the cutter foundation
00:30:36.040 is a woman named crystal patterson who has a long history of running digital strategy and 0.73
00:30:41.900 communication for democrats such as hillary clinton ted kennedy and former rep tim ryan she
00:30:48.820 worked for the left-wing center for american progress focusing on quote immigration and
00:30:55.200 diversity policy according to her bio in other words immigration let in more anti-american 0.80
00:31:00.460 islamists who hate america so they then they can destroy america like sadly they're destroying 0.78
00:31:05.340 many of the countries um of europe she also is a graduate of northwestern university which boasts 1.00
00:31:11.320 a campus in Doha in Qatar that holds a contract with Qatar forbidding its students and faculty
00:31:19.540 from criticizing the Qatari regime. Let me repeat that. Northwestern has a campus in Qatar
00:31:28.300 that holds a contract with Qatar forbidding its students and faculties from criticizing the Qatari
00:31:36.340 regime. It makes sense. That's money well spent right there. Look, you can't bite the hand that
00:31:43.220 feeds you. The Qatar Foundation also retained the law firm Venable at a monthly rate of $25,000
00:31:50.700 for government relations services, quote, pertaining to the public profile of the
00:31:55.340 foundation. Venable will, quote, help ensure that members of Congress and the administration
00:32:00.920 have an accurate understanding of Qatar Foundation's support for education and its work with U.S.
00:32:07.500 universities. You know what? The fact that they're freaking out and hiring lobbyists is a good thing
00:32:12.120 because people are on to them. By the way, these are the same guys that host the leadership of
00:32:16.960 Hamas in Qatar. They live like billionaires. They live like kings. They fund Al Jazeera. They're
00:32:22.560 spreading Islamist propaganda. They're supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. They're spreading 0.69
00:32:27.920 anti-American garbage. They're spreading 1.00
00:32:30.180 anti-Semitic garbage. They're funding 1.00
00:32:32.080 these violent radicals on
00:32:34.220 campuses, these communists
00:32:36.220 on campus. And I will say,
00:32:38.840 you know what Cutter also funded?
00:32:41.260 What's that?
00:32:42.560 Spies spying on me.
00:32:44.220 It's been publicly reported. They hired
00:32:46.080 spies. Look, they wanted to know
00:32:48.240 what you were doing, sir. Yeah, I gotta
00:32:50.080 say, my life's pretty boring. So, you know,
00:32:52.080 if you want to see me
00:32:53.280 sitting at home at
00:32:55.860 At what time is it?
00:32:57.660 Midnight?
00:32:58.160 Yeah, it's one in the morning, sir.
00:33:00.340 One in the morning.
00:33:01.040 One in the morning.
00:33:02.340 They could have hired me for 50 grand.
00:33:04.120 I would have told them what you were doing at one in the morning.
00:33:05.880 Doing vertical Ted Cruz.
00:33:07.200 Yeah, no, it's really exciting.
00:33:09.780 There is, you know, Heidi and the girls are sound asleep.
00:33:12.120 And I'm in the room, sadly, not too far from the cat litter for our cats that Carolina adores.
00:33:20.280 So their spies, I think, are pretty bored right now.
00:33:23.660 Yeah, 50 grand a month, I'm just saying.
00:33:25.560 unbelievable we're going to keep you updated on everything that's going on in the ram we'll keep
00:33:29.660 you updated obviously as we expose more on qatar and this money that's coming in don't forget we
00:33:34.940 do this show monday wednesday and friday hit that subscriber auto download button and if you'd rather
00:33:39.380 watch the show most episodes we do on youtube or on facebook so you can watch them there as well
00:33:45.020 and the center and we'll see you back here on wednesday morning