Verdict with Ted Cruz - Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.380 Well, happy Monday.

00:00:06.680 Welcome.

00:00:07.120 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.560 And if you missed our podcast that we did over the weekend on the Zelensky disaster in the Oval Office,

00:00:16.440 I'm going to tell you right now, we put out that emergency pod.

00:00:19.340 Go back, listen to it, grab it.

00:00:21.900 That's why if you haven't hit that subscribe or auto download button,

00:00:25.320 make sure you do that so you never miss when those big moments happen

00:00:28.920 and we get together and do a show real quick.

00:00:31.800 Senator, we've got a lot happening right now, including a joint session of Congress.

00:00:37.580 It's going to happen on Tuesday.

00:00:40.140 But Zelensky left the White House and he hauled it to Europe begging for money.

00:00:45.500 Well, the fallout continues from the epic meeting last week between President Zelensky and Donald Trump.

00:00:51.380 The consequences have been massive.

00:00:53.480 As you mentioned, we did an emergency podcast Friday afternoon within hours of the meeting.

00:00:59.020 We put it out.

00:00:59.700 Normally we put out pods Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

00:01:02.620 We put out two pods on Friday, one Friday morning and one Friday afternoon.

00:01:06.380 We did it because we wanted to cover what was happening then because it was that consequential.

00:01:10.720 So I will say, as Ben just mentioned a minute ago,

00:01:13.800 if you didn't listen to Friday afternoon's pod, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it.

00:01:18.860 I believe this will go down in history as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting that has ever occurred.

00:01:27.260 We're going to break that down.

00:01:28.240 We're going to break down the fallout that has happened in three days since that meeting.

00:01:32.240 We're also going to talk about the fact that tomorrow is the first State of the Union address for the second Donald Trump term.

00:01:40.020 We're going to talk about what President Trump is likely going to say tomorrow and how it's going to be received.

00:01:44.960 All on today's pod.

00:01:46.120 Yeah, you've got to love the Oscars.

00:01:48.220 Every year it gets more and more woke.

00:01:50.260 And every time when you think they're done, nope, they'll double down on it.

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00:03:30.540 All right.

00:03:31.200 So let's give a quick recap of what you mentioned a second ago.

00:03:35.140 But you think this is going to go down in history.

00:03:37.600 This meeting at the Oval Office is maybe the worst Oval Office meeting in history.

00:03:41.340 It seems that Zelensky may be agreeing with you at this point by the amount of backtracking he's done.

00:03:48.820 He's done some interviews.

00:03:49.860 He's saying we can get this done with America. 0.51

00:03:51.880 He ran to Europe begging for aid, support, help, money.

00:03:55.580 And now there's basically the U.K. and France are like, you screwed up big. 0.75

00:04:00.840 We're going to try to help you put this deal back together.

00:04:03.840 And we'll be the liaison with the United States of America since you screwed it up so badly.

00:04:08.720 Well, Zelensky's Oval Office performance was disastrous.

00:04:13.460 And listen, at some level, it's not complicated what he had to do.

00:04:19.400 He was there to come to President Trump and seek his help.

00:04:23.460 Seek his help.

00:04:24.540 Seek the United States to stand with him in some way, shape, and form in their war with Russia.

00:04:30.980 And Zelensky is beleaguered.

00:04:32.620 He is a wartime leader.

00:04:33.940 He feels desperate.

00:04:34.820 But to be clear, the United States is also his principal patron, his funder, the person who has paid for the war for years, has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.

00:04:49.220 And so in any sane and rational world, Zelensky would come into the Oval Office, hat in hand, would come into the Oval Office being grateful for the support that the United States has given. 0.99

00:05:04.560 And to be honest, kissing Trump's ass. 0.99

00:05:08.620 I mean, this is not a complicated dynamic. 0.99

00:05:10.660 And by the way, it's also not a new dynamic.

00:05:15.720 I've been in a lot of Oval Office meetings.

00:05:19.580 Just about every foreign leader comes in and treats the President of the United States with respect.

00:05:26.000 That is incumbent on the office.

00:05:29.160 The United States is the world's leading superpower.

00:05:31.800 And so foreign leaders, foreign heads of state, whether they like the President or not, they treat the President with respect.

00:05:38.140 I will tell you, any president, if there were a foreign leader who treated them the way Zelensky treated Trump, would have been pissed off and the consequences would have been bad.

00:05:49.540 With Trump, the consequences were spectacularly bad. 0.96

00:05:53.580 And listen, one needn't be a forensic psychologist to understand that it is a really dumb idea to go into a meeting with Donald Trump and insult him and condescend him and attack him. 0.85

00:06:09.540 If you do that, Ben, I can actually give out the probabilities to amazing precision.

00:06:15.080 If you attack and insult Donald Trump, the chances that he will punch back are 100.000%.

00:06:23.480 Especially if there's cameras.

00:06:24.700 In every instance, always.

00:06:26.840 Yeah, exactly.

00:06:27.720 I mean, behind closed doors.

00:06:28.940 Yes, on global TV.

00:06:31.040 Yeah.

00:06:31.580 And that's the part where it was like such shocking tone death.

00:06:35.760 And you and I mentioned this in the pod on Friday, but the ambassador from the Ukraine, I think she summed it up perfectly, holding her head in her hands like this is a disaster that no one knows how to fix.

00:06:48.560 So, look, I think the problem is Zelensky has been surrounded by an echo chamber of left-wing Democrats.

00:06:55.180 He's been palling around with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

00:06:58.960 He's been palling around with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

00:07:02.500 He's been palling around with the New York Times, and he's become – this is a guy who appears in Vanity Fair, appears in People magazine, and he's become a leftist cause du jour. 0.98

00:07:14.380 And he made, I think, the stupid assessment of, gosh, all the people I hang around with, they hate Donald Trump. 1.00

00:07:21.620 They think Donald Trump is an idiot. 1.00

00:07:23.880 So I should go in and treat Donald Trump like he's an idiot. 1.00

00:07:28.300 And it was – I think he felt – I think Zelensky went into the Oval performing for the New York Times and believing that the world would be like, oh, Zelensky stands up and puts Trump in his place. 1.00

00:07:44.400 Ha, ha, ha.

00:07:45.720 And it was truly absurd.

00:07:47.660 It backfired enormously. 0.93

00:07:50.660 And by the way, this is the same political idiocy that led Zelensky last fall to go and effectively do a campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and to come to the United States in the middle of the presidential campaign to come to the United States and do a New York Times interview attacking Donald Trump a month out from the election. 0.98

00:08:13.660 And you and I did a whole pod at the time going, what the hell is wrong with this guy? 1.00

00:08:17.960 Is he just an idiot? 1.00

00:08:20.020 Look, I don't know who's going to win the race. 1.00

00:08:21.980 Both you and I thought Trump was going to win, but nobody knew for sure.

00:08:25.520 At a minimum, Zelensky knew there was some real possibility that Trump was going to be the president.

00:08:31.280 Did he think it made sense?

00:08:33.100 Like, what foreign leader comes – by the way, I wouldn't have advocated Zelensky should come campaign for Trump either.

00:08:39.860 He's the president of Ukraine.

00:08:41.080 He ought to be focused on Ukraine and stay the hell out of our elections. 1.00

00:08:44.620 Like, it was an idiotic idea. 1.00

00:08:46.540 There's no upside to this. 1.00

00:08:48.200 And then whoever wins, that's who you work with, and that's how it is.

00:08:51.860 So why would you risk it?

00:08:53.660 But this goes back to one of two things.

00:08:56.140 Is this because he's a fake politician in the sense where he's an actor that, you know, figured out a way to get this job, and there's no elections happening there right now,

00:09:07.220 and he feels like he believes the international press, which, by the way, did turn him into a rock star.

00:09:12.520 I mean, he became the Taylor Swift of dudes in politics and was piped in to the award shows like we had on Sunday night.

00:09:22.340 I mean, this is a guy that I think started maybe believing the press, that he's untouchable, he's amazing, he's this incredible leader.

00:09:29.760 Look, he thinks he's George Washington.

00:09:31.900 He thinks he's Winston Churchill.

00:09:33.320 He thinks he is larger than life, and everyone around him, and particularly Donald Trump, are just beneath him.

00:09:41.020 And that arrogance and condescension came out.

00:09:44.620 And it really is, I think it's the danger of believing your own PR, like believing your own BS.

00:09:51.300 Listen, I've met Zelensky multiple times.

00:09:55.600 You know, people ask me, all right, is the guy totally and utterly corrupt?

00:09:59.320 And I want to urge our verdict listeners, there is a danger in talking about Ukraine and foreign policy to fall into extremes

00:10:09.140 and to say either, Zelensky is a glorious hero defending liberty and everyone with morality will stand against him,

00:10:19.620 against the worst scourge humanity has ever seen, Vladimir Putin.

00:10:23.360 That's one view.

00:10:25.660 I don't think that view is right.

00:10:28.320 There is another view, which if you spend your time on Twitter, you could see as the sort of countervailing view, 0.83

00:10:34.040 which is Zelensky is a corrupt, evil autocrat. 0.99

00:10:38.160 He's a Nazi. 1.00

00:10:39.320 He's a terrible human being. 1.00

00:10:41.400 He started the war against Russia. 0.98

00:10:43.720 And Vladimir Putin is a misunderstood, kind soul who we just need to embrace because he's a giant teddy bear and we need to love.

00:10:53.820 Unsurprisingly, that view isn't right either.

00:10:56.880 And one of the things, look, that I love about doing a podcast, if you do a TV or radio interview,

00:11:02.860 both you and I have done a ton of TV or radio interviews.

00:11:05.880 If you've got five or six minutes to discuss an issue, you've got to talk about it in a quick little soundbite.

00:11:12.040 You've got to talk about it in a sentence or two.

00:11:14.280 This podcast, we can actually talk about issues and don't fall into the mistakes of believing the extremes on either side.

00:11:23.460 My view of this, has Ukraine struggled with corruption?

00:11:27.820 Yes.

00:11:28.180 It has for a long time been one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.

00:11:32.620 There's been endemic corruption throughout the government, throughout the economy.

00:11:35.880 Absolutely yes.

00:11:37.520 Is Zelensky implicated in that?

00:11:39.340 I don't know, but given the history of corruption in his country, it's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility.

00:11:46.000 It's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility of that.

00:11:49.740 The United States has also been shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars to this war with no accountability.

00:11:55.340 It's been dragging on forever and people are tired of it.

00:11:57.980 People want it to be over.

00:11:59.640 Donald Trump campaigned on we're going to end the war in Ukraine.

00:12:03.320 Enough is enough.

00:12:04.320 We're not sending our money there anymore.

00:12:05.900 That is a mandate that came out of the election.

00:12:08.620 Now, you may not like that.

00:12:09.600 You may not agree with it.

00:12:11.360 But Trump was not hiding that was the outcome he wanted.

00:12:16.380 Kamala Harris was not hiding the outcome she wanted, which is to pay for the war forever and ever and ever and keep shoveling cash to Ukraine no matter what. 1.00

00:12:23.580 But by the way, not enough cash that they win and not cutting off the money to Iran, which is making drones and sending them to Russia, that it's using them to kill Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

00:12:33.220 So fund both sides in perpetuity to keep the war machine going.

00:12:36.460 That was Kamala's position.

00:12:38.220 The voters voted for Trump.

00:12:40.020 That mandate means something.

00:12:41.720 But I will say, if you look at the aftermath of the Zelensky Oval Office meeting, it was a disastrous meeting for Ukraine.

00:12:52.860 I actually think because Zelensky's performance was so bad, it was not a good meeting for America.

00:12:59.760 Zelensky did harm to America, too. 1.00

00:13:01.660 Why?

00:13:02.320 Because who was happiest in the world about that meeting?

00:13:05.680 And the answer is Vladimir Putin. 1.00

00:13:06.880 I think Putin was laughing his ass off as he watched that because Zelensky was such a jerk that he did real damage to Ukraine. 0.99

00:13:17.480 And the consequence of Zelensky's behavior is it benefits Russia and benefiting Russia is not good for America. 0.97

00:13:26.740 I do want to urge everyone who listens to this podcast, as I watch Twitter, we're so captured by tribalism that there are people on the right who are fed up with the Joe Bidens and Kamala Harris's and the virtue signaling on Ukraine, that they've decided Putin is just awesome.

00:13:46.200 Let me be clear. 0.78

00:13:47.000 Putin is a KGB thug. 1.00

00:13:49.560 He is a murderer. 1.00

00:13:51.440 Putin is not our friend. 0.98

00:13:53.140 And Putin's ambitions, you don't have to intuit them.

00:13:58.380 You don't have to infer them.

00:13:59.580 He has told us his ambitions.

00:14:01.920 He has said that he believes the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century is the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

00:14:09.040 He wants to reassemble the Soviet Union.

00:14:11.500 In fact, he said more.

00:14:12.460 He said he wants to go back to the old Russian Empire before the Soviet Union, but that was even broader and that had Russia controlling much of modern Europe.

00:14:21.220 That would be a disastrous outcome for America.

00:14:26.000 My view is America first, which means I want our allies to be strong and I want our enemies to be weak.

00:14:34.820 It's the reason I've urged President Trump.

00:14:37.240 Yes, you campaigned on we should end the war in Europe.

00:14:39.940 Enough is enough.

00:14:40.620 Stop sending money.

00:14:42.140 But we want a negotiated outcome that is a clear loss for Russia.

00:14:46.560 Why?

00:14:46.880 Because Russia's our enemy. 0.82

00:14:48.700 Putin is our enemy.

00:14:49.600 And we don't want our enemy made stronger.

00:14:51.260 Zelensky's performance was so bad, so outrageous, so infuriating that Zelensky increased the chances of an outcome that benefits Putin.

00:15:04.320 And that is bad for Ukraine, bad for America and bad for the world. 1.00

00:15:07.800 Which brings us to now where we are.

00:15:11.360 And look, you've got UK and France and Ukraine that have agreed to, quote, work on a ceasefire plan and try to get, I guess, Zelensky back into a conversation with the president of the United States of America.

00:15:26.980 They're having this big meeting over in Europe.

00:15:29.880 A lot of different countries are there.

00:15:31.960 Where the summit includes France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Romania.

00:15:42.420 The Turkish foreign minister, the NATO security general, and the president of the European Commission and the European Council will also attend.

00:15:50.360 Now, you notice I didn't say the United States of America.

00:15:52.900 This is part of, I think, the most interesting part of President Trump's meeting with Zelensky.

00:15:56.980 It's like, look, you take us for granted.

00:15:59.520 You come in here.

00:16:00.120 You lecture us.

00:16:00.720 You have no plan for peace.

00:16:02.220 You clearly aren't here for peace.

00:16:04.040 Good luck.

00:16:04.880 And now all of these other leaders are having to step up and say, OK, let us try to help you fix this so that we can save your country.

00:16:15.320 Because he did so much harm to Ukraine.

00:16:18.440 And look, I say great.

00:16:19.800 If Europe wants to step up and fund the war for another year, knock yourselves out, guys.

00:16:25.820 Like our checkbook is done.

00:16:28.120 But it is striking.

00:16:30.120 It's an indication of just how disastrous Zelensky's meeting was, that he immediately ran to the United Kingdom, to France, to meet with the King of England.

00:16:41.400 All right.

00:16:41.720 Here's one story from NPR.

00:16:43.340 UK Prime Minister unveils steps towards a Ukraine peace deal, urges U.S. cooperation.

00:16:49.460 Here's what NPR reports.

00:16:50.600 Quote, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday laid out a framework for a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

00:16:56.100 One where Europe will lead the charge for securing peace.

00:16:59.580 Yay.

00:17:00.640 While still relying heavily on U.S. backing.

00:17:03.700 Boo.

00:17:04.440 The proposal is the result of emergency talks held by European leaders in London following President Trump's heated exchange with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House last week.

00:17:16.720 Over the weekend, leaders from over a dozen countries got together to discuss a roadmap for peace and security for Ukraine as the country faces its third year of war with Russia.

00:17:25.580 The emergency summit was also aimed at working to preserve Ukraine's relationship with the U.S. and Americans' involvement in the war overseas.

00:17:32.780 Starmer said that Europe must do the, quote, heavy lifting to secure a lasting peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and that the U.K. should lead the front.

00:17:40.920 He emphasized that, quote, this effort must have strong U.S. backing, which if he means more hundreds of billions of dollars, the answer is no thank you.

00:17:51.640 But he continues, quote, through my discussions over recent days, we've agreed that the U.K., France, and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, Starmer said at a press conference on Sunday.

00:18:01.280 Then we'll discuss that plan with the United States and take it forward together.

00:18:04.860 Now, it's interesting.

00:18:06.980 To do so, Starmer vowed the United Kingdom would ramp up its support for Ukraine.

00:18:12.300 That included a loan of, what do you think?

00:18:15.480 A lot of money, right?

00:18:17.040 What do you think?

00:18:17.980 Pick a number.

00:18:19.400 Oh, gosh.

00:18:20.380 See, this is when you get me in trouble because I'm going to either be way too low or way too high.

00:18:24.720 Let's call it 50 million.

00:18:28.920 So, higher than that, so you're even more pessimistic.

00:18:33.980 Okay, that includes a loan of 2.26 billion British pounds, which is $2.84 billion.

00:18:40.520 So, look, $2.84 billion, that's real money, except for the fact that the United States has spent about $175 billion on Ukraine.

00:18:50.120 That's part of the fundamental imbalance there.

00:18:53.160 Look, I love the Brits.

00:18:53.920 That's the other thing about finding money, like, you go back to Trump saying, like, we're no longer just an open blank check.

00:19:00.700 There was also something else that was said that Europe, quote, needs to step in and release some 200 billion euros, it's 207 billion, in, quote, seized Russian assets to help fund the war effort.

00:19:13.940 So, all of a sudden, they're now saying, well, we got 200 billion or 207 billion in U.S. dollars, 200 billion euros of seized Russian assets.

00:19:23.260 Maybe we should use that money instead of our own money to help them in Ukraine.

00:19:27.460 And I'm like, wow, you turn off the spigot in America, a brilliant, simple plan, and all of a sudden they find 200 billion euros sitting around.

00:19:35.900 They're like, okay, maybe we can give that to them now.

00:19:38.260 Yeah, look, I'm all for the Europeans stepping in and doing everything they can.

00:19:41.680 And if they want to do that, knock yourself out.

00:19:44.140 They're welcome to spend their money.

00:19:46.080 But we're not the welfare provider for the world.

00:19:50.840 And to be clear, why are we borrowing when we've got $36 trillion in debt?

00:19:55.540 Why are we borrowing money from China to give it to other countries?

00:19:59.560 That makes no sense.

00:20:02.560 And it is an interesting shift.

00:20:04.520 Now, look, I will say one of the frustrating things about this meeting last week in the Oval is the meeting was there to sign an agreement, an agreement that had been negotiated ahead of time.

00:20:16.080 And that agreement was an agreement where Ukraine would give the United States a substantial interest in its rare earth minerals and valuable resources to pay back the $175 billion we've given them.

00:20:30.860 That agreement made a lot of sense.

00:20:32.700 That agreement was pre-negotiated.

00:20:34.320 I think the White House thought Zelensky was going to show up, sign the agreement, and leave.

00:20:39.160 He didn't.

00:20:40.380 Instead, he put on this performance.

00:20:43.620 And I actually want you to listen to this exchange on CNN because it's a striking exchange.

00:20:50.120 The first speaker is Scott Jennings, who, by the way, Scott Jennings is doing a phenomenal job on CNN being a voice of reason and common sense, fighting against a bunch of numbnuts and left-wing commies.

00:21:03.920 He's really doing an effective job.

00:21:06.060 And he's, in this case, talking with Josh Rogan.

00:21:10.260 Josh Rogan is a very smart reporter for Washington Post intelligence.

00:21:16.600 He does foreign policy.

00:21:17.900 But, look, Josh Rogan and Scott Jennings do not often agree.

00:21:24.120 Listen to this back and forth as they're analyzing what happened with Zelensky in the Oval Office.

00:21:29.360 I don't know if he needs an apology.

00:21:31.600 He needs Zelensky to recognize the position that he's in.

00:21:35.100 Which to you is what?

00:21:36.000 We're their patron.

00:21:37.000 We're their best hope for the killing to stop and for them to emerge from this sovereign and prosperous.

00:21:42.520 And we're also their best hope as a business partner.

00:21:45.020 I mean, all Zelensky had to do today was put on a tie, show up, smile, say thank you, sign the papers, and have lunch.

00:21:54.020 That's it.

00:21:55.080 And he couldn't do that. 1.00

00:21:56.320 And this followed ten days of being difficult in private, and now one day of being stupid in public. 0.99

00:22:03.700 But I want to point it. 0.99

00:22:05.220 This did not have to go down this way.

00:22:07.140 Okay.

00:22:07.800 And however you feel about why it started, why it's going on, who's right and who's wrong, we can help them in this and come out okay on the other side.

00:22:16.300 And he's making it hard.

00:22:17.340 Now, first of all, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I actually agree with Scott.

00:22:20.320 Scott, and everything that he said was basically right.

00:22:24.080 Wow.

00:22:24.620 I know. 0.95

00:22:25.080 I'm going to get killed on social media for admitting that, but so be it.

00:22:28.740 He'll follow to something, and he has not.

00:22:30.400 So that was his point.

00:22:30.860 Well, I have a short answer on this.

00:22:32.120 Go ahead.

00:22:32.320 So the short answer is the Trump administration believes that if Ukraine goes into business with the United States, that in and of itself is a security guarantee.

00:22:42.080 If your interests become our interests, we're going to be interested in making sure our interests are secure.

00:22:47.820 So it would have been wise for him to understand the economic deal, the mineral deal, is a security guarantee in and of itself.

00:22:54.700 And he lost sight of that today in the argument premeditated.

00:22:58.420 I don't know.

00:22:58.820 I think Zelensky misplayed it in the room.

00:23:01.040 And we could disagree about J.D. Vance's position on it or agree on it.

00:23:05.640 But either way, Zelensky certainly had been briefed on what the right way to handle this was.

00:23:11.440 And all he had to do was walk in there and say, thank you.

00:23:15.640 I'm really grateful to be here.

00:23:17.380 We want to be partners with the United States.

00:23:19.320 We're grateful for your leadership.

00:23:20.680 Where's the papers and what are we having for lunch?

00:23:22.600 That's all he had to do.

00:23:25.060 And look, the posturing doesn't have to occur now.

00:23:28.620 If he is serious about wanting peace and ending this war, you don't have to keep posturing as a tough guy.

00:23:34.720 Everybody knows you're tough.

00:23:35.720 All right.

00:23:36.020 The Ukrainians are tough. 1.00

00:23:37.180 They're brave.

00:23:37.660 They're fighting a much larger country.

00:23:39.080 Everybody knows.

00:23:40.300 The question for Zelensky is, can you take off the military uniform and put on the uniform of diplomacy?

00:23:45.400 He failed the test.

00:23:46.200 He failed diplomacy, that test today.

00:23:49.220 It was not a hard meeting.

00:23:50.780 This wasn't something that was going to – it was harder to screw it up than it was to get it right.

00:23:56.740 Look, he needed mostly to be saying, sir, yes, sir, thank you, sir, may I have another?

00:24:02.620 It – and Scott is right.

00:24:07.760 Look, this deal on minerals had the advantage for Ukraine of having the Trump administration being an integrally involved economic partner with Ukraine.

00:24:19.640 That's really beneficial.

00:24:22.720 And the alternative is very different, which is without the United States, Ukraine's prospects are really dim.

00:24:34.000 And so if you know that your prospects for success are miserably sad unless President Trump supports you, in what universe do you come in and start attacking and insulting him?

00:24:48.920 Yeah, it doesn't – and this is now – how fast can Europe get this back together?

00:24:54.320 But I do love they found billions and billions and billions of Russian assets.

00:24:59.360 They're like, oh, well, maybe instead of our taxpayers over in Europe paying them, giving them, maybe we'll just take this money we've seized and frozen, and then we'll use that in the war effort.

00:25:09.700 That makes more sense for the short term, so we're going to go down that road.

00:25:14.620 It's amazing how fast Europe found cash when America said, no more from us, we're not going to be suckers. 0.80

00:25:20.040 Which brings me to tomorrow night.

00:25:24.740 Let's just have a little fun with this for a second, because you mentioned earlier it's the State of the Union.

00:25:30.520 Others are going to say, well, technically it's a joint session of Congress.

00:25:33.980 Can we explain very quickly why the first time the president addresses a joint session of Congress, it's not technically called the State of the Union, but afterwards it is?

00:25:43.880 Okay, so I believe tomorrow's address is the State of the Union.

00:25:47.160 You're right, but I think the sort of tradition is wrong.

00:25:51.620 The origin of the State of the Union comes from the text of the Constitution.

00:25:55.180 Article 2, Section 3 provides, quote,

00:25:57.900 He, the president, shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

00:26:10.980 And so that's the origin of it, that the Constitution says he shall give to Congress information on the State of the Union.

00:26:21.240 Now, traditionally, the first address the president gives when he's newly elected is not called a State of the Union address.

00:26:29.000 It's rather just called an address to a joint session of Congress.

00:26:32.600 And traditionally, the first State of the Union is the second address he gives.

00:26:36.980 So a year from now, that will be called a State of the Union.

00:26:40.120 In my view, the plain text of the Constitution is if the president's giving Congress his views on the State of the Union, it's a State of the Union address.

00:26:46.920 And so I think the tradition is wrong.

00:26:50.040 Now, it's interesting if you go and look at the history of it.

00:26:54.000 Initially, it started in writing.

00:26:57.400 So George Washington sent written messages to Congress instead of delivering them in person.

00:27:03.100 So did John Adams.

00:27:04.360 So did Thomas Jefferson.

00:27:05.520 So it started out that the State of the Union was delivered in writing.

00:27:09.080 Then Woodrow Wilson, in 1913, delivered his message in person.

00:27:14.300 And Franklin Roosevelt did the same.

00:27:16.040 The first radio broadcast of the State of the Union was in 1923.

00:27:21.860 And the first televised address was in 1947.

00:27:26.160 And it wasn't until 1965, which was not really that long ago, that President Johnson began delivering the address in prime time.

00:27:35.460 And then in 1966, the opposition party began offering a televised response to the president's speech.

00:27:43.400 So today we think of it as a national speech that's covered on TV on every one of the stations.

00:27:49.200 It didn't start out that way.

00:27:50.940 But but tomorrow we're going to see exactly that, a national speech given to the country, given to a joint session of Congress.

00:27:57.460 I'll be sitting there on the floor of the House listening to it.

00:28:00.600 And as will millions of people across America and all across the world.

00:28:05.980 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97

00:28:12.360 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:28:16.000 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:28:17.260 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:28:18.480 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:28:22.240 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:28:27.980 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:28:30.980 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:28:35.280 What do you what do you expect in this speech?

00:28:39.480 I mean, this is going to be one where I think it's going to be a lot about a we won.

00:28:44.460 B, this is what we're getting done for the American people.

00:28:47.580 I think the president understands how important this speech is to continue momentum moving forward for for Doge and other things.

00:28:53.960 But but I actually think this is one of the most important speeches he's going to give, because this is at that critical moment where it's like, all right, you know, are we winning?

00:29:03.920 Yes.

00:29:04.480 Here's what we're doing.

00:29:06.020 Here's what we promised we were going to do.

00:29:07.920 And keep supporting and backing us because we're all in.

00:29:11.640 So my prediction is the theme of the speech will be promises made promises kept and and and it will have many similar themes that the inauguration speech had about the mandate from the last election.

00:29:25.240 But the difference is going to be the inauguration speech was on the first day of the second term.

00:29:30.580 So at that point, nothing had happened yet.

00:29:32.920 It was literally raising his hand and taking the oath of office is what made him president.

00:29:37.140 So we hadn't been able to do anything yet in the second term when he gave that speech.

00:29:39.980 In this instance, we have seen the most consequential first 40 days of a president in history.

00:29:49.760 There's never been a president hit the ground running the way Donald Trump has.

00:29:53.140 There's never been a president issue as many executive orders do as much as Donald Trump is.

00:29:58.320 And so I expect the speech to be number one, I expect a lot of focus on the border.

00:30:03.120 So on the border, I think the president is going to say we had chaos.

00:30:07.740 We had open borders.

00:30:08.560 We had 12 million illegal immigrants.

00:30:10.060 We had the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. 1.00

00:30:13.580 We had an invasion at our southern border.

00:30:15.980 The American people said enough is enough is enough.

00:30:18.700 I expect the president to point to in the gallery victims of illegal immigration.

00:30:24.900 I expect to see the families of people who were murdered by illegal immigrants, whether Lakin Riley or Jocelyn Nungary or Rachel Moran. 1.00

00:30:36.200 And I expect to see the families to highlight this was a tragedy.

00:30:41.540 It was wrong. 0.82

00:30:42.540 And Americans were suffering every damn day, as I put it, at the RNC convention this year. 0.52

00:30:48.660 And we've seen in just 40 days the number of illegal crossings plummet over 90 percent.

00:30:56.500 I fully expect President Trump to say, you elected me to fix this problem, and we are fixing the problem. 1.00

00:31:03.640 If you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, if you're a Venezuelan gang member, get the hell out. 1.00

00:31:11.060 Because if you don't, we're going to find you. 1.00

00:31:13.400 We're going to arrest you.

00:31:14.360 We're going to deport you. 0.86

00:31:15.580 We will secure the border.

00:31:18.100 And that's a promise made and a promise kept.

00:31:20.020 I think that's going to be a major, major theme.

00:31:22.500 So I think energy, unleashing energy.

00:31:25.500 How important do you think this is?

00:31:27.100 I mean, is this one of those where you're like, hey, if you're on the team, you've got to land this?

00:31:31.180 Look, I think it's important.

00:31:33.300 I don't think it is, you know, game-changing either way.

00:31:37.340 I think the president will do a good job.

00:31:39.360 I've got to say, State of the Unions are always interesting.

00:31:41.380 And we'll talk about, on Wednesday's pod, we'll talk about how it was.

00:31:45.700 And so you and I will record this after the State of the Union.

00:31:49.240 That's going to be a brutal one, by the way, because State of the Union goes on forever.

00:31:53.680 And then I typically do various media.

00:31:56.320 I don't know if I'm doing Hannity.

00:31:57.380 I often do Hannity after State of the Unions.

00:31:59.360 But I'll do some media, and then you and I will record the pod at midnight or 1 in the morning.

00:32:05.360 But we will record it, and I'll give you my real-time assessments of how it went.

00:32:10.800 But, look, I think the president is going to do a terrific job with it, and I don't know that it matters.

00:32:17.440 I don't know that it will change anything fundamentally, other than I think a lot of people,

00:32:21.580 you will have tens of millions of people watching, and you will have even more globally watching.

00:32:25.960 And I think the basic message, the American people voted, they elected us, they gave us a mandate,

00:32:34.060 and we are delivering on that mandate.

00:32:36.440 We are producing results, we're doing what the voters sent us here to do.

00:32:40.960 I think that message is really important, and I think that message will be conveyed.

00:32:48.400 I'm glad of that.

00:32:50.200 I think that's really important.

00:32:53.320 By the way, I'll say one of the things that I'm looking forward to.

00:32:56.720 So later today, I'm going to do an event in the Capitol with the First Lady, with Melania Trump.

00:33:03.600 I'm going to do an event with the First Lady on my legislation, the Take It Down legislation. 0.99

00:33:09.840 The Take It Down legislation protects young girls, protects women from so-called revenge porn, protects them from deep fakes.

00:33:20.620 So we've seen multiple instances.

00:33:22.680 We've seen teenage girls who, one from Texas, Elliston Berry, who was a freshman in high school. 0.97

00:33:31.440 And she woke up one morning, and a classmate of hers, a boy in ninth grade,

00:33:36.280 had taken a perfectly innocuous picture of her from social media,

00:33:40.680 had used AI to create a deep fake to make it look like they were naked pictures of her.

00:33:46.300 They were not real, they were fake.

00:33:47.560 But if you looked at them, you thought they were real.

00:33:50.320 The AI technology is such that you can't tell.

00:33:53.340 And this boy in her class had sent it to her classmates.

00:33:56.120 And this poor girl woke up in tears, if you can imagine. 0.53

00:33:58.980 You and I are both parents.

00:34:00.480 It's hard to be a teenager any time.

00:34:02.380 But for a young girl to have all your classmates think they're looking at naked pictures of you,

00:34:08.300 or in some instances, you have deep fake videos where they can create pornographic videos of real people

00:34:14.340 that look like they're engaged in lewd and explicit acts.

00:34:18.660 And my legislation, the Take It Down Act, makes it, number one, a crime to post non-consensual intimate images.

00:34:26.100 And number two, whether real or deep fakes made using AI.

00:34:31.680 And number two, it puts an obligation on social media platforms and tech platforms

00:34:36.560 to take this garbage down when the victims notify them.

00:34:40.300 In Elliston's situation, I met with her. 0.86

00:34:43.140 She reached out to me as her senator and raised this.

00:34:46.940 And it's actually how I encountered the issue, because it was a concern raised by a constituent.

00:34:52.100 And I drafted this legislation in response to her concerns.

00:34:54.980 I met with her and her mom.

00:34:56.480 At the time, the pictures had been up on Snapchat for nine months.

00:35:00.320 And I asked her and her mom, I said, well, what's the story with the pictures now?

00:35:04.780 And her mom said, they're still up.

00:35:08.200 And they said, her mom said, I've called Snapchat.

00:35:11.600 I've emailed them.

00:35:12.580 I've gone round and round and round.

00:35:14.000 They will not take them down.

00:35:16.220 And I turned to my team. 0.97

00:35:17.540 I said, damn it, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone right now, this afternoon. 0.96

00:35:22.840 And I said, those pictures will be down today. 0.98

00:35:28.320 Ben, they pulled the pictures down within two hours.

00:35:31.340 Now, you know what?

00:35:32.100 It should not take a sitting United States senator to make a phone call to make that happen.

00:35:36.440 The victim ought to have the right to get that down. 0.97

00:35:38.780 And so my legislation puts a legal obligation on the part of the tech platform.

00:35:43.500 If the victim notifies them, they have to take it down.

00:35:45.880 So tomorrow, I'm going to do an event at the Capitol with the first lady, Melania Trump.

00:35:50.660 We're going to have Elliston Berry is there.

00:35:52.960 We're going to have other victims who have been victims there to highlight this legislation.

00:35:57.280 My bill has already passed the Senate 100 to nothing.

00:35:59.900 I believe we'll get it through the House.

00:36:02.060 And I think you could see the president talking about issues like that at the State of the Union as well, laying out, we have a mandate we're going to deliver.

00:36:10.020 And here's what we're delivering already.

00:36:11.840 That's awesome.

00:36:13.100 Well, we're going to have a big show after the joint address, State of the Union.

00:36:18.180 So get ready for that.

00:36:19.660 Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever you get this podcast.

00:36:24.100 And please share it on social media.

00:36:26.580 If you would write us a five-star review, we'd also greatly appreciate that.

00:36:29.780 It helps us reach a new audience every time you do that.

00:36:33.600 So if you'll do that as well, that would be huge.

00:36:35.600 And the Senate and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

00:36:39.320 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:36:42.400 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 03, 2025

Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term

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