Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 17, 2024


UNRWA Supports Terrorism, A Secure Ukraine before a Secure America, & Will SCOTUS be Unanimous in Colorado Week In Review

Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Joe Biden Chuck Schumer Elena Kagan Donald Trump Sam Alito Verdict Ben Ferguson Jennifer Stewart Caitlin Clark Patriot Mobile Jason Murray Ayatollah Thomas Jakari Jackson Justice Kavanaugh Mitch McConnell Benny Aharon Johnson Putin
Georgia Case Against Trump IMPLODES, plus Hamas Terror Tunnels UNDER UN Agency Headquarters A Massive Ridiculous Verdict vs. Trump, plus Biden Thinks Afghanistan Withdrawal was a Success & Biden's Weakness Led to Navalny Murder

Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

162.73

Word count

5,046

Sentence count

350

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

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

UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is funneling billions of dollars to Hamas, the group responsible for carrying out the deadly attack on Israel on October 7th, 2019. What is the connection between UNRWA and Hamas? Is this money coming from the United States? And could the Supreme Court finally rule in favor of Donald Trump in the case against him?

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 .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.300 Welcome, it's Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.780 Week in Review.
00:00:09.140 Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:14.400 First up, shocking funding for the United Nations going directly to terrorists that were attacking Israel.
00:00:21.960 We'll have all the details on that.
00:00:23.460 Plus, many Americans are very angry over massive funding still being forced down our throats to go to Ukraine.
00:00:33.340 So what's behind this funding, and why are they getting so much cash?
00:00:37.540 And finally, could there be a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court over the Colorado case against Donald J. Trump?
00:00:46.180 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:00:49.160 So let's follow the money here.
00:00:51.140 If UNRWA is getting funds from the United Nations, and we're the biggest donor to the United Nations,
00:00:59.740 we're giving money, and it's being funneled to those that are helping carry out terrorist attacks,
00:01:06.000 as well as protecting terrorists, and the planning, and the rockets that are being shot into Israel for years now,
00:01:14.160 while they've been in the same building.
00:01:16.980 Now, that's exactly right.
00:01:18.480 And as the Times of Israel reported, UNRWA's Gaza headquarters is located in Gaza City's upscale Ramal neighborhood,
00:01:27.360 an area that the Israeli, the IDF, had previously operated in and dismantled the local Hamas battalion and withdrawn its troops from.
00:01:37.260 And here's a quote from Colonel Benny Aharon from the IDF, who says,
00:01:45.680 The IDF was here previously, the first time was to destroy the enemy.
00:01:50.760 But when we were here the last time, we collected a lot of intelligence documents and findings,
00:01:55.240 a lot of prisoners, and thanks to this, we reached here.
00:01:59.520 Now we carried out a targeted operation to take this capability away.
00:02:05.680 We had a basis of information, but not enough to be able to dig down 20 meters to find it.
00:02:12.700 20 meters is about 60 feet.
00:02:14.480 We needed a bit more.
00:02:16.740 There's information we get from prisoners we capture, from computers we find, from documents, maps.
00:02:23.920 And they went down and discovered this terror tunnel.
00:02:30.680 Hazan, who is tasked with coordinating the brigade's underground operation,
00:02:35.580 said the main entrance to the tunnel was located under an UNRWA school in the area.
00:02:42.880 Wow.
00:02:43.400 And this, look, the UN, you want to talk about, number one, the UN has always been just a pit of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel hatred.
00:02:53.920 But they have funneled billions of dollars to UNRWA, which in turn is supporting terrorists and supporting Hamas
00:03:04.700 and employing people who participated in the October 7th terror attack.
00:03:10.760 What will America's response be to this?
00:03:13.920 Has the Biden administration said anything?
00:03:16.440 Are there anyone in his administration or the U.N. ambassador asking questions,
00:03:20.940 saying what the hell is going on at the United Nations Relief and Work Agency that's been knowingly,
00:03:26.040 as you described it, providing support to Hamas terrorists who committed these atrocities against over a thousand Israelis
00:03:31.880 and dozens of Americans as well, which I think has been overlooked as well by this administration?
00:03:37.660 Yes. So sadly, the Biden administration from day one has been funneling money into Gaza.
00:03:43.980 Look, early on in the Biden administration, I led a group of 17 senators saying,
00:03:49.860 do not give money to Gaza, because if you give money to Gaza, that will flow directly to Hamas and be used for terrorist activities.
00:03:57.720 At the time I sent that letter, there were 150 House Democrats who sent a letter to the administration saying,
00:04:05.760 please do give money to Gaza, even though it will likely be used by Hamas for terrorism.
00:04:12.620 We now know because it's been publicly reported how the Biden administration resolved that issue.
00:04:18.040 The Biden administration concluded that it was, quote, highly likely, those are their terms,
00:04:24.200 highly likely that money given to Gaza would be used by Hamas for terrorism.
00:04:30.000 Now, ordinarily, Ben, under U.S. anti-terrorism law, if it's highly likely the money will be used for terrorism,
00:04:36.740 you can't send the money. That would be common sense.
00:04:39.560 Well, what the Biden administration did instead is they formally waived U.S. anti-terrorism law
00:04:46.140 because their political ideology, they so wanted to send the money,
00:04:50.320 they didn't care if it would be used by Hamas for terrorism.
00:04:55.060 So in a very real sense, Joe Biden and the Democrats funded Hamas and the October 7th terror attack.
00:05:03.320 Which goes back to the bigger question in the aid.
00:05:07.120 It looks like American aid. We say, hey, we're going to send some to Israel,
00:05:10.880 but we're also wanting to send aid to Gaza.
00:05:14.840 But how do we assure that that money is not going to go directly in the hands of the terrorists?
00:05:20.700 We can't. And it is truly asinine. 0.99
00:05:23.920 In the wake of this horrific terror attack, what did Joe Biden and the Democrats want to do? 0.97
00:05:28.700 Let's send more money to Gaza. Let's send more money to Gaza. 0.99
00:05:31.480 And my view is stop sending money to people who want to kill us.
00:05:36.020 If you cannot assure that the money doesn't go to terrorists who want to murder Americans,
00:05:41.740 don't send the money.
00:05:43.740 And by the way, this past week, I led a group of senators urging the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation
00:05:51.560 into a U.S.-based nonprofit that raises money for UNRWA.
00:05:57.480 And it's a group called UNRWA USA, which is a nonprofit with the self-described mission to support the, quote,
00:06:07.400 work of UNRWA through fundraising, education, and advocacy in the United States.
00:06:12.900 And as I pointed out, here's what I wrote in the letter with several other senators.
00:06:18.520 Quote,
00:06:18.900 We write to call on you to open a criminal investigation into UNRWA USA, its principles,
00:06:24.320 and its leadership for knowingly providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
00:06:31.700 This support facilitated and continues to facilitate terrorism, including the October 7th terrorist attack
00:06:40.440 in which Palestinian terrorists killed or kidnapped dozens of Americans and over 1,200 Israelis.
00:06:49.540 According to its 2021 annual report, UNRWA USA dispersed nearly $5 million in donations to UNRWA that year,
00:07:00.120 making the organization UNRWA's largest institutional donor.
00:07:06.020 I mean, you hear that, and as an American taxpayer, it makes me angry to know that basically I'm funding the terrorists
00:07:18.460 that took out these attacks, not just on the people in Israel, but we still have not, I think,
00:07:24.820 gotten a full accounting from this administration on Americans that were killed and also taken hostage.
00:07:31.220 Now, sadly, that's right.
00:07:32.820 And the Biden administration, we've talked about before, when it comes to foreign policy,
00:07:36.840 it is all politics all the time.
00:07:39.520 And they set aside U.S. national security.
00:07:42.320 They set aside the interest of protecting our allies.
00:07:45.100 And they especially set aside the interest of protecting American citizens.
00:07:49.120 And it's made the world much more dangerous.
00:07:52.080 Senator, I want to ask you another question about just the response from this administration.
00:07:59.100 When this type of news comes out, there seems to be a no response or a very timid response.
00:08:07.100 And I worry that's because they've known that there's been this level of corruption for quite some time.
00:08:12.200 They're just now being faced with it in the government.
00:08:15.200 What do we, when did they know about the corruption with UNRWA?
00:08:20.060 And when did the warning signs start hitting them?
00:08:23.260 Was it before this attack or can they play done?
00:08:26.880 Now, we've known about it a long time, and I will say it's a bad day.
00:08:30.520 When I questioned the Biden administration, when I questioned the State Department, I pressed them.
00:08:35.160 Why do you keep giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza?
00:08:39.080 Gaza is run by Hamas.
00:08:40.840 Hamas is the government of Gaza. 0.99
00:08:43.320 And Hamas is a terrorist.
00:08:44.720 And by the way, if people don't believe you when you say that, just the tunnel system that we've seen since the Israelis have gone in is more than enough proof. 0.89
00:08:56.200 They control the entire city.
00:08:57.620 And understand, the Palestinians, so part of the leftist rhetoric, they say Gaza is the largest open-air prison on Earth.
00:09:04.160 That's a lie.
00:09:05.680 You know, Gaza is not run by Israel.
00:09:08.480 Gaza is run by the Palestinians.
00:09:11.100 Israel left the Gaza Strip.
00:09:12.560 So the Gaza Strip is a portion of what used to be Israel, and it is on the southwest portion of Israel.
00:09:21.920 And they just left.
00:09:23.160 Israel left and said, all right, there's a massive population of Palestinians.
00:09:26.620 You guys are in charge.
00:09:27.760 You run it.
00:09:28.340 And they had elections in Gaza, and the people of the Gaza Strip elected Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. 0.99
00:09:38.260 It pledges the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews. 0.95
00:09:42.700 That is, that is, in its core mission. 0.99
00:09:45.520 That's who the people of the Gaza Strip elected.
00:09:47.940 Now, understand, over the past decades, billions of dollars have flowed into the Gaza Strip in terms of relief, both from the United States, from Europe, from international agencies, from UNRWA.
00:10:01.460 And that money, instead of actually helping the Gaza Strip, helping the Palestinians, instead of building schools and hospitals, instead of building roads,
00:10:11.580 they take massive amounts of that money and they turn it directly to terrorism.
00:10:16.740 So, for example, and I've been to Israel many times, and when you talk with the Israeli forces, they explain money that goes into Gaza, say, to build water pipes, to bring fresh water to people who need it.
00:10:29.620 They take the water pipes, they cut it into six feet segments, and they use those water pipes, they turn them into rockets, and they fill them with propellant and explosive and shrapnel, ball bearings and metal that they can then fire into Israel. 0.91
00:10:45.480 And so the result is, the people of Gaza, the Palestinians, get denied relief they desperately need.
00:10:54.620 Why? Because Hamas, who controls it, would rather kill Jews than help Palestinians.
00:11:02.580 And every time I ask the Biden administration, okay, how do you make sure the money going into Gaza doesn't go to terrorism, their response, you know what they say?
00:11:12.340 What's that?
00:11:13.120 Oh, we trust UNRWA. UNRWA's great. Give it to UNRWA. UNRWA will be fantastic.
00:11:17.320 And it has been evident for a long time that UNRWA and Hamas are utterly intertwined.
00:11:24.380 A dozen UNRWA employees were actual terrorists on October 7th, and yet the Biden administration's position is, we love UNRWA.
00:11:34.360 Final question on this. Is there a way to actually stop the funds going into Gaza, going into UNRWA?
00:11:41.080 And what would that look like?
00:11:42.440 Donald Trump did it. Absolutely, you can stop it.
00:11:44.880 The reason this money has gone is because Joe Biden places a higher priority on his political ideology than he does on keeping Americans safe or keeping Israelis safe and our allies safe.
00:11:59.120 And the result is, the world's a lot more dangerous.
00:12:02.140 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:12:08.700 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:12:15.800 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:12:19.520 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:12:20.700 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:12:21.940 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:12:25.720 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:12:31.420 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:12:34.420 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:12:40.340 Now on to story number two.
00:12:42.960 Senator, there are a lot of Americans that are very angry that so many Republicans defected and did this deal with Democrats to send more funding to Ukraine than will be spent to secure our southern border.
00:12:57.860 Putting Americans last and putting others first around the world and this money we don't have.
00:13:03.640 We're going to have to borrow this money.
00:13:05.260 We're going to have to pay interest on this money.
00:13:07.060 And it seems like there's no end in sight for the obsession with sending money to Ukraine.
00:13:11.600 We're sending more money to them than to Israel as well.
00:13:15.100 Why did so many Democrats get along so well with so many Republicans on this one?
00:13:22.660 How is it that so many Republicans can't just stand their ground?
00:13:25.900 Well, it's incredibly frustrating.
00:13:28.460 Look, you and I are recording this.
00:13:30.220 It is 10.07 p.m. Texas time on Tuesday night.
00:13:34.300 I started this day this morning at a little after 5 a.m. voting on the Senate floor.
00:13:40.020 And the reason we were voting at 5 a.m. is because Chuck Schumer had kept the Senate in all night in order to try to force this vote through.
00:13:48.700 And he succeeded.
00:13:50.120 The vote was 70 to 29.
00:13:53.080 In other words, 70 senators voted yes.
00:13:56.080 29 voted no.
00:13:59.360 All the Democrats except three voted for the funding bill.
00:14:06.380 And yet there were just 29 of us.
00:14:09.640 I was a no.
00:14:11.180 There were 29 of us.
00:14:12.840 And that was 26 Republicans and three Democrats who voted no.
00:14:18.120 And listen, my reasons for voting no, we've talked about at length, but it's worth revisiting.
00:14:25.060 There are elements of this bill that I support.
00:14:27.620 There are even elements of this bill that I strongly support.
00:14:29.740 So, for example, this bill includes emergency military funding for Israel.
00:14:34.320 I think that is incredibly important.
00:14:36.240 I think we should have passed that months ago.
00:14:38.380 This bill includes funding to help Taiwan defend itself against communist China.
00:14:44.140 I think that is very important for U.S. national security.
00:14:46.840 And then, most notably, this bill contains tens of billions of dollars of funding for Ukraine.
00:14:54.560 Now, my views on that are mixed.
00:14:57.080 I think it is very important that Russia lose and Putin loses.
00:15:00.820 And there are certainly circumstances in which I would be willing to support military funding for Ukraine to stop Russia, because I think that's in the United States' interest.
00:15:13.400 However, just a couple of months ago, every single Republican in the Senate, we stood united and we made a united stand.
00:15:22.640 We said, we will not fund additional money for Ukraine unless and until we secure our own border, that we're not going to spend billions to secure the border of another nation until America secures our border.
00:15:39.200 And we're not going to spend billions to stop the invasion of another country until we stop the invasion of our own country. 0.88
00:15:47.240 Now, when I said that, I meant it.
00:15:50.020 Unfortunately, I think for a lot of my colleagues, they did not.
00:15:54.500 Because, as you know, what happened was Chuck Schumer and the Democrats refused to negotiate and agree to meaningful border security.
00:16:05.560 Instead, they demanded a bill that in many ways would have made the border crisis worse, would have codified Joe Biden's open borders.
00:16:12.340 And when, as soon as the bill text was released, they negotiated in secret.
00:16:17.320 Within 24 hours, the bill had collapsed because everyone reading it realized it was a terrible bill.
00:16:23.140 What Republican leadership did next, I think, was indefensible.
00:16:27.920 They said, OK, well, if you people don't like Chuck Schumer's open border proposal, then never mind.
00:16:34.940 We'll just pass all the funding with nothing on the border at all.
00:16:38.320 I think that is an absurd position.
00:16:41.680 But unfortunately, 70 senators just cast a vote that way.
00:16:46.080 So what happens now?
00:16:47.380 Because what we're hearing is that this could move the House side.
00:16:50.640 Speaker Johnson has indicated no or probably not.
00:16:54.820 This isn't going to happen.
00:16:55.880 And then now Democrats, apparently, oh, Hakeem Jeffries is saying, all right, well, they're going to get together and they're going to get a game plan to basically ram this down everyone's throat.
00:17:04.920 What would that look like?
00:17:06.280 And what does that mean moving forward?
00:17:07.700 On top of the fact that the House majority for Republicans just got slimmer as well tonight because we've lost a special election.
00:17:16.460 Well, that's exactly right.
00:17:18.780 Look, if it is up to House leadership, if it's up to the Speaker of the House, this bill will not pass.
00:17:24.080 The Speaker has said so unequivocally that the House is not going to take up and pass any military funding for Ukraine unless and until it contains serious and meaningful border security.
00:17:37.480 And by the way, the House has already passed strong border security legislation.
00:17:41.540 That is H.R.2.
00:17:42.900 The House passed that months ago.
00:17:44.920 Chuck Schumer refused to take it up.
00:17:47.560 I introduced H.R.2 in the Senate.
00:17:49.640 I'm the author of H.R.2 in the United States Senate.
00:17:52.020 I had it as an amendment to this bill.
00:17:54.260 And by the way, I was clear.
00:17:55.980 I said, you know what?
00:17:57.020 If we pass H.R.2, I'll vote for this bill.
00:18:00.520 If we pass strong legislation that forces Joe Biden to secure the border, I'm on board.
00:18:07.820 And Schumer said not just no, but hell no, refused to allow a vote on H.R.2.
00:18:14.140 When we were voting this morning, I was trying very hard to get a vote.
00:18:17.320 Schumer locked down and blocked every single amendment vote.
00:18:22.160 What I expect Republican leadership in the House to do is to take up this bill and to attach strong border security to it and then send it back to the Senate.
00:18:33.280 That's what I think is likely to happen.
00:18:35.680 There is a chance, and you referenced it.
00:18:38.360 There's some Democrats talking about trying to do what's called a discharge petition, which is all the House Democrats teaming up with a handful of hawkish Republicans to basically overrule the Speaker of the House and force the bill onto the floor.
00:18:55.020 I don't think that will happen, and it is the sort of move that would be just absolute rebellion by the rank-and-file Republican members.
00:19:06.440 But that is really what Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer's plan is, is to try to use this bill to directly attack the Republican Speaker of the House.
00:19:16.840 And I've got to say, Ben, I don't understand why Senate Republican leadership is trying to lead the attack on House Republican leadership.
00:19:25.720 Well, one final question on this.
00:19:27.760 What was in it for Republicans that just caved on this?
00:19:31.140 I mean, I know, and I'm cynical because I've been around it probably too long, and you're probably, you see it every day, so you're cynical, too.
00:19:39.880 I'm like, all right, so what did you get?
00:19:41.620 Like, to make you not listen to the American people and just go along with this, what was the incentive there to side with the Democrats?
00:19:51.540 So let me be a little more forgiving in this sense.
00:19:56.080 You know, there are folks that said, what did they get?
00:19:58.260 They're compromised.
00:19:59.060 Look, in my experience, that's not how Washington works. 0.92
00:20:03.080 I don't think there's anybody with a folder of people having, you know, sexual relations with barnyard animals. 0.69
00:20:10.080 And I don't think this is compromise.
00:20:12.520 I don't think it's – and I also don't think, for the people who voted for this, that what did they get?
00:20:18.480 I don't think that they're like the Biden family in terms of making millions of dollars off of this.
00:20:24.680 I don't think that's why it happened, at least among the Republicans.
00:20:28.080 I think a great many of them passionately believe that it is in America's interest for Ukraine to beat Russia.
00:20:37.660 And I understand that sentiment.
00:20:39.320 I think Russia's winning this war would be very, very bad for America and over the long term would be much more expensive for American taxpayers than it would be to defeat Russia and Ukraine. 0.92
00:20:50.640 So I want Russia to lose.
00:20:53.900 And I think it's combined with there are a lot of Republican senators that basically they don't like a fight.
00:21:02.060 And in any given fight, when you ask them, all right, let's hold the line and say we won't do this unless we get real border security, they look at you and say, well, Chuck Schumer would never do that.
00:21:14.420 And I don't understand why they expect Chuck Schumer to stand strong and never blink.
00:21:20.280 And yet their solution is always, well, therefore, we got to give Schumer what he wants.
00:21:25.220 But but that's temperamentally the view of far too many Republicans in Congress.
00:21:30.100 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:21:39.960 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.70
00:21:46.500 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:21:50.320 I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.
00:21:52.360 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:22:02.140 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:22:05.360 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:22:10.840 I want to get back to the big story.
00:22:13.280 Number three of the week you may have missed.
00:22:15.880 It's it's amazing that Colorado took it this far, because, you know, to me, this seems like there's a decent chance.
00:22:22.360 This could be exactly what you thought.
00:22:24.180 It could be a unanimous decision or even an eight to one.
00:22:27.980 Well, and to underscore that.
00:22:29.720 So we played, obviously, Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch are conservatives.
00:22:34.460 But but let's let's listen now to Justice Elena Kagan.
00:22:37.720 And remember what I said at the outset, which is that I believe this had a very good chance of being unanimous.
00:22:43.420 I think the chief justice desperately wants it to be unanimous.
00:22:46.400 And I think the way it gets to be unanimous in particular is the chief justice goes to Elena Kagan, who I think is is the smartest of the liberal justices.
00:22:55.640 She was the former dean of the Harvard Law School.
00:22:58.360 She was former solicitor general of the United States.
00:23:00.740 She's she's very, very smart.
00:23:02.540 Listen to Justice Kagan asking the Colorado lawyer, Jason Murray, questions.
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00:25:01.660 That's 972-PATRIOT.
00:25:04.300 Take a listen to this very interesting back and forth between Justice Kagan and the Colorado lawyer, Jason Murray.
00:25:12.200 Justice Kavanaugh, there has to be some process for determining those questions.
00:25:15.880 And then the question becomes, does anything in the 14th Amendment say that only Congress can create that process?
00:25:22.100 And Section 5 very clearly is not an exclusive provision.
00:25:25.660 It says Congress shall have power.
00:25:27.680 But maybe put most boldly, I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States.
00:25:37.780 In other words, you know, this question of whether a former president is disqualified for insurrection to be president again is, you know, just say it.
00:25:47.120 It sounds awfully national to me.
00:25:49.840 So whatever means there are to enforce it would suggest that they have to be federal national means.
00:25:56.140 Why does, you know, if you weren't from Colorado and you were from Wisconsin or you were from Michigan and it really, you know, what the Michigan Secretary of State did is going to make the difference between, you know, whether candidate A is elected or candidate B is elected.
00:26:13.740 I mean, that seems quite extraordinary, doesn't it?
00:26:16.380 No, Your Honor, because ultimately it's this court that's going to decide that question of federal constitutional eligibility and settle the issue for the nation.
00:26:24.220 And certainly it's not unusual that questions of national importance come up.
00:26:28.720 Well, I suppose this court would be saying something along the lines of that a state has the power to do it.
00:26:34.260 But I guess I was I was asking you to go a little bit further and saying why should that be the right rule?
00:26:39.740 Why should a single state have the ability to make this determination not only for their own citizens, but for the rest of the nation?
00:26:48.080 Because Article 2 gives them the power to appoint their own electors as they see fit.
00:26:54.160 But if they're going to use a federal constitutional qualification as a ballot access determinant, then it's creating a federal constitutional question that then this court decides.
00:27:04.080 And other courts, other states, if this court affirms the decision below determining that President Trump is ineligible to be president, other states would still have to determine what effect that would have on their own state's law and state procedure.
00:27:18.180 Well, I mean, if we if we affirmed.
00:27:20.480 I mean, Senator, even she, someone you would expect would be on the side of Colorado not really having it either.
00:27:26.140 Yeah, look, and as I said, I don't think any justices are going to vote with Colorado.
00:27:31.660 I think we're going to see in all likelihood a unanimous decision.
00:27:35.060 And she's focusing on, you know, earlier we played Ketanji Brown Jackson, and she was focusing on the fact that the president is not an officer that is specified in the 14th Amendment, Section 3.
00:27:46.080 Justice Kagan's pointing that, pointing out, well, why does one state get to do this?
00:27:49.360 And if one state gets to do it, couldn't another state do something different?
00:27:52.100 What do you do with that?
00:27:53.040 And let's let's do one other clip.
00:27:55.800 Which emphasizes that point.
00:27:58.060 And you remember, we did an entire podcast talking about the the amicus brief that I filed.
00:28:02.860 And this was an argument that that I made on behalf of 170 members of Congress.
00:28:06.840 And I think it's a really powerful argument.
00:28:09.280 Let's listen to Justice Alito asking about that argument in particular.
00:28:13.880 Thank you.
00:28:15.200 Thank you, counsel.
00:28:16.340 Justice Thomas.
00:28:18.020 Justice Alito.
00:28:20.280 Suppose there's a country that proclaims again and again and again that the United States,
00:28:25.800 is its biggest enemy.
00:28:28.640 And suppose that the president of the United States, for diplomatic reasons, think that it's in the best interest of the United States to provide funds or release funds so that they can be used by that by that country.
00:28:44.380 Could a state determine that that person has given aid and comfort to the enemy and therefore keep that person off the ballot?
00:28:53.480 No, Your Honor.
00:28:54.380 This court has never interpreted the aid and comfort language, which also is present.
00:28:58.460 So that's another enormous problem with Colorado's argument, which is that if Colorado is able to throw Donald Trump off the ballot, you're going to see other states act.
00:29:09.380 You're going to see red states throw Joe Biden off the ballot.
00:29:11.880 And the hypothetical that that Sam Alito asked, it's a very good hypothetical.
00:29:16.100 He's obviously talking about Iran and Iran is led by an Ayatollah who chants death to America, who has murdered hundreds upon hundreds of servicemen and women, American servicemen and women, who's the biggest funder of state funder of terrorism in the world. 0.76
00:29:32.580 And Joe Biden has flowed $100 billion to the Ayatollah.
00:29:38.160 Now, as Justice Alito pointed out, Biden argues it's for diplomatic reasons.
00:29:42.660 But but under the argument of Colorado, you could the some other state could say, well, no, we conclude you're giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
00:29:51.420 So Joe Biden is off the ballot.
00:29:53.060 And and the lawyer's answer was just, well, no, no, no, no, that's a different provision.
00:29:57.660 So, no, no, we like Joe Biden.
00:29:59.860 So you can't do that.
00:30:00.740 I think that demonstrates that that the theory behind this decision is insupportable and it leads to chaos and it fundamentally leads to judges battling each other to decide elections rather than the voters deciding elections.
00:30:17.600 And so I'm going to reiterate, I think the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court reverses this decision are 100 percent.
00:30:26.320 And I think the chances are significant, more likely than not, that the decision will be unanimous.
00:30:33.600 And I think we will get it this month, the month of February.
00:30:37.140 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
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00:30:45.800 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
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00:30:52.680 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
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