00:08:44.720And 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.
00:09:28.340And they had elections in Gaza, and the people of the Gaza Strip elected Hamas, which is a terrorist organization.
00:09:38.260It pledges the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews.
00:09:42.700That is, that is, in its core mission.
00:09:45.520That's who the people of the Gaza Strip elected.
00:09:47.940Now, 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.
00:10:01.460And that money, instead of actually helping the Gaza Strip, helping the Palestinians, instead of building schools and hospitals, instead of building roads,
00:10:11.580they take massive amounts of that money and they turn it directly to terrorism.
00:10:16.740So, 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.
00:10:29.620They 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.
00:10:45.480And so the result is, the people of Gaza, the Palestinians, get denied relief they desperately need.
00:10:54.620Why? Because Hamas, who controls it, would rather kill Jews than help Palestinians.
00:11:02.580And 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?
00:11:42.440Donald Trump did it. Absolutely, you can stop it.
00:11:44.880The 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.
00:11:59.120And the result is, the world's a lot more dangerous.
00:12:02.140Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:12:08.700Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:12:15.800And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:12:42.960Senator, 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.
00:12:57.860Putting Americans last and putting others first around the world and this money we don't have.
00:13:03.640We're going to have to borrow this money.
00:13:05.260We're going to have to pay interest on this money.
00:13:07.060And it seems like there's no end in sight for the obsession with sending money to Ukraine.
00:13:11.600We're sending more money to them than to Israel as well.
00:13:15.100Why did so many Democrats get along so well with so many Republicans on this one?
00:13:22.660How is it that so many Republicans can't just stand their ground?
00:13:30.220It is 10.07 p.m. Texas time on Tuesday night.
00:13:34.300I started this day this morning at a little after 5 a.m. voting on the Senate floor.
00:13:40.020And 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.
00:14:57.080I think it is very important that Russia lose and Putin loses.
00:15:00.820And 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.
00:15:13.400However, just a couple of months ago, every single Republican in the Senate, we stood united and we made a united stand.
00:15:22.640We 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.
00:15:39.200And we're not going to spend billions to stop the invasion of another country until we stop the invasion of our own country.
00:16:55.880And 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.
00:17:18.780Look, if it is up to House leadership, if it's up to the Speaker of the House, this bill will not pass.
00:17:24.080The 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.
00:17:37.480And by the way, the House has already passed strong border security legislation.
00:17:57.020If we pass H.R.2, I'll vote for this bill.
00:18:00.520If we pass strong legislation that forces Joe Biden to secure the border, I'm on board.
00:18:07.820And Schumer said not just no, but hell no, refused to allow a vote on H.R.2.
00:18:14.140When we were voting this morning, I was trying very hard to get a vote.
00:18:17.320Schumer locked down and blocked every single amendment vote.
00:18:22.160What 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.
00:18:33.280That's what I think is likely to happen.
00:18:35.680There is a chance, and you referenced it.
00:18:38.360There'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.
00:18:55.020I 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.
00:19:06.440But 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.
00:19:16.840And I've got to say, Ben, I don't understand why Senate Republican leadership is trying to lead the attack on House Republican leadership.
00:19:27.760What was in it for Republicans that just caved on this?
00:19:31.140I 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.
00:19:39.880I'm like, all right, so what did you get?
00:19:41.620Like, 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?
00:19:51.540So let me be a little more forgiving in this sense.
00:19:56.080You know, there are folks that said, what did they get?
00:20:39.320I 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.
00:20:53.900And I think it's combined with there are a lot of Republican senators that basically they don't like a fight.
00:21:02.060And 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.
00:21:14.420And I don't understand why they expect Chuck Schumer to stand strong and never blink.
00:21:20.280And yet their solution is always, well, therefore, we got to give Schumer what he wants.
00:21:25.220But but that's temperamentally the view of far too many Republicans in Congress.
00:21:30.100As 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.
00:21:39.960Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them.
00:21:46.500And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:21:50.320I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.
00:21:52.360And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:22:02.140So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:22:05.360Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:22:29.720So we played, obviously, Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch are conservatives.
00:22:34.460But but let's let's listen now to Justice Elena Kagan.
00:22:37.720And remember what I said at the outset, which is that I believe this had a very good chance of being unanimous.
00:22:43.420I think the chief justice desperately wants it to be unanimous.
00:22:46.400And 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.
00:22:55.640She was the former dean of the Harvard Law School.
00:22:58.360She was former solicitor general of the United States.
00:23:02.540Listen to Justice Kagan asking the Colorado lawyer, Jason Murray, questions.
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00:25:27.680But 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.
00:25:37.780In 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.
00:25:49.840So whatever means there are to enforce it would suggest that they have to be federal national means.
00:25:56.140Why 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.
00:26:13.740I mean, that seems quite extraordinary, doesn't it?
00:26:16.380No, 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.
00:26:24.220And certainly it's not unusual that questions of national importance come up.
00:26:28.720Well, I suppose this court would be saying something along the lines of that a state has the power to do it.
00:26:34.260But I guess I was I was asking you to go a little bit further and saying why should that be the right rule?
00:26:39.740Why should a single state have the ability to make this determination not only for their own citizens, but for the rest of the nation?
00:26:48.080Because Article 2 gives them the power to appoint their own electors as they see fit.
00:26:54.160But 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.
00:27:04.080And 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.
00:27:20.480I mean, Senator, even she, someone you would expect would be on the side of Colorado not really having it either.
00:27:26.140Yeah, look, and as I said, I don't think any justices are going to vote with Colorado.
00:27:31.660I think we're going to see in all likelihood a unanimous decision.
00:27:35.060And 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.
00:27:46.080Justice Kagan's pointing that, pointing out, well, why does one state get to do this?
00:27:49.360And if one state gets to do it, couldn't another state do something different?
00:28:28.640And 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.
00:28:44.380Could a state determine that that person has given aid and comfort to the enemy and therefore keep that person off the ballot?
00:28:54.380This court has never interpreted the aid and comfort language, which also is present.
00:28:58.460So 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.
00:29:09.380You're going to see red states throw Joe Biden off the ballot.
00:29:11.880And the hypothetical that that Sam Alito asked, it's a very good hypothetical.
00:29:16.100He'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.
00:29:32.580And Joe Biden has flowed $100 billion to the Ayatollah.
00:29:38.160Now, as Justice Alito pointed out, Biden argues it's for diplomatic reasons.
00:29:42.660But 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.
00:30:00.740I 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.
00:30:17.600And so I'm going to reiterate, I think the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court reverses this decision are 100 percent.
00:30:26.320And I think the chances are significant, more likely than not, that the decision will be unanimous.
00:30:33.600And I think we will get it this month, the month of February.
00:30:37.140As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:30:42.140Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.
00:30:45.800You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:30:49.160I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:30:52.680And we will see you back here on Monday morning.