Verdict with Ted Cruz - Verdict Year in Review Part 1 ： Border Chaos as Title 42 Ends, The Trump Indictment, & Big Victories for Texas

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.320 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.300 And as we get ready for a new year,

00:00:11.840 it's important that we take a look back at some of the biggest stories of this past year.

00:00:17.080 Some of the biggest conversations that Senator Ted Cruz and I had.

00:00:20.340 And that's exactly what we're going to do.

00:00:22.160 Give you some of those big stories and things to look forward to

00:00:25.840 or issues that you may need to be paying attention to heading into 2024.

00:00:31.220 Senator, you're at the border.

00:00:33.180 You are there where Title 42 has literally just expired.

00:00:39.760 What does this mean for the country and what have you seen today?

00:00:43.680 Well, Ben, you and I are recording this.

00:00:45.820 It is right now 1214 a.m. Friday morning.

00:00:50.340 Title 42 expired at midnight.

00:00:53.340 So for 14 minutes, the last legal authority the Biden administration was using to deport illegal aliens is no longer in effect.

00:01:04.240 From the first day of the Biden presidency until today,

00:01:09.280 we've seen over six and a half million people cross into this country.

00:01:12.760 The worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. 1.00

00:01:17.180 As of right now, it is about to get much, much worse.

00:01:23.340 And so I flew down this afternoon, Thursday afternoon, and came to the southern border with with three other senators,

00:01:31.980 with Roger Marshall, with John Hoven and Ted Budd.

00:01:35.820 And the four of us wanted to see firsthand what is happening here.

00:01:39.560 We wanted to be here for the expiration of Title 42 to let the American people know what is happening

00:01:46.180 and that the Biden administration wants this absolute catastrophe to unfold.

00:01:52.820 It is truly shocking to watch the images that so many Americans saw and will see over the weekend of the drone footage,

00:02:02.080 if you've been watching Fox News Channel, of tens of thousands of people waiting to come across the border.

00:02:09.440 And there was a warning that was given advice that was given not only to the Biden administration by Border Patrol,

00:02:19.080 but we actually have a guest with us tonight that warned the Biden administration that this was going to happen.

00:02:24.760 And the Biden transition team clearly said, no, no, no, we don't care about the chaos and the anarchy.

00:02:31.080 We want this by design.

00:02:32.760 Well, that's exactly right.

00:02:35.280 And so tonight, Ben, you and I are joined by someone who has become a very good friend of mine, Brandon Judd.

00:02:40.800 Brandon is the president of the National Border Patrol Council.

00:02:44.140 That is the union, the national union for the men and women of the Border Patrol all across this country.

00:02:49.700 And I have spent hundreds of hours with Brandon and with the heroes of the Border Patrol.

00:02:56.260 I've been blessed to go out with them repeatedly on midnight patrol down on the border.

00:03:01.920 I've been been with them at midnight muster.

00:03:05.400 I've been with them as they're processing this deluge of illegal immigrants. 1.00

00:03:10.280 I've been with them to encourage those heroes while they have political superiors who undermine them,

00:03:18.480 who belittle them, who insult them and who deliberately prevent them from doing their jobs.

00:03:23.000 And I have to say it is a miracle that they continue to show up to work every day to protect this country,

00:03:29.740 even while facing a president and an administration that is doing everything it can to make it impossible for them to succeed at their task.

00:03:39.160 Brandon, I got to ask you about the warning and the advice that you gave to the Biden administration.

00:03:46.720 You you gave advice.

00:03:49.280 You told the Biden transition team before even Biden took office what they need to do to keep a secure border.

00:03:56.960 You represent, obviously, is the president of the National Border Patrol Council Border Patrol agents who right now.

00:04:04.260 God bless all of you for what you do, because I can't imagine going to work every day,

00:04:08.100 knowing that the administration is working against you the way that they are right now.

00:04:12.900 But what did you tell them? And you knew this day would come and this hour would come and this moment would come

00:04:20.340 if they did and put in place the policies that they have now put on all of us.

00:04:25.100 Not just once. I sat down with the transition team three separate times to discuss the issues that we face on the border,

00:04:31.780 to discuss what could be done to to keep the American people safe.

00:04:36.880 And that's what border security is all about. We've got to keep the American people safe.

00:04:39.720 Here, Brandon, this was not just the Trump transition team, although you sat down with them as well.

00:04:44.220 I did. I was on the Trump transition. You were on the Trump transition team.

00:04:47.400 But when Joe Biden came in, you sat down with them. I did.

00:04:50.360 And you tried to help them not have this disaster.

00:04:54.180 I did the best that I could. I didn't vote for Joe Biden.

00:04:57.920 I don't like Joe Biden. I didn't like him as a senator. I didn't like him as the vice president.

00:05:01.640 But I did want him to succeed as the president of the United States, because if he succeeds, the American people succeed.

00:05:06.180 Yep. That's all I cared about. And so I sat down with the transition team.

00:05:09.120 I sat down with them three separate times and we went over in depth what needs to be done on the border, secure to secure the border.

00:05:16.380 And we even stayed within the parameters that Biden gave on the campaign trail.

00:05:22.260 It's not like we we offered them up radical ideas.

00:05:25.180 It's not like we were telling them stick with the Trump policies, although I would have loved to have stuck with those policies.

00:05:30.840 We work within their parameters and they still rejected it, which clearly showed to me that they didn't care about securing the border.

00:05:37.000 They didn't care about the American people who they're supposed to be protecting.

00:05:41.080 And so it was it was really disgusting to me.

00:05:43.760 And then not only did I sit down with the transition team, I actually spoke with Secretary Mayorkas prior to his his confirmation and discussed the issues with him as well.

00:05:53.280 And so when you look at this, it's it's not like they can claim that they didn't know.

00:05:59.220 It's not like they can say we didn't know what we needed to do.

00:06:02.140 They knew they they they know exactly what they need to do.

00:06:06.240 They knew what they needed to do.

00:06:07.760 And so you have to ask yourself, are they doing this on purpose?

00:06:11.180 And I think that the only answer is, yes, they are.

00:06:13.260 They are doing this on purpose.

00:06:14.580 They are pandering to open border activists.

00:06:17.000 Look at the West Wing.

00:06:18.220 Look at the West Wing.

00:06:19.680 All of the political appointees in the West Wing, they come from activist backgrounds.

00:06:23.960 Look at the look at the political appointees in DHS.

00:06:26.940 They come from activist backgrounds.

00:06:28.620 So now you have activists that are running legitimate law enforcement agencies.

00:06:33.420 Well, Brandon, you were with me when I brought down 19 senators to the border and we went in to to to the Biden cages, to the tent city at Donna.

00:06:43.880 And and there the Biden administration refused to let TV cameras and they refused to let Fox News in.

00:06:50.040 They refused to let ABC News in because they said that the that the cameraman might have covid.

00:06:55.720 Now, mind you, these these these Biden cages were packed wall to wall.

00:07:01.360 And as you'll recall and, Brandon, you'll recall, well, because you were standing there, I pulled out my cell phone and I began taking pictures and recording it.

00:07:08.480 And the Biden DHS had sent they'd sent this little political operative who jumped in front of the camera and tried to block me.

00:07:16.700 And she was she was the right hand to to to to to the head of CBP.

00:07:23.800 And her job was prevent the American people from seeing the disaster they were creating.

00:07:29.680 And so, you know, I kind of laughed and said, well, you're about to make yourself famous.

00:07:34.680 And I think that that video that I took on my cell phone because they wouldn't let news cameras in.

00:07:39.560 It ran on just about every news station.

00:07:41.600 It did. It did.

00:07:42.920 And it showed.

00:07:44.160 And at one point she was yelling at me, respect these people, respect these dignity, their dignity.

00:07:49.720 And I said, you respect these people.

00:07:51.820 You're the one that have locked them up in cages like animals.

00:07:54.760 And you leave.

00:07:56.320 They were stacked.

00:07:57.640 You saw children shoulder to shoulder lying on the floor on mats with with with silver reflective blankets.

00:08:05.640 There was a rate of covid positivity among the kids that was through the roof.

00:08:11.040 And the Biden policies kept having thousands upon thousands and ultimately millions of people coming.

00:08:17.420 Yeah, as a federal employee, as a Border Patrol agent, that was one of the funniest things I had ever seen in my career.

00:08:23.820 It was it was absolutely great to see this little political appointee, this little activist just absolutely lose her mind. 1.00

00:08:30.980 And that goes back to the problem that we're dealing with this with this administration.

00:08:35.580 We all want to have an honest conversation.

00:08:37.720 When I say we all want to, the honest people want to have a conversation so the American people understand what's going on.

00:08:44.340 I don't care if the American people agree with me.

00:08:46.560 I don't care if they if they come back and say that, you know, I'm wrong.

00:08:50.220 All I want is I want them to have all of the information.

00:08:54.760 I want them to be able to make an informed opinion upon all of the evidence, not just the rhetoric that comes out of the White House.

00:09:01.780 And if we have that honest conversation, I am absolutely convinced that the American people will agree that the border needs to be secured.

00:09:08.680 And I am absolutely convinced that they will blame what is currently going on on the border on this administration and that they will know that this administration is actually killing American citizens.

00:09:20.480 Fentanyl poisoning is taking place.

00:09:22.840 Seventy thousand U.S. citizens are losing their lives every year to fentanyl poisoning.

00:09:27.480 And it's all because the Biden administration does not allow us to go after the cartels.

00:09:31.960 They're enriching the cartels.

00:09:34.500 Brandon, how frustrated are Border Patrol agents right now?

00:09:36.960 Give me the real sentiment of the men and women on the front.

00:09:40.540 We're sick of him.

00:09:41.400 We're sick of him. 0.96

00:09:42.380 He's got to go.

00:09:43.600 As far as we're concerned, he has got to go.

00:09:46.900 And we're absolutely demoralized.

00:09:48.980 I believe that every hardworking person in this country, they want to feel like their job means something.

00:09:56.000 They want to feel like they have accomplished something.

00:09:58.740 They want to go home every day thinking that I did a good job.

00:10:02.560 Border Patrol agents cannot do that right now.

00:10:05.100 We know that every single time we put on a uniform that we're not doing anything.

00:10:10.000 All we're doing is actually aiding and abetting these criminal cartels with facilitating the transport of illegal aliens throughout the entire United States.

00:10:19.460 The fentanyl that's coming in.

00:10:21.000 We want to go after these cartels.

00:10:23.020 We want to go after their profits.

00:10:24.320 We want to stop sex trafficking.

00:10:26.580 We want to save migrants' lives.

00:10:29.140 And this administration won't let us.

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00:12:03.260 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

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00:12:08.120 And I'm Catherine Clark.

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00:12:26.200 There is so much of this Trump indictment that needs to be broken down.

00:12:32.260 That's going to be the goal today for people to understand this indictment.

00:12:36.760 Let's walk through exactly what they have charged Donald Trump with and also your overview.

00:12:43.600 How serious is this, in your opinion?

00:12:45.920 Scale one to ten.

00:12:46.980 We've seen, like, in New York, there was not a lot of people worried about that indictment.

00:12:50.280 They thought it was frivolous.

00:12:51.340 They thought it was kind of absurd.

00:12:53.000 Stature limitations.

00:12:54.140 There's going to be a lot of problems in court.

00:12:55.720 Is this different?

00:12:57.800 Well, the last podcast we did on Friday, we did it right after news of the indictment broke, but the indictment wasn't public.

00:13:04.520 What has changed between then and now is we now have the indictment, so we can see specifically what they brought.

00:13:10.780 I will say now, having reviewed the specific indictment, it's pretty underwhelming.

00:13:17.220 There's not a lot of there there.

00:13:21.140 We talked quite a bit before the indictment about how I believed it was extremely likely that the Department of Justice was going to indict Donald Trump.

00:13:30.260 That Merrick Garland, I believe, wants to indict Donald Trump.

00:13:33.800 I think he came into office wanting to indict and to prosecute Donald Trump. 0.90

00:13:38.120 But we also talked about the problem that he couldn't just base it on the classified documents because it so happened just about everyone else did the same damn thing.

00:13:47.700 And so we discussed on this podcast how I believe they would really build their case as an obstruction case.

00:13:55.860 What's interesting is they did that, but the bulk of the indictment focuses on the classified documents.

00:14:02.480 So if you look at the indictment, there are 37 counts in the indictment.

00:14:07.960 It starts with criminal offenses concerning the willful retention of national defense information, withholding a document of record, corruptly concealing a document of record.

00:14:21.380 Concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal.

00:14:25.960 And if you look at it, all right, so counts 1 through 31, so the bulk of the indictment, are multiple counts of willful retention of national defense information.

00:14:36.660 And by the text of it, the terms of that crime are serious.

00:14:42.360 Whoever, having unauthorized possession of, access to or control over any document, writing, code books, signal books, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative blueprint plan, map, model, instrument, appliance or note relating to the national defense.

00:14:58.480 Or information relating to the national defense, which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of any foreign nation.

00:15:11.220 Willfully communicates, delivers, transmits, or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmitted, or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted.

00:15:23.220 The same to any person not entitled to receive it.

00:15:27.240 Or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer, employee of the United States entitled to receive it.

00:15:33.600 Whoever, being entrusted with, or having lawful possession of, or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information relating to the national defense.

00:15:50.540 Through gross negligence, permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody, or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust.

00:15:58.900 Or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed.

00:16:01.960 Or, having knowledge that the same has been illegally moved from its proper place of custody, or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust.

00:16:09.400 Or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed.

00:16:11.920 And fails to make prompt report of such lost, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer.

00:16:19.280 The consequence of all of that is that you face a maximum fine of $250,000.

00:16:24.940 An imprisonment of not more than 10 years, or both.

00:16:30.360 Now, there's 31 counts of that.

00:16:32.980 If those 31 counts, if Trump were convicted of it, and if they ran consecutively, he could be sentenced to 310 years in prison.

00:16:42.680 Now, on the face of that, all that sounds serious.

00:16:46.580 Yeah.

00:16:48.100 Except for the problem that this is the President of the United States.

00:16:50.840 This is a President of the United States, and every President of the United States has taken papers from his time as President.

00:16:58.700 That goes back, I suspect, back to George Washington.

00:17:02.800 This is a general statute that if you or I are working in government, we have a classified document, and we shove them down our underwear,

00:17:10.580 like Sandy Berger, who was the national security advisor to Bill Clinton, did.

00:17:16.840 That's the kind of statute that can be used to go after you.

00:17:20.440 In this instance, the press has been breathless about the allegation that Trump stored classified documents in his bathroom, in his shower.

00:17:31.280 And the Biden Department of Justice media production office helpfully took a picture, which they conveniently released to the world because this is a media production.

00:17:44.720 And I say that tongue-in-cheek.

00:17:46.920 It should not be a media production, but they are engaged in politics here.

00:17:50.780 However, we've all seen the picture of the boxes stacked up in the marble bathroom with the chandelier.

00:17:58.400 And there's something titillating about that.

00:18:00.700 That's an odd place to store classified documents in a shower.

00:18:05.320 Although I have to ask you something.

00:18:08.700 Number one, every president has taken records.

00:18:12.380 So just saying, oh, if you have a national security record, you're obviously a felon.

00:18:15.500 And, well, if we're going to lock up all our former presidents, you know, I'm not sure Jimmy Carter is going to last long in doing hard time.

00:18:24.860 Bill Clinton, on the other hand, could do quite well behind bars.

00:18:28.960 But secondly, OK, fine, you've got an embarrassing place for documents to be, which is a bathroom and shower.

00:18:34.580 Is that any more embarrassing than in a cardboard box in a garage next to an antique Corvette?

00:18:42.340 Yeah.

00:18:42.740 That would be where Joe Biden kept his documents.

00:18:45.500 Or classified documents on a server in Hillary Clinton's basement in her bathroom. 0.69

00:18:49.760 At the end of the day, the biggest problem the Department of Justice has is the screaming hypocrisy. 0.91

00:18:59.960 This breathlessly says, my God, he had a classified document off with his head.

00:19:05.540 And it doesn't say a word about why they have no concerns at all about Joe Biden, about all of the documents he had, not in one place, not in two places, in multiple places, left with no security, left stacked in the garage, unlocked garage.

00:19:23.040 This is so obviously a double standard.

00:19:27.000 This is a double standard driven by a department of justice that's blinded by hatred.

00:19:34.640 I think they've convinced themselves that Trump actually is Adolf Hitler.

00:19:40.340 And so nothing else matters.

00:19:42.660 If you're going after Hitler, everything is justified. 1.00

00:19:46.960 And well, yes, Joe Biden did the same thing.

00:19:50.860 Well, yes, Hillary Clinton did the same thing. 1.00

00:19:52.960 But they're not Hitler.

00:19:54.260 This is how their thinking goes.

00:19:55.980 They're not Hitler.

00:19:56.780 So it's fine.

00:19:57.460 We like them.

00:19:58.320 They're on our team.

00:20:00.100 So it's not a crime if they do it.

00:20:03.620 But boy, isn't this a good excuse to go after the devil.

00:20:12.260 Looking at this indictment, I think the same thing today that I thought last week when it was announced. 0.99

00:20:18.880 This is garbage. 0.99

00:20:19.600 It's not the same kind of garbage that Alvin Bragg's New York indictment is. 1.00

00:20:28.860 That's just legally frivolous. 0.97

00:20:30.580 It's legally frivolous on the face of it.

00:20:32.820 Scale to 1 to 10, how concerned are you over that indictment?

00:20:35.960 1 to 10.

00:20:36.420 The Bragg one? 0.98

00:20:37.220 Yeah.

00:20:37.900 1.5.

00:20:38.960 And what about this one?

00:20:40.540 4.5.

00:20:42.920 What's the biggest difference then?

00:20:44.960 There's several things.

00:20:46.340 Number one, this is the Department of Justice.

00:20:50.400 Unlimited funds, unlimited lawyers, unlimited time.

00:20:53.720 When the Department of Justice comes after you, it is a lot more serious.

00:20:58.020 It just is.

00:20:59.600 DOJ has resources, has power.

00:21:02.660 It has the ability to devote massive resources and typically far more talented prosecutors than Alvin Bragg has at his disposal.

00:21:14.520 But Alvin Bragg on the face of it, the indictment is really reaching.

00:21:19.540 It's trying to create crimes where none exist.

00:21:24.140 In this instance, what they allege is arguably criminal for someone who's not the President of the United States.

00:21:32.240 The problem with it is the double standard and the political persecution rather than whether or not this is in fact a violation of law.

00:21:42.120 The pundits on CNN will all say, ah, they've shown a violation of law.

00:21:47.580 My response is great.

00:21:48.860 Explain to me why.

00:21:49.860 If you want to prosecute Trump, are he and Biden going to be cellmates?

00:21:56.880 If you bring twin prosecutions for the same thing and put Hillary in, have the three of them, you want to prosecute all three of them? 0.99

00:22:05.440 We can talk about that.

00:22:06.880 Now, that would be absurd.

00:22:08.240 Sure.

00:22:08.360 But that would at least be consistent to say, okay, any of you who had a classified document, we're going to prosecute all of you.

00:22:15.980 All right.

00:22:16.560 That I could understand.

00:22:18.820 This is so serious. 0.99

00:22:20.520 Off with all their heads.

00:22:21.960 But that's not what they're saying.

00:22:24.160 With zero explanation, they say when the guy we don't like, who used to be President of the United States, who is a leading candidate to be the next President of the United States,

00:22:34.940 when he does it, we will come after him and try to put him in jail.

00:22:39.420 When our boss does it, who, what?

00:22:42.640 Never heard of Joe Biden.

00:22:43.440 Who's that guy?

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00:24:14.780 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:24:17.960 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:24:22.060 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:24:25.780 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:24:27.000 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:24:28.220 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:24:31.960 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:24:37.720 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:24:40.700 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:24:46.520 There were some big wins that you were leading on, legislation you were leading on for the people in Texas and in this country as well.

00:24:55.560 Let's talk about how big these wins were right before recess.

00:25:00.240 Well, sure.

00:25:01.140 And I want to focus on a single day.

00:25:03.440 And that was Thursday, the last week of July, which is the last day the Senate was in session.

00:25:09.480 We've been on recess for the past several weeks.

00:25:12.700 And so I've been traveling across the state of Texas and doing events all over Texas.

00:25:17.020 But the last day we were in session was the Thursday, the last week of July.

00:25:20.920 And on that one day, I passed eight separate pieces of legislation.

00:25:27.820 It was a big deal to pass eight pieces of legislation that there are a lot of members of the Senate that don't pass eight pieces of legislation after years of serving in the Senate.

00:25:40.180 And I passed eight in a single day.

00:25:41.580 And so I just wanted to walk through that day to give a sense of what can be accomplished fighting for Texas in a single day.

00:25:47.460 So two of them passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:25:51.820 And as you know, I'm the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:25:56.200 And there were two different bills that I'd introduced, both of which passed the Senate Commerce Committee that day.

00:26:00.540 One of them focuses on AM radio.

00:26:03.360 And we've talked about that bill here on this podcast before, which is that eight automakers announced they were pulling AM radios off of brand new cars and trucks.

00:26:11.780 I think that's a terrible step.

00:26:14.880 It's terrible for a lot of reasons, including that it denies people disaster information in the in the case of a hurricane or a fire or tornado or some other natural disaster.

00:26:24.780 It hurts rural Americans who rely on AM radio and it hurts conservative speech in particular.

00:26:31.060 It's it's it's an example of corporate America silencing one of the most important platforms for conservative speech.

00:26:38.300 Well, I teamed up with Ed Markey, the single most liberal member of the Senate in in legislation called the AM radio for every vehicle act, which mandates that new cars and trucks include AM radio.

00:26:54.540 And that legislation passed the Commerce Committee passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support.

00:27:00.280 So that was victory.

00:27:00.940 Number one, a big deal that impacts you.

00:27:03.860 You have a radio station, a radio show.

00:27:06.260 It impacts all sorts of people on the radio, but it impacts up to 80 million Americans who listen to AM radio every single month.

00:27:15.360 It's incredible legislation.

00:27:16.940 And it's also, as you mentioned as well, a safety issue.

00:27:20.020 You look at the hurricane that is that we're dealing with right now in Florida that's going to be going up the East Coast.

00:27:26.400 And I've already heard it and talked to friends down there.

00:27:29.720 They're already reminding people, grab your crank AM radios to keep up when the power goes out so that you know what's going on.

00:27:36.560 And I think there were many that thought of this as a way to silence conservative talk radio.

00:27:40.940 Yes, there's no doubt there was a political side of this as well.

00:27:44.100 But but this other part was a safety issue.

00:27:46.560 When hurricanes hit, when there's natural disasters that happen and they're talking about it.

00:27:51.460 I was watching the Weather Channel today as a storm was was developing this hurricane and strengthening.

00:27:55.840 They were saying, make sure you have your crank AM radio.

00:27:58.420 That is that is something that saves lives in situations like this.

00:28:02.600 And that's also why it was so important to make sure these AM radios, because there are people after storms hit and even before they got to their car, turn it on for a second.

00:28:10.620 Listen to the latest updates of what's happening.

00:28:12.680 And that's something that happens or those crank radios or battery powered radios with AM.

00:28:17.100 It's so vitally important for safety as well.

00:28:19.660 Yeah. And other media often go down in the case of a disaster.

00:28:23.540 So it's so it's it's critical for getting people out of harm's way.

00:28:26.620 A second piece of legislation that I authored that also passed the Congress Committee that day is legislation called the Ticket Act.

00:28:33.460 And it concerns if you go online and you buy sports tickets, you go buy baseball tickets or football or basketball tickets or you buy concert tickets.

00:28:42.440 You want to go see your favorite artists pay.

00:28:44.860 And and all of us have had the experience where you go online to buy tickets, you pick out your seats and you're really excited.

00:28:50.080 And then you get to the final step of the transaction and you see fees that are just massive.

00:28:54.560 The fees can be as upwards of 40, 50, 60 percent of the total amount you're paying.

00:28:59.940 And you don't learn until the very last step when you're entering your credit card.

00:29:03.860 And so I joined with Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington State, is the chairman of the committee and authored legislation that requires online ticket brokers to disclose the total amount of the ticket price with the fees up front.

00:29:18.660 So that when you're searching, you can know, OK, if this ticket's going to cost me one hundred dollars, I'm not going to think it's 50 bucks and get surprised on the back end.

00:29:27.200 As a consumer, I'm going to get to know up front and have the information to be able to comparison shop and make informed choices.

00:29:33.600 Senator, you mentioned that there was not just these two pieces of legislation, but more than that that happened on this single day.

00:29:40.960 Walk us down that again, that path of what else happened.

00:29:43.280 Well, sure. The first two passed the Commerce Committee, the remaining six pieces of legislation that I passed that day, all passed the entire Senate, the full Senate.

00:29:53.280 And all of them on that day, the last Thursday in July, we passed the National Defense Authorization Act,

00:29:59.920 which is the big bill that passes every year that authorizes the Department of Defense and our military.

00:30:05.440 And it's critical for ensuring that we can defend our nation.

00:30:09.220 And it is considered must pass legislation so that if you can author amendments that get attached to it, those amendments get passed into law and signed into law.

00:30:18.320 I had six different amendments that passed on this year's NDAA.

00:30:22.300 So one of the amendments I had was very focused on defense in the state of Texas, and it was ensuring that B-1 bomber wings remain in service for at least three more years,

00:30:34.360 at least until 2026, until they're actually replaced by newer B-21 bombers.

00:30:40.620 And this is critically important, number one, to preserve the U.S.'s long-range strike capabilities.

00:30:47.320 But number two, many of those B-1 bomber wings are right now housed at Dias Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

00:30:55.360 And we're in the process of replacing B-1 bombers with B-21s.

00:30:59.660 B-21s are much more advanced bombers, but it takes time to produce the B-21s.

00:31:04.340 And there's great concern, number one, in West Texas, that the B-1s will be taken down before they're replaced by the B-21s.

00:31:13.060 And so there's been a battle year after year to make sure that we don't decommission the B-1s until we have B-21s in place to replace them.

00:31:22.020 That battle's happened every year for a number of years, and I've managed to win temporary delays in it.

00:31:27.540 This year we got a three-year freeze, which is critically important for ensuring our defense capability,

00:31:33.960 but also for protecting West Texas and Dias Air Force Base.

00:31:40.340 So a second amendment that also passed that day is legislation that I introduced that focused on what are called spy fridges,

00:31:48.620 which is there are all sorts of appliances that you buy, whether they're refrigerators, whether they're microwaves,

00:31:54.920 whether they're stoves or ovens, that are smart devices, and they have built-in cameras and or recorders.

00:32:05.260 And often people don't know when you're buying a fridge, you don't think to ask, gosh, is my refrigerator recording me in my kitchen?

00:32:13.680 And so I authored legislation.

00:32:15.840 It's very similar to the legislation we talked about before in the Ticket Act.

00:32:20.680 It's disclosure legislation that says if there's an appliance that's being sold to consumers that can record you,

00:32:26.720 that has a camera, either a video camera or an audio recorder, that they have to disclose to you, the consumer,

00:32:32.560 hey, your fridge is spying on you.

00:32:34.380 And that likewise was bipartisan legislation.

00:32:37.540 That likewise passed on the floor of the Senate.

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00:32:52.420 The digital dollar sparking uncertainty is another headline.

00:32:56.080 And as you know, what's going on in the Middle East.

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00:33:05.200 And that's exactly why I've invested in physical gold.

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00:33:10.580 And it helps me sleep at night.

00:33:12.200 Now, there are a lot of different companies you can call, but I want you to know about Augusta Precious Metals.

00:33:16.880 Because if you have an IRA or a 401k, then it's time that you learn about the benefits of a gold IRA from Augusta Precious Metals.

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00:34:00.600 That's AugustaPreciousMetals.com.

00:34:04.020 Or 877-4-GOLD-IRA.

00:34:07.600 Senator, did you ever think you were ever going to have to pass legislation that would tell consumers if their products would possibly be able to spy on them?

00:34:17.560 I mean, it does sound insane.

00:34:19.240 It's extremely important.

00:34:20.560 But did you ever think when you ran for the Senate that this would be something we would need?

00:34:24.960 And fast forward to 2023, it's insane to me.

00:34:27.600 It really is nuts.

00:34:29.640 And it's where technology is taking us.

00:34:31.800 It's where so much of corporate America violates the privacy of consumers.

00:34:37.000 And look, the next time, Ben, you're walking to the fridge at 2 in the morning in your boxer shorts to get a midnight snack,

00:34:43.560 just remember that video may be in the hands of whoever sold you the fridge.

00:34:48.900 Yeah.

00:34:49.480 Yeah.

00:34:49.780 Thank you for passing that.

00:34:50.940 I do appreciate that.

00:34:51.980 I think all of us can say yes on that one.

00:34:53.920 What else was on the list?

00:34:54.820 All right.

00:34:56.320 So two other amendments that both concerned oil.

00:35:00.900 One of them concerns Nord Stream 2.

00:35:04.520 We've talked a lot about Nord Stream 2, which is the pipeline that Putin was building from Russia to Germany.

00:35:10.320 And I had an amendment that holds accountable the corrupt responsible,

00:35:15.160 the corrupt officials who are responsible for building and or maintaining Nord Stream 2.

00:35:20.720 And so that passed on that Thursday as well.

00:35:23.340 The second one focused on U.S. oil and in particular our strategic petroleum reserve.

00:35:29.680 And as you know, Joe Biden has sold down our strategic petroleum reserve to the lowest level it's been at in four decades.

00:35:38.560 And the strategic petroleum reserve is there to protect our economy, to protect our national security,

00:35:43.980 to ensure that we have energy in a time of crisis.

00:35:46.720 And Joe Biden's used it to try to temporarily lower gas prices right before the last election to get a political benefit from it.

00:35:53.960 And so I teamed up with Joe Manchin and authored legislation to prohibit the federal government from selling oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to China,

00:36:06.460 Russia, Iran or North Korea, not to sell it to our enemies.

00:36:10.900 And that is not a hypothetical threat because Joe Biden, in fact, sold over a million barrels of oil from the U.S.'s strategic petroleum reserve to communist China.

00:36:21.860 And given that, I thought that was absurd.

00:36:25.400 Joe Manchin and I teamed up together to pass this legislation,

00:36:28.340 and that was the fourth piece of legislation on the Senate floor that passed on that Thursday.

00:36:33.680 Absolutely. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

00:36:36.940 Make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button.

00:36:39.780 And the algorithms have changed on Apple.

00:36:42.420 A lot of you have, by default, kind of unfollowed the show.

00:36:45.300 You may not even realize that.

00:36:46.600 So make sure you check if you're listening on Apple and hit that follow button.

00:36:50.240 You'll have to check back every couple of weeks.

00:36:52.220 They have changed it up.

00:36:53.700 It's frustrating, but it's their new algorithm.

00:36:55.880 It's just how it works.

00:36:56.940 So make sure you follow that as well.

00:36:58.680 And don't forget, if you miss some shows during the week,

00:37:01.620 we have our weekend review on Saturdays as well for the highlights of some of the biggest things you may have missed during the week.

00:37:07.440 It also helps us on the charts now more than ever with Apple.

00:37:11.320 If you will write us a five-star review, that helps us reach people with these new algorithm changes.

00:37:18.000 It's more important than ever.

00:37:18.960 So if you'll do that for us as well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

00:37:21.500 And the Senator and I will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:37:24.080 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:37:27.760 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 27, 2023

Verdict Year in Review Part 1 ： Border Chaos as Title 42 Ends, The Trump Indictment, & Big Victories for Texas

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