Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 13, 2025


What's Next after Kirk's Tragedy, Christians Persecuted in Nigeria & Tucker plus Osama Bin Laden Equals Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

30 minutes

Words per minute

161.65157

Word count

4,980

Sentence count

397

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

30

sentences flagged

Hate speech

27

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted and Ben pay their respects to Charlie Kirk and ask the question, what's next after Charlie's death. They also discuss the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and some shocking comments made by Tucker Carlson about bin Laden and his family.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.380 Welcome.
00:00:06.100 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.720 Week in Review.
00:00:08.680 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.740 And we had some really tough stories that you may have missed that we talked about this
00:00:14.260 week.
00:00:14.580 First up, we're going to take some time and talk about Charlie Kirk, our dear friend,
00:00:19.400 and the assassination and what comes next.
00:00:22.640 We're going to deal with that first.
00:00:24.440 We're also going to talk about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
00:00:28.820 And Senator Cruz is leading the way on trying to stop what's happening on that.
00:00:34.340 And finally, some shocking comments coming from Tucker Carlson on Osama bin Laden and his
00:00:41.180 family.
00:00:42.020 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:00:45.760 Senator, I also want to talk about, there is a question.
00:00:50.160 I'm sure you've gotten it.
00:00:51.240 I've gotten it too.
00:00:52.160 And that is, what's next?
00:00:53.380 This is a moment where my nine-year-old asked me that I think the toughest question I've
00:01:03.040 ever been asked by him when I put him to bed last night.
00:01:05.840 He knew that Daddy's friend had died.
00:01:07.680 And he said, Daddy, is someone going to shoot you for what you do?
00:01:12.160 And I gave him the best answer I could.
00:01:14.940 I said, buddy, you know Daddy carries a gun.
00:01:16.660 You know Daddy shoots back.
00:01:17.800 And he just started crying.
00:01:21.240 And I think there are so many people right now that are worried about where we are in
00:01:28.640 this divide and this feeling that the left is just wanting to take out anybody that is
00:01:33.960 successful in articulating conservative or Christian views.
00:01:38.280 I do worry about where we are as a country.
00:01:40.640 I also think that you and I and so many others that do this, everybody that I've been texting
00:01:47.560 and talking with, I don't think any of us are going to back down.
00:01:51.640 We maybe do things a little differently.
00:01:54.560 We may take different precautions, but I don't think they're going to silence any of us.
00:02:00.260 I'm not backing down.
00:02:01.440 This is my mission field.
00:02:02.540 I think you feel the same way I do.
00:02:05.460 Absolutely.
00:02:05.940 And listen, I think Charlie inspired many people to speak up and to be brave, to be courageous.
00:02:13.320 I think more people will be inspired.
00:02:15.260 I will say his assassination, it wasn't just a murder, it was an assassination.
00:02:21.180 Assassination, yeah.
00:02:22.440 He was taken out because of who he is and because of what he was saying.
00:02:27.700 And he was taken out because of fear that what he was saying was so persuasive that people
00:02:35.920 wanted to hear it.
00:02:37.720 Look, when he went to a college campus, he welcomed leftists to come argue with them to present
00:02:41.980 their side of the story.
00:02:44.000 But the power of the truth he was saying was what was dangerous.
00:02:49.480 And look, I got to say, I feel a little bit, you and I were not alive when JFK was shot or
00:02:57.220 Bobby Kennedy was shot or Martin Luther King was shot.
00:03:00.940 But I do kind of wonder if that's a little bit what that felt like.
00:03:08.040 Just I have to say, like seeing this happen, particularly the parallel to President Trump's
00:03:16.600 being shot in Butler, that it was the same thing over and over again, and it was almost
00:03:22.420 a successful assassination of the president, and tragically it was a successful assassination
00:03:27.420 of Charlie.
00:03:28.640 Like, what is going on that there is this hate?
00:03:31.680 And I got to say, by the way, we have seen leftists, we saw people on MSNBC cackling.
00:03:37.660 I saw an image on Twitter of this one soulless young woman dancing and singing that Charlie 1.00
00:03:45.500 Kirk had been shot in the neck.
00:03:47.100 I wanted to, it made me physically sick, the joy at his being murdered.
00:03:55.080 But rather than focus on that hate, and we could play those clips, but you don't need
00:03:59.600 to hear those angry haters.
00:04:02.100 I want to focus actually on some people on the left that took a right message.
00:04:07.660 And one of them was Sank Ongyar, who's, I don't know him, but he's liberal and very vocal
00:04:14.360 on Twitter.
00:04:14.720 He's a hardcore liberal, yeah.
00:04:16.800 He's the young Turks guy, and he got it right, by the way. 0.99
00:04:22.320 So here's what he posted on X.
00:04:24.040 He said, a while ago I put out these rules for the internet.
00:04:27.620 One, when we disagree, we fight.
00:04:30.000 Two, we have a beer afterwards.
00:04:32.600 Three, when we agree, we unite.
00:04:34.760 I got a lot of flack, surprisingly, for the line about the beer.
00:04:38.540 People would ask, oh yeah, would you have a beer with Charlie Kirk?
00:04:41.360 Well, I did.
00:04:43.100 And I'm glad I did, because now I won't get to.
00:04:46.260 Yes, Charlie and I disagreed a lot about really important things.
00:04:50.340 But somehow we didn't lose our humanity.
00:04:52.960 We were still fellow Americans.
00:04:54.780 We can all choose to hate each other now.
00:04:56.900 That's a normal human reaction.
00:04:59.520 We can choose to blame each other, and I'm sure we will, endlessly.
00:05:03.000 Or we can defy the voices of division in the country and have a beer together.
00:05:07.720 This time, in grief.
00:05:10.360 If you really want to strike back at whoever did this, listen to each other instead of
00:05:14.420 hating one another.
00:05:15.660 They want us to hate each other.
00:05:17.620 Treating one another as brothers and sisters, as a united America, would be an historic act
00:05:23.660 of defiance.
00:05:25.020 Since I'm on the left, I'll go first.
00:05:27.880 For everyone on the right, and most especially the Kirk family, I am so sorry for your loss.
00:05:33.040 I share your grief, and I want you to know that our hearts are with you.
00:05:37.480 I appreciate saying that.
00:05:39.580 I retweeted it and just said bravo.
00:05:41.980 Like that, I don't want to focus on the haters, on the anger, on the rage, on the evil
00:05:48.580 bile that we see, because that was not Charlie's message.
00:05:53.120 Charlie's message was one of love.
00:05:55.320 It was one of liberty.
00:05:56.700 It was one of the Constitution.
00:05:58.480 It was one of the gospel.
00:05:59.860 It was one of hope.
00:06:00.960 It was one of faith.
00:06:02.180 That's where we should focus, and I hope that that is a powerful, powerful legacy coming
00:06:12.240 out of the 31 short years that Charlie had on this earth.
00:06:17.480 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast
00:06:22.860 from earlier this week.
00:06:24.620 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:06:26.900 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:06:31.040 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:06:34.780 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:06:35.940 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:06:37.160 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:06:40.800 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their
00:06:46.060 journey.
00:06:46.600 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:06:49.900 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:06:55.840 Now on to story number two.
00:06:57.880 All right, Senator, I want to talk about, we're talking about standing up for people of faith.
00:07:01.660 And this is a story that has certainly been unreported or underreported at best.
00:07:08.660 And it deals with what is happening with the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
00:07:14.260 We also just had this attack, as you mentioned at the beginning of the show, where 60-plus
00:07:20.380 were murdered.
00:07:21.420 Talk a little bit about this and what you're doing to stand up.
00:07:25.260 Well, in Nigeria, the persecution of Christians has been nothing short of horrific.
00:07:30.780 And I've spent my tenure in the Senate advocating for those who are being persecuted for their
00:07:36.660 faith, advocating for Christians who are facing imprisonment and torture and murder. 0.56
00:07:42.580 The sheer scope of it in Nigeria is staggering. 0.54
00:07:47.400 Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group in Nigeria, since their 2009 insurgency, Boko Haram has killed
00:07:56.580 over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria.
00:08:01.340 Over 50,000.
00:08:03.320 And that's according to a 2023 report from the International Society for Civil Liberties and
00:08:07.580 the Rule of Law, which is a Nigerian human rights watchdog.
00:08:11.880 Over 18,000 Christian churches and over 2,000 Christian schools have been attacked during
00:08:21.480 the same time period.
00:08:22.780 And to put that in comparison, the watchdog also concluded that 34,000 moderate Muslims died
00:08:31.440 from jihadist attacks.
00:08:32.580 So the jihadists, they target Muslims who don't embrace jihad, but they especially in Nigeria
00:08:40.500 target Christians. 0.80
00:08:43.040 Between 2015 and 2025, an estimated 145 priests were kidnapped in Nigeria.
00:08:53.120 Multiple priest kidnappings have happened this year, including one that Boko Haram carried out
00:09:01.720 in June.
00:09:03.480 The terror group abducted Father Alphonsus Afina, held him in captivity for weeks before releasing
00:09:10.020 him, and thank God he was unharmed.
00:09:12.640 Afina spent over 50 days in captivity.
00:09:16.440 And he had previously spent six years in ministry in the United States.
00:09:24.160 And violence against Christians in Nigeria has been a horrific problem in June, just a couple
00:09:30.340 of months ago.
00:09:31.840 Jihadists killed over 200 Nigerian Christian villagers in a farming community that is 97% Catholic.
00:09:41.800 This is a massive problem, and it's a problem that occurs with the complicity of many officials,
00:09:50.920 of judges, of ministers, of officials in the Nigerian government.
00:09:54.840 So what I did this week is I filed legislation that's called the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability
00:10:01.680 Act of 2025.
00:10:03.580 And it does several things.
00:10:05.840 Number one, it requires the Secretary of State to classify Nigeria as a country of particular
00:10:12.300 concern.
00:10:13.920 And that would add Nigeria to a list of countries where religious freedom is severely limited.
00:10:19.180 The State Department's list right now includes Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Cuba,
00:10:26.360 and other nations outside the Western world.
00:10:28.900 And severe violations of religious freedom include torture, detention without charges, forced
00:10:36.760 disappearance, and other flagrant denials of basic rights.
00:10:40.280 Additionally, my legislation would ensure that the State Department keeps the Islamist terrorist 1.00
00:10:46.640 groups Boko Haram and also ISIS West Africa designated as entities of particular concern, a classification
00:10:56.080 for non-state actors responsible for egregious violations of religious liberty.
00:11:01.800 Boko Haram's stronghold is in northeast Nigeria, and it has an active presence in several countries
00:11:07.760 bordering Nigeria.
00:11:08.940 In addition, my bill sanctions Nigerian government officials who facilitate persecution against
00:11:17.280 Christians and other religious minorities.
00:11:19.020 And if the bill were enacted, the State Department would have 90 days to submit a report on the
00:11:25.880 Nigerian officials responsible for pushing blasphemy laws and for justifying violence from
00:11:31.920 Islamist groups.
00:11:32.940 This is a very important role for the United States to defend religious liberty, to defend
00:11:38.020 persecuted Christians, and it's been a passion of mine since getting elected to the Senate
00:11:43.860 13 years ago.
00:11:44.820 You know, this is something that really does concern me, it worries me, and we're seeing
00:11:49.740 and witnessing now so much, not just anti-Semitism, but just anti-faith, anti-Christian, and it's
00:11:57.200 happening not just around the world, but also in this country.
00:12:00.100 Well, Monday's pod focused on how the Biden Department of Justice actively discriminated against
00:12:07.020 Christians and systematically targeted Christians.
00:12:09.560 Now, thank God they weren't doing things on the level of Boko Haram.
00:12:12.700 They weren't kidnapping and murdering them, but there was religious discrimination, and
00:12:17.920 part of religious discrimination is the Biden administration effectively turned a blind eye
00:12:23.200 to the persecution of Christians abroad.
00:12:25.580 So it wasn't committing these atrocities, but it also was not acting nearly as vigorously
00:12:31.460 as it should be to defend religious liberty abroad.
00:12:35.080 Yeah, great point there.
00:12:36.880 We're going to, in this moving forward, hopefully we'll set a standard that America is not going
00:12:41.440 to stand by and allow this to happen, right?
00:12:43.400 Well, yes, and Ben, I'll give an example.
00:12:46.660 An example during the Obama administration.
00:12:49.180 There was a young woman in Sudan named Miriam Ibrahim, and Miriam Ibrahim was sentenced to receive
00:12:57.780 100 lashes and then to hang by the neck until dead.
00:13:02.500 Wow. 1.00
00:13:03.060 And her crime was being a Christian. 1.00
00:13:07.240 That's it.
00:13:07.880 For the crime of being a Christian, she was sentenced to that. 1.00
00:13:11.780 She was in a prison cell.
00:13:13.820 She had a toddler named Martin, who was 18 months old, and she was pregnant.
00:13:19.520 She was pregnant.
00:13:20.320 She gave birth to a little girl named Maya.
00:13:23.340 Maya was born in that prison cell while Miriam Ibrahim had her legs in leg irons. 0.55
00:13:30.000 She was in the mud giving birth in leg irons. 1.00
00:13:34.100 Now, during the Obama administration, I repeatedly spoke out for Miriam Ibrahim.
00:13:39.120 I went to the Senate floor.
00:13:40.240 I spoke about Miriam Ibrahim.
00:13:41.680 I called for Sudan to release Miriam Ibrahim from this persecution.
00:13:47.640 Others spoke out.
00:13:49.020 Other foreign governments spoke out.
00:13:50.800 The Pope spoke out in defense of Miriam Ibrahim.
00:13:53.780 You know who wouldn't speak out in defense of her?
00:13:56.500 Who is that?
00:13:57.560 Barack Obama.
00:13:58.600 Yeah.
00:13:58.840 The entire course of his presidency, he would not say her name.
00:14:04.020 Samantha Power, who was Obama's ambassador to the United Nations.
00:14:07.060 I have a pretty good relationship with Samantha.
00:14:09.120 And on Miriam Ibrahim, Samantha Power was actually quite good.
00:14:12.220 She spoke out, urging Sudan to let Miriam Ibrahim go.
00:14:19.260 I practically begged Samantha Power. 0.94
00:14:22.620 Why won't Obama say her name?
00:14:25.060 Look, we can disagree on political and partisan issues.
00:14:28.020 But she's in prison and sentenced to die for being a Christian. 0.96
00:14:33.400 The entire course of his presidency, I could not get Obama to say her name even once.
00:14:38.280 Ultimately, though, the international pressure became so acute that the government of Sudan gave in.
00:14:45.080 And she was married, Miriam is married to a man from New Hampshire.
00:14:49.100 And so Sudan released her and she came to the United States to be with her husband.
00:14:53.140 I met Miriam Ibrahim at a gathering and she was speaking about her experience and speaking out for religious liberty.
00:15:02.280 And I got to say, Miriam is a tiny woman.
00:15:05.580 She's maybe, I don't know, five foot one.
00:15:07.560 I would be surprised if she weighs even 100 pounds. 1.00
00:15:10.040 She's a very, very small woman.
00:15:12.980 And she was soft-spoken.
00:15:15.040 And I asked her, look, you and I are both Christians.
00:15:18.620 Our faith matters to us.
00:15:20.300 Sure.
00:15:21.300 But you know what?
00:15:22.600 I've never been tested.
00:15:24.080 I've never been imprisoned for my faith.
00:15:25.900 I've never been told.
00:15:27.640 I'm going to die. 1.00
00:15:29.180 We will murder you unless you renounce your faith. 1.00
00:15:33.020 I hope and pray and believe I would do the right thing and say absolutely not. 0.98
00:15:37.680 But I've never been tested with that.
00:15:39.540 And so when I met her, I asked her, I said, look, when you're in that prison cell, when they are threatening to torture you and murder you, when you're looking at your babies, your toddler son and your newborn daughter, and you know that they're about to execute you, how did you not lose hope?
00:15:59.240 How did you not give in to despair?
00:16:01.480 And, Ben, she looked at me very, very calmly, and she just said, Jesus was with me.
00:16:10.300 Wow.
00:16:11.700 And it was powerful.
00:16:14.360 And I'm hopeful that my voice then played a part in ratcheting up the pressure to get her released from prison.
00:16:23.120 And so my hope in Nigeria, I'm going to press to get this legislation passed.
00:16:27.180 I want to see the Trump administration designate Nigeria and use pressure.
00:16:33.940 And in particular, there is power to pressuring the Nigerian government officials because, you know what, ministers of foreign governments, they like to get visas and take their wives to New York to go shopping.
00:16:45.920 Yeah.
00:16:46.400 And if you sanction the individual government officials who are complicit, who are facilitating it, who are enforcing and prosecuting so-called blasphemy laws, that can have a real and powerful effect.
00:16:59.280 And so my hope is this legislation, it's shining a light, will protect the Christians who are in Nigeria and will stop the wide-scale murder of Christians that has been going on in Nigeria. 0.99
00:17:12.300 Yeah, amen to that.
00:17:13.400 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.
00:17:21.960 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:17:29.140 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:17:32.860 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:17:34.040 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:17:35.280 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:17:39.040 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:17:44.760 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:17:47.760 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:17:53.820 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.
00:17:58.320 Add number two to the list real quick, because if you go Hitler first, let's throw in there next, especially for people that are, I don't know, 45 and under, 0.96
00:18:06.720 the most evil guy that we probably saw in our lifetime in real life.
00:18:10.900 And that was a guy by the name of Osama bin Laden, right?
00:18:13.900 Yes.
00:18:14.120 Throw him out there.
00:18:15.860 9-11, if you were alive, if you remember it, Osama bin Laden's another one. 0.98
00:18:19.840 Don't side with Adolf Hitler. 0.58
00:18:21.960 And if you were my age, I'm 44 now, whatever you do, don't side with Osama bin Laden,
00:18:26.600 which brings us to this unhinged Tucker point number two.
00:18:30.580 Yeah.
00:18:31.500 Okay.
00:18:32.000 I just want you to listen to what Tucker had to say about Osama bin Laden.
00:18:35.880 Give a listen.
00:18:37.520 Let me just say, I would be totally comfortable sharing condolences with Osama bin Laden's family. 0.65
00:18:42.720 I hate Osama bin Laden.
00:18:44.380 On the other hand, if somebody dies, it's okay to say, I'm sorry to his family.
00:18:50.400 He had a toddler.
00:18:51.580 That's what I'm saying.
00:18:52.800 Yeah.
00:18:53.140 That's immaterial.
00:18:54.800 I would say that to the family of an executed murderer in a prison.
00:18:59.220 It doesn't mean I support the murderer or the murderer, but this is family.
00:19:02.580 Like, that's okay.
00:19:03.460 That's called, like, human decency.
00:19:05.680 And anyone who's against that.
00:19:06.860 Yeah, and it seems that we're setting up this.
00:19:11.660 Let me just be clear.
00:19:13.040 If I meet any of the Osama bin Laden family members, Senator, I'm not going to walk up back. 1.00
00:19:17.320 Let me give you an American hug real quick.
00:19:19.420 Thoughts and prayers.
00:19:20.460 Like, no, that's not going to happen.
00:19:22.860 Look, this is a bizarre position that Tucker says he's okay with giving condolences to Osama bin Laden's family.
00:19:30.860 By the way, on his same reasoning, he'd be just fine giving condolences to Adolf Hitler's family. 0.79
00:19:35.580 Let me tell you right now, I am not remotely sorry that Osama bin Laden is dead.
00:19:39.900 I am not remotely sorry that Adolf Hitler is dead.
00:19:42.140 By the way, I'm not remotely sorry that Jeffrey Dahmer is dead.
00:19:45.180 I'm not remotely sorry that Ted Bundy is dead.
00:19:47.920 I'm not remotely sorry that Charles Manson is dead.
00:19:50.680 Yeah.
00:19:50.860 If people are evil, psychotic, mass murderers, then society celebrates that they are no longer with us.
00:19:58.800 There is justice.
00:19:59.880 I believe in the principle of justice.
00:20:02.500 And understand, Osama bin Laden led al-Qaeda.
00:20:05.640 He planned 9-11.
00:20:07.020 He executed 9-11, in which case nearly 3,000 people, most of whom were Americans, were murdered on September 11th.
00:20:15.540 You and I were both alive.
00:20:16.700 I was in Washington, D.C.
00:20:18.280 Heidi was in the White House at the U.S. Trade Representative's office on 9-11.
00:20:23.920 She evacuated the White House because those terrorists were murdering people. 0.97
00:20:28.400 I lost a friend of mine, Barbara Olson, in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon when the two towers collapsed in New York City.
00:20:36.820 That was a grotesque act of war.
00:20:39.720 By the way, I'm also not sorry that the kamikaze pilots in Pearl Harbor who murdered American sailors, I'm not sorry that they're dead. 1.00
00:20:49.000 There is something bizarre.
00:20:52.460 There is a moral relativism to saying, well, we should, number one, carry out an incredible military act that takes out Osama bin Laden.
00:21:00.680 But then, number two, express condolences to the family, to the toddlers.
00:21:03.960 We're so sorry we took out your psychotic daddy who murdered nearly 3,000 Americans.
00:21:11.620 No, we're not sorry. 0.70
00:21:13.480 And this moral relativism, I got to say, it is a weird thing.
00:21:20.840 Yeah.
00:21:21.120 When someone who considers himself, calls himself a conservative, sounds exactly like Ilhan Omar.
00:21:28.700 It is a weird thing when a supposed conservative sounds like Rashida Tlaib, sounds like the AOC, and says, gosh, we ought to be saying I'm sorry to Osama bin Laden's family.
00:21:39.100 No, we should not.
00:21:41.540 By the way, it's also weird that he goes in this way, like attacking America and our foreign policy, in essence, and anybody that doesn't feel sorry for terrorists, while also giving propaganda out there on behalf of Vladimir Putin in Russia with the interview that he did with him, and then going shopping at the grocery stores saying how great life is in Russia, which if you go 20 miles outside of Russia in any direction of Moscow, it's very different than what it looks like for the elite that are in Moscow.
00:22:07.780 And everything in his trip was, by the way, also controlled.
00:22:10.820 They only let you see what they want you to see.
00:22:13.120 It's not like he can roam freely and decide, hey, I don't want to go to the grocery store you sent me to.
00:22:16.520 I want to go to another one.
00:22:17.680 That ain't going to happen. 0.98
00:22:19.540 And then you go from this to what he had to say about a terrorist organization that has killed countless Jews and has said from the river to the sea they want to take out and annihilate all Jews in Israel. 0.96
00:22:33.260 They want Israel to cease to exist. 0.93
00:22:35.420 And he's like, well, hold on a second.
00:22:36.960 Maybe they're not a terrorist organization.
00:22:38.740 Maybe they're just a political organization.
00:22:41.640 We should think about that.
00:22:42.940 It's like, what the hell is going on?
00:22:45.000 Yeah.
00:22:45.320 Give a listen to what he said about Hamas, because this is utterly bizarre.
00:22:49.680 This is where Tucker has gone full on woke leftist.
00:22:55.480 And don't take my word for it.
00:22:56.960 Listen to Tucker.
00:22:57.520 No one can plausibly claim that a Christian family are in Hamas.
00:23:02.740 OK, so like what?
00:23:04.000 Tell me.
00:23:05.100 You can't claim that they're in Hamas while simultaneously claiming that Hamas is a group of jihadis.
00:23:12.380 They're Islamic extremists, which they also claim constantly, which I don't know if that's true, by the way.
00:23:17.660 It seems more like a political organization.
00:23:18.960 But whatever it is, they're telling us constantly they're al-Qaeda.
00:23:22.200 So it can't also be true that Christians are a member of al-Qaeda.
00:23:25.440 Sorry.
00:23:25.980 Yeah.
00:23:26.440 Yeah.
00:23:26.880 So then we know they're not in Hamas.
00:23:28.480 So why did they get killed?
00:23:30.060 Why was their church blown?
00:23:31.660 I go back to this.
00:23:33.080 And again, it's like he's become an apologist for a terrorist organization.
00:23:36.020 And he's saying, well, they're not really a terrorist organization. 0.98
00:23:39.320 And then the Christian aspect of this, intertwining that, they're going, well, then why do we kill them? 1.00
00:23:44.380 We kill people that are terrorists, Senator. 1.00
00:23:45.840 That's what we do. 0.99
00:23:47.300 Well, what he's saying there is bizarre.
00:23:49.580 I don't know that Hamas is a terrorist organization.
00:23:52.180 Let me be very clear.
00:23:53.420 Hamas is a terrorist organization. 0.99
00:23:55.380 Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. 1.00
00:23:55.620 They'll tell you that, by the way. 0.77
00:23:56.640 Am I wrong?
00:23:57.240 Like, they'll actually tell you they're a terrorist organization.
00:23:59.440 They're happy to tell you this and show you how good they are at it. 0.67
00:24:02.540 Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization. 0.99
00:24:04.620 ISIS is a terrorist organization. 0.91
00:24:06.940 This is not just a question of opinion.
00:24:09.220 This is a question of facts.
00:24:10.720 So let's give some fact.
00:24:11.920 Article 8 of the 1988 Hamas Covenant states, quote,
00:24:17.160 Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of his wishes. 0.99
00:24:24.780 This is who Tucker Carlson is defending.
00:24:27.520 Globally, Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States of America.
00:24:32.320 That's as a matter of federal law.
00:24:34.260 By Australia, by Canada, by Paraguay, by Israel, by Japan, by New Zealand,
00:24:38.380 by the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
00:24:41.420 Now, Hamas is not formally designated by Arab countries,
00:24:45.260 but Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
00:24:48.200 By the way, I have legislation in the Senate right now
00:24:50.840 to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization
00:24:53.460 because they unquestionably are.
00:24:55.460 Article 2 of Hamas's charter describes them as, quote,
00:24:59.960 one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.
00:25:03.320 The Muslim Brotherhood, the umbrella organization,
00:25:05.840 is designated as a terrorist organization in Bahrain, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, and in the UAE.
00:25:13.380 They have always been a terrorist organization.
00:25:17.420 If you just look at Wikipedia, no friend of Israel, no enemy of Hamas,
00:25:22.240 here's what Wikipedia says.
00:25:23.800 Quote,
00:25:24.100 From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis
00:25:30.060 and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks,
00:25:34.820 according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
00:25:37.220 From 2001 through May of 2008,
00:25:40.480 Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets
00:25:44.760 and 2,500 mortar attacks into Israel.
00:25:49.580 And, of course, Hamas is who carried out the October 7th attacks,
00:25:55.440 who sent death squads into Israel,
00:25:58.380 where they systematically went house to house,
00:26:01.140 murdering every person in the house, 0.99
00:26:03.120 targeting them because they are Jews. 1.00
00:26:05.980 They murdered elderly people. 1.00
00:26:07.420 They murdered women. 0.98
00:26:08.440 They murdered children.
00:26:09.600 They murdered infants.
00:26:10.580 They murdered toddlers. 1.00
00:26:11.640 They raped women and little girls. 0.99
00:26:15.140 And they murdered over 1,200 Israelis, 0.99
00:26:19.440 many of whom were Americans.
00:26:20.720 It's one of the worst terror attacks in history
00:26:23.380 against American citizens.
00:26:26.720 And Tucker says,
00:26:27.580 Well, I think they're a political organization.
00:26:30.220 He bases this on the weird fact,
00:26:32.240 yes, it is true,
00:26:33.920 that in the Gaza Strip,
00:26:35.280 when they had elections,
00:26:36.240 Hamas won. 0.99
00:26:37.060 The fact that the voters elected a terrorist organization
00:26:40.740 does not make them a political organization.
00:26:43.540 They were in elected office
00:26:46.040 when they carried out the October 7th terror attacks.
00:26:50.320 And so I got to say,
00:26:51.360 look,
00:26:52.260 this bizarre statement was in the course of an episode
00:26:55.940 where Tucker was interviewing
00:26:58.540 this disgruntled State Department employee
00:27:01.300 who was fired,
00:27:02.320 fired by the Trump administration.
00:27:05.280 Yep.
00:27:05.480 And he was giving him an opportunity.
00:27:07.200 And by the way,
00:27:07.820 he was also slandering
00:27:09.420 a young man
00:27:12.260 who works for the State Department,
00:27:13.760 works for Mike Huckabee,
00:27:15.120 President Trump's ambassador to Israel,
00:27:17.880 works for Marco Rubio,
00:27:19.720 and Tucker did an entire segment
00:27:22.460 attacking this young man.
00:27:25.400 Why?
00:27:27.020 Because he's Mark Levin's stepson.
00:27:30.020 I got to say,
00:27:30.700 it is grotesque
00:27:31.900 for Tucker to go after.
00:27:33.600 I get he hates Mark Levin.
00:27:35.480 He does.
00:27:36.280 And let's explain why real quick,
00:27:37.460 because I'm looking.
00:27:38.460 Mark's a dear friend of mine and yours as well.
00:27:40.600 This is a relative to Mark Levin.
00:27:42.340 Mark Levin is clearly an advocate for Israel.
00:27:45.940 He has stood by Israel. 0.51
00:27:47.240 And for America.
00:27:47.400 Let's be clear.
00:27:48.160 And for America.
00:27:49.520 America.
00:27:50.780 And so now,
00:27:52.100 since Tucker Carlson,
00:27:53.320 I guess,
00:27:53.820 is like,
00:27:54.200 all right,
00:27:54.480 well,
00:27:54.660 anybody under,
00:27:55.660 that I don't like,
00:27:56.960 right,
00:27:57.220 Mark Levin,
00:27:57.960 a family member, 0.92
00:27:58.820 let's just hammer that person 0.99
00:28:00.440 to somehow make it hurt. 0.98
00:28:02.140 I wish he had this much animosity
00:28:03.620 towards Vladimir Putin
00:28:04.620 when he was interviewing him.
00:28:06.180 No,
00:28:06.360 and by the way,
00:28:06.860 not just Vladimir Putin,
00:28:07.840 he had the president of Iran.
00:28:09.180 And I mean,
00:28:09.620 it was a love fest.
00:28:12.360 I mean,
00:28:13.120 he practically spooned
00:28:14.880 with the president of Iran.
00:28:16.020 I don't know if he was big spoon
00:28:17.040 or little spoon, 0.97
00:28:18.280 but there was no skepticism.
00:28:20.260 And by the way,
00:28:21.200 he's literally interviewing someone
00:28:23.020 who is actively trying
00:28:24.740 to murder Donald Trump.
00:28:26.600 And this is a weird game. 0.99
00:28:28.520 So listen,
00:28:30.240 Tucker recognizes
00:28:31.500 that the folks that listen to him
00:28:33.560 will get very mad at him
00:28:34.920 if he explicitly criticizes Donald Trump.
00:28:38.140 So what does he do instead?
00:28:39.380 He just criticizes everything Trump does.
00:28:41.740 He blasts,
00:28:42.700 he has a whole segment
00:28:43.420 on how Mike Huckabee is terrible.
00:28:45.440 Well,
00:28:45.600 who is it that appointed Mike Huckabee
00:28:47.220 the ambassador to Israel?
00:28:48.500 That would be Donald J. Trump.
00:28:50.020 And everything he attacks
00:28:51.380 about Ambassador Huckabee,
00:28:52.740 he is doing on behalf of Trump.
00:28:54.640 But Tucker is unwilling.
00:28:57.000 He doesn't have the courage.
00:28:57.940 He doesn't have the backbone
00:28:58.880 to actually attack Trump.
00:29:00.520 So he just attacks
00:29:01.380 everything Trump does.
00:29:03.120 He attacks bombing Iran. 0.73
00:29:05.380 Well,
00:29:05.560 who was the commander in chief
00:29:06.820 who made the order?
00:29:07.860 And by the way,
00:29:08.380 that was an incredibly successful
00:29:09.940 military operation
00:29:11.360 that made America safer,
00:29:14.280 I got to say,
00:29:15.540 listen,
00:29:16.420 if you say something publicly
00:29:18.680 and the words you said
00:29:21.180 are indistinguishable
00:29:22.600 from something said
00:29:23.940 by Ilhan Omar
00:29:25.080 or Rashida Tlaib, 1.00
00:29:27.080 that ought to be a sign
00:29:28.480 you've got a problem.
00:29:31.100 And I don't know
00:29:32.020 what's going on with Tucker.
00:29:33.380 I don't know
00:29:33.940 what is driving.
00:29:35.960 It's one thing
00:29:36.940 to feel kind of isolationist
00:29:38.700 and to say,
00:29:39.260 gosh,
00:29:39.680 you know,
00:29:39.880 I don't like wars.
00:29:40.780 Okay, fine.
00:29:41.420 That is a view.
00:29:43.120 And to be clear,
00:29:43.720 Donald Trump doesn't like wars either.
00:29:46.000 Joe Biden and the Democrats
00:29:47.000 get us in war.
00:29:48.180 President Trump
00:29:48.820 has gotten us out of war.
00:29:49.960 But getting us out of war,
00:29:51.020 you do it through strength.
00:29:52.780 And getting us out of war
00:29:53.880 does not mean
00:29:54.780 that you refuse
00:29:55.600 to defend America.
00:29:56.940 Fine.
00:29:57.560 If Tucker wants
00:29:58.360 to be isolationist,
00:29:59.420 knock yourself out.
00:30:01.100 Yeah.
00:30:01.320 But this bizarre
00:30:02.480 apology
00:30:04.860 and defense
00:30:05.740 of Osama bin Laden
00:30:07.000 and defense of Hamas
00:30:08.380 and defense
00:30:09.000 of the president of Iran,
00:30:11.600 that is, 0.64
00:30:12.820 there is something unhinged.
00:30:14.840 And I hope people around Tucker
00:30:16.680 go in and say,
00:30:17.460 come on, man.
00:30:18.680 Yeah.
00:30:19.100 Come on.
00:30:21.080 Let's all say
00:30:22.120 we love America
00:30:22.960 and we're not going to lie
00:30:24.200 to the American people.
00:30:25.780 As always,
00:30:26.480 thank you for listening
00:30:27.660 to Verdict
00:30:28.480 with Senator Ted Cruz,
00:30:29.700 Ben Ferguson,
00:30:30.320 with you.
00:30:30.620 Don't forget
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00:30:38.600 as a listener
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