Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 25, 2025


What's Next for Tik Tok in America, Biden's Pandora's Box plus Trump Nominations Move Forward Week In Review


Episode Stats

Length

30 minutes

Words per Minute

165.89603

Word Count

5,023

Sentence Count

358

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.360 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review.
00:00:07.860 Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that you may have missed
00:00:10.640 that we talked about this week.
00:00:12.640 First up, TikTok went down in America,
00:00:15.960 but then it was saved at the last moment, temporarily.
00:00:19.180 So what is going to happen moving forward?
00:00:21.700 And is it a national security threat?
00:00:24.520 We're going to dive into that coming up in just a moment.
00:00:27.100 Also, Joe Biden decided to pardon a lot of his family members and their spouses.
00:00:33.300 Well, could it have opened up Pandora's box?
00:00:35.740 Apparently, many of those people that got those pardons
00:00:38.920 may have to come and testify now before Congress
00:00:41.780 and will not be able to plead the fifth.
00:00:44.560 We'll explain exactly what we mean in just a moment.
00:00:47.680 And finally, the confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill continue to roll on.
00:00:52.540 We'll have some of the highlights of this past week of Senator Cruz
00:00:55.600 talking with several of the nominees.
00:00:58.160 It is the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:01.840 Let's move to TikTok for a second,
00:01:03.940 because this has actually been a big conversation around the inauguration.
00:01:08.740 Elections having consequences, laws having consequences,
00:01:12.140 Supreme Court getting involved.
00:01:13.960 So can we take it back to square one
00:01:16.560 so that people that maybe weren't paying attention to TikTok,
00:01:19.720 maybe don't use it, they understand.
00:01:21.220 TikTok is extremely important to a younger generation.
00:01:26.100 And there are a lot of Americans that make a living on TikTok.
00:01:29.440 There are a lot of people that support their businesses.
00:01:31.780 There is a lot of things on TikTok that you can say are very good.
00:01:35.340 There are a lot of things you can also say are very bad.
00:01:37.600 But explain what happened with TikTok and why it was shut down.
00:01:43.960 Well, Congress passed a law last year dealing with TikTok.
00:01:47.120 TikTok is owned and controlled by a company called ByteDance.
00:01:51.580 ByteDance is a Chinese company,
00:01:53.120 and it's a Chinese company that is under the direct control
00:01:56.540 of the Chinese Communist government.
00:01:58.580 The Chinese Communist government uses TikTok and uses it in a way
00:02:02.780 that I think poses a very real national security risk to the United States.
00:02:07.920 There are some 170 million Americans that use TikTok.
00:02:13.520 Overwhelmingly young people, teenagers, young adults, young professionals.
00:02:18.960 And the Chinese Communist government uses it, number one, to engage in espionage,
00:02:24.200 to monitor what those Americans are doing, what they're saying,
00:02:28.240 potentially where they are.
00:02:29.740 They have the potential to monitor their locations.
00:02:32.180 But number two, the Chinese Communist government uses TikTok aggressively to push propaganda,
00:02:39.820 to push propaganda that is, number one, pro-China.
00:02:43.580 And they suppress content, things like Tiananmen Square.
00:02:47.840 They suppress content about the one million Uyghurs that are in concentration camps in China.
00:02:53.480 They suppress content about Hong Kong or Taiwan.
00:02:58.100 But they also push anti-American content.
00:03:03.240 They push anti-capitalist content.
00:03:06.280 They push communist content.
00:03:07.680 They push socialist content.
00:03:09.520 They also push harmful content to young people.
00:03:12.980 They push substance abuse.
00:03:15.100 They push self-harm.
00:03:16.880 They push suicidal ideation.
00:03:19.080 I've got to say, the same company that owns TikTok, they have a TikTok version in China
00:03:25.740 that's very different from the TikTok in America.
00:03:28.540 The Chinese kids that are on TikTok, they're getting videos on math and calculus,
00:03:33.680 and they're limited in the number of hours they can do it,
00:03:35.720 but it's developing the kind of skills that are going to make them really effective in life.
00:03:39.740 You know, the Chinese kids are getting calculus, and our kids are getting chewing Tide Pods.
00:03:45.180 That ain't good.
00:03:46.200 The Chinese communist government is not doing it because they love our kids and they want to see a good outcome.
00:03:52.960 We also see heavily skewed political propaganda.
00:03:57.780 So, for example, anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah propaganda is rampant on TikTok
00:04:06.260 and at a complete differential, wildly different ratios than on other social media platforms.
00:04:14.180 And so, given China's malevolent use of TikTok, Congress passed a bipartisan bill
00:04:22.260 designed to force China to divest from TikTok.
00:04:27.140 And the terms of the bill said that TikTok had to shut down by January 19th
00:04:34.840 unless it had been sold and was no longer under the ownership or control of the Chinese communist government.
00:04:42.420 Now, TikTok has done next to nothing to comply with the efforts to sell itself.
00:04:48.900 In fact, they brazenly said, we will not sell.
00:04:52.640 Instead, they've tried to do a couple of things.
00:04:54.660 Number one, they've tried to engage in litigation.
00:04:56.420 They filed lawsuits.
00:04:58.220 They went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:05:00.480 They argued at the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:05:02.160 And TikTok lost unanimously.
00:05:04.340 The Supreme Court said, no, your First Amendment argument is not valid.
00:05:08.040 So, the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of Americans.
00:05:12.040 But it doesn't protect the Chinese communist government.
00:05:14.940 And the Supreme Court unanimously concluded this law is focused on national security.
00:05:19.340 It's not trying to suppress any Americans' free speech.
00:05:22.640 It is trying to prevent a hostile government from being able to engage in espionage and propaganda in the United States.
00:05:29.820 So, they devoted a lot of time to litigation, a lot of time to lobbyists.
00:05:33.460 They've had lobbyists descend on Capitol Hill trying to lobby against the ban.
00:05:37.800 Well, Saturday night at midnight, TikTok turned itself off.
00:05:43.260 And I will tell you, there were teenagers and young people all across the country that expressed enormous dismay when it shut down.
00:05:51.720 But they shut it down.
00:05:53.600 And so, TikTok, for most of Sunday, was shut down.
00:05:57.560 And then Sunday afternoon, they turned it back on.
00:05:59.840 And they turned it back on because Trump had indicated that he intends to give TikTok another 90 days.
00:06:07.240 The statute has a provision that the president can extend the ban for 90 days in order to help facilitate a sale of TikTok.
00:06:16.200 And Trump has said that's what he intends to do.
00:06:19.140 Look, my view on this, if in the next 90 days, TikTok follows through and sells the company to a non-Chinese buyer,
00:06:30.860 a non-Chinese government-controlled buyer, ideally to an American company,
00:06:35.140 that will be a very, very good thing.
00:06:38.800 The objective of this law, it's important to understand,
00:06:41.620 the objective of this law was never to ban TikTok.
00:06:46.040 The objective of this law was to force the Chinese communist government to end its ownership and control of TikTok.
00:06:53.260 I don't know if that's going to happen.
00:06:54.740 I hope it's going to happen.
00:06:56.180 I am not certain what Trump is going to end up doing,
00:06:58.820 but at least right now he's indicating that he intends to exercise the 90-day extension to give TikTok time to consummate the sale.
00:07:07.640 And so we'll see what happens in the next 90 days.
00:07:11.340 One last thing about TikTok.
00:07:13.700 Your opinion, if it is a threat to national security and to our way of life,
00:07:19.640 and that's why you say it's so important for it to be sold to a non-Chinese-controlled company.
00:07:25.360 Absolutely. That's why you had overwhelming bipartisan support for this legislation,
00:07:32.560 because what China is doing with TikTok is really harmful,
00:07:36.920 and it's a way to spy on Americans,
00:07:40.520 and it's also a way to really inject harmful content.
00:07:45.300 They're trying to drive our country in directions that tears America down,
00:07:49.740 and they're not doing it, you know,
00:07:51.680 this is not complaining about, well, gosh, Hollywood producers are not making wholesome movies anymore.
00:07:57.220 This is an adversary that is deliberately pumping propaganda to our children,
00:08:02.880 and we would be a foolish nation if we said,
00:08:06.440 hey, we're great with the Chinese communists having an open pipeline to our kids.
00:08:10.300 That's why Congress acted,
00:08:11.880 and as I said, I don't know what President Trump will do,
00:08:15.100 but certainly my counsel to him will be use this law as leverage,
00:08:20.380 and let's force China to sell TikTok.
00:08:24.200 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how this happens.
00:08:27.160 Let me ask you one final question on this inauguration day.
00:08:30.540 Didn't you just have a final question?
00:08:32.300 I got, no, this is overall, though.
00:08:33.880 This is outside of TikTok.
00:08:34.580 Are you like a used car salesman?
00:08:36.120 One more thing.
00:08:36.980 One more thing.
00:08:37.740 Would you like some undercover coverage?
00:08:41.240 Hey, I'm not there.
00:08:42.200 That's where I get my bonus question.
00:08:43.520 That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.
00:08:45.880 When you look at where we are, January 20th, 2025,
00:08:51.880 how excited are you for what we're about to witness
00:08:56.020 compared to January 20th of 2017 because of how prepared we are this time?
00:09:03.640 Much more excited because I think we're much more prepared.
00:09:06.440 We're hitting the ground running.
00:09:07.620 As I said, the initial Trump team, they'd never done this before,
00:09:10.680 the initial Trump White House, had never worked in the federal government.
00:09:14.020 I think there's just a much greater level of experience
00:09:16.860 and also awareness of the deep state, awareness of the career bureaucrats
00:09:21.500 who fight against a common sense, free market, freedom-oriented agenda.
00:09:29.640 And look, as I look at this array of cabinet nominees, I'm really excited.
00:09:33.100 And I think the most consistent characteristic of these nominees is that they're change agents.
00:09:43.060 They're disruptors, and they're going into these agencies to change and disrupt how they operate.
00:09:48.120 I think that's a very good thing.
00:09:49.880 Now, listen, there are going to be moments of chaos.
00:09:52.280 There are going to be mistakes that are made.
00:09:53.980 The old Silicon Valley phrase of move fast and break things,
00:09:58.940 I think that's what we're going to see.
00:10:00.580 They're going to move fast, and some things won't work.
00:10:04.620 But I'm excited because I think the overwhelming majority of what's accomplished
00:10:09.000 will be very, very good for the country.
00:10:10.920 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
00:10:13.580 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:10:17.380 Canadian women are looking for more.
00:10:20.240 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:10:24.360 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:10:28.080 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:10:29.260 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:10:30.500 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:10:34.280 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,
00:10:37.800 all at different stages of their journey.
00:10:39.980 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:10:42.980 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:10:47.380 Now on to story number two.
00:10:51.380 No doubt about it.
00:10:52.140 Lastly, I want to get your thoughts on something that was said in Trump's first sit-down interview
00:10:57.000 that he did in the Oval Office.
00:11:00.520 He did it with our good friend Sean Hannity.
00:11:03.400 And he was asked about the pardons that Joe Biden gave out.
00:11:08.060 And he made a comment, and I want to get your reaction to it,
00:11:11.000 about, hey, he may have messed up because he didn't pardon himself.
00:11:15.020 Take a listen.
00:11:15.540 He heard that I was going to do it.
00:11:17.340 I didn't want to do it.
00:11:18.580 I was given the option.
00:11:20.420 They said, sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?
00:11:24.060 I said, I'm not going to pardon anybody.
00:11:26.240 We didn't do anything wrong.
00:11:28.040 And we had people that suffered.
00:11:29.580 They're incredible patriots.
00:11:31.240 We had people that suffered.
00:11:32.920 You had Bannon put in jail.
00:11:35.920 You had Peter Navarro put in jail.
00:11:37.900 You had people that suffered.
00:11:40.800 And far worse than that, they've lost their fortunes.
00:11:45.780 They've lost their whatever, their nest egg, paying it to lawyers.
00:11:50.080 And those people, and people said, do you want, and they don't even, they wouldn't have
00:11:54.680 even taken, most of those people, they wouldn't have even taken a pardon.
00:11:58.780 This guy went around giving everybody pardons.
00:12:00.720 And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn't give himself a pardon.
00:12:08.600 He didn't give himself a pardon.
00:12:12.240 Senator, I got to ask you, your take on that, is that a foreshadowing comment coming from
00:12:18.320 Donald Trump there?
00:12:19.380 Well, listen, it may well be.
00:12:22.480 And we've been very clear, we've talked a lot on Verdict, about how the scandal with
00:12:30.360 Hunter Biden and the Biden crime family was never about Hunter being a, you know, guy
00:12:38.200 who abuses drugs and has made a lot of wrong choices in life.
00:12:42.180 The scandal was always that the entire Biden family made millions of dollars selling favors
00:12:48.680 from the big guy, selling favors from Joe Biden.
00:12:51.260 It was always about Joe Biden's corruption.
00:12:53.680 And we talked a lot about how the Biden DOJ, the tell in terms of whether they were being
00:12:59.880 politicized on protecting Biden, would be if they fought in the Hunter Biden investigation
00:13:06.080 to protect Joe himself and to prevent any inquiry into his corruption.
00:13:12.280 If they kept it focused on the drug crime or the gun crime or even the income
00:13:18.560 tax crimes that were personal to Hunter rather than examining the corruption, that's exactly
00:13:23.880 what they did.
00:13:24.840 And so I think that corruption needs to be investigated.
00:13:29.400 And I think we need to enforce the law fairly, regardless of party.
00:13:34.260 And I got to say, by the way, we predicted on this podcast when we, number one, predicted
00:13:40.180 the Hunter Biden pardon.
00:13:41.280 And in fact, I put the odds of the Hunter Biden pardon at 100 percent.
00:13:45.080 We even predicted the date.
00:13:46.780 I said it would be December of 2024.
00:13:48.780 It happened on December 1st of 2024.
00:13:51.680 But second, when that happened, we went on this podcast and predicted, said he's going
00:13:56.980 to pardon the rest of his family.
00:13:58.240 Well, he did that on the very last day, moments before he left office, he pardoned the rest
00:14:03.300 of his family because they were all involved in the corruption.
00:14:05.880 They were all involved in selling favors.
00:14:07.680 And so right now, the only one with potential liability is Joe Biden himself.
00:14:12.180 And, you know, Trump's right that it's interesting he didn't pardon himself.
00:14:16.900 We'll see if that has real consequences.
00:14:19.180 By the way, one of the results of all these pardons is that Congress can now subpoena the
00:14:26.680 members of the Biden family and force them to answer questions under oath.
00:14:30.660 And they don't have a Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer.
00:14:33.780 Really?
00:14:34.020 OK, so a lot of people don't know that, including me.
00:14:36.540 So explain that a little bit for everybody, because that is that is big news.
00:14:40.880 So the Fifth Amendment says that you can't be forced to testify against yourself.
00:14:46.160 Now, that only applies if you have criminal jeopardy, if you can be prosecuted.
00:14:51.140 Once you've been pardoned, you have no criminal jeopardy, which means you don't have the right
00:14:55.560 to say, I'm not going to answer that because I might incriminate myself in a crime because
00:14:59.600 it's a federal crime.
00:15:01.080 You can't be prosecuted for it, which means if you refuse to answer, you can be held in
00:15:07.560 contempt and put in jail.
00:15:09.820 And so it it has changed.
00:15:13.800 I will.
00:15:14.280 There's a very there's a very real chance that members of the Biden crime family that
00:15:19.640 were pardoned could be asked to come and testify in Congress and they would be forced to answer
00:15:25.440 the questions for the reasons you just stated.
00:15:27.980 Yep.
00:15:28.560 And if they don't, by the way, same is true about Fauci that, you know, you know, Biden
00:15:33.740 pardoned Fauci.
00:15:34.720 That means Fauci doesn't have a Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions under oath.
00:15:39.480 I certainly hope that he's forced to answer those questions.
00:15:43.360 And I got to say.
00:15:44.500 So hold on.
00:15:45.380 Hypothetically, you get Fauci in front of you, you start asking him questions and he just
00:15:48.960 refuses to answer those questions.
00:15:51.140 Is that in contempt of Congress at that point?
00:15:53.640 Well, Congress has to vote to hold him in contempt for refusing to answer those questions.
00:15:57.700 And then the Department of Justice has to prosecute him.
00:16:00.760 I got to say, I think if Congress voted to hold him in contempt, I think DOJ would prosecute
00:16:05.140 him.
00:16:05.340 And by the way, to be clear, the Biden Department of Justice, Trump mentioned putting Steve Bannon
00:16:10.080 and Peter Navarro in prison.
00:16:11.400 They did that because they held them in contempt to Congress.
00:16:14.400 And that was even aside from from pleading the fifth there.
00:16:18.860 They just refused to testify.
00:16:20.320 They argued they asserted executive privilege and DOJ prosecuted them after Congress, after
00:16:27.920 the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.
00:16:30.920 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go
00:16:35.160 back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:16:39.740 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected
00:16:44.240 leaders and the world around them.
00:16:45.820 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:16:49.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:16:50.940 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:16:52.140 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,
00:16:57.260 athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:17:01.660 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:17:04.880 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:17:08.940 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:17:15.280 So as I mentioned earlier, what he did do today was some pretty incredible work on the
00:17:20.520 Hill.
00:17:21.440 Senator Cruz questioned Elise Stefanik in the confirmation hearing, and I want you to hear
00:17:25.500 what he had to say.
00:17:26.660 Take a listen to what Senator Cruz had to say today on Capitol Hill in the questioning of
00:17:31.840 Elise Stefanik.
00:17:33.440 Congratulations on your nomination.
00:17:35.180 You're going to be terrific.
00:17:35.920 I want to go back to a topic you discussed with Senator Cornyn.
00:17:40.400 I want to focus on Iran's push to build a nuclear arsenal, which poses, I think, the most immediate
00:17:48.460 and acute threat to American national security.
00:17:51.700 When the Ayatollah chants, death to America, he means it.
00:17:56.840 And I believe he would absolutely detonate a nuclear weapon over an American city if he could.
00:18:02.940 The Trump administration got Iran's nuclear program in a box and kept it there.
00:18:09.920 President Trump withdrew from the catastrophic Obama-Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
00:18:16.180 He imposed maximum pressure in 2019.
00:18:19.940 He invoked the U.N. snapback mechanism in the U.N. Security Council, Resolution 2231, to reimpose
00:18:26.900 international sanctions in 2020.
00:18:28.900 For that entire time, Iran was deterred from making significant advances on their nuclear
00:18:35.500 program.
00:18:36.780 They did not even enrich uranium above 5 percent or cascade advanced centrifuges.
00:18:44.180 Starting in November 2020, the Iranian regime gambled that it could start rushing to a nuclear
00:18:50.100 arsenal, and the incoming Biden administration would let them.
00:18:54.080 Unfortunately, that proved correct.
00:18:58.940 In November, the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear advances.
00:19:04.460 In January, they started enriching at 20 percent at Fordow, the underground enrichment bunker built
00:19:12.020 into a mountain that the Obama-Iran nuclear deal left open.
00:19:16.700 The incoming Biden administration responded with appeasement.
00:19:23.040 In February, immediately after being inaugurated, they rushed to the U.N. to rescind President
00:19:29.000 Trump's snapback, again allowing international sanctions to expire.
00:19:33.400 For the next four years, the administration continually dismantled pressure on the regime and refused to impose sanctions.
00:19:44.520 We know the result.
00:19:46.800 Today, the Ayatollah has achieved a nuclear breakout time of zero.
00:19:52.060 We now face the very real possibility of an Iranian nuclear arsenal.
00:19:58.400 I do not believe that this is a threat the U.S. can tolerate.
00:20:02.460 And I am confident that both the President and Secretary of State Rubio agree.
00:20:08.020 I asked Secretary of State Rubio whether he intends to go to the United Nations and again trigger
00:20:13.060 the snapback mechanism as a part of his written testimony to this committee.
00:20:18.040 Here was Secretary Rubio's response, quote,
00:20:22.380 I believe it is in our national security interest for the U.N. Security Council to snap back the sanctions
00:20:28.320 that were suspended under the JCPOA.
00:20:31.800 I will execute the President's guidance and work with our allies to ensure that snapback takes place.
00:20:40.200 First, do you agree with Secretary Rubio's assessment that it is in the national security interest of the United States
00:20:46.720 to snap back those sanctions?
00:20:48.180 Yes.
00:20:49.880 Talk about how you would execute a strategy to do so, either unilaterally or working with allies.
00:20:56.400 We will have to – that will be a strategy that I develop with the National Security Council
00:21:00.940 in tandem with Secretary Rubio and President Trump to work with our allies within the United Nations,
00:21:06.840 within the Security Council.
00:21:08.580 And there are allies that are already considering this and looking at it,
00:21:12.340 and that has been publicly reported.
00:21:14.120 But obviously, pushing back on Iran is a top priority.
00:21:17.700 It was a success during President Trump's first term.
00:21:20.620 And we've seen the catastrophic results in loss of life during the previous four years
00:21:26.180 when you have had an emboldened Iran that has led to directly the October 7th terrorist attack against Israel
00:21:33.060 and Hezbollah firing tens of thousands of rockets against Israeli civilians.
00:21:37.760 Let's move to another topic.
00:21:40.000 You and I talked about the deep rot in the United Nations when it comes to supporting terrorism against America and our allies,
00:21:47.700 especially Israel.
00:21:49.160 As you discussed with Senator McCormick,
00:21:52.060 UNRWA has for decades provided material support for Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
00:21:57.200 The World Health Organization has also been deeply complicit in the use of hospitals by Hamas
00:22:02.520 for terrorist activities, including for the holding of hostages.
00:22:05.840 The complicity of these organizations deepened after October 7th.
00:22:11.460 The Biden administration embraced UNRWA and the World Health Organization.
00:22:16.460 Congress prohibited the Biden administration from funding UNRWA,
00:22:19.860 but the administration officials circumvented that prohibition by using UNRWA infrastructure.
00:22:25.600 Yesterday, the President rightly and immediately withdrew our participation from them.
00:22:29.860 I think that was a critical first step,
00:22:31.520 but the next step is to enable American citizens to hold these organizations accountable.
00:22:37.100 We currently have a very odd legal environment where these organizations enjoy more sovereign immunity than states
00:22:44.640 and thus are shielded from accountability.
00:22:47.560 Last Congress, I introduced the Liable Act
00:22:49.980 and was joined by four current members of this committee, including, as well as, Secretary of State Rubio.
00:22:56.200 The bill will allow American victims of terrorism and their family to sue international organizations
00:23:01.040 that support terrorism against this.
00:23:03.480 I will soon reintroduce it in this Congress.
00:23:06.420 What is your understanding of the role these organizations have played in facilitating terrorism
00:23:11.400 against Americans, Israelis, and our allies?
00:23:14.360 Well, UNRWA, there were individuals in UNRWA who participated,
00:23:19.180 who executed and committed terrorist acts against Israel on October 7th.
00:23:25.120 Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, carried an UNRWA passport.
00:23:29.240 You had a Hamas data center under UNRWA headquarters.
00:23:33.400 So the rot is deep.
00:23:35.060 Congress made the right decision.
00:23:36.380 I was proud to be one of the leaders when it came to defunding UNRWA.
00:23:39.320 And I am committed to holding them accountable and working with the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House
00:23:45.400 and the president if that legislation passes.
00:23:48.800 Terrific. Thank you.
00:23:49.740 Now, there's also other big news that we want to talk about,
00:23:53.120 and that deals with the Secretary of State.
00:23:55.420 The Secretary of State now has an even bigger job than any Secretary of State had
00:24:01.000 during the time of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being in office.
00:24:04.740 And what's really cool about what's happening now is Donald Trump is empowering leaders to do their job well.
00:24:12.060 Now, there was some big breaking news, and that is that President Donald Trump signed an executive order
00:24:16.940 suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days,
00:24:21.500 pending a comprehensive review to ensure their alignment with his administration's policy objectives.
00:24:27.200 Now, this suspension affects a wide range of global initiatives,
00:24:30.340 including humanitarian aid, economic development, and health programs.
00:24:35.140 Notably, the U.S. contributes approximately $70.3 billion annually in foreign aid,
00:24:41.120 supporting various international efforts.
00:24:44.400 So what did the president do?
00:24:46.040 He said it's time for all of this to go back under a review,
00:24:50.140 and is calling out other countries for what he described as not paying their fair share.
00:24:54.960 Who's going to be looking over this?
00:24:57.100 Well, that would be Marco Rubio.
00:24:59.340 He will do a deep dive into where your tax dollars are going and then come back with recommendations.
00:25:06.320 What's also interesting is how this relates back to Marco Rubio and his conversation with Senator Cruz on January the 17th.
00:25:14.180 Take a listen to what he had to say then.
00:25:16.260 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:25:17.460 And I've got to say, boy, that sounds good, Mr. Chairman.
00:25:20.420 That is as good as it sounds to me.
00:25:22.540 Thank you.
00:25:23.120 Well, congratulations, and I'm looking forward to the next two years working together.
00:25:26.620 Thank you.
00:25:27.320 And to Senator Rubio, let me say congratulations to you as well.
00:25:30.220 We're going to miss you on this committee.
00:25:31.720 We're going to miss you in the Senate.
00:25:32.780 But you're going to do an extraordinary job at Foggy Bottom.
00:25:37.280 And I will say if they capture you and tie you up in the basement, we will send a team to pull you out.
00:25:45.940 You know, as I look back over the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration,
00:25:50.520 there are a lot of policies that have done a lot of damage.
00:25:53.940 Domestic policies, economic policies.
00:25:56.040 But I think all of those pale compared to the damage that has been done to national security and foreign policy over the last four years.
00:26:04.360 Over the last four years, this administration has systematically undermined and abandoned our allies.
00:26:11.120 And it has systematically shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies.
00:26:16.400 And the consequence has been disastrous.
00:26:18.520 We've gone from four years ago, peace and prosperity, to today, a situation with wars across the globe
00:26:26.660 and every enemy of America stronger than they were when this administration came into office.
00:26:34.260 I am confident the incoming administration is going to change that direction.
00:26:38.280 I am confident that President Trump and the White House and you as Secretary of State
00:26:42.040 are going to shift us back to where we should be,
00:26:46.300 which is standing by our friends and allies and standing up to our enemies.
00:26:51.920 Do you agree with that assessment?
00:26:53.500 Is that what you intend to do as Secretary of State?
00:26:55.820 Well, let me say first, the foreign policy of the United States will be set by the President.
00:26:59.300 And my job is to advise on it and ultimately to execute.
00:27:01.900 I think the President has been abundantly clear.
00:27:04.040 And that is, his policy is going to be driven about making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
00:27:08.940 As I said in my opening statement, everything the State Department does,
00:27:12.040 every policy, every program, every dollar it spends, every initiative it takes,
00:27:17.460 has to answer three questions.
00:27:18.980 Does it make us safer?
00:27:19.920 Does it make us stronger?
00:27:21.160 Or does it make us more prosperous?
00:27:23.000 And if it doesn't, if the answer is not yes to one of those three,
00:27:26.400 you're going to have a hard time moving that forward because that's the priority that the President,
00:27:30.160 and that's the priority that, by the way, voters gave this President when they elected him.
00:27:34.360 You point to a number of things that I think are critically important.
00:27:37.300 And I'll phrase it a different way, but I think we're saying the same thing.
00:27:41.020 We have lost deterrence in multiple theaters around the world.
00:27:45.220 So as an example, and I use this as a small-scale example, but it's really an important one.
00:27:48.940 I think the year was 2020, 2019.
00:27:52.340 The Wagner group tried to get cute and came after some of Americans operating in Syria.
00:27:58.220 And fire from the sky rained down on them.
00:28:01.100 And that group was pushed back pretty hard.
00:28:04.020 That's deterrence.
00:28:05.180 They threatened us, and they knew what the response would be.
00:28:08.060 I recall the consternation here and in other places when Soleimani met his demise.
00:28:15.360 But I can tell you it impacted Iranian behavior for a substantial period of time.
00:28:19.320 No matter how tough they talked, it impacted their behavior.
00:28:22.860 I think it's important to reestablish deterrence.
00:28:25.480 And to the extent that that's been lost for a variety of reasons,
00:28:29.320 the lack of deterrence is an invitation to war.
00:28:32.100 The lack of deterrence is an invitation to hostility.
00:28:34.760 It prevents the very thing that we hope to achieve, which is peace and stability in the world.
00:28:40.760 And I do think we've lost deterrence.
00:28:43.560 And I think in some ways it contributed to what happened in Ukraine.
00:28:46.500 An item I know is very close to you, and you've worked very hard on it,
00:28:49.880 and we talked earlier today about it, is energy dependence.
00:28:52.620 I recall President Trump at both a NATO summit and at the United Nations.
00:28:57.240 And I recall the United Nations one in particular.
00:28:59.480 President Trump said, Germany is dependent, entirely going to be left dependent on China,
00:29:04.620 on Russia for its energy.
00:29:07.060 And they laughed at him.
00:29:08.380 There were diplomats in the hall that were snickering.
00:29:10.420 That's exactly what happened.
00:29:11.460 It is one of the reasons why Putin believed he could invade Europe is because Europe would not push back
00:29:16.700 because they depended on him so much for energy.
00:29:19.520 Now, Europe is to be congratulated.
00:29:20.900 They have moved very swiftly, particularly the Germans, to diversify their energy resources.
00:29:25.620 But one could argue that we may never have had that invasion had that dependence not existed
00:29:30.280 because maybe who would have thought the European response would have been more forceful than he anticipated.
00:29:36.300 So I do think reestablishing deterrence and strength is important because it prevents war,
00:29:41.540 and it gives us leverage in diplomacy, which where we hope to solve 99.9% of the global disagreements,
00:29:48.400 we hope to solve through diplomacy, not through armed conflict.
00:29:51.540 I think that's very well said.
00:29:53.760 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:29:58.960 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict,
00:30:03.520 or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:30:06.000 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson Podcast,
00:30:09.720 and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:30:13.140 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:30:16.020 Guaranteed human.