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

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. 0.97

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, 0.89

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. 0.99

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. 1.00

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. 0.52

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 0.99

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 0.99

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. 0.95

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. 0.96

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. 0.98

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 0.95

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. 0.62

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.

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

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