Verdict with Ted Cruz - Why is The Media Covering for Hamas, a Gag Order Will Not Allow a Free and Fair Election, plus Helping the People Of Israel the Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.280 Welcome.

00:00:06.040 It is the Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.860 Weekend review.

00:00:08.860 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.160 And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:14.900 Story one, a big one.

00:00:16.500 Why is the media covering for a terrorist organization, Hamas, and lying to you about

00:00:21.640 what Israel is doing?

00:00:22.820 A perfect example is the fake bombing of the hospital in Gaza that everyone blamed on Israel.

00:00:29.140 Story number two, Donald Trump, election interference.

00:00:33.700 A new gag order has been put on the former president.

00:00:36.780 How on earth can he run in a free and fair election if they won't let him talk or defend

00:00:42.300 himself on some of these charges?

00:00:44.420 And finally, what can you do as an American to actually help people in Israel?

00:00:50.380 We talked to someone on the ground in Israel, and he will explain exactly what the needs are.

00:00:55.500 It is the Weekend Review with Ted Cruz, and it starts right now.

00:01:00.400 You know, I would like to ask MSNBC to put out a formal statement explaining how someone

00:01:06.240 who's raping a little girl is not a bad guy. 0.99

00:01:08.280 Yeah. 0.99

00:01:08.740 Because that's apparently their position.

00:01:10.160 There are no good guys and bad guys.

00:01:11.340 You've got to understand, because the Palestinians are living under the boot of the Israeli military.

00:01:17.140 That is a lie.

00:01:17.860 That is a lie, but it's convenient propaganda.

00:01:22.340 This is the strategy.

00:01:25.160 Push the lie.

00:01:26.820 Push the lie.

00:01:28.120 Put it out there.

00:01:29.260 And the reason we've devoted this entire pod to this, more of this will come.

00:01:35.040 Much more.

00:01:35.640 This is just the beginning.

00:01:37.360 I'm sorry to tell you next week it's going to be worse.

00:01:40.360 And in two weeks it's going to be even worse.

00:01:42.140 And in three weeks it's going to be even worse than that, because as this war proceeds, Hamas 0.99

00:01:47.660 is going to succeed in getting Palestinian civilians killed. 1.00

00:01:52.580 They want to succeed. 0.83

00:01:54.180 And when they have dead Palestinian civilians that they put in harm's way, then all the CNN

00:02:00.200 cameras are going to rush to film the bodies and stand there and say Israel has committed

00:02:05.620 war crimes once again. 0.80

00:02:07.060 Now, mind you, their alternative is do what the Biden State Department asked them to do.

00:02:12.240 Do a ceasefire.

00:02:13.520 Say to Hamas, never mind. 0.95

00:02:14.840 No, no, you can attack. 0.96

00:02:16.260 You can murder 1,200 Israelis and we'll do nothing because, look, the objective of Hamas 0.99

00:02:24.180 is the same as the objective of anti-Semites in America, and it is to utterly destroy Israel. 0.96

00:02:30.860 Israel, and these corporate media propagandists are integral in the effort to destroy Israel.

00:02:39.200 You know, Ben, we've given several examples from MSNBC, from CNN, and from ABC, but I don't

00:02:46.900 want people to think that CBS and NBC are blameless in this because, sadly, the corporate media,

00:02:51.520 they're all corrupt.

00:02:52.840 So let's turn. 0.96

00:02:54.400 I want to turn to two headlines from CBS.

00:02:56.860 First of all was the initial headline they put up, and it reads, Israeli twin babies

00:03:02.600 found hidden and unharmed at kibbutz where Hamas killed their parents, allegedly beheaded

00:03:09.580 children.

00:03:10.940 So that's on October 12th, a headline from CBS News.

00:03:14.500 Now, thankfully, CBS came back and edited that headline, and so the second headline they

00:03:19.880 put up was, Israeli twin babies found hidden and unharmed at kibbutz where Hamas killed

00:03:25.800 their parents.

00:03:27.340 Now, the second headline is fine.

00:03:32.160 The first headline is part of a very deliberate propaganda effort to say babies were not beheaded.

00:03:40.580 And you look at allegedly beheaded children, and the point is, aha, we found some babies,

00:03:46.800 so it's not true that they beheaded children because here are two babies who are alive.

00:03:50.560 I mean, that, that is so mendacious it doesn't even pass the laugh test.

00:03:58.100 And the topic, how are we discussing babies being beheaded?

00:04:04.860 It's not difficult to tell the political agenda of the headline writer who wrote the first headline.

00:04:12.140 Yep.

00:04:13.040 It is Hamas didn't do this.

00:04:15.600 The Israelis are lying. 1.00

00:04:17.600 Nothing to see here.

00:04:18.860 Cast doubt on all stories of atrocities you may have heard over the last week.

00:04:23.000 Allegedly.

00:04:23.660 Right.

00:04:24.620 Allegedly.

00:04:25.220 By the way, that word allegedly, sometimes they use it, sometimes they don't.

00:04:29.440 When Israel strikes at Gaza and their Palestinian civilians killed, 20 bucks says right now CBS

00:04:36.400 will not use the word allegedly.

00:04:38.840 Allegedly will disappear.

00:04:40.240 Let's give an example from NBC.

00:04:41.840 Yeah.

00:04:42.700 NBC News.

00:04:43.380 NBC News.

00:04:45.160 Here's the headline.

00:04:47.040 Conservatives stoke fears of a Hamas attack in U.S.

00:04:51.920 No credible threat, FBI says.

00:04:55.140 The posts show how quickly the latest bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas has upended

00:05:00.120 online political debate thousands of miles away.

00:05:03.160 Now, I've been part of this political debate online because I told the story.

00:05:07.500 You and I did this on the podcast of the day.

00:05:09.600 There have been more terrorists on the terrorist watch list this year that have been caught coming

00:05:15.540 across the border than the last five years combined.

00:05:17.520 So I guess I'm a part of the online, you know, the online political debate by telling the

00:05:22.920 facts that there have been more people on the terrorist watch list that have come across

00:05:27.580 the border and been caught this year, doesn't count any of the gotaways, any of the people

00:05:30.640 that got across we don't know about, than the last five years combined.

00:05:33.940 And if you say that now, now you're part of some weird conspiracy theories group.

00:05:38.840 NBC went all in trying to cover that there's no reason to think terrorism will happen in

00:05:45.100 the United States, by the way, among the conservatives stoking fears are apparently you and me because

00:05:49.240 Friday's podcast, we went into great length on this, how this is particularly dangerous

00:05:55.500 when you have Hamas calling for a global day of jihad and we've had two and a half years

00:06:00.260 of open borders with hundreds, if not thousands of criminals and terrorists crossing into this

00:06:05.900 country illegally.

00:06:07.220 And look, the numbers that we have of people on the terror watch list, the numbers that we

00:06:11.040 have of people from special interest countries, those are disturbing, but it's the tip of the 0.98

00:06:16.800 iceberg.

00:06:17.680 What is really worrying are the gotaways.

00:06:19.960 We don't know how many terrorists came on the gotaways.

00:06:24.180 We know that the fact that they got away shows they're deliberately evading arrest.

00:06:28.940 It suggests that they're not blameless.

00:06:32.240 They're not because if you're blameless, if you don't have a criminal record, if you're not

00:06:36.760 a gang member, if you're not a terrorist, you turn yourself into the Biden administration

00:06:40.940 and they let you go.

00:06:42.360 So there's no reason to be a gotaway unless you're a drug dealer, unless you're a criminal,

00:06:47.380 unless you're a terrorist.

00:06:48.400 That's the only reason. 0.99

00:06:49.460 You're a 13 gang member.

00:06:50.080 Yes.

00:06:50.680 That's why people are gotaways.

00:06:53.400 And the number, you're looking at upwards of a million and a half gotaways.

00:06:56.760 We don't know how many terrorists are among that group.

00:06:59.620 But NBC is reporting as news, there's no reason to be afraid of terrorism in America.

00:07:05.860 Never mind the million and a half people who came in who could be terrorists.

00:07:09.060 Never mind the fact that if you were a terrorist, if you wanted to commit jihad, there's an obvious

00:07:13.600 way to do that.

00:07:15.420 Yet you and I are not giving away some state secrets saying if you're a terrorist who wants 1.00

00:07:19.720 to murder Americans, the way to do it is cross over our southern border because these idiots 1.00

00:07:24.440 in the White House will let you go and they're not enforcing the border. 1.00

00:07:29.260 And it's not hard to be a gotaway.

00:07:31.260 You can get away because the Border Patrol agents are so swamped with processing paperwork

00:07:37.720 and changing diapers and dealing with the 7.6 million illegal immigrants that they're 0.99

00:07:42.460 not able to be actually protecting this nation.

00:07:45.760 And mind you, the Biden administration has also pulled federal air marshals off of planes

00:07:50.680 so our planes are less secure because they're down there doing paperwork as well.

00:07:54.600 These two crises are intertwined and NBC News does not want anyone to connect that our open

00:08:01.600 borders makes us subject to a greater risk of terrorism.

00:08:05.440 I believe it is indisputable.

00:08:06.980 The risk of a major terror attack today is greater than any time it has been since 9-11.

00:08:13.440 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast

00:08:18.600 from earlier this week.

00:08:20.820 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00

00:08:25.180 leaders and the world around them.

00:08:26.940 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:08:30.760 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:08:31.860 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:08:32.800 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

00:08:38.180 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:08:42.580 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:08:45.820 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:08:51.360 Now on to story number two.

00:08:53.940 This gag order that was just put on former President Donald Trump, plain and simple, is this election

00:09:00.040 interference at its worst, but also at its finest for Democrats who say, hey, we can shut

00:09:05.500 up a candidate running the leader in the lead by, I don't know, 40 plus points, depending

00:09:10.460 on what poll you look at.

00:09:11.760 We're going to make sure this guy can't defend himself and what we're trying to do to him.

00:09:15.740 This gag order is blatantly unconstitutional.

00:09:18.380 Really?

00:09:18.780 It is an absolute abuse of power.

00:09:20.420 Here's what the gag order reads.

00:09:21.560 Quote, all interested parties in this matter, including the parties in their council, are

00:09:26.320 prohibited from making any public statements or directing others to make any public statements

00:09:30.180 that target, one, the special counsel prosecuting this case or his staff, two, defense counsel

00:09:35.060 or their staff, three, any of this court staff or other supporting personnel, and four, any

00:09:39.940 reasonable foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.

00:09:43.560 Now I want to focus in particular on two of them.

00:09:45.720 Number one, the special counsel prosecuting the case.

00:09:47.840 The judge is saying, you're not allowed to make this case, that the special counsel is

00:09:53.180 a rabid partisan Democrat who's made a career out of prosecuting Republicans, out of abusing

00:09:57.880 his power, and he's saying Trump can't make that point.

00:10:02.960 But, or she, rather, the judge.

00:10:05.400 But even more importantly, number four, Trump is prohibited from saying, making any public

00:10:13.360 comments about any reasonable foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.

00:10:19.960 So one of the witnesses is Mike Pence.

00:10:22.280 Mike Pence is currently running against Donald Trump for President of the United States.

00:10:26.040 Yeah.

00:10:26.220 So you now have a federal judge saying, you, the leading candidate for President of the

00:10:30.600 United States, as a Republican, are prohibited by this court from making any comments, positive

00:10:37.900 or negative, about Mike Pence, one of your opponents.

00:10:42.020 That's impossible, by the way.

00:10:43.660 You know, I can just envision if Trump participated in a debate, and I don't know if he will or

00:10:48.980 not, but you can imagine him on a debate stage and Mike Pence stands up and attacks him, and

00:10:53.340 Mike Pence has criticism of Trump, and Trump turns to him, and if Trump were to follow this

00:10:59.300 order, I guess Trump would say, I would like to respond to those comments, but I am prohibited

00:11:04.340 by court order from saying anything regarding the individual who just said that.

00:11:09.100 That's absurd.

00:11:10.860 That is right in the face laughing at the First Amendment, laughing at free speech, laughing

00:11:18.400 at the democratic process.

00:11:19.760 Now, watch and listen to what Donald Trump said in response to this.

00:11:24.240 They think the only way they can catch me is to stop me from speaking.

00:11:28.920 They want to take away my voice.

00:11:30.300 Listen, a judge gave a gag order today.

00:11:33.900 Did you hear that on speech?

00:11:36.260 Which I believe is totally unconstitutional, what she did. 0.61

00:11:39.520 A judge gave a gag order. 0.57

00:11:40.860 A judge doesn't like me too much.

00:11:42.880 Her whole life is not liking me.

00:11:45.300 But she gave a gag order. 1.00

00:11:46.900 You know what a gag order is?

00:11:48.240 You can't speak badly about your opponent.

00:11:51.420 But this is weaponry all being done because Joe Biden is losing the election and losing

00:11:57.260 very, very badly to all of us in the polls.

00:11:59.880 He's losing badly.

00:12:01.380 But what they don't understand is that I am willing to go to jail if that's what it takes

00:12:07.040 for our country to win and become a democracy again.

00:12:10.420 By the way, that's why people love him.

00:12:17.400 He's calling it out and saying, fine, you want to go there?

00:12:20.100 You can put me in jail.

00:12:21.440 I'm willing to go to defend my rights to that end.

00:12:24.980 There are very few statements Donald Trump has made that I agree with more emphatically

00:12:28.740 than what he just said there.

00:12:30.880 That is exactly right.

00:12:33.340 By the way, on the face of it, he arguably violated the gag order right there because he's

00:12:37.940 pointing out that the judge is a radical leftist and is, in fact, one of the most liberal judges,

00:12:42.760 if not the most liberal judge in the entire D.C. court.

00:12:46.920 I don't think the D.C. judge is going to dare to put him in jail like you could.

00:12:52.620 She really could.

00:12:53.480 That was my question.

00:12:54.720 Based on that, could she actually go and arrest him?

00:12:57.260 She could issue an order, go arrest him and put him in jail. 0.98

00:13:02.880 Part of me wants her to do that because if she did, he would immediately,

00:13:07.420 leave a appeal and I am absolutely certain the appellate courts would reverse it.

00:13:11.800 I put it at 100 percent.

00:13:14.460 Even for a hardcore leftist judge, she knows that.

00:13:19.520 She's not going to lock him in jail.

00:13:20.820 Then why did she do the gag order? 1.00

00:13:22.260 That's my question because if you know Donald Trump at all, you know he's going to push that button.

00:13:26.740 Because there's an arrogance to it and I think what she probably will do is fine him.

00:13:32.780 Okay.

00:13:33.000 I think you will see her at some point.

00:13:34.580 I don't think she'll take that comment.

00:13:36.140 I think she'll try to find something that is really explicitly blasting the prosecutor,

00:13:42.720 explicitly blasting Mike Pence or some other potential witness.

00:13:47.160 And I think what is likely to, that we're likely to see is that she enters an order fining him

00:13:53.160 $1,000 or $5,000 or $15,000 or whatever, some amount.

00:13:58.020 And I expect that fine to be appealed.

00:14:01.520 But it will not be appealed with the urgency of if she issued an order for the leading Republican candidate to be incarcerated.

00:14:10.440 And the former president of the United States of America.

00:14:12.860 Yes, that appeal would be resolved within hours.

00:14:16.340 Like that would be done on an emergency expedited basis.

00:14:19.840 And even the D.C. Circuit leans left.

00:14:23.160 I don't believe the D.C. Circuit.

00:14:24.460 Look, the Supreme Court in a case called Seattle Times v. Reinhardt said that litigants' First Amendment rights,

00:14:36.300 quote,

00:14:36.520 may be subordinated to other interests that arise in the courthouse.

00:14:39.360 For instance, on several occasions, this court has approved restrictions on the communication of trial participants

00:14:44.080 where necessary to ensure a fair trial for a criminal defendant.

00:14:48.140 But this isn't designed to ensure a fair trial for a criminal defendant.

00:14:50.880 In fact, just the opposite.

00:14:52.380 Yeah.

00:14:52.560 This is designed to hurt the criminal defendant.

00:14:54.560 And I will point out, in New York Times v. Sullivan, which is a landmark, maybe the landmark, free speech, freedom of the press case,

00:15:06.280 the Supreme Court said that the First Amendment reflects, quote,

00:15:09.880 a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open,

00:15:17.300 and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attack on government and public officials.

00:15:26.060 What this judge has just said is you're not allowed to criticize the prosecutor.

00:15:29.360 You're not allowed to criticize Merrick Garland, the most political attorney general in America's history,

00:15:33.780 for weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after you because he's afraid you'll win the election

00:15:37.560 and he wants to abuse the justice system to lock you up because he doesn't want the voters to be able to vote for you.

00:15:43.580 You're not allowed to say that because...

00:15:45.340 While you're running for president.

00:15:46.420 I don't want the voters to hear that.

00:15:49.240 That's not about the jury pool.

00:15:51.080 That's not about protecting the integrity of the trial.

00:15:53.760 That's about, I don't like anyone knowing what's going on.

00:15:57.060 Now everyone knows what's going on.

00:15:58.840 That's why every time Trump gets indicted, his numbers in the primary go up.

00:16:02.600 Yeah.

00:16:02.940 Because it's obvious, whether you like Trump or don't like Trump, 1.00

00:16:06.280 even people that don't like Trump, they look at this and say, this is garbage. 0.99

00:16:09.800 And this gag order, I got to say, this judge may overreach. 0.99

00:16:17.760 And I think this gag order is overreaching.

00:16:20.140 Now, the gag order on the face of it is not likely to be immediately appealable on an expedited basis.

00:16:28.620 When the appeal will speed up, in all likelihood, is when the judge orders a consequence.

00:16:36.180 If the judge ordered incarceration, if the judge says, lock Donald Trump up. 0.97

00:16:39.780 She's crazy enough to do that. 1.00

00:16:40.880 I don't think she is. 0.99

00:16:41.940 I actually don't.

00:16:43.000 I think, I don't know this judge at all.

00:16:45.400 I've never practiced in front of her.

00:16:46.540 I don't know her, but from everything I know, I'm assuming, and her record indicates she's a hardcore leftist. 0.99

00:16:51.620 But I don't think she's stupid. 0.99

00:16:53.200 Yeah. 1.00

00:16:53.880 If you issue an order, go incarcerate the president of the United States, lock him up.

00:16:58.840 By the way, you want to talk about unprecedented, put it in handcuffs, put it in prison.

00:17:02.740 Secret service is coming with him.

00:17:04.080 So in the cell, you're going to have secret service agents protecting Donald Trump in prison.

00:17:09.020 If she issued that order, you would have an emergency expedited appeal.

00:17:13.320 And my prediction is in less than a day, it would be reversed.

00:17:15.940 I actually think in hours.

00:17:16.900 I don't even think it would take, it wouldn't take 24 hours.

00:17:19.160 It would take a couple of hours.

00:17:20.820 And Trump is exactly right. 0.99

00:17:22.440 Send me to jail, you crazy, lunatic partisan, who is rubber stamping this abuse of power from the most partisan attorney general we've ever seen. 1.00

00:17:34.420 It's incredible. 0.99

00:17:35.700 This gag order is a sad moment in American democracy.

00:17:38.480 It's a sad moment for American free speech.

00:17:41.140 And let me close the podcast with this question.

00:17:43.500 Can you name a single Democrat who's criticized the gag order?

00:17:49.880 Not a one.

00:17:50.720 So I can't name an elected Democrat, but I can actually, I'm going to close with this.

00:17:55.980 I can name Irwin Chemerinsky.

00:18:00.200 So Irwin Chemerinsky, I know him well.

00:18:02.200 He's a very liberal left-wing law professor.

00:18:05.400 When I litigated the case defending the Texas Ten Commandments monument in Texas, went to the Supreme Court.

00:18:11.440 We won 5-4.

00:18:12.440 The lawyer on the other side was Irwin Chemerinsky.

00:18:15.360 He and I have done multiple debates one-on-one.

00:18:17.840 He's a very smart, very affable, very liberal constitutional law professor.

00:18:23.740 So Irwin wrote on October 17, 2023, an op-ed in the L.A. Times entitled,

00:18:29.940 A Federal Judge's Gag Order Against Trump May Be Satisfying, But It Isn't Constitutional.

00:18:36.460 And here's what Irwin wrote.

00:18:38.060 Basic First Amendment principles cast serious doubt on the judge's order.

00:18:41.700 Quote,

00:18:41.980 The Supreme Court has long held that court orders prohibiting speech constitute prior restraint

00:18:46.140 and are allowed only in extraordinary and compelling circumstances.

00:18:49.800 Quote,

00:18:50.500 What is particularly troubling about Chutkin's order is that it seems primarily concerned

00:18:55.540 with protecting prosecutors and court personnel from Trump's vitriol.

00:18:59.320 The law is clear that speech can't be restricted to prevent government officials

00:19:04.140 from being criticized or even vilified.

00:19:06.940 Quote,

00:19:07.460 The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment protects a right to

00:19:11.220 criticize government officials even harshly.

00:19:13.820 Quote,

00:19:14.500 There is no reason to believe, however, that Trump's criticism of Smith, his staff or court

00:19:19.260 personnel, will prevent a fair trial.

00:19:21.500 It is impossible to imagine that Trump's attacks will change how the prosecutors behave.

00:19:26.860 Irwin Chemerinsky is demonstrating principle here.

00:19:29.040 He's absolutely right.

00:19:31.300 Name one Democrat senator who's shown this principle.

00:19:34.900 Name one Democrat House member who's shown this principle.

00:19:37.460 If they exist, I don't know about it because today's Democrat members of Congress hate Donald Trump so much

00:19:44.600 that the rule of law, that the rule of law, the First Amendment, the Constitution, free speech, none of it matters.

00:19:51.580 Trump hatred defines today's Democrat Party.

00:19:55.340 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.

00:20:04.020 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:20:09.660 Lastly, for everyone in the U.S. that's going to be hearing this, is there anything that they can do?

00:20:16.340 I've had so many people reach out saying they want to get involved.

00:20:19.240 They want to help.

00:20:20.400 What is it they can do?

00:20:21.680 You obviously pray for the people of Israel and those of the loved ones are still have their loved ones who are missing that are being held hostage.

00:20:29.940 But is there anything else that Americans can do if they want to be involved?

00:20:34.480 Thank you for asking and having had the privilege of representing America here in Israel for four years, I know that Americans love Israel and I know that Americans love being on the side of good and Israel is a great example of that.

00:20:49.880 Here are the three things that somebody can do.

00:20:53.180 And I just want to highlight for one moment, it's important for all the listeners to know that there were 30 Americans killed in this tragedy.

00:21:02.060 And there are 11 Americans at least still missing.

00:21:06.800 I remember a time where there was a submarine, a tourist submarine to go see the Titanic.

00:21:12.920 And I think there were five, six, seven people on board.

00:21:15.360 And the nation was gripped by how many hours of oxygen that they had left.

00:21:20.800 And it was this porn of watching these people die.

00:21:25.660 But the world was gripped and prayed and whatever else happened to happen.

00:21:30.280 And I'm not belittling that by any stretch of imagination.

00:21:33.660 But I do not see the same captivation of America of 11 American young men and women being held hostage.

00:21:42.540 The Red Cross has not been able to see them.

00:21:45.140 We don't know where they are.

00:21:47.000 The leaders of their organization sit in a major non-MEDO allied country, Qatar.

00:21:52.300 They sit there in the Four Seasons Villas and are living it up while they know where our young men and how young women are.

00:22:00.820 And I don't know why there's not a counter of how many seconds have gone by since their parents, if their parents are still alive, have seen them last.

00:22:08.580 Since America knows where they are.

00:22:11.120 I mean, this is, yes, in Israel.

00:22:14.280 But there are Americans amongst the hostages and Americans amongst the kills in action.

00:22:21.200 And we have people protesting the streets, rooting these people on.

00:22:25.760 They are rooting on the killing and the kidnapping of Americans. 0.87

00:22:31.520 I just want to be crystal clear on that.

00:22:34.140 Three different things we can do as human beings, certainly as Americans, as we're highly influential and connected.

00:22:42.480 The first is prayer.

00:22:44.220 God neither sleeps nor he slumbers.

00:22:46.420 Let's make sure that he's busy 24-7.

00:22:49.160 If you pray, pray more.

00:22:51.080 If you don't pray yet, start now.

00:22:53.120 That's critical.

00:22:54.080 Number two is Israel will defend itself by itself.

00:22:59.060 It does not want an American troop. 0.95

00:23:00.620 It never has wanted an American troop.

00:23:02.080 It needs arms, needs weapons, needs to be able to be resupplied, and it needs diplomatic cover to be able to continue to do this.

00:23:10.760 The senator has pointed out so clearly how fast the world turns against Israel.

00:23:15.520 The United States needs to have the moral clarity to allow Israel to excise this tumor along its side called Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Iran. 0.87

00:23:24.700 It needs that diplomatic space and needs the weaponry to be able to do it by itself.

00:23:29.940 The third thing is, look, all of my neighbors, as I said, have somebody who's at the front.

00:23:35.440 I don't know how they sleep at night, which is why I was more than honored to be up in the middle of the night to be able to be on this podcast.

00:23:41.380 There's a very little bit that I can do.

00:23:43.860 If you post, post.

00:23:45.760 If you give charity, give charity.

00:23:48.280 But whatever it is that you do, do it until it hurts.

00:23:52.000 There are mothers who cannot sleep tonight because their kids are missing.

00:23:55.480 There are fathers who cannot sleep tonight because their kids are on the front and they don't know if they will come home.

00:24:00.980 If we want to be with them, we need to be with them.

00:24:04.640 And that means do something differently than you would normally do.

00:24:08.120 If you normally pray for fathers, pray until you're missing the football game this Saturday.

00:24:12.720 Pray until, right, if you give charity, if you can afford $1,000, figure out how to give $2,000.

00:24:17.840 There are ways that we can be with the people of Israel at this point in time, the Americans who are still missing at this point in time,

00:24:26.000 in a way that God will know that I am willing to sacrifice in order to help share the pain.

00:24:32.040 Pain can be diffused.

00:24:33.200 Pain can be shared.

00:24:34.540 And so will victory.

00:24:35.640 Israel will win. 1.00

00:24:36.940 The free world will win.

00:24:38.160 America will win. 0.89

00:24:39.520 We just need to do those three things.

00:24:41.520 So, Aria, that was profound and powerful, and I agree with all three.

00:24:46.740 Let me make a couple of observations.

00:24:48.440 One, the fact, my friend, that you are a rabbi, came through loud and clear when you gave the wonderful advice,

00:24:56.960 if you pray, pray more.

00:24:58.140 If you don't pray, start praying now.

00:25:00.000 I love that advice, and that's good advice to every listener of verdict.

00:25:04.440 I enthusiastically second that counsel.

00:25:08.200 And you're right in terms of all of the steps of adding the voice, adding the voices of truth that are really needed powerfully right now.

00:25:19.260 You know, I want to ask you, I want to shift just as we're wrapping up, to a broader policy question.

00:25:25.780 Because you are living in Israel, you're experiencing firsthand what's happening there.

00:25:29.640 But you also have been a very senior United States official, the chief of staff to the American ambassador to Israel during one of the most consequential times in the history of Israel.

00:25:42.820 And that was the Trump presidency.

00:25:44.480 David Friedman was ambassador.

00:25:46.360 We moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, something presidents of both parties had promised, both Republican and Democrat,

00:25:53.560 and presidents of both parties had broken that promise, and yet we were able to deliver on it.

00:25:59.140 And you also were integral in a process just two and a half years ago.

00:26:05.180 We were at a moment where peace was breaking out in the Middle East.

00:26:09.620 The Abraham Accords were being signed, and we were seeing Arabs and Israelis coming together in a moment that many of us were afraid we would never see.

00:26:21.820 And it was extraordinary, and you played an important part in that process.

00:26:25.300 And so what I want to ask you is a question.

00:26:28.220 What changed?

00:26:29.340 Three years ago, I remember standing on the south lawn of the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accords,

00:26:36.120 and people were marveling how did this happen.

00:26:40.060 And now we're facing the worst war in Israel in over 50 years.

00:26:46.680 And in your judgment, as someone who was intimately involved in the policy that led to the good outcome,

00:26:56.920 what has changed to have led to this horrific state of affairs where we find ourselves today?

00:27:02.880 My goodness.

00:27:03.980 Yeah.

00:27:04.360 You know, when your phone shows you, like, images that happen on that day.

00:27:07.700 So three years ago this morning, I was in Abu Dhabi with our Secretary of the Treasury, Stephen Mnuchin,

00:27:13.420 leading the first-ever Abraham Accord business delegation to Abu Dhabi in the height of COVID,

00:27:19.480 who brought 100 Israeli business people, men and women, to meet with 100 Emirati business people,

00:27:26.100 men and women, in the middle of COVID.

00:27:27.660 And had it not been COVID, they would have been hugging each other. 0.99

00:27:30.460 Instead, they were doing that stupid elbow thing, which, like, was worse for people. 0.95

00:27:35.160 And just three, there was an LL flight flying from Israel to Abu Dhabi, to the United Arab Emirates, 0.98

00:27:44.440 and five peace treaties in 123 days.

00:27:47.900 And there were more to come had the Biden administration capitalized on that.

00:27:52.340 The answer, and I will agree with how you started the show,

00:27:55.480 thanks God for President Biden showing up to Israel.

00:27:58.400 Thank God that President Biden brought the carriers into the Mediterranean coast in order to do an act of deterrence.

00:28:05.920 I praise him, I thank him, and I think those are important.

00:28:09.100 I think that's great.

00:28:10.560 But the three years prior to that is why we're in this position.

00:28:14.200 When you appease Iran, that is a Neville Chamberlain action. 0.99

00:28:19.440 When you fight Iran, that is a Churchill reaction. 1.00

00:28:22.860 We have given money to Iran, we've taken our foot off of their financial neck, 1.00

00:28:28.000 that the billions, the tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars that Iran has gotten over the last three years

00:28:34.500 were not used to rebuild their economy, their universities, their high-tech sector.

00:28:40.320 They were used to fund terror.

00:28:42.440 And when Biden decided that he wasn't going to use the words Abraham, of course,

00:28:48.240 that sent a message to every country that joined Israel in peace,

00:28:52.260 that we, the United States of America, do not stand with you.

00:28:56.060 It left a vacuum in the region.

00:28:58.600 And when the United States leaves a vacuum in the region, it's not filled by Costa Rica.

00:29:03.540 It's filled by China, Iran, and Russia. 0.97

00:29:07.180 And the only deal that's been brokered in the last three years in the Middle East,

00:29:10.820 after we did five in 123 days, with 10 other countries ready to go,

00:29:14.840 we gave the playbook to the Biden administration.

00:29:17.800 China brokered a deal in between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

00:29:22.700 Now, why would Saudi Arabia, a chief relationship of the United States of America,

00:29:28.420 agree to a deal with their number one adversary, Iran, brokered by China?

00:29:33.840 Because they didn't trust that the United States of America would be there for them.

00:29:37.220 And our inability to be able to tell our allies, concretely, we will be with you, create a vacuum.

00:29:45.780 And when that vacuum exists, it's filled by terror.

00:29:48.440 Under the Obama administration, it was called ICE.

00:29:51.460 Under the Biden administration, it's called Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

00:29:55.460 It's the same thing.

00:29:56.840 It's the same radical Islam. 0.99

00:29:58.080 But it's because we are not decisive, we are not clear, and we fund this.

00:30:03.280 We fund this with our Iran deal, which we fought against.

00:30:06.100 We fund this with our hostage negotiations, which I would call ransom payments, which we fought against.

00:30:11.640 But we nonetheless have enfranchised these monstrous barbarians who direct, fund, and lead these attacks.

00:30:20.500 And we can call it Hamas, we can call it Hezbollah, but it's Iran. 0.68

00:30:24.500 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:30:30.300 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day if you're not listening to Verdict,

00:30:34.920 or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:30:37.340 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:30:41.060 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:30:44.540 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:30:47.420 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 21, 2023

Why is The Media Covering for Hamas, a Gag Order Will Not Allow a Free and Fair Election, plus Helping the People Of Israel the Week In Review

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript