Verdict with Ted Cruz - Zilch from Sec Serv on Assassination Attempts, Trump Campaign Hack Attack by Iran & Democrats Block IVF Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.360 Welcome.

00:00:06.140 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as always.

00:00:09.880 And these were some big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:14.940 First up, Senator Cruz questioned the acting director of the Secret Service about the lack

00:00:20.760 of protection for Donald Trump after the first assassination attempt.

00:00:23.940 Well, his answers are even more shocking after the second assassination attempt on Donald

00:00:29.760 Trump.

00:00:30.240 We're going to break that down for you.

00:00:32.560 Also, Donald Trump had his campaign hacked by Iran.

00:00:38.180 What did they do with the hacked information?

00:00:41.000 They gave it to the Biden-Harris campaign and also members of the media.

00:00:48.000 Now they say, well, don't blame us.

00:00:50.600 We didn't write them back.

00:00:52.380 But did they use the information that was hacked?

00:00:55.260 We'll describe those details in a moment as well.

00:00:58.340 And finally, Democrats come out showing their true colors in a disgusting move this week,

00:01:04.100 blocking IVF legislation that was brought by Senator Cruz.

00:01:09.960 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:01:13.480 The acting director of the Secret Service testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee,

00:01:19.140 and I questioned him.

00:01:20.620 And you know what's striking is just about every single question I asked him two months

00:01:25.640 ago remains entirely salient today, and even more so now that this has happened twice.

00:01:34.080 So I want to go back and let's listen again to that cross-examination.

00:01:39.080 This is the acting director of the Secret Service shortly after the first assassination attempt

00:01:44.980 on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

00:01:47.360 Mr. Rowe, thank you for being here.

00:01:50.020 I agree with what you said at the outset that the individual Secret Service agents demonstrated

00:01:54.780 remarkable personal courage, putting their bodies in between the line of sight of the

00:01:59.340 shooter and the president.

00:02:00.680 That being said, the bravery of the line agents is quite different from the decisions of Secret

00:02:05.500 Service leadership.

00:02:06.880 Secret Service leadership committed catastrophic security failures.

00:02:11.500 Indeed, the worst security failures for the for the Secret Service since 1981, since the

00:02:17.540 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

00:02:19.740 It is incumbent upon this committee to determine why those security failures happened.

00:02:30.560 Just after the shooting, Secret Service put out an official statement from your spokesperson

00:02:36.820 that says there's an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested

00:02:41.060 additional security resources and that those were rebuffed.

00:02:43.940 This is absolutely false.

00:02:46.020 In fact, we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign

00:02:50.880 travel tempo.

00:02:52.340 Was this tweet accurate?

00:02:54.820 With respect to Butler, Pennsylvania, it is accurate, sir.

00:02:59.100 It is accurate that the Trump team had not asked for additional security and had not been rebuffed.

00:03:07.640 If you're talking about Butler, Pennsylvania, all assets requested were approved.

00:03:12.100 If you're talking about the media reporting of assets requested, there were times when assets were

00:03:20.420 unavailable and not able to be filled.

00:03:23.800 And those gaps were staffed with state and local law enforcement tactical assets.

00:03:28.560 So I'm reading from the Washington Post, July 20th, 2024.

00:03:32.880 Secret Service said to have denied requests for more security at Trump events.

00:03:36.100 The opening paragraph, top officials of the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests

00:03:40.640 for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump security detail in the two

00:03:44.600 years leading up to his attempted assassination, according to four people familiar with the

00:03:50.080 requests.

00:03:50.960 Is that right?

00:03:51.720 That repeatedly the Trump detail asked for more resources and repeatedly Secret Service

00:03:56.460 leadership turned that down?

00:03:58.700 That is not accurate, Senator.

00:04:00.960 Assets are requested.

00:04:02.500 There's a process that is made.

00:04:04.200 How many requests did the Trump team or the Trump detail ask for?

00:04:09.620 I can get you that number in a queue.

00:04:11.700 You don't know now.

00:04:12.920 I can speak to the ones that reported in the Washington Post and we can go through them

00:04:16.720 if you like.

00:04:17.600 But you don't know how many requests there were?

00:04:20.740 In general, how many requests since 2021 that the former Trump detail has made a request

00:04:25.160 for assets?

00:04:25.520 You've had two weeks.

00:04:26.580 You had a spokesperson put something out that is false on its face.

00:04:30.200 By the way, did you approve this statement when it went out?

00:04:32.180 I don't know if I did or didn't, Senator.

00:04:35.240 Has this spokesperson, is he still employed?

00:04:37.320 Does he still have a job?

00:04:37.820 He is still employed, Senator.

00:04:38.720 So he lied on behalf of the Secret Service.

00:04:40.620 He still has a job.

00:04:41.880 Did your predecessor, the former director, does she approve this statement?

00:04:45.420 Senator, our comms team, they send out statements.

00:04:50.440 They do deconflict them and they put them out.

00:04:52.380 Did she approve this statement?

00:04:55.240 I don't know if she did or did not, Senator.

00:04:57.200 And you don't know if you did either?

00:04:58.580 I don't recall approving it, Senator.

00:05:02.340 Will you commit to provide this committee in writing every written request for additional

00:05:07.920 resources from the Trump campaign or the Trump detail and every response from Secret Service?

00:05:13.940 Senator, I will commit to providing responses and getting you the information that you are

00:05:18.740 seeking.

00:05:19.320 Let me ask you something, and who makes the decisions in those requests?

00:05:25.240 Did you make that decision?

00:05:27.040 Which requests, sir?

00:05:27.840 Are you talking about the ones that were in the Washington Post?

00:05:30.080 Yes.

00:05:30.740 The process, sir, is that a detail will make a request for either staffing, technical assets

00:05:37.100 that is handled between the field office and the detail.

00:05:41.380 It goes up to a logistics office between our office.

00:05:45.160 Okay, so there's a bureaucracy.

00:05:46.500 Is there a decision maker?

00:05:47.620 It's not a bureaucracy, Senator.

00:05:48.840 Give me the person that's a decision maker.

00:05:50.680 Is there one?

00:05:52.520 Senator, it's a conversation.

00:05:54.620 It's not just an absolute yay or nay.

00:05:56.480 So let me tell you what I believe.

00:05:57.960 I believe that the Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests.

00:06:03.900 And I think the Biden administration has been suffused with partisan politics.

00:06:09.280 Did the same person who denied the request for additional security to President Trump

00:06:13.420 also repeatedly deny the request for security to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was

00:06:19.080 murdered by an assassin and whose uncle was murdered by an assassin?

00:06:22.820 Did the same person make that decision?

00:06:24.700 Senator, what I will tell you is that Secret Service agents are not political.

00:06:29.000 Okay, you're not answering my question.

00:06:30.160 But you know what?

00:06:31.020 Leadership appointed by the President is political.

00:06:36.080 I have a simple question.

00:06:37.280 Yes or no.

00:06:38.420 Did the same person deny the Trump request that also denied the RFK request?

00:06:44.400 That's a yes or no question.

00:06:45.980 Senator, that is not a yes or no question.

00:06:49.200 One, there is a process for a candidate nominee to receive protection.

00:06:52.980 Does the buck stop anywhere?

00:06:55.060 Does the buck stop anywhere?

00:06:56.580 That is a bicameral, bipartisan process that the Hill participates.

00:06:59.220 It's a bicameral, bipartisan process?

00:07:01.360 What camera?

00:07:01.720 For a candidate, for a candidate in Congress, you don't have a camera.

00:07:04.960 Mr. Kennedy submitted a request that was referred over to the CPAC.

00:07:09.240 Okay, you're refusing to answer the question.

00:07:11.420 Let me ask, because the failures on that day were catastrophic.

00:07:14.280 By the way, is it true that on the day of the Butler event that Secret Service transferred

00:07:19.400 agent from President Trump to the First Lady?

00:07:21.640 No, sir.

00:07:23.880 That's not true.

00:07:24.660 That's been widely reported.

00:07:26.260 It's not true.

00:07:27.180 There was one airport agent that actually went on the manpower request for the Trump

00:07:30.880 detail.

00:07:31.660 They handled the arrival at the airport.

00:07:33.140 What was the relative size of the Trump detail compared to the detail that is assigned

00:07:38.680 to the President or the First Lady?

00:07:41.520 Senator, the former President travels with a full shift, just like the President.

00:07:45.620 So the exact same size?

00:07:47.900 Is that your testimony that President Trump had the same size detail that President Biden

00:07:51.940 has?

00:07:52.620 On the day of in Butler, the agents surrounding him, it is the same number of agents surrounding

00:07:57.880 the President today.

00:07:59.140 There is a difference between a sitting President who also not only...

00:08:02.800 Hold on, you're using President in a way that is not clear.

00:08:05.480 Is it your testimony that in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump had the same number of agents protecting

00:08:12.080 him that Joe Biden has at a comparable event?

00:08:16.020 I'm telling you the shift, the close protection shift surrounding...

00:08:19.140 That's what you asked me, Senator, and I'm trying to answer it.

00:08:22.140 You are not answering it.

00:08:23.460 Is it the same number of agents or not?

00:08:25.860 Senator, there is a difference between the sitting President of the United States...

00:08:29.800 Then what's the difference?

00:08:30.920 The difference?

00:08:31.700 2X, 3X, 5X, 10X?

00:08:33.080 The National Command Authority to launch a nuclear strike, sir.

00:08:36.060 I'm not asking how many more agents that travel with the President that the former

00:08:40.760 President will not get.

00:08:41.380 Sir, you are refusing to answer straight...

00:08:42.540 But the number of Secret Service agents protecting him...

00:08:45.320 Stop interrupting me.

00:08:46.900 Go ahead, Senator.

00:08:47.420 You are refusing to answer clear and direct questions.

00:08:51.220 I am asking the relative difference in the number of agents between those assigned to

00:08:56.600 Donald Trump and those assigned to Joe Biden.

00:08:58.580 I'm not asking why you assign more to Joe Biden.

00:09:01.340 And I'm asking, is the difference...

00:09:03.060 Is it 2X?

00:09:03.900 Is it 3X?

00:09:05.020 Is it 5X?

00:09:06.120 Is it 10X?

00:09:07.600 Senator, I will get you that number so you can see it with your own eyes.

00:09:11.920 It's sad, Senator, but this seems now more relevant than it was after the first assassination

00:09:18.520 attempt, the lack of answers.

00:09:20.660 And by the way, you asked these questions on 730, if I'm not mistaken.

00:09:26.500 So, did you ever actually get the answers to all the questions where he said, I will get

00:09:32.000 that for you?

00:09:33.040 Nothing.

00:09:33.820 Nothing whatsoever.

00:09:34.820 He provided absolutely nothing.

00:09:36.520 I asked the Secret Service in writing.

00:09:38.200 They have not responded to my questions in writing.

00:09:40.520 I assume they'll do it sometime within the next century.

00:09:43.940 But when he said in that hearing, I will get that information to you, we are sitting here

00:09:48.840 in mid-September, and he has still not gotten it.

00:09:53.500 And it is a sense of a complete lack of accountability.

00:09:58.860 Now, look, what they're doing right now is a massive CYA.

00:10:02.460 They're trying to cover their own rear ends.

00:10:04.240 But the problem is with the senior decision-making, and I believe the partisan politics that has

00:10:12.480 been infused into the senior decision-making.

00:10:15.460 That is why I want to reiterate my call.

00:10:20.260 Today, the Biden-Harris administration should announce that they are assigning a full presidential

00:10:28.340 Secret Service detail to Donald J. Trump.

00:10:31.960 And by the way, let me be clear on a little sleight of hand that the acting director tried

00:10:40.200 to pull in that hearing.

00:10:42.180 When I asked, are the same number of agents assigned, or what was the relative number of

00:10:48.400 agents?

00:10:48.960 He said, oh, the same number of agents are in the close protective shift.

00:10:53.480 And he was trying to be really clever there.

00:10:55.120 I think he thought he was clever.

00:10:56.460 So the close protective shift are the agents that are assigned immediately on the body of the

00:11:01.360 protectee.

00:11:02.920 So I assume he was accurate that both Biden and Trump, the immediate circle around him

00:11:10.700 is the same number of agents.

00:11:12.220 What is different is the way the Secret Service works is in concentric circles, perimeters of

00:11:18.660 protection.

00:11:19.500 So there's a close detail of a number of agents around the protectee.

00:11:23.900 But then with a full presidential protection, there's an intermediate perimeter that they lock

00:11:29.120 down.

00:11:29.420 And there's a broader perimeter.

00:11:30.580 The broader perimeter presumably would have caught this sniper on the golf course who was

00:11:36.740 trying to assassinate President Trump.

00:11:39.300 And so the acting director was trying to be cute by saying, well, well, the immediate shift,

00:11:46.300 the close protective details identical.

00:11:48.180 And look, everyone understands right now that there are markedly fewer Secret Service agents

00:11:58.180 protecting Donald Trump than are protecting Joe Biden, which is amazing because as best I

00:12:03.280 can tell, all Joe Biden does is sleep on the beach in Delaware.

00:12:05.700 But nonetheless, we still don't know.

00:12:11.260 And, you know, Ben, there was a reason I did not ask at that hearing.

00:12:17.260 I didn't ask the acting director how many agents were assigned to Trump.

00:12:20.120 And the reason I didn't ask that, and I didn't ask how many are assigned to Biden, and the

00:12:24.480 reason I didn't is he would have reasonably declined to answer that, that that giving that

00:12:30.600 information could compromise the security of the protectee.

00:12:34.120 So I can tell you in my written questions, I have asked that specific question, how many

00:12:39.960 agents, give me the number, and I said that answer can be given as law enforcement confidential

00:12:45.820 so that it will not be made public, because that shouldn't be made public.

00:12:49.700 There's some details about security that should not be in the public domain.

00:12:55.320 That's why I asked the question I did, give me the relative order of magnitude.

00:13:00.340 Is it twice as many? Is it 3x? Is it 5x? Is it 10x?

00:13:05.340 And he adamantly refused to answer that question, and to this day, he has not answered that question.

00:13:12.320 Senator, finally, I want to just talk about the media coverage of this second assassination attempt,

00:13:17.200 and I can't even believe that it's gotten to this point.

00:13:19.780 In fact, let's just look over the last, like, three days.

00:13:24.440 This morning on Jen Psaki's show on MSNBC, you had a congresswoman that said,

00:13:29.420 quote, Trump is the guy that stokes domestic terrorism.

00:13:33.820 The problem isn't the people coming in, but this guy.

00:13:38.420 You then had MSNBC's Alex Witt argue, quote,

00:13:41.900 the Trump campaign needs to turn down the rhetoric now that Donald Trump has been shot at

00:13:48.300 for the second time in three months, blaming Donald Trump for this.

00:13:52.860 There's another example, and that's not enough for you.

00:13:56.980 You also had people on TV referring to Donald Trump and implying that he was, you know,

00:14:02.040 basically kind of like Hitler.

00:14:04.300 And so this MSNBC guest said, quote, Donald Trump is exactly like Hitler.

00:14:09.480 Let's just quote it like it's supposed to be quoted.

00:14:12.140 This is the rhetoric that's on TV right now.

00:14:14.800 And they even said today, well, maybe Donald Trump needs to stop playing golf outside for a while,

00:14:19.820 somehow implying what's his fault he's exposing himself to assassins.

00:14:24.700 Well, we are unfortunately in a horribly divided time.

00:14:29.400 But I do think that that that personal rhetoric, the demonization of the left,

00:14:35.860 but by the left of Donald Trump has reached a level that we've never seen before.

00:14:42.080 And I think that kind of vicious rhetoric, it bears fruit.

00:14:47.480 People listen to the rhetoric when they hear people describe him as another Hitler.

00:14:54.460 Unfortunately, it increases the chances that some lunatic is going to act on that.

00:15:00.960 And listen, I want to close this podcast the way we opened, by giving thanks to God,

00:15:07.540 giving thanks that God protected Donald Trump.

00:15:13.480 I talked with you in Milwaukee and at the Republican convention,

00:15:18.580 how I visited with Trump right after the shooting in Butler.

00:15:23.380 Yeah.

00:15:23.700 And he said to me there very quietly,

00:15:26.920 and he just said, God saved me for a reason.

00:15:30.660 And there was a quiet introspection about it that I would say is not typical of how President Trump behaves.

00:15:44.360 And I think for the second time in just over two months,

00:15:47.660 President Trump has been protected.

00:15:50.160 I am grateful for that protection.

00:15:52.040 I am grateful for him, but I am also grateful for the country.

00:15:56.360 To have a presidential election decided by an assassin, decided by murder,

00:16:04.120 is the ultimate affront to democracy.

00:16:07.980 It is an attack at the very essence of our Constitution and the rule of law,

00:16:15.380 and the sovereignty of we the people to choose our leaders.

00:16:20.340 And so, you know, today I'm just, I'm grateful for God's protection on President Trump.

00:16:26.420 And let me be clear, I'm grateful for God's protection on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

00:16:30.940 and on our leaders in both parties.

00:16:35.160 You and I are both Christians, and the Bible commands us to pray for our leaders.

00:16:39.560 And so I pray for our leaders, even if I disagree with them strongly.

00:16:44.760 I'm grateful for that protection, and I'm grateful for God's protection over our nation.

00:16:50.260 This is a time, especially, when we need to be one nation under God.

00:16:56.080 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

00:16:58.980 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

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00:17:34.240 Now on to story number two.

00:17:36.120 Finally, I want to move to another story, and it deals with the Trump campaign

00:17:40.720 and the Iranian hack of the Trump campaign.

00:17:44.780 We already knew that the Iranians had hacked the Trump campaign and stole a variety of materials, 0.93

00:17:49.240 but now the FBI has announced that the Iranian hackers stole information from the Trump campaign

00:17:54.220 and sent it to people with Joe Biden's campaign.

00:17:58.200 We also know that they also sent the information to journalists,

00:18:02.940 and the alibis of what people did with this information are hysterical.

00:18:07.960 This from CNN covering their AWSs.

00:18:11.420 Listen.

00:18:11.680 There's new information into CNN on foreign efforts to interfere,

00:18:15.740 to try to interfere with the U.S. election.

00:18:17.960 Federal law enforcement officials now say Iranian hackers not only stole information

00:18:22.420 from Donald Trump's presidential campaign over the summer,

00:18:24.960 but also now adding that they sent it unsolicited to people associated with the Biden campaign.

00:18:31.360 Law enforcement saying there's no indication the Biden team ever did anything with the information.

00:18:35.720 That detail, though, did not stop Donald Trump from leaning on conspiracy without evidence.

00:18:41.340 It's amazing, right?

00:18:44.300 Well, we didn't respond to Iran, so we're good. 0.99

00:18:48.760 We didn't share the information.

00:18:51.400 Well, if you read it, you know what it said.

00:18:53.200 You're going to be able to use it.

00:18:55.120 This is such an amazing word salad of like, hey, we'll say we didn't respond.

00:19:01.420 Well, anyone that gets this, I would assume, would know not to respond to Iran. 0.96

00:19:05.280 And by the way, they would know not to forward it to anybody else.

00:19:08.160 This doesn't mean that you didn't take the material and use it to your advantage.

00:19:13.520 And look at how CNN ended that little segment where they attack Trump for, they say, pointing to conspiracy without evidence.

00:19:22.460 Now, there's a technical word for that.

00:19:24.300 That's called a lie.

00:19:25.620 Here's the evidence.

00:19:26.340 This was released from the federal government.

00:19:29.400 We know the Iranians hacked Donald Trump. 0.99

00:19:32.140 There's evidence of that.

00:19:33.400 That is a fact.

00:19:34.320 There's hard evidence of that.

00:19:36.100 We know the Iranians then took the stolen materials and forwarded it to the Biden campaign. 0.93

00:19:40.540 There's hard evidence of that.

00:19:42.200 And yet, what does CNN say?

00:19:43.380 It's conspiracy without evidence.

00:19:45.420 That is an utter lie.

00:19:46.540 Let me read from ABC, quote, the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies released findings that the Iranian hackers have continued efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election with stolen information from former President Donald Trump's campaign being sent to individuals associated with President Joe Biden's campaign before he left the race.

00:20:04.880 Quote, Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden's campaign that contained an excerpt from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump's campaign as text in the emails, U.S. intelligence agency said in a statement Wednesday.

00:20:28.520 Quote, there is currently no information indicating those recipients.

00:20:35.200 Replied.

00:20:35.780 So that's their attempt to defend the Biden administration.

00:20:39.900 They didn't reply.

00:20:41.060 You know what they haven't said?

00:20:42.580 Did the Biden administration, did the Biden campaign read the emails?

00:20:46.020 Did they learn anything that was politically useful in the emails?

00:20:49.520 Did they call up their friends in the media and leak the information that was in the emails to their friends in the media?

00:20:55.380 Did the media then publish the information in the emails? 1.00

00:20:58.000 Now, mind you, they didn't forward it and they didn't reply because they're not complete blithering idiots. 0.99

00:21:02.680 But did they read it? 0.99

00:21:03.880 Did they use it?

00:21:04.880 We don't have an answer to that.

00:21:06.840 And I'm not aware of any reporters asking that question.

00:21:10.880 They're just saying, well, they didn't reply.

00:21:12.940 So it's so it's all good.

00:21:14.440 Look, Caroline Leavitt, who's the Trump campaign's press secretary. 0.97

00:21:17.420 Here's what she said.

00:21:18.400 Quote, Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked materials given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump.

00:21:29.420 What did they know and when did they know it?

00:21:33.100 That is a very good question.

00:21:34.700 Is there any journalist in the country willing to ask it?

00:21:38.920 If there is, I haven't seen it.

00:21:40.340 But this would be a good opportunity for someone to actually pretend to be a real journalist.

00:21:45.080 I want to ask you one final question about this.

00:21:49.040 And that is, look, when Trump was in office, there there was maximum pressure put on Iran sanctions that made Iran weak and poor, which meant they were not able to sponsor near as much terrorist activities.

00:22:02.180 They are now and under Harris, Iran is extremely rich, extremely strong and more emboldened than ever. 0.78

00:22:11.160 That's why they're trying to influence the outcome of this election, because they want a Kamala Harris administration so they can do whatever the hell they want to do in the Middle East and honestly around the world. 1.00

00:22:19.280 I mean, Biden and Harris's appeasement campaign with them and their proxy has given them tens of billions of dollars.

00:22:26.720 And even the sanctions that we have on them, apparently we're not enforcing them.

00:22:30.540 And this is the appeasement towards Iran has happened even among the attacks that resulted in the deaths of U.S. service members.

00:22:40.440 Look, of course, you know, as you know, I've said many times about this election, the classic question in any election is, are you better off now than you were four years ago?

00:22:49.340 And I've said tongue in cheek, unless you're a Mexican drug lord, the answer is no. 0.98

00:22:55.720 By the way, if you're a Mexican drug lord, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have given you billions of dollars.

00:23:01.380 And frankly, you ought to vote for Kamala Harris.

00:23:02.900 She's been great.

00:23:04.200 Well, I now need to amend that and say unless you're a Mexican drug lord or unless you're the Ayatollah Khamenei,

00:23:11.680 because actually Kamala Harris has given even more money to Iran's Ayatollah than she's given to the Mexican drug lords. 1.00

00:23:18.700 The Mexican drug lords made roughly 13 billion dollars from human trafficking, courtesy of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and congressional Democrats.

00:23:27.560 In the last four years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have flowed over one hundred billion dollars to the Ayatollah and to the mullahs in Iran.

00:23:38.060 Even while Iran's the leading state sponsor of terrorism, even while Iran provides 90 percent of the funding to Hamas and 90 percent of the funding to Hezbollah,

00:23:46.360 one hundred billion dollars.

00:23:47.940 No wonder the Iranian government is hacking Trump's campaign and giving it to the Biden campaign.

00:23:55.100 They're trying to give a campaign contribution.

00:23:57.240 And if someone gives you one hundred billion dollars, you would be motivated to do a campaign contribution.

00:24:01.920 But you know what?

00:24:02.980 The American people have a right to be deeply upset about that.

00:24:06.140 Yeah, the media, the question they should ask is this.

00:24:09.260 What did Kamala know?

00:24:10.200 It's an old question.

00:24:11.120 And when did she know it?

00:24:12.200 Don't worry.

00:24:12.920 They won't ask her that question.

00:24:14.700 And Ben, not just what did Kamala know?

00:24:17.280 What did her campaign know?

00:24:18.540 Who received the email?

00:24:19.880 Who read it?

00:24:20.900 Who did they show it to?

00:24:22.260 Who else read it?

00:24:23.200 Who did they give it to?

00:24:24.220 Did they leak any of the information?

00:24:25.660 Did they use any of the information?

00:24:27.300 Don't give Kamala a bailout of, oh, no, no, we kept her in the dark. 0.99

00:24:31.280 She had plausible deniability.

00:24:33.120 If her apparatchiks used it, she's responsible as well.

00:24:37.120 So it's not just her, it's or the members of her campaign or the Biden campaign.

00:24:42.600 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go

00:24:47.340 back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

00:24:51.920 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:24:54.140 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:24:58.280 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:25:01.420 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:25:03.240 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:25:04.520 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

00:25:09.560 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:25:13.960 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:25:17.180 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:25:21.240 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:25:27.620 Senator, there's another really important story and it's not getting as much press as

00:25:31.380 it should.

00:25:31.900 And that's why I think many people actually listen to the show because they get info like

00:25:36.140 this.

00:25:36.640 You may remember if you go backwards, there was a big fake controversy by virtually every

00:25:42.780 Democratic operative, the people running for office, congressmen, senators on the left,

00:25:48.740 and it was over IVF.

00:25:51.740 Conservatives have been in favor of IVF and protecting IVF for, I mean, as long as I can

00:25:58.380 remember.

00:25:58.900 My kids are in vitro fertilization kids.

00:26:03.120 Without it, I probably wouldn't have kids.

00:26:05.600 And I'm so thankful for the technology.

00:26:08.600 And so when this controversy happened in Alabama, you teamed up with Katie Britt to say, okay,

00:26:14.300 we're going to put our money where our mouth is and make sure that we protect IVF.

00:26:19.380 And there was an opportunity to do that in Congress and the Democrats stopped it.

00:26:25.280 Why?

00:26:26.360 So look, this story is incredibly revealing of everything that's wrong with Washington and

00:26:31.700 how corrupt a lot of politics is.

00:26:34.480 Let's start with IVF.

00:26:36.400 You and I both strongly and unequivocally support in vitro fertilization.

00:26:41.300 I think IVF is an incredible medical miracle.

00:26:46.840 It has enabled millions of parents, moms and dads, to have kids that couldn't otherwise

00:26:52.700 have kids.

00:26:54.020 Two percent of all live births in America come from IVF.

00:26:58.520 There are over eight million children born via IVF, including your kids.

00:27:04.920 Yeah.

00:27:05.020 Look, that is an amazing, a very close staffer of mine who is with me most days, we were talking

00:27:12.440 about this issue as I was fighting to defend IVF.

00:27:14.820 And he told me, much to my surprise, he said, you know what?

00:27:17.020 I was born via IVF.

00:27:18.500 I'm an IVF kid.

00:27:20.300 Wow.

00:27:20.400 Like, that's amazing.

00:27:22.900 And I think IVF is extraordinary.

00:27:25.900 Now, following a decision of the Alabama Supreme Court concerning IVF, there was enormous uncertainty.

00:27:36.420 There was enormous fear and enormous concern that IVF would be in jeopardy.

00:27:41.600 To be clear, in Alabama, when that concern was raised, the state legislature acted incredibly

00:27:48.420 quickly to pass legislation making clear that IVF would be protected in Alabama.

00:27:52.840 So, as a real practical matter, I believe there is zero threat to IVF in America.

00:28:02.260 Why?

00:28:02.800 Well, let's take the U.S. Senate. 0.98

00:28:04.200 In the U.S. Senate, there are 100 senators.

00:28:06.580 To the best of my knowledge, all 100 senators support IVF.

00:28:10.980 I do not know of a single senator in either party who opposes IVF.

00:28:15.620 But yet, there was genuine concern, there was confusion that IVF might be in jeopardy.

00:28:21.900 And this is where Democrats and the corporate media had an intense political interest to

00:28:28.320 flame that fear and to encourage that confusion.

00:28:33.800 And so, as that was happening, I saw that I was dismayed.

00:28:37.540 And I will tell you, so, when the Senate's in session, Republican senators, we have lunch

00:28:42.200 every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday together.

00:28:43.940 So, all the Republican senators are together.

00:28:45.400 And Katie Britt, the senator from Alabama, has become a good friend.

00:28:48.620 She's been a guest on this podcast.

00:28:50.740 She stood up at one lunch, and she gave an impassioned speech to the other Republican senators

00:28:56.860 about how important IVF was and how she was hearing from women and men, although mostly

00:29:03.760 women, but parents and would-be parents across Alabama who were incredibly concerned IVF was 1.00

00:29:09.780 in jeopardy.

00:29:10.340 And he said, she said, we've got to protect that.

00:29:12.380 I listened to what she said.

00:29:14.600 And so, I went to her and approached her and said, listen, you support IVF, I support IVF.

00:29:21.280 Let's draft legislation that puts a clear, unequivocal protection into federal statutory

00:29:27.860 law to make clear that no state and no local government can ban IVF.

00:29:33.880 Let's find common ground.

00:29:35.100 She agreed.

00:29:36.420 I drafted the legislation.

00:29:38.080 We did it together.

00:29:38.800 We filed it.

00:29:40.240 Now, the Democrats want a fear monger on IVF.

00:29:44.860 So, there's a different bill that they call an IVF bill that is introduced by Tammy Duckworth, 0.99

00:29:49.920 the very liberal Democrat from Illinois.

00:29:52.620 The Tammy Duckworth, quote, IVF bill is not an IVF bill.

00:29:56.420 It's a radical abortion bill. 1.00

00:29:57.980 It would give the Secretary of HHS, Health and Human Services, broad authority to, under that

00:30:03.820 bill, protect abortion in a vast variety of circumstances.

00:30:08.420 Also, the Duckworth bill explicitly overturns the protections of religious liberty under the

00:30:15.320 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

00:30:16.900 I support IVF, but I certainly don't want to force a physician to participate in IVF if

00:30:24.260 it's against their religious faith.

00:30:25.860 It's not against my religious faith.

00:30:27.120 But if it's against theirs, I respect everyone's religious liberty to decide, okay, I don't

00:30:32.980 want to personally participate in it.

00:30:35.140 And yet, the Democrats, they do want to force someone to potentially violate their own religious

00:30:41.720 faith to participate in something that they have moral concerns about.

00:30:45.200 And so, yesterday, Chuck Schumer teed up a vote, it's the second time in a couple of months,

00:30:53.960 on the Tammy Duckworth bill.

00:30:56.280 Now, the reason he teed up the vote is because he knew it would fail.

00:30:59.540 And it was written in such a way as to be filled with poison pills, as to force any Republican

00:31:06.600 with principals who believes in life to vote against it, because this would empower a Joe

00:31:14.800 Biden or Kamala Harris administration to go after laws protecting unborn children in states

00:31:20.880 across this country.

00:31:21.640 This was an abortion bill. 0.87

00:31:22.580 It was not an IVF bill.

00:31:24.020 And it was, again, designed to trample religious liberty.

00:31:28.400 So, yesterday on the Senate floor, I went to the Senate floor along with Katie Britton.

00:31:32.280 We tried to pass our IVF bill, and I stood up and gave a speech in support of it.

00:31:36.540 Katie Britt stood up and gave a speech in support of it. 0.94

00:31:39.180 And I asked for unanimous consent to pass our bill.

00:31:43.220 And what happened?

00:31:44.840 The Democrats stood up and objected.

00:31:47.980 They said, no, we will not allow this to pass.

00:31:51.700 And we had a debate back and forth.

00:31:53.180 And I want to encourage you, if you care about this issue, go listen to the debate.

00:31:56.680 Listen to my speech.

00:31:57.900 Listen to Katie Britt's speech.

00:31:59.000 And then listen to Patty Murray, the Democrat from Washington State, who objected.

00:32:03.580 Because the entire point of what the Democrats were doing was a purely political exercise.

00:32:11.480 If they actually wanted to protect IVF, all they had to do was very simple.

00:32:18.000 Not say two words.

00:32:20.080 Not say the words, I object.

00:32:22.360 If they had not said those two words today, the Senate would have unanimously passed my legislation protecting IVF.

00:32:32.960 But from the Democrats' perspective, that would have been a catastrophic disaster.

00:32:36.880 Because if we actually pass a strong statutory protection for IVF, then they can't run millions of dollars of campaign ads,

00:32:46.840 scaring voters into saying the mean Republicans want to take away IVF.

00:32:50.660 So they objected to Katie Britt's and my legislation because they don't want to protect IVF.

00:32:58.020 And a point that I made in the debate, I said, listen, the Democrat bill was drafted deliberately with poison pills.

00:33:04.820 Their objective, they wanted Republicans to vote no because they don't actually want to pass their bill.

00:33:11.220 What they want to do is force Republicans to vote no so they can run ads saying, oh, Republicans are opposed to IVF.

00:33:18.020 That is a lie. Not a single Republican is opposed to IVF.

00:33:21.640 A couple of months ago when we had this debate, one of the people who joined Katie and me on the Senate floor was Roger Marshall.

00:33:26.740 Roger Marshall, Republican senator from Kansas, is a physician.

00:33:30.920 He is an OBGYN who has delivered thousands of babies.

00:33:35.020 And he actually has performed IVF procedures for hundreds of parents.

00:33:41.140 He literally was an IVF doctor. And yet the Democrats talking point is an IVF doctor is opposed to IVF.

00:33:48.380 It's absurd. So understand they drafted their bill with poison pills because their objective was to make Republicans vote against it.

00:33:55.640 And all but two of us did.

00:33:57.840 My bill and Katie's bill has no poison pills in it.

00:34:02.740 Every Democrat agrees with every word of our bill.

00:34:05.540 There's not a word in it that they disagree with.

00:34:08.560 Their problem is if it passes, the issue they want to run against goes away and they don't want the issue to go away.

00:34:19.000 And so sadly, they objected.

00:34:21.540 And I got to tell you, this is an example of where the corrupt corporate media matters. 0.90

00:34:25.100 When I was giving my speech, when Katie was giving her speech, there were no reporters in the gallery.

00:34:30.740 If you read any of the press coverage, the reporters all said the headlines today were Republicans block bill to protect IVF.

00:34:40.200 And you know what?

00:34:41.460 The corporate media, virtually none of them covered the fact that we had a bill to protect IVF the Democrats blocked.

00:34:50.460 Part of the reason the Democrats are willing to do that is they know the media will not cover what they're doing.

00:34:55.620 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:35:00.820 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:35:04.480 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:35:07.740 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:35:11.580 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:35:15.440 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:35:18.080 Guaranteed human.

00:35:18.760 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 21, 2024

Zilch from Sec Serv on Assassination Attempts, Trump Campaign Hack Attack by Iran & Democrats Block IVF Week In Review

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