Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Deportations Cure Rent Inflation, When We Have No Evidence meets Do It Anyway plus the Final 3 Historic Victories of 2025 Week In Review

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Deportations Cure Rent Inflation, When We Have No Evidence meets Do It Anyway plus the Final 3 Historic Victories of 2025 Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome. In his verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: you may have missed that we talked about this week.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: First up, deportations. They're happening at record pace. More than
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: two million illegal immigrants have been deported from this country
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: this year and it's having a major effect now on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: rental prices of homes and housing prices. So what could
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: happen going into twenty twenty six. It could be very
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: big news for you if you're looking to rent or
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: buy a new home. We'll have that for you in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a moment. Also, we found out in writing that there
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: was no cause to raid Donald Trump's home at mar Lago,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: So how did the FBI get away with doing it
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and who actually ordered it knowing that those in the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: field were saying there is no probable cause. And finally,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: three big wins in the last year that affect all Americans.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: We go through those wins and what it means for you.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's the weekend, Rey, and it starts right now. Finally,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I want to move to another shocking, breaking news story,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and that is if you get rid of people in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: this country, they're here illegally, then you don't have to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: compete for them. Center for Housing, we have seen the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: medium age of first time home buyers. The number skyrocket
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to forty plus years old, depending on where you live.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: It's the highest we've seen in certainly in my lifetime,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and the highest we've seen since World War One. I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: think if I looked at the data correctly, that was
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: something that should be very eye opening. Rental prices have
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: also skyrocketed, because well, you're competing when it comes to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: renting a home, especially those entry level homes. With tens
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of millions of illegal immigrants, we are now finally seeing
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's deportations and the shutting down the southern border
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: completely turning into guess what, lower rent and lower home
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: prices for Americans.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, this is at the end of the day,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: very simple economics. And in economics one oh one you
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: learn that prices. Prices are determined by two factors, supply
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and demand and their their graft, and where they intersect
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: is where the price is. So supply, it's pretty simple
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to understand the more of something there is, the lower
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the price is. If there are a whole bunch of houses,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the price of housing goes down. If there are a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of bananas, the price of bananas go down.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But the other thing that determines price is demand. If
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: there are a ton of people that want to buy
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: houses or bananas, the price goes up. And so those
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: two counterbalance each other. And actually rising prices typically are
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a market signal that we need more supply. And so
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: if banana prices skyrocket because suddenly people decide they really
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: really like bananas, you know what's gonna happen. People are
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: going to plant more bananas and grow more bananas to
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: meet the demand, and the price will fall.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Well, what did Joe Biden do.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden imported allowed more than twelve million illegal aliens
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to come into this country. Now, when they came into
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: this country, most of those illegal aliens didn't live in
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a tenth They didn't sleep on a park bench. They
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: went and rented an apartment, or they rented a house,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: or they bought a house. And you bring in twelve
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: million people, that's twelve million people that are trying to
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: rent and when demand goes up a lot, you end
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: up having prices go up. Now, now here's what Scott
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Besson reported. Scott Besson said that last month, apartment rents
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: fell one point one percent compared to the same time
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: last year, and they dropped five point two percent compared
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to the same time period in twenty twenty two, when
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: rent had peaked under Joe Biden and Besson did an
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: interview on Fox Business Channel where he said rents are
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: down and the story the Biden administration doesn't want to
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: talk about the mass, unfettered immigration that pushed up rents,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: especially for working Americans, and he continued to say, there's
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: a recent study out from the Wharton School that shows
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: every one percent increase in population, rents went up one percent.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: So President Trump, by enforcing the border and sending home
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: more than two million illegals, we're now seeing rents coming
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: down substantially. I think that will continue for the rest
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: of the year. We brought down interest rates and so
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: we brought mortgage rates down, and I think everything else
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: will follow that. That is a major victory. And by
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the way, it's exactly what President Trump said on the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: campaign trail, which is that if we deport the illegal
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: aliens that Joe Biden's open borders brought into this country,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the result is going to be rents are going to
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: come down and housing is going to be more affordable.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: We now have the data backing that up. You know.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Messaging, I think center is going to be so important
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: going into the midterms. And one of the things I
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: do think we have not messaged well enough on our
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: side is what is about to happen twenty twenty six.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And there are laws that were passing twenty twenty five
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: that are enacted in twenty twenty six. You combine what
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: you just said about home prices and what the Treasury
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Secretary was talking about there with something that's going to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: have a huge impact on our economy. No tax on
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: tips is coming in this new year. No tax on
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: overtime is coming this year, and no tax on Social
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Security for seniors is coming. Those are three massive victories
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that I think many Americans have actually kind of forgotten
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: about that are going to be implemented this year. That's
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: going to have a very big impact on our economy,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: but also affordability and living.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Now, that's exactly right, and I got to say, by
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the way, for people that make substantial tipped wages or overtime,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: millions of Americans are going to be entitled to a
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: refund from the IRS starting in January, starting in just
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, they'll be entitled to a refund
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: because of those tax cuts, because of the work family
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: tax cut. And look, the latest mantra of both Democrats
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: in the media, because in many instances they're one and
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: the same, is affordability. Now affordability, I am certain that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that came from a focus group the Democrats put on
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that that was a word they could blame and blame
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: on Trump. Affordability about twelve minutes ago, used to be
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: called two things. Jobs and inflation. That's how we used
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: to talk about it. Jobs were seeing economic growth and
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: that is coming from the historic tax cut we pass
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: and it's coming from President Trump's incredible leadership cutting job
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: killing regulation. And then inflation. We are seeing inflation coming down,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and this is interesting. The HUD Department Housing and Urban
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Development Department published this month a report an investigation that
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: concluded Biden's importing of millions of migrants drove up prices
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: for America who are low income but who do not
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: receive public assistance. And here's what the report concluded. Quote
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: one key cause of elevated worst case needs is immigration
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four, the foreign
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: born population of the United States increased more than six million,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the largest such increase over such a short period in
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: American history. This immigration driven increase in households has contributed
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: to a significant increase in housing demand, thus driving up
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: housing prices. In fact, in some markets, immigration is accounted
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: for nearly all of the increase in housing demand in
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: recent years. That is hurting affordability.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: All, nearly all.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: What else do you need to know?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Democrat policies killed jobs and drove up inflation.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: And right now, under common sense conservative policies, we're seeing
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: jobs come back and we're making progress turn around and
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: driving down the Biden inflation that hurt so many Americans.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: from earlier this week.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Now onto story number two.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: New files are revealing that the Department of Justice and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the FBI quote did not have cause to raid mar Lago.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Hold on a second, you're telling me the people in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: charge of Government Center under the Biden regime knew that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: they were going after Donald Trump for political reasons. And
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: not because they thought he broke a law. Can't I
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: could not imagine this.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: You know, it really is astonishing.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So the Department of Justice and FBI handed documents over
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: And here's what Fox News has reported about those documents.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: FBI doubted probable cause for mar A Lago raid, but
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: pushed forward amid pressure from Biden doj emails reveal quote
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: very little has been developed related to who might be
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: culpable for mishandling the documents. An FBI official wrote, the
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: President Donald Trump's mar A Laga home in twenty twenty two,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: but move forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: with an official saying he didn't quote give a damn
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: about the optics of the search. Newly declassified documents reveal
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: and you have emails between the FBI and the Justice
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Department in the months leading up to the August twenty
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: twenty two rate of mar A Lago, and FBI officials
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: explicitly expressed concern about a lack of probable cause to
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: execute the search warrant on the president's residents. Quote very
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: little has been developed related to who might be culpable
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: for mishandling the documents. This is written by an FBI
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: agent serving as the assistant Special Agent in charge to
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: another FBI official quote from the interviews. The Washington Field
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Office has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: presumably of the same type as we're sent back to
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Nara in January at mar a Lago. The Washington Field
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Office has been drafted a search warrant AFFIDAVID related to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: those potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: is single source, has not been corroborated, and.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: May be dated.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Dojcs opines, however, that the search warrant meets the probable
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: cause standard quote. Even as we continue down a path
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: towards a search warrant, the Washington Field Office believes that
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: a reasonable conversation with the former President's attorney stating that
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the FBI and DOJ are reading a search warrant and
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: developed information there may be more documents at mar Lago
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: ought not to be discounted. At a minimum, Even if
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the former president's attorney is correct and the documents were
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: all declassified or believed to be disc classified, it can
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: that the Washington Field Office presses forward with the investigation
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: and continues building out the search warrant. Weeks later, an
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: FBIA agent rights in a new email, quote, this is stunning.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: We haven't generated any new facts, but keep being given
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: with recent information about classified on site. At what point
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: is it fair to table this? The agent rights it
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: is time consuming for the team and not productive if
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: there are no new facts supporting probable cause. Another email
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: revealed that the Washing Washington the FBI's Washington Field Office
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: quote did not believe and has articulated a DOJCS that
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: classified records at mar A Lago.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Let me read that again.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: The FBI Washington Field off is this is in writing quote,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: did not believe and has articulated to the DOJCS that
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: classified weapons of classified records at Mara a Lago and
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the response quote do joz opine that they do have
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: probable cause requesting a wide scope including residents, office storage space,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and the FBI also said a raid would be quote
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: counterproductive and suggested quote alternative, less intrusive, and likely quicker
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: options for resolution to reclaim any potential classified records.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: This is stunning it because I can't. I don't think
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: you can.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: You can overstate how stunning this is that the Field
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Office they're saying this is stupid. This is abuse of
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: power in essence, and they're to the point where they're
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: putting it in writing.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: And by the way, what it means if you don't
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: have probable cause for a search warrant, but you nonetheless
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: engage in the search, the search is illegal without probable cause.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: You don't have a basis for the search that is justified.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: And if the FBI is saying it would be illegal
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: to search President Trump's home, apparently the Biden Department of Justice,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: they were so partisan. Their objective was not to actually
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: prosecute a crime.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Their objective was.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: To stop the American people from voting for Donald Trump.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: They were acting as political operatives, and so their view
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: as one of the officials said, they don't give a
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: damn about the optics. The optics they wanted was President
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Trump in a mug shot. They got that optic, but
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: it backfired on them, backfired bigly. As President Trump might
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: have said in the first term. But this was a
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: political persecution. And what's stunning is they knew it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: At the time.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Well, let's go to accountability. And this is where some
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of people listening and watching this on Facebook or on
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: YouTube are gonna want to ask the question that I'm
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: going to ask you now it's qlear abuse of power.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Where's the accountability? Because at this point, it's like, we
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: know they did it, We've got the information, we know
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: that they were breaking the law or the rules, and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: no one seems to be held accountable for this. So
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: in the rest of my lifetime, I have a feeling
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a Democrat that's going to get
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: back in the White House. What then, why would there
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: be an incentive for them not to abuse their power
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and go after any other conservatives in the same way.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: So there wouldn't be an incentive.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: And look, who knows, it may not be a Democrat
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: in the White House. It may the Democrat Party may
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: have radicalized so much that maybe the next nominee will
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: be a member of the Turtle Turtle Island Liberation Front.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's how extreme these guys are getting. Look,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: there has to be accountability, there has to be people
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: who engage in the abuse of power need to be fired.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Now the Trump Department of Justice and FBI have fired
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: a number of people. That's that's moving in the right direction.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: But anyone who knew they were participating in an abuse
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: of justice and abuse of power, and anyone who knew
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: that it was illegal, let me ask, why was there
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: not anyone who stood up and said this is not
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: right at the Department of Justice to abuse our power.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Why were there no whistleblowers?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Why was there.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: No no pushback from within d OJ?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: You know if she ask you that question. There's a
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: lot of appointees, so that and I want to get
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: in the weeds here on this because I do think
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: it's important to paint the picture. When I was in
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration, there are political appointees and there's non political.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: There's lifers, there's people that stay in certain positions at
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the DOJ, for example, at the FBI, they don't change
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: based on the election or who is in the White
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: House or who's in charge of the House or the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Senator of Congress in general, that those individuals are the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: ones that you would hope would stand up here. The
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: problem seems to be that there's either massive fear when
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the Democrats were in charge that their careers would be
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: over a or B that they just put in so
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: many of their liberal friends that the entire DOJ leadership
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and those below them that were the me the non
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: political appointees were actually incredibly partisan. I go back to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you know, Peter Struck and Lisa Page or whatever the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: hell their names were. That's I mean, there's two examples
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: of quote non political people that were absolutely political.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: There are far too many extreme partisans who burrowed into
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: both agencies, the FBI and the Department of Justice. As
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: you know, a book I wrote a few years ago
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: was called Justice Corrupted, How the Left has weaponized our
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: legal system, and I detailed This was written at the
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: beginning of the Biden administration, so I did not cover
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the prosecutions of Trump or the Marlago ray because it
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: hadn't happened.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: By the way, how right were you on writing that book,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I mean knowing what happened afterwards.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Good Grief, And the book starts chapter one is actually
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: about Watergate.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: It's about Nixon. And I am not a Richard Nixon fan.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I think he was.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: He was corrupt and dishonest, and he abused power. But
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: if you look at one of the things Nixon tried
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: to do is get the Department of Justice and the
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: FBI to go after his political enemies. But at the
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: time DOJ and the FBI and the I R S.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: They all resisted.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: They pushed back and said, no, that's an abuse of
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: our power. We're not going to do that. And what
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Richard Nixon tried to do, Joe Biden succeeded in doing
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: why because nobody, not a political not not not careers,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: nobody pushed back effectively and stopped it.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: And and and.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: We saw that started with Barack Obama. Barack Obama weaponized.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: The Department of Justice, the FBI, the I R S.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: And then when Trump became president and those partisans.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Flicker about it. I do want people to understand that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: he was he was very smart about it. Compared to this,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the blaze and abuse of power by the Biden administration
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but there were and I want to remind just a
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: couple a couple examples of the abuse of power under
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama. Give us a couple of those highlights if
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you will remember what they did do and how this
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: already a long time ago, and and the reason why
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: is center there were a lot of people that got
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: into the dj yeah, and the FBI then that were
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: lower in rank, who are now running the damn place.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: When if you fast forward to the Biden years.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you look at I mean, one of one of
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: the classic examples of lowest learner at the i R
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: S and and and the i R S deliberately targeted
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: conservative groups. It targeted tea party groups, It went after
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: them and persecuted them, and and and the search words
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: they were among among things they were looking for as
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: any group dedicated to the Constitution of the Bill of Rights. Yeah,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: and mind you, they didn't mean the ACLU, they didn't
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: mean leftist groups that they meant anyone that was conservative,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: any pro Israel groups they targeted.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was an.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Ideological purge, and it was an ideological purge that the
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: political officials did everything they could to cover up. And
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: and ultimately, you know, you look at Eric Holder, who
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: was Attorney General, described himself as Barack Obama's wingman, and
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: he ended up being held in contempt of Congress, which
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: was stunning. But it began during the Obama administration. When
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Trump became president, many of those partisans they burrowed into
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: senior career positions at the agency, and for four years
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: the first Trump term, they waged war on Donald Trump
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: from within the agency, trying to overturn the duly elected president,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: trying to overturn an election. And then when Biden got
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: into power, they came out in the open, and they
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: were brazen. And part of the reason Biden was so
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: much worse than Obama is they saw there were no
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: consequences when it happened under Obama, that it worked, that
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: they were able to weaponize the system, and I suspect
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: many good people just left the agencies and those many
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: of those who remained were either they were afraid or
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: they were.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Willing to go along with it.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: But it's why one of the most important obligations responsibilities
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: that the Trump dj and the Trump FBI have is
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: to restore integrity to those agencies, to go after criminals
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: and bad guys like terrorists planning to set off bombs
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles rather than using it to target political opponents.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: What will accountability look like specifically on these emails and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the people there? And will Congress get involved in this
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: now seeing this letter Grassly, etc.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I would certainly expect we'll see hearings in Congress.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I'd like to see the Senate Judiciary Committee hold hearings
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: on this and engage in oversight. This was released by
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, so that's beneficial.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: And you know, look, I want to commend the Trump
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Justice Department for handing these emails over. Part of the
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: reason that the Biden DOJ wrote these is because they
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: thought no one would ever know that. They thought Biden
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: was going to be re elected or Kamala Harris was
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: going to be elected, and so this would remain hidden forever.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: What change the rules is you have an Attorney General
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: and a new FBI director who decided we're gonna give
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: this to We're going to show the American people exactly
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: what was going on.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: That was the right thing to do. As before.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: on this topic, You can go back and dow the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I want to get back to the big story, number
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: three of the week.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: You may have missed.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Center as we're doing our year review. I love getting
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to say this one. We had a big win on
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the issue of space. We're not talking about you finding
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: aliens or anything, but we do have an update on
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: space that's near and dear to your heart with NASA
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and Houston of course talk about the big victory there.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: In the Working Families tax cut, we invested ten billion
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: dollars in NASA and commercial space, and in particular in
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: going back to the Moon. And again because that falls
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, I wrote this provision.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And we are in a race to go back to
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: the Moon. We're in a race with China. China has
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: said publicly they are going to go to the Moon by
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: twenty thirty and they're trying to get back there. And
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: it's also a race not just to get there, but
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: to also to build sustained human habitation on the surface
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: of the Moon, to begin mining on the surface of
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: the Moon. That's the next challenge that we're moving towards
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: China is moving full speed ahead. And we did major
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: investments to say America is going to beat China back
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: to the Moon. We are going to have sustained human
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: habitation on the lunar surface or insist lunar orbit. And
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: that investment, it is in the bill. It is critically important.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And the objective is for us to land on the
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Moon by twenty twenty eight, two years before China, with
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: President Trump still in the Oval office. And that investment
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: will make it. And I'll tell you this is a
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: point I made.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: If we lose.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: If we were to lose the race to the Moon,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I think the impact of seeing the Chinese on the
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Moon before we could get there, I think it would
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: be a bigger blow to the country than Sputnik was
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Sputnik when the Russians launched the first satellite, Sputnik around
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: the Earth, it was a massive blow. It started the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: space race, and I think losing the Moon to China
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: would be orders of magnitude worse. That investment is in there.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: It matters, and it matters also enormously. They're over fifty
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: thousand high paying jobs in Texas that are directly connected
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: to space, so it's big for jobs, jobs in the
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: economy as well.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Selfishly, I just think it would be so cool for kids'
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: minds to be blown to see NHD people walking on
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the moon. Just the wonder and the inspiration that would
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: come from that for an entire generation, you know, with
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: everything that's yeseah and technology driven, Like just to have
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a moment of pause where we're like, we went to
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the moon and you can see an HD. I can't
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: imagine what that does for kids that are dreamers for
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: their futures and their education as well.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Look, I spend a lot of time at Johnson's Space Center.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: I spend a lot of time with NASA, and like
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: the inspiration that astronauts provide.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Now do you know the connection that Rice University has
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to us going to the moon.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: The first time?
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: No?
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: I do not.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: So it was at Rice University at the at the
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Rice Stadium.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: You've been to that that football stadium?
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Uh, that that JFK gave the speech where he committed
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: we will go to the moon within a decade and
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: and and in fact what he said he said, Uh
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: why does Rice play the University of Texas? They do
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: so not because it is easy, but because it is hard,
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: and that was that was his explanation for why.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Are we going to the moon. We're going to the
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Moon for.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: The same reason Rice plays ut not because it easy,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: because it's it's hard, and it inspired millions of kids.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: We're going to do that again.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: But it's also critical listen there there there are major
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: economic benefits. I've predicted for a long time. The first
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: trillionaire is going to be made in Spain. That may
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: well be elon Musk He's already halfway there.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I think the.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Mining that we're going to see on the Moon and
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: ultimately on Mars is going to generate enormous economic activity.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: And it also matters from national security and from a
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: military perspective. Controlling what is quite literally the high ground
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: is really important for keeping America safe.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Cafe standards. I want to make sure we get this
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: in there before the end of the show. Let's talk about
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: that victory as well.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Another provision I wrote in the bill, we zeroed out
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: cafe standards. Now, what are the cafe standards?
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: There? The rules the Biden administration put in.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Place to drive up the cost of your car and
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: drive up the cost of your truck, and what they
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: did is they jacked up the mileage it had to
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: get to what were unsustainable levels. And they were doing
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: that because they wanted to ban the internal combustion engine.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: They wanted to make it impossible for you to buy
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: a gasoline car. They wanted to force you to buy
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: an electric vehicle.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Now, Alouise, let's be clear.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: It also put you and your family at risk. Yeah,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: because of having to be forced to make the cars lighter.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: They had to get rid of the steel in cars
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that made them so safe, like tanks. And that's the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: reason why everything's now in plastic and the bumpers and
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you've had a small wreck. You see how things just shatter.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: It's because they're trying to meet those standards.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Look, my first car was a nineteen seventy eight Ford Fairmont.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: It was my grandfather's car that.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: He gave it to me. It was we called it
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: the green Bomb.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: When you were younger, I knew it. That was confirmation, right.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Right, are you kidding? That was the coolest car. We
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: called it the green Bomb, and it was a tank.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And if you got a sixteen year old boy, all
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: sixteen year old boys are idiots. And for the teenagers, listening.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I apologize, but I was there. I was an idiot,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: and I promise you when you get older you understand
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: it's just part of life growing up. And like putting
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: your kids in a car that is big enough that
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: if they hit something like an idiot, that they're not
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: going to be badly hurt or killed. That matters. We
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: zeroed it out. The effect of that is going to
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: be the lower the cost of you getting a car
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: or a truck lowered by thousands of dollars. That's another
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: victory that is in the bill. And it also is
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: going to save life, just as you said, because you'll
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: be able to make cars that are safer with more
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: steel and less plastic.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is incredible. Finally, one last thing I
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: do want to hit, and it's important one to end
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the show. Take it down act something that you worked
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: so hard on and became reality as well this year,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and it keeps kids safe.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great victory.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Look that there is a growing problem with what's called
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: non consensual intimate imagery, and we're talking both real world
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: so called revenge porn, where you have boyfriend or girlfriend,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: they have an intimate relationship, they take explicit pictures or
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: videos of each other and then they have a breakup
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: and they get one of them is ticked off and decides,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: all right, I'm going to stick it to you and
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I'm going to release this to the world. And it
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: is a grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has a right
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: to do that to somebody else. There is, secondly, a
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: more recent aspect of that, which is deep fakes, and
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: people are using AI to create deep fakes where they
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: take pictures of real people and they use AI to
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: make it appear that they're naked or in explicit and
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: sexual situations. More than ninety five percent of the victims
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: of this are women or teenage girls. And so I
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: drafted a bill that's called to Take It Down Act.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: That number one makes it a crime, makes it a
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: felony to post non consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: or fake pictures. And secondly, it gives you the right,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: if God forbid, you're the victim of this, any tech
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: platform that is displaying that content, you have a federal
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: statutory right to demand they take it down and they
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: have to take it down immediately. And we pass that
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: through the Senate, We pass that through the House. The
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: First Lady Milania Trump was a big champion. She joined
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: with me and I was in the Rose Garden right
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: next to the President and right next to the First
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Lady when he's sign that legislation protecting kids, protecting teenage girls,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: teenage boys, women, protecting everyone, and also standing up to
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the abuse of AI, creating deep fakes and victimizing people.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with senter
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.