Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Trump Revokes Student Visas for Chinese Nationals, Transgender Athlete Policy Shift in CA, Take It Down Act Targeting Deepfakes Signed & ABA Barred from Judicial Nominations

Transcript

Trump Revokes Student Visas for Chinese Nationals, Transgender Athlete Policy Shift in CA, Take It Down Act Targeting Deepfakes Signed & ABA Barred from Judicial Nominations · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: and we did a show that had some really important
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: topics in it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, that show
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: was replaced as we were covering the catastrophic flooding that
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: happened in the Hill Country, and we want to make
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: sure that we gave you all the info on that
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: and the relief efforts and how you could help the
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: people and Curvella in the surrounding areas that were affected.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: And we were talking about that show, and it's an
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: important one because it dealt with a lot of issues.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Number one, Trump revoking Chinese student visas. You probably heard
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: about that nowhere else. Also, California reverses policies on transgender
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: in sports. How that happened, the very important Take It
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Down Act. It was important to protect people from revenge
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and people putting fake pictures of them online as well.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And finally, the ABA won't have any role in judicial selections.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: This is massive, So we decided we're going to let
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: you hear that show that we never got to put out,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: so right now here, it is all right, So let's
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: dive into this big first topic center and it deals
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: with what you mentioned earlier, China and Chinese student visas.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: There was an interesting number that was thrown out earlier
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: in the day on TV, and I'm going to quote it.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if it's exactly accurate, but it is,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and that's why I said it was. I saw it
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: earlier today and I want to prefix that with saying it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: But it said that there were about five hundred American
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: students that have visas in China and more than two
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: hundred eighty thousand Chinese students in the US. Is what
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: was said, Why are we doing so much for Chinese students,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: many of them by the way they come in here
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: that spy and rob of this of our intellectual property,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and the administration tr administration is basically saying, we're trying
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: to put a stop to this.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Well, what the Trump administration has announced, Secretary of State
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Marco Rubio announced that they will begin aggressively revoking the
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: visas of Chinese students in the United States. China engages
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: in extensive propaganda and espionage, and they're going to begin
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: vetting and vetting aggressively whether a particular student seeking a
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: visa to come to this country has ties to the
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Chinese Communist Party. I think this is long overdue and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: it's part of a broader effort. They're also engaged with
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: foreign students that are coming to the United States, examining
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: their social media history, examining if they have a history
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: of radicalism. So if you are seeking a student visa
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: to come to America and you've been public saying I
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: hate America, I want to destroy America, which sadly we've
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: seen some of these radical students who've said that, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: nonetheless Joe Biden the Democrats said welcome to America. We
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: need more people who hate our nation and want to
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: destroy it. Well, I think the President's exactly right to
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: stand up and say we're not going to welcome people
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: to this country who are trying to undermine and destroy
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: this country. With respect to China, you know the question
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: of espionage and intellectual property theft that's existed since the
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: dawn of time. Look, when the first caveman invented the wheel,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I suspect somebody stole his idea and made another wheel.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: That that's part of the human condition. What is not
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: ever before existed is a nation state with massive economic
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: resources like China, making it a state policy to engage
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: in the theft of resources. And so I am very
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: I think it's exactly right that we're going to vigorously
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: scrutinize those students coming in to make sure that they
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: are not operating as agents of the Chinese Communist Party. Now,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: let me say at the same time, look, part of
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the reason you don't get that many Americans going to
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: China to study is you don't have a whole lot
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: of folks that want to go to Chinese universities, whereas
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: people from all over the world want to come to
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: American universities. And I will say, if you have people
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: who are not agents of the communist government, we want
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: the best and brightest in the world coming to America.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: We end up having inventions coming here because because the
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: best and brightest students across the country come and come
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: and study science and engineering, and they make inventions, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: those inventions in turn fuel American companies and they create
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: great jobs. And so I think the administration is cutting
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the right balance here, which is saying we're going to
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: stop spies, we're going to stop terrorists. But at the
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: same time, that doesn't mean that we want to close
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: our doors entirely to to brilliant physicists and engineers from
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: around the world being able to come to America and
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: benefiting from from the fruits of that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You know, there's one thing that we mentioned, gosh, there's
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: probably a little over a year ago on this show
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and the podcast that we do. I tell people this
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: is why you should download Verdict with Ted Cruz. We
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: do it three days a week. We talked back when
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: under the Biden Harrison administration there was even warnings coming
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: from their administration that they're the number one threat to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: this country was China and Chinese espionage and influence operations.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: That is now a Kumbaya moment with the Trump administration
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: where in essence two administrations it saw nothing o't eye.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Both agreed on China and what they were trying to
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: do and stealing an electual property and sending an incredible
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: number of spies into this country and many of them
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: come through our university system.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but the Biden administration did next to nothing to
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: stop it. So they acknowledged it's a problem, but at
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: the same time they were complicit in it. And I'll
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: tell you I have for over a decade been leading
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the fight to stop Chinese espionage, to stop Chinese propaganda,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: to stop China's malign efforts. I think we need a
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: comprehensive effort to take on Communist China, much like we
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: had under Ronald Reagan to win the Cold War against
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the Soviet Union. And I'll tell you, Ben, one of
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: the very first pieces of legislation that I authored and
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: passed dealt with exactly this, and it dealt with what
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: are called Confucius institutes. So Confucius institutes were started at
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: US universities all across America, where there were roughly two
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: hundred of them, and they were controlled by Communist China.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: They were paid for by Communist China, by the government,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: and they were used to engage in propaganda and espionage
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: on campus. I authored legislation and said, if you have
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: a Confucius institute on campus, you will not get funding
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: from the federal government, from the Department of Defense. I
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: passed it into law, and I'll tell you that simple
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: piece of legislation resulted in over one hundred Confucius institutes
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: shutting down at universities across the country, shutting down their espionage,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: shutting down their propaganda. I think the Trump administration's announcement
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: is the next step in that very important fight center.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Let's deal with California, and there has been a fight
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: since the President came in with his executive order on
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: trying to protect women from men being in their life,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: locker rooms, being in their sports beating them up. We
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: saw it during the Olympics in boxing. We've seen countless
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: women who their achievements have been taken away from them
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: on the podium because of men claiming their women, which
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: is impossible in reality. And California decide they were going
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: to stand up to Donald Trump and guess what, it
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: didn't go very well for them.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Well, listen, we've seen the Democrat Party getting more and
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: more radical ever since Donald Trump took the oath of
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: office back in twenty seventeen. They hate Trump and they've
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: gotten more and more extreme on a host of issues.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: And one of the poster children for their extreme issues
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: is embracing boys and girls sports, men and women's sports.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: And it is wrong, it is unfair, it invites injury,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: and it also deprives both both girls and women of
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: athletic victories they should have and they've earned. There are
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: differences between boys and girls. There are differences between men
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: and women that did not used to be a controversial opposition.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: It is only in today's looney tune left that they
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: can't tell to the difference between men and women. But
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I got to tell you, even though in the Senate,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Senate Democrats, all of them continue to defend men in
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: women's sports and boys and girls' sports, We're seeing the
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: state of California. We're seeing the Democrats beginning to retreat.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: We're seeing Gavin Newsom, the governor who's been a far
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: left radical governor. He's got ambitions of being president. He's
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: looking at running in twenty twenty eight, and he's decided, Okay,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: we're on the wrong side of an eighty twenty issue.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I want to get the hell away from this. And
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: so California announced this is a big deal. They're changing
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: their policy for track and field so that if you're
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: a biological girl and you got you missed out on
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: making it to the state championship because you were beaten
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: by a biological male who claims to be a transgender woman,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: then the girl you will still get your slot, You
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: still get invited to the state championship. Look, that's a
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: significant step in the right direction, and Gavin Newsom is
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: embracing it. And I got to say this really illustrates
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: that at least some Democrats realize, Wow, we are on
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: the wrong side of an issue that America America wants
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: to protect girls sports and women's sports. We want to
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: protect our daughters and we don't want to see them
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: hurt or competing unfairly. And so the crazy thing is
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: that means in track and field in California now they
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: may give three gold medals, one to the boy, one
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: to the girl, and one to the transgender athlete.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: You may have gold medals all around.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: But for bright blue California to make this concession, it
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: shows that at least some Democrats realize they are way
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: on the wrong side of this issue.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: This also, I think is an issue that it's worth
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: fighting for, and I think many that are listening or saying,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: we don't want to give in, and we don't want
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: to give up, and the pendulum went so far to
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: the radical left for so many years that this is
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the fight that is worth fighting on and fighting over,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: and showing California having to change girls track and field
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: championship roles after the Trump threatens funding over the trans
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: athletes is just an example of hey, we are and
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: many times the silent majority, and we need to start
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: acting like it, especially on these types of issues.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you Ben this, this issue is a
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: powerful issue. And as you know, I ran for reelection
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: in Texas last year in twenty twenty four. It was
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: a quarter billion dollar race. I was Chuck Schumer's number
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: one target and my campaign was the first campaign in
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: the country last year to put real time and energy
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: behind this this issue of we're going to protect girls
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: sports from boys competing, and we put tens of millions
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: of dollars behind this issue. Well, what's fascinating is the
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: media completely misunderstood the issue. So one of the things
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: that my campaign did is we did focus groups in Houston,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Dallas of undecided moderate women to understand what issues moved them,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: and we tested thirty thirty five different messages. The number
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: one issue that moved undecided moderate women in Texas was
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: boys and girls' sports. And when I started campaigning on it,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: it was very funny. The reporters are like, oh, Cruise
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: is trying to appeal to the crazy right wing, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I was just laughing at him, and I'm like, you
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: guys are so clueless. This is not the crazy right wing.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: This is soccer moms. This is soccer moms who love
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: their daughters and we land on this issue. And then
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: you saw senate races all across the country pick up
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: the same message because they were seeing the same data
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: we where we saw President Trump lean in hard on this.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Some of those women that you were talking to, let's
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: be very clear, had moved from California, because the like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: how many people from California moved to Texas over the
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: last six years A lot.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: We have over a thousand people a day moving to
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: the state of Texas, and California is overwhelmingly the heaviest,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: the largest state that is sending people to Texas. But
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: this issue, what's what's fascinating, Ben, is you know, four
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: years ago this issue did not work politically. You saw
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: campaigns try to raise it four years ago, and I
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: think people thought then that that that it was jumping
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: the shark, that it didn't feel real. Four years ago,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I think people said, oh, come on, that's that's that's
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: not a real threat. Well, you know what we've now
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: seen Leah Thomas, the the the the swimmer who who
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: is a biological man and looks like Michael friggin Phelps Whoo,
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: who we've also seen. And I think this was really
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: a seminal moment in the Olympics, the two dudes competing
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: in women's boxing and beating the hell out of women,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and I think a whole lot of people said, wait,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: this is not theoretical. This is happening over and over
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: and over again. Enough is enough. And I think this
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: is another milestone that that California is retreating on this
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: issue shows that that truth and sanity are winning.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and now the question becomes how much are they
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: going to be able to fight back through the court
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: system and is this going to be something that's going
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to be, unfortunately an issue for probably years to come.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Well, look, we'll see. And to be honest, California hasn't
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: conceded altogether. They're still having biological males compete against women,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: which is which is unfair. It invites injury. You know,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: if you're playing volleyball, We've seen women who have a
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: biological man spike the ball into their head and they
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: get injured. I mean, I mean it is California is
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: still looney Tunes. But the fact that that that that
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: even the lefty government of California is saying we've gone
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: too far.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: That's a very positive sign.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Center.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about this other incredible moment. Donald Trump signed
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: to take Down Act into law. It's something that you
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: championed and remind people what this law is intent and
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: why it is such an important base of legislation to
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: signed into law this week. Actually he signed it into
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: law in the Rose Garden and a big ceremony in
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: in the Rose Garden because you had victim groups and
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: victim advocates and people who have been victims of non
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: consensual explicit imagery.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Now, what is that?
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: That's really two different things. Number one, so called revenge porn.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: So if you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: in a relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: and then they have a breakup and one or the
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: other is mad and they say okay, I'm gonna stick
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: it to you. I'm gonna put this out for the
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: to somebody else. And it's something we're seeing happening more
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: and it has to deal with technology, which is more
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: to create deep fakes and deep fakes where they appear
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: to be either a picture or a video of a
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: and naked or explicit image of someone and put it out.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased three
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: thousand percent, and over ninety percent of the victims of
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: so it is growing massively. And so the Take It
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Down Act is legislation that I introduced that makes it
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: a crime, a federal felony to post non consensual intimate images,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: a federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: pictures down, to take the videos down because the platforms
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: have been horrible responding to victims. They ignore victims, they
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: leave the images up, and so the victim ends up
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: being being victimized over and over and over again by
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: the images staying out there. And so the Take it
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: puts a legal obligation that when the victim notifies them,
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: hey that's me, that's an explicit image of me, and
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: you don't have my consent to put it up, they
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: have to take it down. This legislation I introduced with
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it through
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was one hundred
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: and nothing. And then the House took it up and
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. And President Trump
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: signed it into law. And give a listen to what
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: President Trump said this week in the Rose Garden as
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: he signed the Take It Down Act into law.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Today.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: It's my honor to officially sign the Take It Down
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: Act to law. It's a big thing, very important, so
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: horrible what takes place. This will be the first ever
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary posted
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: without subjects consent. Take horrible pictures, and I guess sometimes
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: even make up the pictures and they post it without
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes for
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes. We've
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: all heard about deep fakes. I have all the time,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: but I don't nobody does anything. I asked, Pam, can
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: you help me, Pam, she says no, I'm too busy,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: too busy doing other things. Don't worry. You'll survive. But
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: a lot of people don't survive. That's true and so horrible.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: With the rise of aiimage generation, countless women have been
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images distributed against
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: their will. This is the wrong and it's just so
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: horribly wrong, and it's a very abusive situation, like in
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: some cases people have never seen before. And today we're
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: making it totally illegal, Sinner.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: One of the things I just I love about this
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: but you had the first Lady who really got involved
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: in this as well. It was important to her and
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: that made it I think even easier to bridge the gap.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Well we did.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: The first Lady became very active in pushing this bill,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: she reached out out to me and said she wanted
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: to help get it over the finish line. So last
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: year we passed it out of the Senate one hundred
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: to nothing, and the House failed to take it up
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: last year, so it did not pass last year, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: so we got to this year to the new Congress.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I passed it through the Senate again one hundred to nothing,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and the real battle was to get it to rise
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: up the priority list of House leadership. And so when
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: the First Lady called my office and said she wanted
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: to help, what I did is I invited her to
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: come to Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: hear from the victims.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And also at that roundtable.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Was the Speaker of the House and Steve Scalise, the
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Majority Leader, and Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: the House. And when the First Lady asked them, will
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: you please pass this into law, they committed to her
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: they would. And this was the day before the State
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: of the Union address, And you may remember the State
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: of the Union address, Milania was sitting with a teenage
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: girl from Texas, Elliston Barry, and President Trump told her
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: story in the State of the Union and called on
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Congress to pass this bill. And I'll tell you it's
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: actually it's a fascinating story of how this bill came
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: to pass because it originates with one teenage girl in Texas,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Elliston Barry. She's from North Texas, from Aledo, Texas, and
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: a year ago she was fourteen, and she was in
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: ninth grade and she woke up one morning and her
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: phone was blowing up with texts from her friends because
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: a classmate of hers had taken a perfectly innocent picture
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: of her from social media and had used an app
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: online that he had found to create a deep fake
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: and then sent what appeared to be naked pictures of
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Elliston to all of her ninth grade classmates. And so
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: she was in tears. Listen, it is hard to be
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: a teenager. I'm the father of two teenage girls. I
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: know the pressure that is on teenage girls. It's much
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: harder to be a teenager today than when you and
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: I were teenagers, Ben, and this was just just horrific.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Well what happened is her mom, Anna, Look, Elliston and
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Anna are constituents, they're Texans. So Anna picked up the
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: phone and called my office and said, hey, look you're
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: my senator, can you help my daughter and my staff.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: To their credit, they elevated this to me and they
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: told me what had happened to Elliston, and this is
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: happening more and more all over the country. And so
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this, to
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: address the problem.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And so we did.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: It was it was because of Elliston that we drafted it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: But as I said, it's happening all over the country. Well,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: Elliston came to d C the day we announced the
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: bill last year for the press conference, and I sat
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: down and met with Elliston. I met with her mom
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: in my office and in the course of the meeting,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: I have been calling an emailing Snapchat over and over
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: and over again. They just Stone Wallace. We get no response.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Ben I turned to my staff, I said, I want
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: I want those pictures down today. They pulled them down
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: within two hours. Now it should not take a sitting
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: senator making a phone call to get those pictures taken down.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: And now, as a result of the legislation Trump assigned,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: every victim has a statutory right to insist that it
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: be taken down as a matter of law automatically.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: In fact, Ellison Barry got to go on Fox News
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Channel with our good friend Keally Mcananny and talk about
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: this moment.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And here's what she had to say.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: Take a listen. But you didn't stop. You decided to
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: go and talk to your local congressman. You get connected
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: with the senator, and then you manage there you are
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: standing behind the President of the United States changing the
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: laws for other young women like you. Did you ever
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: think this day would come?
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: I never would have thought that this could ever be
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: in my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person,
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: and she's the one that's been pushing for this, and
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: she's the one that's encouraged me. So I wouldn't be
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: able to do this without her help and her support,
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: and she really just has encouraged me to the point
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: where I feel encouraged about this. So having the opportunity
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: to speak about this and to bring awareness really just
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: means so much. Especially it's so much growth, seeing how
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: scared I was at first, and seeing how confident I
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: am able in this situation.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Well, other young women now have recourse thanks to you,
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: Elliston Berry. So impressive. Thank you.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: It's finally a happy ending to a really hard and
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: sad subject.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Well and Ben.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: At the signing ceremony, I was able to introduce Elliston
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: to the President. I introduced also Francesca Mani, who was
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: another fifteen year old girl who was in New Jersey
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: and the exact same thing happened to her as happened
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffey. Brandon guffy
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: is a state rep from South Carolina, and tragically, his
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: oldest son got what we thought was a direct message
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: from a cute girl and she convinced him to send
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it was
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: not a cute girl, it was a con man, and
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: the con man began extorting him and threatening I'm going
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Brandon's son, Gavin, killed himself, and we are seeing suicides
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: across the country. So I introduced and in his family
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: the President too. And this law is of victory for
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: everyone that is a target of this kind of exploitation.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: All right, Senat, So let's dive into this other issue
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: that really is an interesting one. You've got a lot
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: to say about the Trump Justice Department telling the American
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Bar Association that it will no longer comply with ratings
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: for judicial nominees. Now, explain the politics behind this. The
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: ABA has had a lot of power and they're basically
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: now saying we're not going to let you guys have
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: that power because there's been a lot of bias coming
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: out of the American Bar Association.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Well, the American Bar Association, it's a national organization of lawyers,
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: and it is a left wing advocacy group. It is
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: not fair, it is not impartial. It is a radical
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: left organization. And the ABA has had a formal role
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: in judicial selection for seventy five years. It started reading
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: judicial nominees in nineteen fifty three, and until two thousand
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: and one, the ABA actually had a formal role evaluating
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: judicial nominees before they were nominated. So a president, a
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Department of Justice and Administration would would share with the ABA. Hey,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: we're thinking of nominating Ben Ferguson to be a federal judge,
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: and they'd go and research and interview former clients, and
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: at some point people would say, wait, Ben's not even
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: a lawyer, How the hell is it going to be
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: a judge? Like you probably should go to law school first.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: And by the way, that point is not crazy. But
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: they engaged that they would do a formal role and
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: they would rate the qualifications of judicial nominees. Now here's
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: the problem. For decades, the ABA's qualification measures were wildly biased. So,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: for example, Robert Bork, Robert Borke. Ronald Reagan nominated Robert
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Borke to the Supreme Court in nineteen eighty seven. Robert
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Bork was by any measure, one of the most qualified
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: federal judicial nominees in the history of this country. Robert
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Bork had been the Solicitor General of the United States,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: the chief lawyer for the United States in front of
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: the Supreme Court of the United States. Robert Bork had
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: been one of the most renowned and respected law professors
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: for decades. Robert Bork had been a federal judge on
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: the US Court of Appeals for the d C Circuit,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: and so a remarkable career. And yet the ABA, when
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: they evaluated Robert Borke, they coned he was quote not
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: qualified to be a judge. They also concluded the same
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: thing for Frank Easterbrook. Again, brilliant, brilliant judge, brilliant professor,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: one of the greatest judges who have ever served on
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: the Court of Appeals. Frank Easterbrook, the ABA concluded he
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: was not qualified.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Also Edith Jones.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Edith Jones is a judge on the Fifth Circuit Federal
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Court of Appeals down in Texas. No judge Jones, Well,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: she's a phenomenal jurist, one of one of the best
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: and most conservative judges in the entire country. The a
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: BA rated her not qualified.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: The breaking news is this week the Trump Justice Department
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: announced the a BA will no longer have a role
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: in judicial selection. They will no longer have a role
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: in vetting. They're out and and and the Department of
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Justice said, you know what, they can chime in like
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: any other left wing advocacy group, but they don't have
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: a role in this process.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: This is going to have, like I think, a big
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: impact on the quality BONDI informing the a b A
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: that they'll no longer enjoy the special access judicial nominees
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: and the left. By the way, when that news came out,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: they totally freaked out. And I think that also shows
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: just how much they were depending on the ABA to
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: get rid of good candidates that were maybe more conservative.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and and and so Pambondi sent a letter to
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: the president of the a B A and and and
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: she said, quote, while the ABA is free to comment
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: activist organizations, and the Department of Justice will not do so.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: And so previously the Office Illegal Policy, which is the
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: office within the Department of Justice that handles judicial selections,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: they changed. They had previously directed judicial nominees to provide
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: a waiver to the ABA to let the ABA access
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: non public information, including bar records. And so no longer
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: is the Department of Justice going to tell judicial nominees
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: give the ABA special access. That is over and moreover,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Pambondi says, quote. Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: with the ABA. In other words, you can be like
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: every other whack job organization on the left, but but
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: you're not going to have any special access whatsoever. This
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: is something I've called for a long time. I have
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: for years, for more than a decade, advocated that the
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: A B a BA is wildly biased and and it
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: should it should not have a special role in the process.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: And I want to commend President Trump and Pambondy. It's
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: the right thing to do.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Cinaer. We hear a lot about bias and and biased
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: against conservatives, But my other question is were they also
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: biased in advocating for liberals.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, they are a hard left advocacy organization masquerading as
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: a non partisan professional organization. And Joe Biden over the
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: last four years nominated over and over again radicals and zealots,
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: many of whom were wildly unqualified, and the ABA was
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: more than happy to stamp them with a rating of
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: qualified and and and one example is is Charnette Charnelle
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Bagel Congrin, who was wildly unqualified, and yet the ABA
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: happened deemed her qualified and rather than me layout how
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: bad she was. I want you to listen to this
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: cross examination from my colleague John Kennedy to this judicial
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: nominee and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: Here give listen, Thank you, mister chairman, and congratulations to
• 30:17
  Speaker 7: all of you. Judge on the far end, tell me
• 30:25
  Speaker 7: what article five of the Constitution does.
• 30:29
  Speaker 8: Article five is not coming to mind at the moment.
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: Okay, how about article two?
• 30:35
  Speaker 8: Neither is article two?
• 30:37
  Speaker 7: Okay? Do you know what proposivism is?
• 30:41
  Speaker 8: In my twelve years as an assistant Attorney General and
• 30:46
  Speaker 8: my nine years serving as a judge, I was not
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: faced with that precise question. We are the highest trial
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: court in Washington State, so I'm frequently faced with issues
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: that I'm not familiar with, and I thoroughly review the law,
• 31:02
  Speaker 8: our research, and apply the law to the facts presented
• 31:06
  Speaker 8: to me.
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: Well, you're going to be faced with it as if
• 31:08
  Speaker 7: you're confirmed. I can assure you of that.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: He was dumbfounded at the end there, like, I can't
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: believe you don't know this.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Well, And let me underscore how simple the first two
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: questions are that he asked. So, the Constitution has seven articles.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: It's not a very long document. Article five is the
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: article through that lays out the process for amending the Constitution.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: It's fairly basic. That was his opening question. She had
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: no idea what article five was. Article two is even
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: more fundamental. So the first three articles the Constitution. Article
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: one creates the Congress, Article two creates the President and
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: the executive branch, and Article three creates the Federal Judiciary.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: To not know what Article two is is stunning.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: To give you a cent.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: You will flunk constitutional law and not graduate law school
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: if you don't know what Article two is. She was
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: being nominated to be what is called an Article three judge.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: I assumed she had no idea what Article three was,
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: and nevertheless the ABA said she's qualified to be an
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: Article three judge even though she has no idea what
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: it is. I'm very glad the ABA no longer has
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: a role in making those determinations.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to dial
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again Ben Ferguson podcasts,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.