Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Horrific Murder in DC, No Tax on Tips Passes the Senate, Take It Down Act Signed into Law & The Last Rodeo Preview

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Horrific Murder in DC, No Tax on Tips Passes the Senate, Take It Down Act Signed into Law & The Last Rodeo Preview · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, Cenaer.
0:04
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to be with you, and we've got
0:07
Speaker 1: one jam packed show for you tonight.
0:09
Speaker 2: Well, there's an enormous amount going on. This week. We
0:11
Speaker 2: saw the tragic murder of two people who worked in
0:16
Speaker 2: the Israeli embassy, murdered by a radical left Palestinian racist.
0:21
Speaker 2: It was the absolute manifestation of evil. We're going to
0:25
Speaker 2: tell you what happened there and break down the evil
0:29
Speaker 2: that we are seeing on college campuses, that we are
0:33
Speaker 2: seeing spreading hate, hate for Jews and anti Semitism, hate
0:37
Speaker 2: for Israel, hate for America, and the absolute utter evil
0:42
Speaker 2: we saw unfold this week. We're also going to talk
0:45
Speaker 2: about the remarkable fact that the United States Senate passed
0:49
Speaker 2: my legislation No Taxes on Tips one hundred to nothing.
0:53
Speaker 2: No Taxes on Tips is going to become the law
0:56
Speaker 2: of the land. The Democrats actually supported no taxes on Tips.
1:00
Speaker 2: We're gonna explain that to you, and next we're going
1:02
Speaker 2: to talk about to Take it Down Act legislation I
1:05
Speaker 2: authored that President Trump signed into law this week that
1:08
Speaker 2: will protect women and teenage girls from revenge porn from
1:13
Speaker 2: deep fake porn. It is critical legislation keeping all of
1:17
Speaker 2: our kids safe and keeping all of us safe, and
1:20
Speaker 2: it is now the law of the land.
1:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. Plus, we've got something really cool.
1:24
Speaker 1: Neil McDonald's going to join us, and there is a
1:27
Speaker 1: new movie that is out right now.
1:29
Speaker 3: It is called The Last Rodeo.
1:30
Speaker 1: It is a faith based, family friendly movie that is
1:34
Speaker 1: getting nationwide distribution. You may know Neil from Tulsa, King
1:38
Speaker 1: and Yellowstone. He's going to join us as well to
1:40
Speaker 1: talk about this new movie. And we're gonna have a
1:42
Speaker 1: chance for you also to win free tickets as well
1:45
Speaker 1: for Verdict listeners.
1:45
Speaker 3: That's really awesome as well.
1:47
Speaker 1: So Sentaer, let's talk about this first, just shocking attack
1:51
Speaker 1: that happened in Washington, d C. Where this happened. I've
1:54
Speaker 1: been to this area and been to this place several
1:58
Speaker 1: times in my life. When you know where it happened,
2:01
Speaker 1: I think it just takes your breath away. And then
2:02
Speaker 1: to understand the hatred and the anti Semitism behind it.
2:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just a few blocks away from the Capitol.
2:10
Speaker 2: It was by the d C Field Office, It was
2:12
Speaker 2: by a Jewish museum and two people were murdered, Sarah
2:19
Speaker 2: Milgram and Jerone Leshinsky. They were about to get engaged,
2:24
Speaker 2: to be married, and they were murdered for one reason,
2:28
Speaker 2: because they were Jewish. The person who killed them was
2:31
Speaker 2: not a Palestinian. He was not someone from Gaza. No,
2:35
Speaker 2: he was a left wing radical from Chicago. He was
2:42
Speaker 2: his name is Elias Rodriguez, and he was a socialist.
2:47
Speaker 2: He was a Marxist. And when he murdered them, he
2:50
Speaker 2: murdered them screaming, free, free Palestine. This was the pure
2:55
Speaker 2: manifestation of hate. And I will tell you he didn't
3:01
Speaker 2: just shoot them once. He made certain to execute them.
3:06
Speaker 2: As Sarah crawled away in agony after he shot her,
3:10
Speaker 2: he followed her and he shot her again and again
3:14
Speaker 2: and again from the back. He executed her in cold blood.
3:17
Speaker 2: He fired at least twenty one nine millimeter bullets at them.
3:23
Speaker 2: That's how many cartridge cases were found. And then he
3:26
Speaker 2: just jogged off. Was it is pure unmitigated racist hate,
3:33
Speaker 2: and it is the lies that that the left spreads.
3:36
Speaker 1: You know, this is one of those moments where you
3:39
Speaker 1: realize just how bad anti Semitism has become, specifically in
3:44
Speaker 1: this country, and a lot of it is among younger people,
3:48
Speaker 1: and it is exploded on college campuses, and we see
3:53
Speaker 1: that there are real consequences for this type of bigotry
3:56
Speaker 1: and hatred towards people that are Jewish.
3:58
Speaker 2: Well, and Ben, I'll tell you amazing story about the
4:01
Speaker 2: two of them that I learned today. So earlier today,
4:05
Speaker 2: I spoke at the Hudson Institute, and I spoke at
4:08
Speaker 2: their Middle East Center about the Middle East and about
4:11
Speaker 2: China's massive efforts to have greater influence in the Middle East.
4:16
Speaker 2: And I was interviewed by Zeneb Rabua, who works at
4:20
Speaker 2: the Hudson Institute and who was good friends with your
4:23
Speaker 2: own and a number of the people who were at
4:27
Speaker 2: my speech today, we're good friends with your own. In fact,
4:31
Speaker 2: he might well have attended the speech. He was a
4:33
Speaker 2: Middle East expert, and this was a speech in d
4:36
Speaker 2: C to Middle East experts the day after he and
4:38
Speaker 2: Sarah were murdered. Well, here's what Zeneb told me that
4:42
Speaker 2: I did not know. I'm just going to read a
4:43
Speaker 2: tweet she sent earlier today. The last time I spoke
4:49
Speaker 2: with your own, he told me that it was thanks
4:52
Speaker 2: to Ted Cruz that he met Sarah. They first crossed
4:56
Speaker 2: paths at an event where the Senator was speaking. Today,
5:00
Speaker 2: I had the privilege of sharing that story with Senator
5:02
Speaker 2: Cruz himself. We spoke about China, Iran and the rise
5:06
Speaker 2: of anti Semitism. He listened with warmth and paid a
5:09
Speaker 2: moving tribute to Yourna and Sarah. They both admired him deeply.
5:13
Speaker 2: I did not know yourne and Sarah, but I'm literally speechless.
5:19
Speaker 2: I'm literally reduced to tears that this is a couple
5:23
Speaker 2: who met at a speech I was given, fell in love,
5:28
Speaker 2: we're about to get engaged, and were murdered by the
5:31
Speaker 2: face of evil. And I will tell you this is
5:33
Speaker 2: the face of evil we see on college campuses. You
5:37
Speaker 2: know the phrase free, free Palestine. I'll tell you, Ben,
5:40
Speaker 2: For a year, I woke up every Saturday morning seven
5:44
Speaker 2: am to screams of free free Palestine in my front
5:48
Speaker 2: yard because pro Haamas protesters arrived every morning seven am,
5:53
Speaker 2: banging bells and drums, screaming, screaming expletives and chanting free,
5:59
Speaker 2: free Palestine. And listen. This is the consequence of the
6:04
Speaker 2: anti Semiticate. And I will tell you I want you
6:08
Speaker 2: to listen to this interview on CNN. CNN interviewed one
6:13
Speaker 2: of the witnesses to what happened here and listen to
6:16
Speaker 2: just just the left wing twist of what passes for
6:22
Speaker 2: our corporate media.
6:23
Speaker 4: Give a listen as you go forward, as you go
6:26
Speaker 4: forward with what you have seen. Can you give us
6:28
Speaker 4: any sense because you said you look the shooter in
6:30
Speaker 4: the eyes, can you give us any sense of what
6:32
Speaker 4: you saw in him as he was sort of getting
6:36
Speaker 4: help and people were tending to him, as if he
6:40
Speaker 4: too was a victim of seeing this.
6:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, it would just be clear.
6:43
Speaker 6: I like heard out that part because we were in
6:45
Speaker 6: a secure room when he initially walked in. I just
6:47
Speaker 6: saw him screaming and then being handcuffed. But what I
6:51
Speaker 6: saw in his eyes, I mean I went to Columbia
6:53
Speaker 6: for grads.
6:54
Speaker 7: Go on.
6:54
Speaker 6: I saw the same thing in his eyes as I
6:56
Speaker 6: saw in the eyes of all the protesters at Columbia.
6:58
Speaker 5: Nothing different between him and them.
7:00
Speaker 4: But they did not create this horrific shooting.
7:04
Speaker 5: They did not, you know, sort of they didn't shoot.
7:09
Speaker 3: They created.
7:09
Speaker 6: They gave permission. They gave the permission, and they have
7:13
Speaker 6: called for this. They have called for intifada revolution, which
7:16
Speaker 6: is the same thing he yelled last night.
7:17
Speaker 4: Do you worry that there will be a come conflation though,
7:21
Speaker 4: of the two, those people who are speaking their mind,
7:23
Speaker 4: who really care about what is happening in Gaza, and
7:26
Speaker 4: those people who are like this person who did this
7:30
Speaker 4: horrific shooting, who intend to do harm a conflation.
7:35
Speaker 6: I mean, they are calling for intifada at Columbia University.
7:38
Speaker 6: They call for intifada constantly. Now they're not quietly, they're loud.
7:42
Speaker 6: They're loud.
7:42
Speaker 5: You can hear it. They make recordings of themselves. So
7:44
Speaker 5: what's the difference. Are you afraid? Yes? What were you
7:48
Speaker 5: all afraid? Everyone should be afraid?
7:50
Speaker 4: What are you doing to try to make yourself feel safer?
7:54
Speaker 6: Well, can't you just go on and live your life.
7:56
Speaker 6: I'm a New Yorker, I remember nine to eleven. You
7:58
Speaker 6: can't let them make you be afraid.
8:00
Speaker 5: You have to go on.
8:01
Speaker 6: You have to live your life and hopefully your government
8:04
Speaker 6: does things to protect you.
8:05
Speaker 5: Last night, our government failed us.
8:07
Speaker 2: You know, this is what's wrong with CNN, this is
8:09
Speaker 2: what's wrong with our corporate media that they want to
8:12
Speaker 2: defend the anti Semitic protesters on campus. That witness who
8:17
Speaker 2: saw the horrific murder, he's exactly right that when people
8:20
Speaker 2: are channing we love Hamas, which is what they're channing
8:23
Speaker 2: on many of these campuses when they're calling for intefada.
8:25
Speaker 2: This is into fada. This is the murder they're calling for,
8:29
Speaker 2: and CNN is being an apologist for them. And I
8:33
Speaker 2: have to say, our prayers are very much with the
8:35
Speaker 2: families of your own and Sarah, what happened to them
8:37
Speaker 2: was utterly horrible and utterly evil.
8:39
Speaker 1: Centa, I want to move on to a really exciting
8:42
Speaker 1: issue and it's going to have a massive impact on
8:46
Speaker 1: a lot of hard working Americans that are in the
8:49
Speaker 1: service industry. This is something that you have championed and
8:52
Speaker 1: it became reality in a historic vote on no taxes
8:57
Speaker 1: on tips. What a simple idea, but it's going to
8:59
Speaker 1: have a huge impact in this country.
9:02
Speaker 2: Well, two things happened this week on no taxes on tips.
9:05
Speaker 2: First of all, the House of Representatives passed the one big,
9:08
Speaker 2: beautiful bill, the giant Reconciliation bill that extends the Trump
9:13
Speaker 2: tax cuts, that secures the border, that rebuilds the military,
9:17
Speaker 2: and included within it is my legislation on no taxes
9:20
Speaker 2: on tips. So the House passed that this week. At
9:24
Speaker 2: the same time, the Senate took up and passed as
9:28
Speaker 2: a freestanding bill, my no Taxes on Tips legislation. And
9:32
Speaker 2: let me tell you the backstory on this. So you remember,
9:35
Speaker 2: during the presidential campaign, President Trump campaigned on no Taxes
9:40
Speaker 2: on Tips and he rolled it out in Las Vegas.
9:43
Speaker 2: And the week after he rolled it out, he came
9:47
Speaker 2: and had lunch with all the Republican senators and he
9:49
Speaker 2: told us the story of where the idea came from.
9:52
Speaker 2: And he said, before his rally in Las Vegas, he
9:54
Speaker 2: was sitting having lunch, and he said a waitress was
9:58
Speaker 2: bringing him his lunch and and Trump said, and she
10:02
Speaker 2: was beautiful. She was absolutely beautiful, which which we were
10:06
Speaker 2: all cracking up laughing at. And and he said she
10:09
Speaker 2: was she was expressing just how much burden it was
10:14
Speaker 2: to to to pay taxes on her tips. And then
10:16
Speaker 2: the taxes on tips had gone up under Joe Biden
10:18
Speaker 2: and Kamala Harris. And Trump said, he just grabbed a
10:21
Speaker 2: note pad of paper and he wrote on the notepad,
10:24
Speaker 2: no Taxes on Tips. And he showed it to her, says,
10:27
Speaker 2: what do you think of this? And she said great, fantastic.
10:30
Speaker 2: So he said, well, I decided to to just announce
10:33
Speaker 2: it at the rally. He said, sometimes I do that,
10:35
Speaker 2: And so he went out to the rally thousands of
10:37
Speaker 2: people in Las Vegas, and he said, when I'm when
10:41
Speaker 2: I'm reelected, we will have no taxes on tips. And
10:44
Speaker 2: he said and they went crazy. Everyone went crazy. So
10:48
Speaker 2: he told us that story, and I got to say,
10:50
Speaker 2: I thought it was It was brilliant. It was a
10:52
Speaker 2: great idea. I strongly support that idea. And so he
10:57
Speaker 2: announced it. He came up with it, and I said, well,
10:59
Speaker 2: I'm going to draft the legislation to make it happen.
11:01
Speaker 2: And so I sat down and wrote the legislation to
11:04
Speaker 2: make it part of our tax laws, and I introduced
11:06
Speaker 2: it the week after he announced it. Well, the week
11:09
Speaker 2: I introduced it, two different Democrats, both senators from Nevada,
11:14
Speaker 2: joined my bill. They co sponsored my bill. Actually, Jackie
11:17
Speaker 2: Rose in one of the two Democrats from Nevada, she
11:19
Speaker 2: told me that day she said, you know, twenty five
11:22
Speaker 2: percent of the workers in the state of Nevada are
11:25
Speaker 2: tipped workers. So they joined my bill. My bill is
11:29
Speaker 2: the one the House put in one big, beautiful bill. Well,
11:31
Speaker 2: what happened this week is Jackie Rose and the Democrat
11:35
Speaker 2: decided to go to the floor of the House of
11:38
Speaker 2: the Senate and seek unanimous consent to pass my bill. Now,
11:43
Speaker 2: the way unanimous consent work, as you're asking, will any
11:47
Speaker 2: senator object it? If no senator objects, then it passes.
11:51
Speaker 2: And the way you do it is you run what's
11:52
Speaker 2: called a hotline, which is you send a request to
11:56
Speaker 2: every senator's office. Are you going to object to this?
11:59
Speaker 2: And I think the Democrats expected that the Republicans would object.
12:04
Speaker 2: I'm sitting there growing wait a seconds, It's my bill.
12:06
Speaker 2: Why would I object to my own bill. Of course
12:07
Speaker 2: I want to pass my bill. So I didn't object.
12:10
Speaker 2: No other Republican objected, and astonishingly no Democrat objected either.
12:17
Speaker 2: So Jackie came to the Senate floor and she said, hey,
12:19
Speaker 2: I think this thing's going to pass. And I said,
12:22
Speaker 2: we'll do it quickly. Get up and do it quickly.
12:24
Speaker 2: Don't give a long speech, just stand up and ask
12:28
Speaker 2: unanimous consent and get it done. Because I was worried
12:31
Speaker 2: that some Democrat was going to turn on c Span
12:34
Speaker 2: and see what we were doing and run down to
12:36
Speaker 2: the Senate floor and object. Well, and it is very
12:40
Speaker 2: unusual for somebody else to ask unanimous consent to pass
12:44
Speaker 2: your bill. It's almost always you. You're almost always the
12:47
Speaker 2: one doing it. But she went, she asked for consent,
12:50
Speaker 2: nobody objected, and so No Tax on Tips passed the
12:53
Speaker 2: United States Senate this week one hundred to nothing. Every
12:58
Speaker 2: Republican voted for it, every Democrat voted for it. And
13:01
Speaker 2: the good news about that is it means the chances
13:04
Speaker 2: of no taxes on tips becoming federal law are now
13:08
Speaker 2: very close to one hundred percent. It's in the Reconciliation bill.
13:12
Speaker 2: It will either pass as part of one big, beautiful
13:14
Speaker 2: bill or it will pass as a freestanding bill. Either way,
13:18
Speaker 2: we're going to get that policy, which is a great
13:20
Speaker 2: policy for American workers.
13:22
Speaker 1: So how often do you get one hundred and nothing
13:25
Speaker 1: bills like this? I mean, that's the part that I
13:27
Speaker 1: think is just so exciting.
13:29
Speaker 2: You know, it happens with some regularity in the Senate
13:32
Speaker 2: in particular, you work to find a bill that people
13:36
Speaker 2: agree with, and you go down and pass legislation, and
13:39
Speaker 2: you can get legislation passed one hundred to nothing. I
13:44
Speaker 2: have authored and passed into law one hundred and three
13:48
Speaker 2: different pieces of legislation. And my guess is roughly half
13:52
Speaker 2: of them or more were by unanimous consent. They passed
13:56
Speaker 2: one hundred to nothing. Some of it is you work
13:58
Speaker 2: out the objections in the process, and so when you
14:03
Speaker 2: run the hotline, you may get four or five objectors,
14:05
Speaker 2: and you go to them and say, hey, what's your
14:06
Speaker 2: problem with the bill? What do you not like about it?
14:08
Speaker 2: And if they have a particular concern, you try to
14:11
Speaker 2: work through it all.
14:13
Speaker 8: Right.
14:13
Speaker 2: Another bill that we will get past but we haven't yet,
14:17
Speaker 2: is is my bill on AM radio for every vehicle. Look,
14:20
Speaker 2: we're on AM radio right now. As you know, eight
14:23
Speaker 2: car makers announced that they were going to pull AM
14:26
Speaker 2: radio off of new cars and new trucks, and I
14:30
Speaker 2: introduced legislation with Ed Markey, liberal Democrat from Massachusetts to
14:35
Speaker 2: ensure that AM radio stays in new cars and trucks. Actually,
14:39
Speaker 2: the day after Markey and I introduced the legislation, Ford
14:43
Speaker 2: Motor Company reversed its decision and said we're not We're
14:47
Speaker 2: going to go back to including AM radio. So I
14:50
Speaker 2: went to the Senate floor and tried to pass it
14:52
Speaker 2: by unanimous consent, and it failed because Ran Paul came
14:56
Speaker 2: down and objected, and Ran Paul opposes me of every kind.
15:01
Speaker 2: I oppose many mandates, but I think giving consumers the
15:05
Speaker 2: choice of having AM radio is a good choice for consumers.
15:09
Speaker 2: It's very inexpensive for car car makers, and so that
15:12
Speaker 2: one will not pass by unanimous consents. So we'll have
15:14
Speaker 2: to get floor time, which is harder to get. What
15:17
Speaker 2: I will say on No Taxes on Tips is this
15:20
Speaker 2: is a policy that really is the manifestation of how
15:24
Speaker 2: the Republican Party today is a blue collar party. This
15:28
Speaker 2: is a policy that is going to benefit waiters and waitresses.
15:31
Speaker 2: It's going to benefit bartenders. It's going to benefit barbers
15:34
Speaker 2: and hairstylists. It's going to benefit beauticians and people who
15:38
Speaker 2: work at nail salons and taxicab drivers. It is impacting
15:42
Speaker 2: the working men and women. And that's the base who
15:46
Speaker 2: elected President Trump, and that's the base who elected me,
15:49
Speaker 2: and and so it's really a great and astonishing victory.
15:52
Speaker 2: I got to tell you, Ben, both Republicans and Democrats
15:55
Speaker 2: were utterly flabbergasted to see No Taxes on Tips pass
16:00
Speaker 2: unanimously in the Senate this week.
16:02
Speaker 1: Center, let's talk about this other incredible moment that happened
16:06
Speaker 1: this week at the White House. Donald Trump signed to
16:08
Speaker 1: take it down act into law. It's something that you
16:10
Speaker 1: championed and remind people what this law is intent and
16:15
Speaker 1: why it is such an important reason of legislation to
16:17
Speaker 1: protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone
16:22
Speaker 1: from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.
16:25
Speaker 2: Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump
16:29
Speaker 2: signed into law this week. Actually he signed it into
16:32
Speaker 2: law in the Rose Garden and a big ceremony in
16:34
Speaker 2: the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing
16:36
Speaker 2: ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been
16:39
Speaker 2: in the Rose Garden because you had victim groups and
16:42
Speaker 2: victim advocates and people who have been victims of non
16:46
Speaker 2: consensual explicit imagery. Now what is that? That's really two
16:49
Speaker 2: different things. Number One, so called revenge porn. So if
16:53
Speaker 2: you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're in a
16:55
Speaker 2: relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos and then
17:00
Speaker 2: they have a breakup and one or the other is
17:02
Speaker 2: mad and they say, Okay, I'm going to stick it
17:05
Speaker 2: to you. I'm going to put this out for the
17:06
Speaker 2: whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque
17:10
Speaker 2: violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that
17:13
Speaker 2: to somebody else, and it's something we're seeing happening more
17:16
Speaker 2: and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new,
17:20
Speaker 2: and it has to deal with technology, which is more
17:23
Speaker 2: and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence
17:27
Speaker 2: to create deep fakes and deep fakes where they appear
17:31
Speaker 2: to be either a picture or a video of a
17:34
Speaker 2: real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make
17:37
Speaker 2: and naked or explicit image of someone and put it out.
17:40
Speaker 2: And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased three
17:45
Speaker 2: thousand percent, and over ninety percent of the victims of
17:50
Speaker 2: deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls, and
17:54
Speaker 2: so it is growing massively. And so the Take It
17:58
Speaker 2: Down Act is legislation, and I introduce that makes it
18:01
Speaker 2: a crime, a federal felony to post non consensual intimate images,
18:05
Speaker 2: either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts
18:11
Speaker 2: a federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the
18:15
Speaker 2: pictures down, to take the videos down, because the platforms
18:19
Speaker 2: have been horrible responding to victims. They ignore victims, they
18:22
Speaker 2: leave the images up, and so the victim ends up
18:25
Speaker 2: being being victimized over and over and over again by
18:28
Speaker 2: the images staying out there. And so the take It
18:31
Speaker 2: Down at puts a legal obligation that when the victim
18:34
Speaker 2: notifies them, hey that's me, that's an explicit image of me,
18:38
Speaker 2: and you don't have my consent to put it up,
18:40
Speaker 2: they have to take it down. This legislation I introduced
18:44
Speaker 2: with Amy klovichar Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it
18:49
Speaker 2: through the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was one
18:51
Speaker 2: hundred and nothing. And then the House took it up
18:53
Speaker 2: and passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and President
18:58
Speaker 2: Trump signed it in the law. And give a listen
19:00
Speaker 2: to what President Trump said this week in the Rose
19:03
Speaker 2: Garden as he signed to Take It Down Act into law.
19:05
Speaker 7: Today. It's my honor to officially sign they Take It
19:08
Speaker 7: Down Act into law. It's a big thing, very important,
19:11
Speaker 7: so horrible what takes place. This will be the first
19:15
Speaker 7: ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary
19:20
Speaker 7: posted without subjects consent, take horrible pictures, and I guess
19:26
Speaker 7: sometimes even make up the pictures and they post it
19:29
Speaker 7: without consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes
19:33
Speaker 7: for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes.
19:38
Speaker 7: We've all heard about deep fakes. I have all the time,
19:40
Speaker 7: but I don't nobody does anything. I asked, Pam, can
19:43
Speaker 7: you help me, Pam, She says, no, I'm too busy,
19:45
Speaker 7: too busy doing other things. Don't worry. You'll survive, But
19:48
Speaker 7: a lot of people don't survive. That's true and so horrible.
19:52
Speaker 7: With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have
19:56
Speaker 7: been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images bitted
20:00
Speaker 7: against their will. This is the wrong and it's just
20:04
Speaker 7: so horribly wrong, and it's a very abusive situation, like
20:09
Speaker 7: in some cases people have never seen before. And today
20:12
Speaker 7: we're making it totally illegal.
20:15
Speaker 3: Sinner.
20:16
Speaker 1: One of the things I just I love about this
20:18
Speaker 1: legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan,
20:20
Speaker 1: but you had the first Lady who really got involved
20:22
Speaker 1: in this as well. It was important to her and
20:26
Speaker 1: that made it I think even easier to bridge the gap.
20:29
Speaker 2: Well we did. The first Lady became very active in
20:32
Speaker 2: pushing this bill. She reached out out to me and
20:36
Speaker 2: said she wanted to help get it over the finish line.
20:38
Speaker 2: So last year we passed it out of the Senate
20:41
Speaker 2: one hundred to nothing, and the House failed to take
20:43
Speaker 2: it up last year, so it did not pass last year,
20:46
Speaker 2: and so we got to this year to the new Congress.
20:49
Speaker 2: I passed it through the Senate again one hundred to nothing.
20:52
Speaker 2: And the real battle was to get it to rise
20:55
Speaker 2: up the priority list of House leadership. And so when
20:58
Speaker 2: the First Lady my office and said she wanted to help,
21:02
Speaker 2: what I did is I invited her to come to
21:04
Speaker 2: Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could hear from
21:08
Speaker 2: the victims. And also at that roundtable was the Speaker
21:13
Speaker 2: of the House and Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader, and
21:17
Speaker 2: Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in the House. And
21:20
Speaker 2: when the First Lady asked them, will you please pass
21:25
Speaker 2: this into law, they committed to her they would. And
21:28
Speaker 2: this was the day before the State of the Union address,
21:30
Speaker 2: and you may remember the State of the Union address,
21:33
Speaker 2: Milania was sitting with a teenage girl from Texas, Elliston Barry,
21:38
Speaker 2: and President Trump told her story in the State of
21:40
Speaker 2: the Union and called on Congress to pass this bill.
21:43
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you it's actually it's a fascinating story
21:46
Speaker 2: of how this bill came to pass because it originates
21:51
Speaker 2: with one teenage girl in Texas, Elliston Barry. She's from
21:55
Speaker 2: North Texas, from Aledo, Texas, and a year ago she
21:58
Speaker 2: was fourteen, and she was in ninth grade and she
22:02
Speaker 2: woke up one morning and her phone was blowing up
22:05
Speaker 2: with texts from her friends because a classmate of hers
22:10
Speaker 2: had taken a perfectly innocent picture of her from social
22:13
Speaker 2: media and had used an app online that he had
22:17
Speaker 2: found to create a deep fake and then sent what
22:21
Speaker 2: appeared to be naked pictures of Elliston to all of
22:24
Speaker 2: her ninth grade classmates. And so she was in tears. Listen,
22:27
Speaker 2: it is hard to be a teenager. I'm the father
22:30
Speaker 2: of two teenage girls. I know the pressure that is
22:32
Speaker 2: on teenage girls. It's much harder to be a teenager
22:35
Speaker 2: today than when you and I were teenager's band. And
22:38
Speaker 2: this was just just horrific. Well, what happened is her mom, Anna, Look,
22:44
Speaker 2: Elliston and Anna are are constituents, they're Texans. So Anna
22:48
Speaker 2: picked up the phone and called my office and said, hey, look,
22:51
Speaker 2: you're my senator, can you help my daughter? And my staff,
22:56
Speaker 2: to their credit, they elevated this to me and they
22:59
Speaker 2: told me what had happened. And Elliston and this is
23:02
Speaker 2: happening more and more all over the country. And so
23:04
Speaker 2: I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this, to
23:07
Speaker 2: address the problem. And so we did, and it was
23:11
Speaker 2: it was because of Elliston that we drafted it. But
23:14
Speaker 2: as I said, it's happening all over the country. Wellston
23:18
Speaker 2: Elliston came to d C the day we announced the
23:21
Speaker 2: bill last year for the press conference, and I sat
23:24
Speaker 2: down and met with Elliston. I met with her mom
23:26
Speaker 2: in my office and in the course of the meeting,
23:28
Speaker 2: I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures?
23:32
Speaker 2: And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in
23:34
Speaker 2: the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said,
23:37
Speaker 2: I have been calling and emailing Snapchat over and over
23:41
Speaker 2: and over again. They just Stone Wallace. We get no response.
23:45
Speaker 2: Ben I turned to my staff, I said, I want
23:47
Speaker 2: you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today.
23:51
Speaker 2: I want those pictures down today. They pulled them down
23:55
Speaker 2: within two hours. Now it should not take a sitting
23:59
Speaker 2: state making a phone call to get those pictures taken down.
24:03
Speaker 2: And now, as a result of the legislation Trump has signed,
24:06
Speaker 2: every victim has a statutory right to insist that it
24:09
Speaker 2: be taken down as a matter of law automatically.
24:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:13
Speaker 1: In fact, Ellison Barry got to go on Fox News
24:16
Speaker 1: Channel with our good friend Keally Mcananny and talk about
24:19
Speaker 1: this moment.
24:20
Speaker 3: And here's what she had to say. Take a listen.
24:22
Speaker 9: You decided to go and talk to your local congressman,
24:25
Speaker 9: you get connected with the senator, and then you manage
24:28
Speaker 9: there you are standing behind the President of the United
24:30
Speaker 9: States changing the laws for other young women like you.
24:33
Speaker 9: Did you ever think this day would come?
24:35
Speaker 10: I never would have thought that this could ever be
24:38
Speaker 10: my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person, and
24:42
Speaker 10: she's the one that's been pushing for this, and she's
24:44
Speaker 10: the one that's encouraged me. So I wouldn't be able
24:47
Speaker 10: to do this without her help and her support, and
24:49
Speaker 10: she really just has encouraged me to the point where.
24:53
Speaker 5: I feel encouraged about this.
24:54
Speaker 10: So having the opportunity to speak about this and to
24:58
Speaker 10: bring awareness really just means so much. Especially it's so
25:01
Speaker 10: much growth seeing how scared I was at first and
25:05
Speaker 10: seeing how confident I am able in this situation.
25:08
Speaker 9: Well, other young women now have recourse thanks to you,
25:11
Speaker 9: Elliston Barry. So impressive. Thank you.
25:13
Speaker 3: I love it.
25:14
Speaker 1: It's finally a happy ending to a really hard and
25:18
Speaker 1: sad subject.
25:19
Speaker 2: Well and Ben. At the signing ceremony, I was able
25:22
Speaker 2: to introduce Elliston to the President. I introduced also Francesca Mani,
25:27
Speaker 2: who was another fifteen year old girl who was in
25:29
Speaker 2: New Jersey and the exact same thing happened to her
25:31
Speaker 2: as happened to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffey.
25:36
Speaker 2: Brandon guffy is a state rep from South Carolina and tragically,
25:40
Speaker 2: his oldest son got what we thought was a direct
25:43
Speaker 2: message from a cute girl and she convinced him to
25:47
Speaker 2: send naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it
25:50
Speaker 2: was not a cute girl, it was a con man,
25:53
Speaker 2: and the con man began extorting him and threatening I'm
25:57
Speaker 2: going to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well,
26:01
Speaker 2: Brandon's son, Gavin, killed himself, and we are seeing suicides
26:05
Speaker 2: across the country. So I introduced Brandon his family the
26:08
Speaker 2: President too. And this law is of victory for everyone
26:11
Speaker 2: that is a target of this kind of exploitation.
26:14
Speaker 1: I got something really fun that we get to do.
26:16
Speaker 1: And if you've got family, kids, grandkids, and you love
26:21
Speaker 1: going to a great movie. There is one called The
26:24
Speaker 1: Last Rodeo. It is starring a phenomenal actor, Neil McDonough.
26:29
Speaker 1: It is in theaters tomorrow, and The Last Rodeo celebrates
26:33
Speaker 1: the inspiring story of a veteran PBR champion who returns
26:38
Speaker 1: to bull riding in his old age to save the
26:40
Speaker 1: life of his grandson. It features real life PBR stars
26:44
Speaker 1: as well.
26:45
Speaker 3: Neil. I appreciate you coming on.
26:47
Speaker 1: A lot of people I know get excited because they
26:49
Speaker 1: see you in things like Yellowstone and Tulsa King. You
26:51
Speaker 1: just sort filming that today. But this movie Last, The
26:56
Speaker 1: Last Rodeo. We're gonna give away some tickets in a moment,
26:58
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that. Every But you're really excited
27:01
Speaker 1: about this film coming out.
27:04
Speaker 8: I'm so excited about it, and Ben, thanks for having
27:06
Speaker 8: me on your show first and foremost. But this is
27:09
Speaker 8: one of those shows that's kind of the culmination of
27:11
Speaker 8: everything I've worked towards in my whole career to be
27:13
Speaker 8: able to finally be the hero in the film kiss
27:16
Speaker 8: the girl in the end. Of course, everyone knows that
27:18
Speaker 8: I won't kiss anybody else, but I get to kiss
27:20
Speaker 8: my actual real life wife who plays my wife in
27:22
Speaker 8: the film. So that alone, for me is just I
27:26
Speaker 8: finally have gotten to where I've always aspired and prayed
27:29
Speaker 8: to be, and it feels so good to be in
27:31
Speaker 8: this position.
27:33
Speaker 1: It's incredible. And we're gonna give away some tickets right now.
27:36
Speaker 1: You can go to angel dot com slash verdict and
27:40
Speaker 1: you can get two free tickets to the Last Rodeo
27:43
Speaker 1: and go see it as it is in theaters again.
27:45
Speaker 1: Angel dot com slash Verdict. Now get two free tickets
27:48
Speaker 1: to the Last Rodeo. Talk about this film, Neil, and
27:51
Speaker 1: what the message is, what people can expect.
27:54
Speaker 8: Well, it's you know, I think you just kind of
27:56
Speaker 8: nailed it. There aren't many films out in the landscape
27:58
Speaker 8: anymore where you can bring the whole family and not
28:02
Speaker 8: the sacerny sweet types of films, the films that actually
28:05
Speaker 8: have a bite to it that the whole family can
28:07
Speaker 8: go to, kids, grandparents, anyone and learn from and know
28:11
Speaker 8: that that you know, I have to cover years or eyes.
28:13
Speaker 8: You're gonna have some great films. You can have great
28:15
Speaker 8: action with the bull riding, but you're gonna have a
28:18
Speaker 8: story about families and broken families and how are you
28:21
Speaker 8: men to fractured family and for me, you do it
28:23
Speaker 8: through faith, And when I went through all my difficult
28:25
Speaker 8: things in life, it was always my faith that got
28:27
Speaker 8: me through. Faith and my wife were may those those
28:29
Speaker 8: two things have been my two greatest things in my life.
28:32
Speaker 8: And now I get to write about both of them,
28:35
Speaker 8: and starn and opposite my wife. So I'm just I'm
28:39
Speaker 8: so excited about this film. It's hard to even put
28:42
Speaker 8: it into words.
28:42
Speaker 1: As you talked about doing this with your wife, have you,
28:45
Speaker 1: guys ever gotten to act before in movies or is
28:48
Speaker 1: this the first time you're the lead and she's the
28:50
Speaker 1: big My.
28:50
Speaker 8: Wife's ever actually before. When I wrote the film, like okay, honey,
28:53
Speaker 8: so you know, I've always wanted to be the John
28:55
Speaker 8: Wayne guy who you know, is the hero in the
28:58
Speaker 8: end who has to kiss the girl in the end,
28:59
Speaker 8: She's like yeah. I'm like, well, I'm finally going to
29:01
Speaker 8: do it. She's like, okay, but I need to do
29:03
Speaker 8: it with you because I won't kiss anybody else because
29:05
Speaker 8: I'm not an actress. I'm like, well you are now,
29:07
Speaker 8: And she did awesome. I'm so proud of her. You know,
29:10
Speaker 8: she was a runway model, she was a supermodel, so
29:13
Speaker 8: she understands the pressure of being in front of people
29:15
Speaker 8: and delivering. So for her in front of a camera,
29:17
Speaker 8: it was very natural and I'm just so happy. I'm
29:20
Speaker 8: so happy for her now.
29:21
Speaker 1: When you wrote this, you also have real stars in
29:24
Speaker 1: here as well that you that you mentioned a moment
29:26
Speaker 1: ago PBR stars. What brought you the idea to even
29:29
Speaker 1: write the script specifically with bull riding.
29:32
Speaker 3: I'm a big fan.
29:33
Speaker 1: I've gone to a lot of different rodeos, eight second Tour,
29:36
Speaker 1: et cetera. It is a brutal sport. What inspired you
29:40
Speaker 1: to use this as the backdrop?
29:43
Speaker 8: Well, Ben, I was doing another film at the time
29:45
Speaker 8: called The Warrants, another Western that Ravee and I are producing.
29:48
Speaker 8: And when I'm not around Revenge, she was home at
29:51
Speaker 8: the time with the kids. When I'm not around my family,
29:52
Speaker 8: I get really just downright kind of depressed the times,
29:55
Speaker 8: and it's really hard. I don't like being on the road.
29:59
Speaker 8: So but this one day I was driving home from
30:00
Speaker 8: set in Arizona, and I got gut punched with his
30:03
Speaker 8: thoughts that what whatever happened to me? If something happened
30:05
Speaker 8: to Rebee, And then I pulled over to the side
30:08
Speaker 8: of the road just kind of buckled, and then this
30:11
Speaker 8: other idea came in my head, which it has to
30:13
Speaker 8: be from God, because I didn't know a whole lot
30:16
Speaker 8: about bull riding, and this idea came into my head
30:19
Speaker 8: right rocking on a bull, or a grandfather who has
30:22
Speaker 8: to save his grandson because he's dying of the same
30:24
Speaker 8: brain tunor they killed his wife. This came out, and
30:27
Speaker 8: I don't know where they came from, but it just did.
30:29
Speaker 8: And then I sat in the side of the ten
30:31
Speaker 8: freeway for two hours, voice dictating into my phone because
30:35
Speaker 8: I'm dyslexic, so I'm not very good at writing, so
30:37
Speaker 8: I always do all my writing through voice dictations, and
30:42
Speaker 8: I sent it off to my writing partner and within
30:44
Speaker 8: the week we had our first drafting. A week later,
30:46
Speaker 8: reve and I raised the financing and Angel Studios came
30:50
Speaker 8: on board, and here we are, almost two years later,
30:52
Speaker 8: and it's just it's kind of miraculous, and it really is.
30:56
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned that there's a family friendly movie. You
30:58
Speaker 1: don't have to worry. That's where the reasons why I
31:00
Speaker 1: wanted to have you on how tough is it to
31:03
Speaker 1: produce movies like this in the environment we're in now,
31:06
Speaker 1: Because I know you had friends and people that you
31:08
Speaker 1: could go to for financing, But saddling up to do
31:12
Speaker 1: a pro bull riding movie and on top of having
31:15
Speaker 1: all the pressure behind you of getting this out and
31:18
Speaker 1: then getting it to the big screen, it's not an
31:20
Speaker 1: easy task, especially in twenty twenty five.
31:24
Speaker 8: No, it's not. It's you know, it's a minor miracle
31:26
Speaker 8: to pull any film off. But for this one, you know,
31:30
Speaker 8: God led me the whole way in this one. I
31:32
Speaker 8: wanted John abne to directed, the amazing John Abnitt and
31:35
Speaker 8: one incredible director he is he killed it. I wanted
31:38
Speaker 8: Michael T. Williamson and Christopher McDonald to play my two
31:41
Speaker 8: guys in the film, and there two of my best
31:42
Speaker 8: friends of life, and we went after you know, my
31:45
Speaker 8: one of my best friends back home, Lim Griffin helped
31:48
Speaker 8: us with the film, and then these other financiers came
31:50
Speaker 8: to me and said, hey, we know what you're doing.
31:52
Speaker 8: We really like what you're doing with your message and
31:54
Speaker 8: Angel Studios, we like to help finance your next film.
31:57
Speaker 8: So between those two parties, all of a sudden, we
32:01
Speaker 8: had our budget, we had distribution, and everything just kind
32:05
Speaker 8: of went according to plan, which was kind of miraculous. Yeah,
32:08
Speaker 8: there's always pickups. There's there's always variables that you wouldn't
32:12
Speaker 8: even think of. But we always knew that we weren't
32:15
Speaker 8: doing something that was for his glory, not our own,
32:18
Speaker 8: and everyone bought into it. So when you say Hollywood
32:23
Speaker 8: doesn't want that stuff, I think that in their heart
32:27
Speaker 8: of hearts, they actually do. And I think that this
32:30
Speaker 8: film was a whole lot easier to make than other
32:32
Speaker 8: films because it did have a faith backdrop. It was
32:35
Speaker 8: a film that the whole family can go to, you know.
32:38
Speaker 8: So I think I think the landscape is changing a
32:42
Speaker 8: lot of it thanks to Angel Studios and you know,
32:45
Speaker 8: our partnership with Angel and the films that we've been doing.
32:47
Speaker 8: That you could make these smaller films and turn a
32:51
Speaker 8: profit and that's great for everybody. And to be able
32:55
Speaker 8: to put these movies out and have the support of
32:57
Speaker 8: all the fans who go to the films and bite
33:00
Speaker 8: ticket and pay it forward anything we do with Angels,
33:03
Speaker 8: it's just it's so humbling that it's again it's hard
33:06
Speaker 8: to I get so choked up just thinking about how
33:08
Speaker 8: fortunate I am and blessed I am to be able
33:11
Speaker 8: to sit here on a show like this and talk
33:13
Speaker 8: about this amazing film that we have coming out.
33:15
Speaker 1: Last question for you, there's a rumor that you actually
33:18
Speaker 1: got injured while bull riding.
33:20
Speaker 3: Is this true?
33:22
Speaker 8: Which time?
33:23
Speaker 2: Right?
33:23
Speaker 3: Okay? I I love when I get good intel.
33:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
33:27
Speaker 8: I got busted up a lot.
33:29
Speaker 7: You know.
33:29
Speaker 8: We trained for months and months and months to make
33:32
Speaker 8: sure I look as authentic as possible. And yeah, I
33:36
Speaker 8: you know, busted up my wrists, my I busted a
33:39
Speaker 8: few other things. But my shoulder popped out. That hurt
33:42
Speaker 8: like the dickens. But I didn't tell anybody. I just
33:44
Speaker 8: went around the corner and snapped it back in at
33:47
Speaker 8: this barn, this door around the corner, and I popped
33:50
Speaker 8: back in. I had like tears in my eyes, and
33:52
Speaker 8: John's like yo, okay, I'm like yep, ready, let's roll.
33:55
Speaker 8: And I didn't tell him the story for three months
33:57
Speaker 8: later because if I had told him, he would have
33:58
Speaker 8: shut it down and every would have it's gone crazy.
34:01
Speaker 8: Like I'm just I'm a tough old dude, So I
34:03
Speaker 8: just look. I kept it to myself. And a couple
34:05
Speaker 8: other injuries that happened that hey, those are war wounds
34:09
Speaker 8: that I consider as trophies and metals.
34:12
Speaker 1: I love it well. The movie is out, go see
34:15
Speaker 1: it the Last Rodeo. It is in theaters, help keep
34:18
Speaker 1: it in theaters. Support great movies that have been green
34:21
Speaker 1: light for your family. You can also get two free
34:23
Speaker 1: tickets to see The Last Rodeo and by going to
34:27
Speaker 1: angel dot com slash verdict now you can get your
34:29
Speaker 1: two free tickets to the Last Rodeo today and support.
34:33
Speaker 1: I tell you with this all the time, Neil, when
34:34
Speaker 1: you see a movie that is made for your family,
34:37
Speaker 1: safe for your family, back it, support it, advocate for it,
34:42
Speaker 1: put it up on social media, because unfortunately, we have
34:45
Speaker 1: too much trash being made and not enough wholesome movies
34:48
Speaker 1: like this. So I congrats on doing it, and I
34:50
Speaker 1: hope everyone listening is gonna go check it out.
34:52
Speaker 5: I hope.
34:53
Speaker 8: So I know your viewers who are you are kind
34:55
Speaker 8: of people that you know if they're out there supporting
34:58
Speaker 8: it by backing it financially, going to cinema being there,
35:01
Speaker 8: not wait until it comes out on DVDs or anything else.
35:04
Speaker 8: It's telling Hollywood, it's exactly what you just said, Ben,
35:06
Speaker 8: we need more of this or less of the other.
35:08
Speaker 8: So thank you for putting that word up for me.
35:09
Speaker 8: I really appreciate it.
35:11
Speaker 1: Hey, man, be safe out there on the road. Always
35:13
Speaker 1: a pleasure. We'll talk to you Aga in real soon.
35:15
Speaker 1: It's a really fun show today. I hope you guys
35:17
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Don't forget this is exactly why we do
35:19
Speaker 1: the show three days a week. Hit that subscriber auto
35:22
Speaker 1: download button. You don't want to ever miss an interview
35:25
Speaker 1: that we do, just like this one, and make sure
35:27
Speaker 1: you share this podcast wherever you are.
35:29
Speaker 3: We would greatly appreciate that on social media.
35:32
Speaker 1: So if you're on X, if you're on Instagram, wherever
35:34
Speaker 1: you are, share this podcast and the senat and I
35:36
Speaker 1: will see you back here for the weekend review on
35:39
Speaker 1: Saturday morning.