Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Honoring and Remembering My Tia Sonia

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Honoring and Remembering My Tia Sonia · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict was center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with you and today is a really special episode of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Verdict with Ted Cruz and Senaera. I want you to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: take it from there, but we're taking a little pause
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from politics and talking about someone very near and dear
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. On Sunday, January twenty fifth, my aunt, my Theo
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: so Sonia went to be with the Lord. She and
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I were incredibly close. Might the As Sonia was my
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: father's younger sister. My dad, as you know, fought in
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the Cuban Revolution. He was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: by Batistas thugs. My Thea Sonya, it was younger than
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: he is, and so she was there after the revolution succeeded.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: She fought in the counter revolution and she was imprisoned
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and tortured by Castro's thugs. And she's someone who who
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I grew up very close to. I called her my
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Thea Loka, my crazy aunt. She is fiery, she loved liberty,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: she loved America. She she has been ill for the
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: last couple of months. It was not a surprise when
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: she finally went. Uh. My cousin Bibe, who who is
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: my theos Sonya's only daughter has been caring for her,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and and and and it and she passed Sunday morning
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: in in Bebe's living room with with her family around her,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: surrounded by family that that loved her, that was praying
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: for her. And she's gone to be with the Lord.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: And so our family is grieving because Theos Onya was
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a larger than life personality. She had an unbelievable heart.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Uh she would she would help anyone she she she
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: was extraordinary and and she was someone who before she
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: fell ill, we had my Thea Sonya as a guest
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: on Verdict. I wanted her to come on Verdict and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and tell her story, tell her story growing up in Cuba,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: seeing the Communist revolution, seeing Fidel Castro rise to power,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: and then fighting in the counter revolution, being in a
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Cuban jail, being tortured in Cuba, coming to America with nothing,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and so in honor of my Thea Locao, whom I
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: loved with with all of my heart, I want to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: give you the interview we did with my Thea Sonia,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: an extraordinary warrior for liberty.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz, we are joined
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: as ever by the senator and also by the senators Tia,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Sonia is my Spanish is not very good, But I
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: think that was about right, An Sonia, that is thank you.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: This is in a few days going to be the
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: fifty eighth anniversary of your fleeing the communist regime in Cuba,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: and yet we've got the leader of the Democratic Party
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: nomination process is praising the Fidel Castro regime. I think
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: we have the clip very.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: when Fidel Cashtro came into office, you know what he did.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Listen, Bernie has spent his entire life, his entire career,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: praising communist dictators. But this week his latest ode to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Fidel Castro, frankly just pissed me off. It And this
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: is not a joke. This guy is the front runner
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: for the Democratic nomination to be president and he sings
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the praises of Castro and Cuban communism. My dad fled
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Cuban fifty seven. My Theosonia was still there. She was
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a kid, and so she saw the Cuban Revolution firsthand,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and she ended up fighting against Castro Sothia. If you would,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I just want you to, first of all, tell me
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: what it was like to be in Cuba when when
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the revolution happened, when Castro took over.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Actually he was he was.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: A lot of people were happy because finally somebody was
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: coming in that was praising We're gonna give you a
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: chance to change hope, We're gonna change things around. Everybody
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: was gonna have whatever they want to. The poor will
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: never be poor, the rich continue to have money, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: everybody will be the same. In reality, yes, everybody went
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: the same, but everybody was poor. Everybody went down. Everybody
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: got paid the same amount of money. There was no
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: different between the poor and the rich.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Everybody everyone was poor and suffering and miserable.
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: And everybody was miserable. Everybody was miserable. What Bernie is
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: saying is a bunch of garbage.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: So you're there, you're you're a teenager. How old were you?
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: Probably sixteen fifteen?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so you're seeing this. You're a teenage girl. Right,
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  Speaker 2: you see what's happening. You see Castro begin executing people.
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, people, nobody could talk. Nobody could say anything. They
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: actually he trained the people to even be against the family,
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  Speaker 5: the sons against the father, the daughters acind the family.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: So how did he do that by in doctrinate.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: In these people by telling we're going to give you
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: this and that and the other, and it's all going
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: to be free. But you got to tell us what's
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: going on in your house? Who talk against the government.
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: So everything was persecuting one another, especially the older people
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: that actually, we live a good life before in Cuba
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: it was beautiful.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: What do people face in terms of their friends and
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: neighbors and families spying on them?
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: Do you have people in each blog there is somebody
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: that is responsible to keep an eye on you in
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: your house.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: So's there's an individual spy, a spy and every block.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: And they tell you you keep an eye on every
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: neighbor of this blog.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: So what are they watching for?
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: They're watching for everything. If you bring anything you maybe
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: I'm going from the United States to Cuba, and they
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: there's somebody coming in, so we need to wash the
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: house in case they go out and sell in the
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: black market or they do something with what you brought in.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: So there's somebody's always keeping an iron you and try
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: to report you a good a good thing that happened
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: to something that happened to me that is very interesting.
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: One of the trips that I went back to Cuba,
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: I wanted to take the kids, some of the kids
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: from there, to go fishing. I love fishing. So I
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: went in and try to rent a boat, and they
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: told me we can't. We don't rain boats to Cuban people.
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: And I said, you may leave. And I said, look,
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: I have a passport, I have a fly leaving variety
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: already left, so I'm coming in to take my family
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  Speaker 5: on a boat ride. We can't give it to you.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: We can't rent you a boat. You're you're Cuban.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So because there's so if you go there you can
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: you can. She can't rent a boat because even though
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: she's an American citizen.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: Now, yes, you're Cuban, so you can't do that. There
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: was a boat in the reaver that my niece wanted
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: to go in. And when we're get in to ride
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: the boat with the rest of the people, who said
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: you all cannot get in. You all like Cuban, And
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: I said, but we're paying with the same money that
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: they're paying well, I'm sorry, you can't come in. You're
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: not from another country. You're Cuban, and Cuban people are
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: not allowed.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: They're not allowed to leave because they know what they
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: were allowed to leave, they'd all leave.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: The Ferguson family got bigger over the holidays with a
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: new puppy. And I can tell you having one dog
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that is over a decade old and a new dog
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that's just months old, there's one thing they both have
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: in common. I want them to live a great quality life.
• 7:49
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• 7:52
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• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of the symptoms that he was having, slowing down and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: itching and having bad brown losing interest in playtime. That
• 8:03
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• 8:05
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• 8:08
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• 8:11
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• 8:14
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• 8:17
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• 8:21
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• 8:27
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• 8:31
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• 8:34
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• 8:38
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• 8:45
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• 8:48
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• 8:51
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• 8:54
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• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Sonya, how quickly after as you say, you know, people
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: liked castro initially? He they he was promising them in
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: the world. How quickly did it turn? I mean, how
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: quickly did it turn?
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  Speaker 5: Right away?
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Right away?
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: He immediately starts saying the policies that he wanted to do.
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  Speaker 5: He was going to take tens away from the ridge.
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: He was going to take tens away from the people
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  Speaker 5: to give to others. He was to actually take money
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  Speaker 5: from you and give it to the poors on the
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: other side. I make my money. I worked for what
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: I half. My father worked hard to be where he was.
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  Speaker 5: My mother was the greatest school teacher. She was really
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: was proud of what she was doing. My mother itself
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: was told did she have to teach at the school
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: a different kind of curriculum. She was told she needed
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: to teach about the revolution cassed through the regime, the
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: things that needed to happen. My mother had to actually
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: pretend that she was losing her mind and she was
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: missing immediately.
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  Speaker 2: So let me underscore this story and listen. I grew
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: up hearing this story as a kid. I mean I
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: would sit with my cousin, Bibe, Sonia's daughter. The two
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: of us would sit literally on the floor in the
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: living room and listen to my dad and my Theosonia
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: tell us stories about the revolution of Myabuela and Auela.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Their parents were there also, so my grandmother, Miguela, she's
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: a sixth grade teacher. Castro takes over and she's ordered,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: you must teach Communism to the kids. You must indoctrinate,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: you must brainwash the kids. And my grandmother said she
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: wasn't going to do it. And so it's funny my
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Theasonia mentioned something just very mild, but my grandmother pretended
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: she was insane in the classroom. She began literally foaming
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: at the mouth and pretending she was insane. Why because
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: she couldn't quit in the Communist she wasn't allowed to quit.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: And she made the decision she would rather have the stigma,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: have the shame of people thinking she was a crazy person, right,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: then be a part of indoctrinating these kids.
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: That is true, and it was very painful because my
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: mother was a great teacher, It was loved by many people.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: But she had to play crazy in order to get
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: out of that sea.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: But what I want to know is how in Cuba
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: the public opinion changes very quickly. People see what a
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: monster Castro is and they start to hate his guts.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: How is it that in the United States now so
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: many years on, fifty eight years on since you left left,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: you have a presidential candidate, You get a US senator
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  Speaker 3: who's still singing the praises of this guy.
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  Speaker 5: What did he miss He had not been with the
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: human people. He only if you go there as a Cuban,
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: you go and see somebody a relative. If you're going
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: to see the miser that they live in. They don't
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: know what to put on the table to serve their kids,
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: they don't know how to get they're gonna get the
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: food that they're going to eat tomorrow. If you are
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: going as somebody from another country or as a tourist
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: you're taking to you are actually become prisoner of the government.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: They take you where they want you to go. They
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: showed you the model school, they showed you the best hospitals,
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: they showed you the best restaurants.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty nine, Sandards stated, after visiting Cuba, quote
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  Speaker 2: I did not see a hungry child. I did not
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: see any homeless people. Bernie said the Cuban people quote
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: had an almost religious affection for Castro.
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: That is not he is lying. He's lying to the
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: people of this country. He is playing on the mind
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: of the younger generation here.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: He was either himself complicit in the lie, or he
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: was naive enough or ideological enough to let the Castro
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: regime lie to him and say, look at this, this paradise.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: They didn't take into what the Cuban people were. Cuban
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: people are starving to death. Cuban people don't have any
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: money to buy anything.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: So let me take you back there, back to fifty nine,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: back to sixty. The revolution succeeded, you begin fighting against Castro.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: What happened to you as a result? What happened when
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: you started?
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: I was constantly persecuted. People was looking for me everywhere.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: They want to take me to prison. They picked me
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: up several times.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: So you were pretty clearly fighting.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: Against the totals.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and this is after Castro has taken over,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: so yes, dictate Yes. So what like when they picked
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: you up? What happened? What does that mean?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: They put you in a room and there was people
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: sitting on the floor and everybody's you know, that's where
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: you were, with a whole bunch of people in the floor,
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: and they keep it there for two or three days.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: My parents did not know where I was. My mother
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: did not know, so she was going crazy trying to
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: find me. My friends, friends that I have could not
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: even come and find out with my parents where I
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: was I or what was wrong with me. They were
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: afraid because everybody was persecuted. So it was very difficult
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: to leave on the Castro regime.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: When you left Cube it was sixty two. You left, right,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you've been back a bunch of times, right, yes? What if?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: So when you come back you usually bring a duffel
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: bag with medicine, break.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: Food, clothes, cheats.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Just for relatives, friends, friends, people.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Well, so they can't get anything, nothing, nothing.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: She leaves a suitcase, she leaves every body, but she
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: leaves her underwear and brail because nobody has underwear there
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: because there's so much poverty. You'll wear like sweatpants, a
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: T shirt. That's what they wear, and that's on the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: plane coming right. That is correct. A lot of people
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: don't understand what is the difference between socialism.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: That is correct.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Socialism is simply the economic system of communism. Socialism is
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: government ownership of the means of production or distribution. Cuba
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: in the nineteen fifties was the world's number one producer
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: of sugar. It had problems. Look, Batista was a corrupt dictator.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: He was a bastard. My father to this day doesn't
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: have his front teeth because Batista's police kicked them in.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: His guards kick his army officers kicked them in.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: But what about the universal healthcare? I mean, we're told
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: by a lot of people in the United States, a
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: lot of left wingers, they say Cuba has some of
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the best healthcare in the world, and everybody's covered.
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: I can personally tell you that I went to the
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: doctor there because I have mosquito biys that it got
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: into effect infection, and they put a shot on me
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: in front of sixty other people that were there waiting
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: for to being seen by a doctor. There's no transportation,
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: there's no gas, so you can't move. Doctors come to
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: your house in a bicycle and they're hungry. They're hungry
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: when they get there. They come to the house to see.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: Matter of fact, I was in a house visiting and
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: they were trying to see the little girl. He came
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: in a bicycle and I bought some things that there
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: was somebody in the streets selling, and he said, can
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: I have one.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Probably the most visible sign that Cuba hasn't changed or
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: hasn't progressed is they have those old cars, right.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: And you know, people like to think that that's sort
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: of quaint and cute that they have cars from the
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: nineteen fifties. The reason they had cars from the nineteen
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: fifties is they can't get anything else. You know.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: The scary thing about all of this is you've got
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the experience of it, eight years of experience since you
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: left Cuba. There are various studies that have come out
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: that show that even the majority of young Americans, millennials
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: and Gen z now embrace socialism and prefer it to capitalism. Now,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: the bright side, I will say, the silver lining, is
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: that a much smaller percentage can actually define socialism. So
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: there would seem to be a problem there. But beyond
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: just ignorance, beyond just not knowing what it is, what
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: is drawing young Americans to this evil, evil ideology is.
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: The work that they is given out the change. They
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: want to see something different, they want to try something new.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: It doesn't work, guys, it does not work. All of
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: this ambition and given it, given it to me, there's
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: nothing given to you. You need to work and try
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: to achieve your dream by hard work, but by doing
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: what you want to get ahead.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've noticed this with with your colleague Senator Sanders.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: You know, I mean, he's been talking about this for
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: fifty years and no one listened. But now only you know,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: now that he's in his mid seventies, it's catching on.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: And I even think of this absent Bernie Sanders. Forget
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: about him for a second. It took a long time.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: People knew that communism socialism were terrible for so long,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: and now they don't know that well, and too often
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: they're not taught in schools what happened. You know, how
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: many Bernie supporters know that the Soviet Union killed twenty
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: million people and China killed seventy seven million people. They
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: don't know that, and so when Bernie defends it, it
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: seems look and I have to admit, I remember in
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: college a guy who lived down the hall for me
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: had a poster on the wall of Chaegovar and I
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: went in.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I said, hey, that's really cool. That's all you know.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Chaegovar was a gorilla fought with Fidel Castro in Cuba.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: And I said, hey, that's really cool, that's awesome. Have
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: you thought of maybe putting a poster of Hitler next year?
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: And maybe Stalin and Maw like, if you're going to
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: celebrate people that torture and murder. Actually, Chay was he
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: was low on the totem pole, but you know he
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: was good looking, he had stubble and he was you
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: know it. These villains have been glamorized. Yeah, and it's
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: it's dangerous.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: You know, we've talked a lot about the political and
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: the economic side of things, how the government takes all
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: your stuff and then they take power away from you.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: You're both religious. I notice, Sonya, you have a cross
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: that you're wearing. Obviously, Senator Cruz, one of the big
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: aspects of communism as it's always been practiced is the
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: atheism of it all. And I wonder if there's a
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: relation here that, as religiosity in America has declined, as
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: young people are raised more or less without a religion,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: if maybe that's playing some role in why communism is
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: catching on. You know, one of the great men of
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the twentieth century to defeat communism was the Pope was
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Pope John Paul second.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Well and and and Pope John Paul the second played
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: a profound role of going going to Poland, and and
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: and and and promising that Poland would be free and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: speaking up and it was truly. I think divine providence, providence,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: we want God and and and Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: all at the same time. And I think those three people,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: more than any human beings on earth, defeated the Soviet
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Union and won the Cold War. Mind you, Bernie was
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: rooting for the Soviet Union during all of that.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Right, it's not even hiding at that much.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Michael Whorred, You honeymoon
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: honeymooned in Hawaii, USA. Okay, that's where, like normal people,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: you go to the beach, you go to how do
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: you know what to say, Thomas, It was beautiful. We
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: were walking along the beach. We had fun. What kind
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: of crazy ideologue says, sweetheart, I love you so much.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Let's do a honeymoon in the Soviet Union. You know
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: that club you played? He says, he's no friend of Putin.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: There's only one person I know on the national stage
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: that honeymoon in the Soviet Union. You know, the Soviet
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Union killed over twenty million people. This is not cute,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: little faculty leftists. If Bernie was a professor at some
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: liberal arts college out in the Frozen tundra. Who cares
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: he's just corrupting a few young minds. This is someone
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: who wants to be president of the United States, and
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: he kisses up to and apologizes for tutalitarian dictators.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: And you know who.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: He doesn't praise Americans, Like when have you ever heard
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: him speak as positively about Abraham Lincoln as he does
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: about Castro and Ortega and Mao and Stalinist and communism
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: also hates God. If you look at these communist regimes,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: they persecute faith, They persecute they prevent people from the
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: beauty of the First Amendment is it gives everyone the
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: right to choose how to worship, what your faith will be.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You know, Bernie when he praised China in the debate
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: this week, somehow, when Bernie talked about it's great poverty eradication,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: you don't have to go back to maw to find
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: the torture and murder right now today there are one
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: million Wigers, yeah, a religious and ethnic minority, one million
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: in concentration camps in China today. How why is Bernie
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: and why are left is so willing to praise and
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: be proud of regimes that are torturing and murdering people.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Do you think this is part of why they make
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: their appeal successfully though, Because the thing I noticed so
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: much about the socialists in America today is they're all
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: making these very moral arguments. It's about human rights. It's
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: about giving people their right to health care and their
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: right to have a lot of money.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: There's a story my grandmother told me. In the schools,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: you would have Cuban soldiers come in, and this is kindergarten,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: first grade, and they tell the children. They'd say, close
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: your eyes and pray to Jesus for a piece of candy.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: And the kids would all do it, and they'd open
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: their eyes and there'd be no candy. And then the
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: soldiers would say, close your eyes and pray to Fidel
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Castro for a piece of candy. You're kidding me, And
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: the kids would close their eyes and the soldiers would
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: put candy on their desks, and they'd open their eyes
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: and there was candy. This is the literacy program Bernie
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Sanders is praising. This is the indoctrination that Miabella refused
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: to participate in.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: And that is true. They are actually inductrinating the people
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: since they were tiny little kids.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: Did it work? It doesn't work as people work.
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: People, why don't they work? They don't work. Nobody want
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: to work in Cuba. Why do they want to work?
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: They're gonna make the same money that you're making that
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: he's making. What do I want to do that?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: But do they believe the theory? I mean, does the
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: indoctrination end up persuading?
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Actually, they thought that it was going to be reality.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: They really blind them to believe what they were saying.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: But they immediately took the blind off on saying, everybody's
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: in the same boat. We're all hungry.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: They know they're hungry, they know they're poor, they know
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: they're miserable. They know that has him. I mean, there's
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: a reason people every day risk their lives to flee Cuba.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: That's correct.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: You know Reagan in the height of the Cold War,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: he had a great way of putting it. He said,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: the thing liberals never seemed to notice it is on
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: the Berlin Wall, the machine guns all point in one direction.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: That you didn't get anyone from East Germany saying or
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: from West Germany saying I got to go live in
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that communist paradise. The way I like to put it,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: as a Cuban American is is the thing liberals never
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: notice is in Cuba the rafts all going one way.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Just once, I'd like to see Bernie Sanders go hop
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: on a raft in Key West. Yeah, and it hit nine.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: And by the way, he's a socialized medicine. They have
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: it there. It's just you can't get you can't actually
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: see a doctor, you can't get medicine, you can't get
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: toilet paper.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I want you to just pause what you're doing for
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the next sixty seconds, and I want you to imagine Lucy,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: a seven year old. Her stomach often aches with hunger,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: her small hands instead of holding crayons. No, only the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is a distant dream,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: medical care forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed, her future
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: is dim. But what if someone stepped in? What if
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: there was a way to ignite hope for children just
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: like Lucy? Well there is, and that is with Compassion
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: International Partners and the local churches that provide children holistic
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: support more than just food. They receive critical medical care,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: life changing education, vital skills training, and spiritual development, all
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: in Jesus's name. And you can empower a child just
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: like Lucy to break free from poverty. I want you
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to do what I've done and sponsor a child today.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: You can visit compassion dot com. That's compassion dot com.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Well, actually, you know, tying in all of these points
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: on the economic, on the political, and on the religious,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Communism has been called the God that failed, right. It
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: was a sort of substitute religion, a substitute god, and
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: it failed, and you saw it fail personally. What was
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: the what was the biggest shock? I mean, what was
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: the biggest despair, the biggest regret when when you saw
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: something that you had believed in fail.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: Well, the biggest it was seen the people suffering for
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: not being able to even get food to put on
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: the plate.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: It's so basic, the basic things.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: That no, don't been able to work because why do
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: you want to work when you don't have anything to
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: buy with? You know that money disappear from you immediately,
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: and you all know the numbers, but you know, an
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: average person make thirty dollars a.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Month, thirty dollars per dollars.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: Per month, So what are you going to do with that?
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: So people are being drinking water? You see the kids,
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: they dink water with sugar to get their stomach full.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: It's it's that that basic need. It's so interesting that
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: you say that, because it's Communism starts at as this
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: idealistic fantasy, very high falutin, very high minded literacy programs,
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: all that, and then the reality of the failures. People
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: can't even fill their stomachs.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: That is true, although you know there is one exception,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: which is the Communist Party rulers look Fidel Castro lived
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: like a billionaires and by the way, Putin lives like
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: a billionaire. Maduro and Hugo Chavez before him, they lived
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: like billionaires. Right, Communism when you have all the power
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: at the top, and what does Bernie suggest it would
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: be any different if the government is in charge of
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: everything every place that has happened, the rulers live like
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: kings and everyone else's is miserable.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Well, we did actually get one mail back question that
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: I think is very much on this topic, which is
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: with the Democratic Party veering so far to the left,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I'm embracing these absolutely disgusting positions hopefully will turn off
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: most of the American people. Should conservatives be happy? Should
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: conservatives be happy that the God that failed is about
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: to fail the Democratic Party. Not necessarily, you're not as
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: as complacent.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I understand people saying, Okay, great Bernie so extreme that
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: means Trump will get re elected. I hope Trump gets
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: re elected. I'm working hard to re elect the president.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: But listen, what is truly terrified is I think the
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: American people could elect a wild eyed socialist the media.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: We're a divided country. If one hundred thousand votes had
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: flipped in twenty sixteen, Hillary Clinton would be the president
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: right now. And Bernie, the media treats him kind of
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: like your crazy uncle. Oh he's just the crazy uncle,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: isn't that cute? He's praising, murdering, torturing communist dictators. Well,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: this guy believes this stuff in his heart and soul.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: He believes it. His whole life has been dedicated to it.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: And I got to admit, I am it's all fine
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: and good to celebrate unless he ends up win. Oh,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: God helped the direction this country goes.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: If that happened, well, because you already fled one communist
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: heell hole and this was the great hope as America.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: Is the great there's no place to go.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Where do you go there?
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: No place to center.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: What an incredible story, and especially so timely with what's
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: happening in Cuba, in Venezuela and Iran, and just I
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: hope it inspires others. I hope people will share this.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Our thoughts and our prayers are with you and your family.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: But what an amazing legacy that she has left behind.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Well, she has left an amazing legacy, including her daughter, Bibie,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: who is extraordinary. She's like a sister to me, including me.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: She impacted my life in a very profound way. I
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: will tell you A couple of weeks ago, I went
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: up to see her. She lived in Dallas. I went
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: up to see her and brought Heidi and the girls,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: and we saw her in the hospital and she was
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: not fully conscious. She was going in and out of consciousness.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: But I told her. I told her that that we
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: got Maduro, and I told her Cuba is next, the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Cuban Communist regime is going to fall next. And even
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: kind of coming in and out of consciousness, she smiled
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: the biggest smile. And to have a chance to tell
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: her that and for her to hear that before she
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: goes to be with the Lord. She is truly a
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: warrior for liberty, the Asagna. I love you,