Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Acting President Blinken Calls Out Israel, Universities go All In on Defending Hamas & Ted Cruz Supports Jim Jordan the Week In Review

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Acting President Blinken Calls Out Israel, Universities go All In on Defending Hamas & Ted Cruz Supports Jim Jordan the Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome. It is a Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review.
0:04
Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the big stories
0:07
Speaker 1: that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
0:10
Speaker 1: Number one, de facto President of the United States of America,
0:14
Speaker 1: Anthony Blincoln, decided to go on TV and tell the
0:18
Speaker 1: world what Israel should be doing, Yes, calling them out
0:22
Speaker 1: and giving them certain things and bars they must hit
0:26
Speaker 1: instead of actually calling out the Hamas Terris who have
0:30
Speaker 1: been beheading little children. Number two colleges, including professors and
0:36
Speaker 1: Ivy League schools have now gone all in to defend Hamas. Yes, Hamas.
0:43
Speaker 1: So what's going to happen at these universities? We talk
0:46
Speaker 1: about that. And finally, Senator Ted Cruz with story number three,
0:51
Speaker 1: endorsed Jim Jordan for the speakership as Steve Scalise is out.
0:56
Speaker 1: It is the Weekend Review with Ted Cruz and it
0:58
Speaker 1: starts right now. Secretary Blinkinn, who's the most outspoken so
1:03
Speaker 1: far from the administration. He went on TV, not really
1:07
Speaker 1: condemning that much Amas or what they're doing, but actually
1:10
Speaker 1: calling out Israel, saying, quote, we're looking to Israel to
1:15
Speaker 1: apply the highest standard to avoid civilian causalies in Gaza.
1:20
Speaker 1: We're not saying anything about the Americans that have been taken,
1:22
Speaker 1: the Americans have been killed, or all the atrocities at
1:24
Speaker 1: war crimes you just mentioned. No, no, we're going to
1:27
Speaker 1: put Israel on notice, as you just described it, you
1:30
Speaker 1: better not screw this up.
1:32
Speaker 2: If this is a prolonged attack, what kind of humanitarian
1:37
Speaker 2: crisis are you expecting here and impact on civilians.
1:42
Speaker 3: Well, we've seen this unfortunately repeat itself. Although the magnitude
1:47
Speaker 3: the scale of what Hamas did here is something we
1:50
Speaker 3: haven't seen before. But in prior instances, those who have
1:55
Speaker 3: suffered along with the victims of terrorism are civilians, including
2:01
Speaker 3: in Gaza. And whatever Israel does in Gaza, as always,
2:06
Speaker 3: we look to it to do everything possible to avoid
2:09
Speaker 3: civilian casualties, something of course, that Hamas doesn't do. On
2:12
Speaker 3: the contrary, not only does it not seek to avoid them,
2:14
Speaker 3: it deliberately targets civilians. It's gunning down Israelis in the streets,
2:18
Speaker 3: in their homes and as I said, ragging them across
2:20
Speaker 3: the border in Gaza. So there's absolutely no comparison. But
2:26
Speaker 3: we looked to Israel as always to apply the highest
2:30
Speaker 3: standards when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties and anything
2:32
Speaker 3: it may do in Gaza.
2:33
Speaker 1: It's amazing the butt there at the end. But right,
2:36
Speaker 1: well say all this is bad. But but Israel, you
2:38
Speaker 1: better be better than everybody else.
2:40
Speaker 2: Well, and I got to say, Ben, listening to that,
2:42
Speaker 2: I have mixed sentiments. On one level, Frankly, Tony Blinkn
2:46
Speaker 2: is better than most of the clowns in the s
2:49
Speaker 2: Biden administration. He at least acknowledges that Israel is bending
2:54
Speaker 2: over backwards to try to avoid killing civilians, and that
2:57
Speaker 2: Hamas is deliberately killing civilians. That's something that's a tiny
3:02
Speaker 2: shred of truth. Now, what he doesn't do is acknowledge
3:05
Speaker 2: that Israel historically has gone to incredible lengths to avoid
3:11
Speaker 2: civilian casualties, and that the reason Palestinian civilians are killed
3:16
Speaker 2: is because Hamas wants them to be killed, because they
3:19
Speaker 2: deliberately put their military assets in a place where it
3:23
Speaker 2: is impossible to take out their military assets without killing
3:27
Speaker 2: killing Palestinian civilians. That the Palestinian deaths are what Hamas
3:33
Speaker 2: wants because they know the useful idiots in the media
3:37
Speaker 2: will use it against Israel. Let me give you an
3:39
Speaker 2: example of some of the vicious rhetoric coming in this case.
3:43
Speaker 2: This is what the statement that Congresswoman Corey Bush put
3:47
Speaker 2: out as these atrocities are ongoing quote, I am heartbroken
3:52
Speaker 2: by the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel, and I
3:55
Speaker 2: mourned the over two hundred and fifty Israelian in two
3:57
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty Palestinian lives that have been lost today
4:00
Speaker 2: and the thousands injured following attacks by Hamas militants on
4:04
Speaker 2: Israeli border towns and Israeli military bombardment of Gaza. I
4:09
Speaker 2: strongly condemned the targeting of civilians, and I urge an
4:11
Speaker 2: immediate cease fire and de escalation to prevent further loss
4:15
Speaker 2: of life. Our immediate focus must be on saving lives,
4:19
Speaker 2: but our ultimate focus must be on a just and
4:21
Speaker 2: lasting peace that ensures safety for everyone in the region.
4:25
Speaker 2: Violations of human rights do not justify more violations of
4:28
Speaker 2: human rights, and a military response will only exacerbate the
4:33
Speaker 2: suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike. As part of achieving
4:38
Speaker 2: a just and lasting peace, we must do our part
4:42
Speaker 2: to stop the violence and trauma by ending US government
4:46
Speaker 2: support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid. I am continuing
4:54
Speaker 2: to closely monitor the situation in my office. Is ready
4:57
Speaker 2: to support the residents of the first district with family
5:01
Speaker 2: members and loved ones in the region. So literally, while
5:07
Speaker 2: Israel's nine to eleven is unfolding, this Democrats Squad member
5:12
Speaker 2: accuses Israel of apartheid, a total lie, and calls for
5:18
Speaker 2: ending US government support for Israel's military in the middle
5:22
Speaker 2: of a war. And she simultaneously, what does she call
5:26
Speaker 2: for an immediate cease fire of the military response? In
5:31
Speaker 2: other words, Israel, never mind that terrorists are murdering your civilians,
5:37
Speaker 2: are targeting your civilians, are kidnapping your civilians. We in
5:41
Speaker 2: America call for you to stop the cease fire and
5:45
Speaker 2: do nothing in response. You know, I got to say
5:49
Speaker 2: how many Democrats are condemning this viciously anti Semitic, anti
5:54
Speaker 2: Israel statement that sadly was echoed by multiple members of
5:59
Speaker 2: the squad, and the degree to which the far left
6:03
Speaker 2: tolerates and even celebrates this vicious anti semitism. It gets
6:09
Speaker 2: worse and worse every day.
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Speaker 1: Is Joe Biden and I want to end with this.
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Speaker 1: He's a guy that you know, he called a lid
6:15
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty four am. For people that don't understand
6:19
Speaker 1: what the lid is, that means basically, the day's over, right,
6:21
Speaker 1: That's that's the way they tell the media. Hey, he's
6:23
Speaker 1: doing other things now. He's not making any more public statements.
6:26
Speaker 1: We haven't heard from a president saying don't harm Americans.
6:29
Speaker 1: He hasn't said that Israel has got our you know,
6:32
Speaker 1: our unwavering support and we will do whatever we have
6:35
Speaker 1: to do to get Americans back. And he and he's
6:38
Speaker 1: sitting there and saying nothing publicly here while all of
6:43
Speaker 1: this is going on. Is he the worst president in
6:47
Speaker 1: our lifetime when it comes to a policy of clearly
6:50
Speaker 1: not standing with Israel because he's not Look, he's not
6:54
Speaker 1: even saying.
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Speaker 2: With Americans unequivocally. For the last two and a half years,
6:59
Speaker 2: the Biden administration has engaged in a systematic, granular, day
7:03
Speaker 2: to day effort to undermine the nation of Israel. You know,
7:07
Speaker 2: within the first couple of weeks of our first couple
7:10
Speaker 2: of months of the Biden administration coming into office, the
7:13
Speaker 2: State Department put out written guidance prohibiting employees at State
7:18
Speaker 2: from referring to the Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords were
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Speaker 2: the historic peace treaty that the Trump administration negotiated between
7:26
Speaker 2: Israel and numerous Arab countries. Instead, the Biden administration State
7:33
Speaker 2: Department was ordered to refer to them as normalization agreements.
7:37
Speaker 2: They couldn't use the word Abraham, they couldn't acknowledge the
7:41
Speaker 2: historic nature of it. Now I called that out, and
7:44
Speaker 2: in fact I brought out the documents that demonstrated it
7:47
Speaker 2: was the Biden White House that directed State to do that,
7:50
Speaker 2: and they were so embarrassed by that they backed away
7:52
Speaker 2: from it. So now they used the terms the frequency
7:56
Speaker 2: with which So one of the things they did they
7:59
Speaker 2: changed the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs. They changed
8:05
Speaker 2: the name of it to the Office of Israeli and
8:09
Speaker 2: Palestinian Affairs.
8:11
Speaker 4: Wow.
8:12
Speaker 2: Why Because they didn't want to acknowledge the nation of
8:15
Speaker 2: Israel exists, and they wanted to put Israel's claims of
8:18
Speaker 2: sovereignty on the same level of parody as the Palestinian
8:23
Speaker 2: terrorists that are right now committing these atrocities. Beyond that,
8:27
Speaker 2: the Biden administration is a first government in US history
8:30
Speaker 2: to implement a policy of BDS of boycott, divestiture and
8:34
Speaker 2: sanctioning in particular cutting off funding for scientific research, cancer research,
8:40
Speaker 2: no less in Judaea and Samaria what they call the
8:45
Speaker 2: occupied territories portions of Israel that now the federal government
8:51
Speaker 2: is boycotting and saying we will not fund because their
8:54
Speaker 2: view is the same as these Squad members. They view
8:57
Speaker 2: Israel as illegitimately occupied territory. And so the harm that
9:03
Speaker 2: is coming from the Biden administration is horrific. And let
9:06
Speaker 2: me just ask you this as we wrap up. You know,
9:08
Speaker 2: we've seen Joe Biden light up the White House in
9:14
Speaker 2: rainbow colors in support of a transgender agenda. We've seen
9:21
Speaker 2: the White House in blue and gold in support of Ukraine.
9:27
Speaker 2: What's the White House done for Israel? It's not blue
9:30
Speaker 2: and white.
9:31
Speaker 1: No, I would even go so further. Where was the
9:34
Speaker 1: White House done for any Americans that are being harmed
9:36
Speaker 1: right now in Israel?
9:37
Speaker 2: Do we know the names of any Americans who are hostages?
9:39
Speaker 2: Do we know the names of any Americans who've been killed?
9:41
Speaker 2: As the President spoken about it, as the President gone
9:44
Speaker 2: on national television, as the President said, if you harm
9:46
Speaker 2: one American you will face real repercussions. No, what they've
9:50
Speaker 2: said is do not retaliate Israel, don't strike back at
9:55
Speaker 2: the terrorists. This administration funded the atrocities. Understand, do not
10:02
Speaker 2: forget the fifty billion dollars that Joe Biden and the
10:09
Speaker 2: ideologues in this administration flooded to Iran. That money funded
10:15
Speaker 2: these attacks. Now, by the way, the Biden White House's
10:18
Speaker 2: defense of that, so they say, no, no, no, no, our money
10:21
Speaker 2: technically went to other other endeavors. Well, money is fungible.
10:25
Speaker 2: If you send fifty billion dollars in there, they can
10:28
Speaker 2: spend other money to fund the terror attacks. And by
10:31
Speaker 2: the way, the some forty billion dollars that is from
10:36
Speaker 2: oil sales, that is completely available to be spent, and
10:41
Speaker 2: in a very real and direct sense, it funded this attack,
10:45
Speaker 2: as did the money that the Biden administration sent to
10:50
Speaker 2: Gaza that they stated in writing they knew would go
10:55
Speaker 2: to Hamas for terrorism. Well, congratulations to the Biden White House.
11:00
Speaker 2: It's done exactly that.
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Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
11:04
Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
11:07
Speaker 1: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two. Let's
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Speaker 1: talk about this from a a a internal and inside
11:15
Speaker 1: of the US perspective For a minute as well, Colleges Harvard,
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Speaker 1: University of Pennsylvania, Black Lives Matter standing with these terrorists.
11:27
Speaker 1: You have federally elected leaders around the country that are
11:32
Speaker 1: standing with these terrorists. You have a Colorado State Representative,
11:36
Speaker 1: Tim Hernandez who said this today.
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Speaker 4: I think it's despicable what they're protesting for, protesting gratulations
11:43
Speaker 4: and the fact that you can't condemn women and children
11:45
Speaker 4: and elderly people down over in the streets.
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Speaker 3: What about it?
11:51
Speaker 4: Do you condemn it?
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Speaker 1: I already said, why can't you say yes? Because I
11:55
Speaker 1: already gave you my answer if you didn't.
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Speaker 4: Give an answer, and every I think anybody who watches
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Speaker 4: would understand where you're us.
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Speaker 1: This is a man who's at a protest against Israel,
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Speaker 1: who's been elected to the state legislature. You put that,
12:10
Speaker 1: and you combine that with the squad Senator. I will
12:13
Speaker 1: give a little credit the White House at least today
12:16
Speaker 1: understood that they need to stand up against Omar and
12:20
Speaker 1: to leave in others. The White House Press Secretary did
12:24
Speaker 1: say that what they had said was repugnant and disgraceful
12:27
Speaker 1: their statements on Israel. But you combine these younger leaders
12:32
Speaker 1: with what we're now witnessing on college campuses, is at Harvard,
12:36
Speaker 1: at University of Penn. It scares me for this country.
12:40
Speaker 1: There was a conversation even about this on CNBC, even
12:45
Speaker 1: CNBC who deals with financial issues, like, what the hell
12:48
Speaker 1: is going on on college campuses? And this is what
12:50
Speaker 1: they said.
12:52
Speaker 5: Let me ask you a question. Let's say you're the
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Speaker 5: president of Harvard University. Yeah, if you've looked at what's
12:56
Speaker 5: happening to Harvard, there are students who are mining mind boggle, right,
13:00
Speaker 5: but students who are gathering to support the Pales stadiums,
13:03
Speaker 5: to support Hamas, frankly, very very specifically to support Hamas,
13:08
Speaker 5: and what's happening. What is the role of the president
13:12
Speaker 5: of a university or frankly the president of a company
13:15
Speaker 5: when they have either students or employees or others who
13:20
Speaker 5: want to view and express that position, which I find disgraceful,
13:28
Speaker 5: but I wonder, well, I think there's what the answer
13:31
Speaker 5: is supposed to.
13:31
Speaker 6: Look. The first thing that I would do if I
13:33
Speaker 6: was a president Harvard University, I would say, we are
13:35
Speaker 6: clearly not educating students for students to think that again,
13:40
Speaker 6: you know, murder at scale is somehow legitimate that occupation
13:46
Speaker 6: causes terror. I mean, there are no Israelis in Gaza,
13:50
Speaker 6: for goodness sakes, it's a silly turn of phrase. But
13:54
Speaker 6: to your question, what would I do well, Number one,
13:55
Speaker 6: I would say we need to revisit our entire core
13:58
Speaker 6: education because they're clearly not taching morals or values. That's
14:01
Speaker 6: number one. And then number two, the president of Harvard,
14:04
Speaker 6: like the president of U Penn, like the president's institutions,
14:07
Speaker 6: needs to stand up and speak out and say this
14:09
Speaker 6: is disgraceful and wrong students are.
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Speaker 1: But they're not doing that centator. They're not saying it's wrong.
14:14
Speaker 1: They're waiting days to even respond. And that's only after
14:17
Speaker 1: famous alumni and donors finally came down. And then to
14:20
Speaker 1: the point where like you have to give a statement,
14:23
Speaker 1: and they put out a basic statement on paper.
14:26
Speaker 2: Well, let me say the voice you were just hearing
14:28
Speaker 2: there was Jonathan Greenblatt. He's the head of the Anti
14:30
Speaker 2: Defamation League, and I'm glad he's speaking out. He actually
14:33
Speaker 2: was speaking clearly and effectively there. The ADL has a
14:37
Speaker 2: long history of calling out anti Semitism, in recent years,
14:41
Speaker 2: it has been far too willing to basically act as
14:43
Speaker 2: a defender for the Democrat Party and as a partisan.
14:46
Speaker 2: And so I'm glad they're standing up and speaking with
14:49
Speaker 2: clarity here it's important. But look what happened at Harvard.
14:53
Speaker 2: You have thirty five student groups that put out a statement.
14:57
Speaker 2: I want you to understand what they said. I'm going
14:58
Speaker 2: to read you from the joints statement by Harvard Palestine
15:02
Speaker 2: Solidarity Groups on the situation in Palestine, not it's the
15:05
Speaker 2: situation of Palestine, not Israel. They don't even acknowledge Israel exists.
15:10
Speaker 2: We the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely
15:16
Speaker 2: responsible for all unfolding violence. That's the opening sentence. It
15:25
Speaker 2: is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering children. It
15:31
Speaker 2: is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are raping women and
15:34
Speaker 2: little girls in the streets and parading them through the street.
15:38
Speaker 2: It is Israel's fault that they are kidnapping toddlers and
15:41
Speaker 2: holding them hostage. It is Israel's fault that they are
15:44
Speaker 2: using those toddlers as human shields. They're using women and
15:47
Speaker 2: men as human shields. It's Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists
15:51
Speaker 2: are murdering civilians indiscriminately walking house by house by house,
15:55
Speaker 2: and if you're a Jew, they murder you. What a ridiculous,
15:59
Speaker 2: out rageous situation. And look that statement they put out. Initially,
16:06
Speaker 2: for the first couple of days, Harvard said nothing. It
16:09
Speaker 2: was the only statement from the Harvard campus that anyone
16:12
Speaker 2: seemed to be aware of. Then Harvard put out an
16:16
Speaker 2: initial statement that was the most milk toast lukewarm statement
16:20
Speaker 2: of Well, we want to be a safe space for
16:23
Speaker 2: people to have all sorts of us, you know, the
16:25
Speaker 2: pro genocide mass murder view and the anti genocide mass
16:29
Speaker 2: murder view. No, I'm sorry, that's not a topic of
16:32
Speaker 2: reasonable debate. Beheading babies is always, always, always wrong, period,
16:37
Speaker 2: full stop. Finally, on Tuesday, the president of Harvard was
16:42
Speaker 2: guilted into condemning we stand against Hamas's beheading babies. It
16:50
Speaker 2: took five days of getting pounded. I got to say, listen,
16:54
Speaker 2: I'm an alumnus of Harvard Law School. It is embarrassing
16:59
Speaker 2: that are universities. The problem is they become petri dishes,
17:04
Speaker 2: They become incubators for radical left wing views. And other
17:10
Speaker 2: than a Hamas headquarters, there are a few places with
17:14
Speaker 2: more vicious anti semitism and hatred of Israel than America's
17:19
Speaker 2: elite universities today. You talk to to Hillel's students, you
17:24
Speaker 2: talk to Jewish students on campuses. They're afraid. They're afraid
17:27
Speaker 2: of violence. They're afraid to wear a yamaka. They're afraid
17:30
Speaker 2: to be publicly identified as Jewish because they risk violence.
17:33
Speaker 2: They wish, they risk swastikas being spray painted on their
17:38
Speaker 2: student center, they risk attacks from the radical left, and
17:43
Speaker 2: the radical left more and more embraces, cherishes and nurtures
17:50
Speaker 2: anti Semitism, and schools like Harvard sadly are the breeding
17:54
Speaker 2: grounds for this hatred, and they can't figure it out
17:58
Speaker 2: enough to stay. Genocide is bad. That should not be
18:02
Speaker 2: a controversial proposition.
18:05
Speaker 1: Well, and even members in Congress for sheid to leave
18:08
Speaker 1: was was asked directly to her face what she thought
18:11
Speaker 1: about women being raped and babies getting their heads cut off.
18:16
Speaker 1: She wouldn't answer the question, take a listen to this.
18:22
Speaker 2: And burn children alive? Do you support Israel's rights to
18:26
Speaker 2: defend themselves in a postality? You can't comment at all.
18:31
Speaker 2: AMA's terrace chopping off baby because you comment and a
18:41
Speaker 2: mos Terence talking on me.
18:47
Speaker 1: You a mom who said.
18:50
Speaker 5: Baby says, do you condone what Amas has done.
18:58
Speaker 4: Chopping off babies?
18:59
Speaker 1: Says?
18:59
Speaker 2: Furnish a life raby went to the street. Do you
19:07
Speaker 2: want to know moment about the children's head speech?
19:09
Speaker 4: Hand all?
19:15
Speaker 1: Congressman why Howard Halliday and wine?
19:18
Speaker 2: I d your office if you do know what?
19:19
Speaker 6: You know?
19:20
Speaker 3: What the monster is about?
19:21
Speaker 2: Israel in rainy?
19:26
Speaker 1: Whys do matter to you? I mean Senator that was
19:30
Speaker 1: whoever that reporter was. God bless her for continuing to
19:34
Speaker 1: ask a basic question. Children will burn, baby's heads are
19:38
Speaker 1: cut off.
19:40
Speaker 2: And I gotta say, if you haven't seen the video
19:43
Speaker 2: of that clip, you got to google it and watch it,
19:46
Speaker 2: because watching the video is even more disturbing. So congresswoman
19:50
Speaker 2: to leave is walking down the hallways in Congress, so
19:54
Speaker 2: the steps you hear the whole time, or she's walking,
19:56
Speaker 2: she's walking, she's walking, And this reporter just asked her,
20:00
Speaker 2: do you not have a comment on chopping babies heads off?
20:02
Speaker 2: How hard is it for a congress woman to say,
20:06
Speaker 2: we should not chop the heads off babies, we should
20:09
Speaker 2: not burn children alive, we should not rape women in
20:11
Speaker 2: the streets. That is not in a normal sane world,
20:16
Speaker 2: a controversial proposition, and yet her politics are so radical
20:22
Speaker 2: she cannot bring herself to say that she has in
20:25
Speaker 2: front of her office she has a Palestinian flag. It's
20:28
Speaker 2: interesting she has a Palestinian flag and she has a
20:30
Speaker 2: transgender flag, which is ironic because Hamas would murder anyone
20:34
Speaker 2: who's gay or transgender. So like, the two flags are
20:37
Speaker 2: utterly in conflict. But in today's modern left that that
20:41
Speaker 2: nobody bothers with intellectual coherence. They embrace their ideology and
20:45
Speaker 2: don't worry about it. But I gotta say it is stunning,
20:49
Speaker 2: Like she walks a long, long way and the end
20:52
Speaker 2: of that video she gets on an elevator and the
20:54
Speaker 2: door closes, and and you know, she asked, do Israeli
20:58
Speaker 2: lives matter? And by the way, Congresswoman Talib conspicuously avoids
21:03
Speaker 2: using the word Israel. She refers to Palestine. Look, today's
21:06
Speaker 2: radical left in the Democrat Party does not acknowledge Israel's
21:12
Speaker 2: right to exist. And I got to say, it's not
21:16
Speaker 2: just Congresswoman to leave. It's it's it's it's Corey Bush,
21:19
Speaker 2: it's AOC. It is the hard left of the Democrat Party.
21:25
Speaker 2: And by the way, it's the Biden State Department whose
21:28
Speaker 2: response initially to this was Israel stand down, do not
21:32
Speaker 2: engage in any military action following the worst attack on
21:37
Speaker 2: Israel in fifty years, following Israel's nine to eleven do nothing.
21:42
Speaker 2: That is sadly the view of today's radical left, and
21:48
Speaker 2: for the Democrats who don't agree with it, I hope
21:52
Speaker 2: that they find the courage to call out the members
21:55
Speaker 2: of their own party that are saying things that are
21:57
Speaker 2: disgraceful as before.
22:00
Speaker 1: Do you want to hear the rest of this conversation
22:01
Speaker 1: on this topic, You can go back and down the
22:04
Speaker 1: podcasts from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
22:08
Speaker 1: I want to get back to the big story number
22:10
Speaker 1: three of the week. You may have missed Steve Scales,
22:13
Speaker 1: who got the majority of the votes in the conference
22:16
Speaker 1: to become the Speaker of the House. He has now
22:19
Speaker 1: broke made big breaking news by saying this about dropping
22:23
Speaker 1: out of the race.
22:24
Speaker 7: I know we've been following this. It's been quite a
22:27
Speaker 7: journey and there's still a long way to go. I
22:31
Speaker 7: just share with my colleagues and I'm withdrawing my name
22:34
Speaker 7: as a cadidate for the speaker. Designed If you look
22:39
Speaker 7: at over the last few weeks, if you look at
22:42
Speaker 7: where our conference is, there's still work to be done.
22:45
Speaker 7: Our conference still has to come together and is not there.
22:51
Speaker 7: There are still some people that have their own agendas, and.
22:54
Speaker 2: That was very clear.
22:55
Speaker 7: We have to have everybody put their agendas on the
22:58
Speaker 7: side and focus on what this country needs. This country
23:02
Speaker 7: is counting on us to come back together. This House
23:06
Speaker 7: of Representatives needs a speaker and we need to open
23:10
Speaker 7: up the House again. But clearly not everybody is there
23:16
Speaker 7: and there's still schisms that have to get resolved.
23:21
Speaker 1: This is not that surprising to me, Center because it
23:24
Speaker 1: was clear he wasn't going to have the votes, just
23:27
Speaker 1: like with Kevin McCarthy, he didn't have the votes. That
23:31
Speaker 1: means is this and now a pathway for Jim Jordan
23:34
Speaker 1: to become the speaker? Because you also came out and
23:37
Speaker 1: endorse Jim Jordan, saying you believe he's the most physically conserved,
23:40
Speaker 1: the best guy for this job.
23:42
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, I did, and it's worth going back
23:45
Speaker 2: and explaining why I did that, because we had talked
23:49
Speaker 2: on the podcast previously that I intended to stay out
23:52
Speaker 2: of the House leadership election, and that's what I've done
23:54
Speaker 2: the eleven years I've been in the Senate, I've stayed
23:57
Speaker 2: out of every House leadership election we ever had, and
24:00
Speaker 2: my standard position has been that questions of House leadership
24:04
Speaker 2: are for the House members to decide. And and that's
24:07
Speaker 2: what I had said on the podcast repeatedly. I'd set
24:10
Speaker 2: it to reporters in Capitol Hill repeatedly. That was a
24:13
Speaker 2: position I was very comfortable with. And then a couple
24:19
Speaker 2: of days ago, Jim Jordan called me, uh and he
24:23
Speaker 2: made a very direct ass he asked for my support. Now,
24:27
Speaker 2: Jim is a friend. He's a good friend. I know
24:29
Speaker 2: Jim very well. Jim has been a guest on this podcast.
24:31
Speaker 2: We had him on two consecutive episodes doing a deep
24:35
Speaker 2: dive into the fantastic work that he's doing as focusing
24:40
Speaker 2: on the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the
24:43
Speaker 2: FBI and government. And Jim is someone I've worked with
24:47
Speaker 2: the entire time I've been in the Senate. He is
24:50
Speaker 2: a strong conservative. And he asked, he asked for my support,
24:53
Speaker 2: he said, and he leaned in hard on it. And
24:56
Speaker 2: I thought about it, and I thought carefully, and my
24:59
Speaker 2: general fulllosophy on political endorsements and I make endorsements all
25:03
Speaker 2: over the country in Senate races and House races, and
25:07
Speaker 2: gubernatorial races, in school board races, all sorts of races.
25:12
Speaker 2: Is that I support the strongest conservative who can win,
25:19
Speaker 2: and both of those are important. I want to proven
25:21
Speaker 2: record that you're a real conservative, and I want a
25:24
Speaker 2: path to victory. I'm not interested in tilty at Windmills.
25:26
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in a candidate that does not have
25:30
Speaker 2: a path to victory. And as I thought about it,
25:32
Speaker 2: I came to the conclusion that Jim was that person.
25:35
Speaker 2: That he would be certainly the most conservative speaker we'd
25:40
Speaker 2: ever had, but that he had a real and viable
25:43
Speaker 2: path to win, that he had real and meaningful support. Now,
25:47
Speaker 2: obviously his chief rival and the only two declared candidates
25:51
Speaker 2: at the time for speaker were Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise.
25:55
Speaker 2: And Steve is a friend as well. Steve and I
25:58
Speaker 2: are good friends. We spent a lot of time together.
26:01
Speaker 2: I like Steve. Steve is a conservative. Uh And and Steve,
26:07
Speaker 2: look the the statement that you just played. That was
26:10
Speaker 2: not an easy statement for Steve to give, and I
26:13
Speaker 2: respect that that he gave it. I think it was
26:15
Speaker 2: heartfelt Steve is obviously hurting, but I think he's also
26:21
Speaker 2: trying to do the right thing. And I'll tell you
26:24
Speaker 2: before I endorsed Jim Jordan. When I hung up the
26:27
Speaker 2: phone with Jim, before I put out the endorsement, I
26:31
Speaker 2: picked up the phone and I called Steve and and
26:35
Speaker 2: the first thing I did is just ask Steve how
26:37
Speaker 2: is how he was doing health wise. He's he's dealing
26:40
Speaker 2: with a rare form of blood cancer, and I've been
26:43
Speaker 2: been concerned and praying for him, and and he told
26:46
Speaker 2: me he is doing better and the treatment is proceeding
26:49
Speaker 2: very well. But I gave him the heads up, just
26:52
Speaker 2: man to man, as I said, listen, you're my friend, Steve.
26:55
Speaker 2: I'm going to make this endorsement of Jim.
26:58
Speaker 1: Uh.
26:58
Speaker 2: He asked me to do it, and Jim and I
27:01
Speaker 2: have been very close, and I'm going to endorse him.
27:04
Speaker 2: But I told Steve at the time, and I believe this.
27:06
Speaker 2: I said, listen, I think you'd make a terrific speaker,
27:08
Speaker 2: and I think Jim would make a terrific speaker. So
27:11
Speaker 2: do not take this endorsement as a negative comment on you,
27:17
Speaker 2: but rather just a statement of that I think Jim
27:21
Speaker 2: Jordan is the strongest conservative who has a path to win,
27:24
Speaker 2: and Steve was very gracious about it, and we're friends,
27:27
Speaker 2: and I certainly anticipate continuing to work with Steve in
27:31
Speaker 2: the years ahead. Now, what happened this week is the
27:36
Speaker 2: House Republican Conference met and they had a closed door
27:38
Speaker 2: meeting and they had a vote, and Scalise won the
27:41
Speaker 2: vote by a vote of one hundred and thirteen to
27:43
Speaker 2: ninety nine. So Jordan got ninety nine votes, Scalise got
27:46
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirteen, and actually the press coverage was saying, well,
27:53
Speaker 2: that's it, Scalise is the Speaker. And what happened subsequently
27:58
Speaker 2: is there were a number of House Republicans who did
28:03
Speaker 2: not vote for Scleee, who said over the hours and
28:08
Speaker 2: days that followed that they were not going to vote
28:10
Speaker 2: for Scleee, and they dug in apparently, and it did
28:13
Speaker 2: not appear that Steve had a path to too eighteen.
28:17
Speaker 2: And so I think he's pulling out because he, at
28:20
Speaker 2: least at this point doesn't see a path to to eighteen.
28:23
Speaker 2: Does that mean Jim Jordan is going to be the choice?
28:26
Speaker 2: I don't know. With a House majority of just four votes,
28:31
Speaker 2: any five Republicans can say no and veto anyone. And look,
28:36
Speaker 2: Jordan got ninety nine votes in the conference. That tells
28:39
Speaker 2: you there were over one hundred Republicans who didn't vote
28:43
Speaker 2: for him. I hope Jim can earn the support of
28:48
Speaker 2: his colleagues and unify. I will say, listen, it's a
28:51
Speaker 2: tough time. I mean, one of the things that's playing
28:53
Speaker 2: out in the House is there are a lot of raw emotions.
28:57
Speaker 2: People are angry. Have the individuals who voted last week
29:03
Speaker 2: to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. I think those individuals
29:10
Speaker 2: have strong feelings, But I also think McCarthy and his
29:14
Speaker 2: core allies are very, very angry. And so look, anytime
29:20
Speaker 2: you have people that are emotional and angry, it's hard
29:24
Speaker 2: for them to come together. Now. For folks worried that
29:28
Speaker 2: this chaos will last forever, I don't think it will.
29:31
Speaker 2: I think we will have a speaker, and I think
29:33
Speaker 2: we'll have a speaker relatively soon. I don't know how
29:36
Speaker 2: long it will take. I still think we'll have a
29:40
Speaker 2: speaker by the end of this week, so by by
29:43
Speaker 2: the end of Friday or Saturday, but I don't know.
29:45
Speaker 2: It may bleed in the next week, and it is
29:48
Speaker 2: possible if Scalize doesn't have the votes, and if Jordan
29:52
Speaker 2: doesn't have the votes, that someone else will emerge as
29:55
Speaker 2: a third option, that is some sort of compromise candidate.
30:03
Speaker 2: And there are a couple of names that are floating around,
30:08
Speaker 2: but it's not clear at this point what will happen.
30:13
Speaker 2: But I will say to anyone concerned, we will have
30:17
Speaker 2: a Speaker of the House. The Republicans will come together.
30:20
Speaker 2: It just may take a little more time and a
30:23
Speaker 2: little more opportunity for emotions to cool.
30:27
Speaker 1: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center
30:31
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
30:33
Speaker 1: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
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30:38
Speaker 1: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
30:40
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30:43
Speaker 1: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.