Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Historic Drone Rescue of American Soldiers Shot Down in Iran, plus Minnesota Dems Hired Private Investigators to Target Fraud Whistleblowers

Transcript

Historic Drone Rescue of American Soldiers Shot Down in Iran, plus Minnesota Dems Hired Private Investigators to Target Fraud Whistleblowers · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome its Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's also the Ben Ferguson Podcast. We're doing a dual
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: podcast because I'm on family vacation and we're still working
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: at one in the morning to give you all the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: news out there. They're also getting a hard time before
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the show started, saying that Center, you look much better
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: than I look tonight.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: That's what they keep telling me.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I just want to know if we have an official
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: statement from you on that real quick before we get
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: going here. Is this true? You were saying that you
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: look better at one am than I do.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Well, that's not me saying that. That's the entire production team.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: And to be fair, we do primarily a radio and
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: audio show. So in radio and audio we both look gorgeous,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: or to quote Saturday Night Live Ben r R look marbelous.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: For me, I rather look good than Field good.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Model it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I tell you, you know what, at least you know once
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: in the career of Verdict that you definitely they say.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It may just be the shot looks better, the studio
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: looks better. You know, I'm in a hotel room with
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: an ac behind me. This is what you get. But
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We do have a pack show for you, and we
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about politically, including just an
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: incredible story that's coming from a company in Texas that
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: we're going to get into and it's just amazing.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: So welcome to the twenty first century. We had this week,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: we had tragically two US servicemen in an Apache helicopter
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: shot down by Iran. They were shot down, they fell
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: in the water, and we had, for the very first
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: time in the history of the United States and the
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: history of the world and warfare, we had them rescued
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: not by a ship, not by sailors, but by a
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: drone ship, a drone ship with no pilots, no sailors,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: that came and rescued them. That ship is manufactured by Saronic,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: a company based in Austin, Texas. We're going to break
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: that down for you. We're also going to talk about
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the stunning news that broke that that the governor of Minnesota,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Tim Waltz, that that that towering mountain of masculinity rivaled
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: only by James cal Rico.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: It turns out he hired private investigators to go after
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: government employees who whistled blue on. Is that the right
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: past tense whistle blue whistle blow like uh, whistleblowers who
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: blew the whistle? There we go, okay, that.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: That that much is better true.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: On the fraud in the state, and and and being
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: a paragon of integrity, being like like most Democrats, concerned
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: about not robbing the taxpayers. Instead of going after the fraud,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: he went after and persecuted the government employees who were
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: pointing out the fraud.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: We're gonna give you the facts on that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Also, Yeah, it's a really really interesting story there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Let me also talk to you about a really neat
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: organization and one that I want you to know about
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and hopefully you'll get involved in, and is Americans United
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: for Life. There was obvious a massive victory that happened
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: in this country with the overturning of Roe v. Wade,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: But what it really meant was the issue of abortion
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: would go back to the states, and that is where
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the real fight has actually begun. Now, over the past
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: fifty years, Americans United for Life has filed more than
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: two hundred legal briefs and also helped create at least
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: four hundred pro life bills in over forty states by
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: writing model legislation. They are consulting with state legislators and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: defending their own laws and other pro life statues in court. Now,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Aul's dual front approach of writing and defending legislation has
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: proved an effective one that could become even more impactful
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as pro life state legislators moved to enact protections for
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: preborn babies and their mothers. Now that the legality of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: abortion has returned to the states, that is where you
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: come in. You and I had the opportunity to overturn
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: pro abortion laws and advance pro life legislation that attacks
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the most vulnerable in our society, from the womb to
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the tomb. Together, we can shape the future of our
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: nation through life affirming legislation in every state. Now, a
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: gift of just twenty five dollars helps hold abortion providers
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across this country.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And now through a match, your gift is doubled. Donate
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: securely at AUL dot org slash verdict. That's a UL
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: dot org slash verdict sponsored by Americans United for Life.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: All right, So, Centata, let's get into this first story
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and you said it best.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Just Technology.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty six, for the first time in history,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you had a drone boat that saved the lives of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: two Americans that were shut down by Iran. There's no pilot, like,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: no one on board. This is a boat just like
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a drone in the sky that is controlled by you know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a joystick, and it was able to go extremely fast,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: get these guys and get out before the enemy could
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: touch them.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: This is unbelievable.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And the best part is this technology is coming out
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of the United States American In fact, it's coming out
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of Texas well.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: It's not even directly controlled by a joystick. It's actually
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: AI that controls this. And this is a company based
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: in Austin. I've been to their factory. I've seen their factory.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: It's amazing that they're building these ships. And the ships
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: are and they have all sorts of different sizes. They
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: have bigger ones, they have smaller ones. They're going to
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: have drone ships that are are over one hundred and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: fifty feet long that are big ships. But they also
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: have smaller military vessels. And then they have really small drones.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: And these drones can do all sorts of things. They're
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: all boats, but they could do surveillance, they can do espionage,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: they can do military combat, they could be armed with weaponry.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: They can transport supplies. If you're trying to say resupply
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: soldiers that are in a form forward combat position, they
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: can resupply them. So this is all coming out of Austin, Texas.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: It's amazing technology. And what precipitated it is that that earlier,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: earlier today, an armed Iranian shah Head drone struck a
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: US Apache helicopter and it went down in the sea
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: off the coast of Aman on Monday. US Central Command
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: reported that the helicopter was on patrol when it was
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: struck by the drone, but the two pilots who were
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: aboard the Apache helicopter were safely rescued with it about
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: two hours of the strike. And and it's worth here
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: we're going to play the Fox News report that covered it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: you could watch the video of this drone ship that
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: was responsible for rescuing our soldiers in combat.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: Give a listen, give watch Deron's under attack.
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: Trump ordered Sentcom to launch self defense strikes after an
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: enemy drone took down an Apache helicopter patrolling the straight
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: The two pilots were rescued out of the water by
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: an unmanned sea drone operated by Task Force fifty nine
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: in Bahrain.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: The drones Texas made.
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  Speaker 5: It's twenty four feet long and can travel one thousand
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  Speaker 5: miles and hit speeds of thirty five knots, and it's
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: the first sea drone rescue in combat history. Trump was
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: on the phone with the press when he gave the order.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: Podas said, this is a retaliation for the helicopter hit,
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: and it's important that our response is strong and powerful.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: Sentcom called our response proportional. But sources say we're taking
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: out Iranian air defenses, radar systems all along the Straight
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: and we're not finished tech. I know it doesn't seem
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: like it, but we're still in a ceasefire. And the
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: President continues to say we're close to a.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Deal where in the final throes of what will be
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: a very very good deal that will not allow in
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: any way, shape or form, nuclear weapons, etc.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: And then straight will open up right away.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be a
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: two or three days.
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: Trump's made the terms clear. The uranium must be turned
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: over and destroyed. Enrichmond must stop for two decades at least,
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: all nuclear sites must be completely dismantled, and the United
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: States is able to conduct snap inspections whenever the heck
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: we want.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You listen that report and it goes back to the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: bigger issue in the war in what we're trying to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: accomplish their senator, But you go back to just the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: beginning of it.
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  Speaker 2: Thirty five knots. That's about forty miles an hour in
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: rough seas.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: That's incredibly fast, especially if you're twenty five foot boat.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: As they described here.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: This technology allows these boats to go faster than what
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: most like if you're a human riding in a boat
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and heavy seas and rough seas, going at that speed
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: is going to be very risky to you. This takes
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that away as well, which again talks about how the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: speed they were able to actually get to these two
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: pilots that have been shot down.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, it's a manifestation of the new age
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: of warfare where where these drone ships are not massively expensive.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: You look at aircraft carriers and expensive ships that can
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars that
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: are powered with nuclear reactors. That's been how we've approached
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: naval power for seventy years, and now we have a
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: scenario where these drones are not terribly expensive to be built.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: They can be built at scale and you can deploy
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  Speaker 3: one of them, or ten of them, or a thousand
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: of them, or ten thousand of them, and the ability
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: and with AI you can control Look, ten thousand in
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  Speaker 3: a normal world, you'd have to have ten thousand captains
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  Speaker 3: piloting them. You could have AI and you can assign
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: You could assign, for example, ten thousand drone ships patrol
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: this area. AI can direct them, but they're searching and
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: they'll engage in espionage and gain engage in reporting on
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  Speaker 3: what they find. You can train them to protect protect
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: a particular ship, protect something that's going on, protect a
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: port or harbor. They can do that. You can assign
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: them go intercept this vessel. And if they're armed with
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: ordnance that they can fire torpedoes, they.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Could have explosives.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And because the ships themselves are not super expensive, it
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: also means that if you lose one ship or ten
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: or one hundred, it's not the end of the world.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: It's not that is risks.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's look we're saying the same thing with
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: aerial drones where we're headed very quick to a world
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and some of this we're actually getting some foreshadowing of
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: this with the war in Ukraine where the battle between
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Ukraine and Russia, much of it is involving drones and
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: the ability to have thousands or tens of thousands of
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: drones and instead of one big, really expensive thing, lots
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: and lots of smaller, less expensive things which can overwhelm
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the previous technology. And I got to say that having
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: been to the factory. Look, these guys are a startup
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: at Austin, Texas. I know, I know the CEO, I
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: know the lead funders, and they're you know, young techies
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: who are entrepreneurial.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Who have a vision and and and.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Their desire to scale this. It is very cool. This
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: is the first drone rescue at sea in combat in
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: the history of the world. And you know what, this
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: is not going to be the last. We're going to
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: see a lot more. By the way, there are civilian
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: applications of this that.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: That have nothing to do with combat.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Look, look, the Coastguard, I would just say, I literally
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: was talking the Coastguard as we were on FAMI vacation
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and one of the guys I saw and you know,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: just saying things. But one of the things that was
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: cool they were talking about is technology. They said a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: lot of times the helicopters when there's the worst weather
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and boats get in trouble, they can be commercial vessels,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: they can be recreational, they can be commercial fishing boats
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: when things get really bad with weather. Unfortunately, sometimes the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: weather's too bad to go out right at that moment in.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: A helicopter because it's so bad.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: But if you have drones that you can risk no
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: life going out there, it changes the entire way that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it works. And there's some of that are afraid, like, hey,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: well that's gonna take jobs and in a way human beings.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: But if you can't be there in that moment and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you can send out a drone that could quite possibly
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: save your life, that a normal. If it's if it's
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: if it's you know, man controlled, you just can't take
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: that risk and you come back it's too rough. You
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: can throw drones out there and saved countless lives in
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that scenario. This is technology that is life changing.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I will say, Ben, have you ever met
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Coast Guard swimmers?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, they're unbelievable.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean they're kind of they're the equivalent
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: of Navy seals or Delta Force green berets. They're the
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: most badass coasters. Yeah, and I met met a number
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: of them, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. So
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Hurricane Harvey was a twenty seventeen was at the time
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: the second most costly natural disaster in American history, did
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: massive damage all the way down from Corpus Christi all
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: the way up hundreds of miles up the Texas coast
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: to the border right with Louisiana, and it just was
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: devastating damage. And the coasts that these swimmers would go
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: out and these guys you meet them, and they're like
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: twenty year old guys, and it sorts sort of imagine
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: like g I. Joe combined with a California surfer dude.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So they're guys.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: They have these, you know, enormous chests because they're like
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: massive swimmers, and so imagine Michael Phelps with these like
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: long ass arms and like massive swimmers, but with sort
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: of bleach blonde hair and they've got like shades hanging
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: from their head and they're like, yeah, Brook, like it's
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: it's it's they're not.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Like guys that that you also met that save people's
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: lives and the flooding that happened in Texas not that.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, look last summer fourth of July. But these swimmers,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: they will get on helicopters in the middle of a
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: hurricane where you've got waves in the ocean that are
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: ten twenty feet high that are terrify, and these guys
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: will jump out of a helicopter into the crashing waves
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: and go rescue someone. And it is there's a fearlessness
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: to not only jumping in crashing twenty foot waves, which
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: which most of us, if we're in those waves, are
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: going to die. Yeah, but they'll don't jump in when
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: there are people in harm's way, and they'll go grab them.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: To be clear, if you or I were in twenty
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: foot waves and drowning, someone came, we grab on them
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: and pull on and you're terrified, Like they know they're
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: gonna go rescue someone who's freaking out, who's gonna not intentionally,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: but it's going to effectively try to pull them under, and.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: They're just they're really cool. But you're right, there.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Are times where the weather is so bad you can't
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: send the chopper in, and and and the ability to
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: send a drone in to have something to rescue, Say,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: you know someone that's out, you know, just just on
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: a boat and gets in trouble.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: That is game changing.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: And that's coming out of Tech Texas and all of
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: the new tech that is based in Texas.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is an incredible story. Every once in
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a while you get a feel good story like this,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and we should celebrate it. It also is a reminder,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I think of whine's so important to make sure that
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: we're adequately funding technology. You've talked about this, and I've
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: talked about this a lot.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Center.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: This is a perfect example of us winning the war
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: on AI to make sure that our adversary, China is
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: not leading the way on AI. If this is AI controlled,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: this goes and this is one of those examples. I
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: do think we should highlight it for a second. This
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: is why America has to win the AI race. You
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: have less us and you've been warning on this issue,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and I think we should just take them out. Remind
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: people if we aren't in charge of this, our adversary
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: would be and that's a scary world as well.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: And by the way, If China masters this technology before
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: we do, that is a generation skipping advance in technology.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: And if they have the ability to.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Send a thousand or ten thousand or one hundred thousand
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: AI controlled drones at one of.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Our aircraft carriers, there's a real risk that.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: You know, the weapons we have to take say surface,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: surface to surface missiles or bombs we have, you know
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: those Our aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive and powerful tools,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: but they were made to take out a limited number
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: of ordinance and not just massive drone assaults. We're shifting
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: to a new technology where look, if we're in a
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: conflict with a smaller rival, that's less dangerous. Although you
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: know what in times even terrorists and smaller rivals, we're
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: going to see. We're going to see more and more
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: military attacks using drones. We're going to see things. We're
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: going to see assassinations, We're going to see people killed
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: using drones. That is, unfortunately, where the future is heading.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: One of the things the US military is investing in
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: heavily with American technology is counter drone technology. How do
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: you take out how do you take out drones that
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: are attacking you? And some of what is working is
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: lower cost ordinance that that that you can't fire a
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: patriot missile at every drone coming in. It just the
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: cost differential. They can swarm you. So you know, is
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: at another Texas company where they're building basically the equivalent
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: of a really big, badass machine gun that is power
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: that is firing like fifty cow rounds, but is firing
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: them with AI where they could target hundreds or thousands
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: of drones. But the cost of a round is not
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: very expensive. So instead of spending an entire patriot missile
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: or something that you have limited supply of, we have
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: essentially unlimited supply of rounds and so but using those
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: robot powered with AI to take out takeout attacks in scale.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: More and more of that is coming in. There are
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: different ways to take out drones. You've got ordinance, you've
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: got laser and microwave, and we're exploring all sorts of
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: different technolologies to take out a hostile drone. But if
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: we lose this race, we would be at a serious
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: military disadvantage to China. We can't let that happen, and
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're going to.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: All right, I want to move on to this other
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: incredible story center coming out of Minnesota, and in life,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: especially in government work, you're told that if you're a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: whistleblower that you have protections and that if you're a whistleblower,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you should not be afraid for your job or that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: someone's going to come after you, certainly the government that
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case in Minnesota.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And if you want to know how the Somali fraud
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: got so bad, it might actually be because the governor
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Well, that is inevitably number one the law federal law
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: and typically state law that protects whistleblowers, that gives you
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law and whistleblowers,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: that is powerful indication of a guilty mind that you're
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: covering something up. It's sort of like if if someone
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: is is murdered in Central Park and and you catch
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: a person burning their clothes from that night and destroying
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: the murder weapon. Yeah, that is powerful, powerful evidence that
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: they're the murderer. That that that that that that it
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: is typically the guilty who destroys evidence, who tries to
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: cover it up.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: That that that that if you're.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Not guilty, you have far less motivation, far less likelihood
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: to try to silence whistleblowers.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: To try to destroy evidence.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: The headline is Tim Walls's staff hired private investigators to
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: silence fraud whistleblowers. Committee report finds senior minisot to state
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud. A
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: House committee report released Monday found The two hundred page
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: solicitings private investigators investigators to reveal employees' personal details. Report
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: titled the Cost of Doing Nothing, How Tim Waltson Keith
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Ellison fueled Minnesota's fraud explosion exposed that senior state officials
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: as high as allegedly Governor Waltz, were aware of widespread
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: federal investigators she was pressured quote at every turn by
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: hand slapped when she continued to investigate. According to the report,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: the official also reported that she was warned by state
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: administrators to quote stop digging into things, as it would
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: appear that she was quote.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Targeting certain groups.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: This is DEI and fraud all coming together along with
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: corruption to elect Democrats. The article continues. Dozens of other
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: whistleblowers reported dozens that they were told to stay silent
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: because they would be labeled quote racist or Islamophobic. DHS
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: the state.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: The report said.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary and vs instigations to
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers,
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now that
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: it's going to get worse, then temporary Commissioner Sharene Gandhi.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: By the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: that that miss Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: she confirmed and a testimony copied in the report, that
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: the State Department used outside entities to conduct these investigations
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: management would regularly meet and quote check in on employees
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: check ins on DHS whistleblower Fay Bernstein quote a year
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: quote shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: about fraud and quote excluded her from further meetings on
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former state Commissioner Jody
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that quote,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nuala
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: told colleagues that he quote did intelligence research within the
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: army and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: to former colleagues in order to find the locations of
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: whistleblower's email addresses, an email obtained through a public data request.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Now it's about to get even worse. The report also
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: alleged that DHS d anonymized an internal fraud hotline for
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: The email address.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy Commissioner
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi's commissioner of DHS in
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: February twenty twenty six, but removed her in May before
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: This is anyone who claims Gosh, the elected officials of Minnesota.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: They were victims, they didn't know they wanted to go
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: after the fraud, which, by the way, both Waltz and
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Ellison keep saying, Oh, we wanted to go after the fraud,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think powerfully
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: they are lying. Not only did they not want to
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: the fraud.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: do these things, are you breaking the law? And if
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: it goes all the way the governor is he breaking
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the law? And the peuple below him are they breaking
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the law? And is there any accountability for this or
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: is this just well walt isn't running for reelection, so
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter anymore and we'll just move on
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: and yeah, we may continue to do things like this
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: in the future without accountability.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: division focused going after fraud, and I hope everyone who
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations,
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: that they are prosecuted.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I am hopeful.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: I can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: hold them accountable. To the way our constitutional system works.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: It's not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I can't the power to bring an indictment, the power
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: to go before a grand jury, to get an indictment,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: to prosecute. That is exclusively within the executive branch, within
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: principally the US Department of Justice at the federal level.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: And so I can tell you this, I am urging
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: the Attorney General and DOJ prosecute every single person who
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: from it, who knew what they were doing. And this
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: is this is a real smoking gun.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: And at the age I go back to Ellison there
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: we know his name.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Well, if he's involved in this and is using and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: weaponizing the government to go after those that were not
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: committing the fraud, those that were trying to whistle blow
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: on the fraud fraud and they are harassed. Is there
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: any lane for the people that were being harassed to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: somehow have like, you know, restitution for what they went through.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: If you're being.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Harassed for two years after you put in a tip,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that's got to put a lot of stress on your life.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming it puts stress in your career. I'm assuming
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: that they deserved.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: Look, and I would assume we're going to see civil
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and seeking compensation for this,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: and that litigation could well be successful. In terms of
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: criminal prosecution, this would not surprise me. I don't know
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: sitting here. Uh if if Minnesota law makes doing this
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the federal
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would take
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: a a Minnesota district attorney, uh to bring that case.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: And and I got to admit, I'm very skeptical that
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: that that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: with federal law. And given that these are federal funds
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: that were effectively being stolen and fund funneled to Somali
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: fund funneled to Somalian fraudsters being sent, among other places,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: to al Shabab.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: And we before h.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: On this podcast that the single largest funder of al
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: shaba law, which is the Jota Islamic rorist group that
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: is in Somalia. They're number one funder, was the taxpayers
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: of Minnesota. And those are also federal taxpayer money. So look,
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: I expect the Department of Justice. They've already prosecuted a
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: number of the fraudsters at the lower level, but I
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: hope they go right up the ladder of accountability and
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: any politicians that are responsible. And to be clear, this
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: happened because it was in politicians' political interest for this
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: to happen, because they were getting money from campaign donations
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: and they were getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: rob the taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: look that this has happened also in other states. It's
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: happened in Maine under the Democrat governor there. It's happened
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: in California, It's happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think,
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: all over the country, but predominantly in Democrat states where
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: there are Democrat politicians who were benefiting from turning the
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: other way to fraud. And I think every wan who
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: committed a criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the story we're gonna follow. I can
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: promise you that.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: So don't forget Senor Cruise and I do this podcast
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: three days a week. You can hit that subscriber auto
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: download button there. Also, if you're listening on the Ben
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Ferguson podcast, you know I do the show every day,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: even on family vacation. We're doing the show here and center.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Thanks for thanks for doing a joint pod with me.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Get a little more time with a family. We will
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: see you back here.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: And look, Bet Ben, I, I for one just want
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: to congratulate you on doing the podcast while not wearing
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: pants like like that. You're on vacation, and you know
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: it's good to bring that form. We only shoot from
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: the way stops.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I'm so exhausted right now. I don't even have it
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: in me to fight you on this. I'm just gonna
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: go with that narrative. That is how tired the boys
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: have warned me out on this family vacation. I'm like, sure,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I'll go with anything right now.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Don't forget.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: We do the show like I said, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and you can watch it on YouTube as well and
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the Center. I will see you back here on Friday
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: morning on Verdict with Ted Cruz, Down with It, whatever
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: your podcast, I'll see you tomorrow in the Ben Ferguson
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: podcasts as well