Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / On the Road in Mexico Urging the Mexican Government to get Serious about Defeating Cartels plus Dems Bemoan Trump's Fighting Violent Crime

Transcript

On the Road in Mexico Urging the Mexican Government to get Serious about Defeating Cartels plus Dems Bemoan Trump's Fighting Violent Crime · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with center, Ted Cruz ben Ferguson
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: with your center. You have come back from a codell
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of Latin America and it is finally wrapped. You got
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: back in the wee hours of the morning, and you're
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: going to give us a final update on the last
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: part of your trip.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I got home at four in the morning last night,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: so it's good to be at home. It's good to
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: sleep in my own bed. It was a very productive trip.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: As we discussed on previous pods. We started by going
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to El Salvador. I met with President Bukelly, the president
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: of El Salvador, saw the incredible success he has had
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: defeating gangs, defeating Ms thirteen and the eighteenth Street barrio
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: in l Salvador. They've gone from the highest murder rate
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: in the entire world one hundred homicides per hundred thousand people.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: That meant in any given year, one in one thousand
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Salvadorans was being murdered. That number has plummeted by ninety
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: eight percent. Last year, their murder rate was one point
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: nine per one hundred thousand. That is among the safest
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: in the world. That is three times safer than the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: United States of America, where just over six murders per
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand, El Salvador is now three times as safe.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Incredible success. What they're doing in El Salvador. From then
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I flew on to Panama, Panama was a fascinating meeting.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: I toured the Panama Canal. I must say it is
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: truly an engineering miracle. The idea that the United States
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: was able to build this more than a century ago
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: in nineteen fourteen, it is incredible, an incredible design, and
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: it's incredibly important both for US national security and for
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: US economic security. And so I had multiple discussions with
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: senior Panamanian officials about the critical importance of removing China
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: from the Panama Canal. China right now has a major
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: port at the mouth of both ends of the canal.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I went and went right up by that port, and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: you could see China's strategic location to be able to
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: shut down the Panama Canal should we have a military
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: conflict with China. Not only do they have a major
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: port at the mouth of the canal, China is also
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: building a bridge right across the mouth of the canal
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: at the Pacific. They are also digging a tunnel under
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the canal for a metro train. Any of those would
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: give them the ability if they use them maliciously, to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: try to shut down traffic on the canal, which among
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: other things, would have a massive economic harm to the
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: United States, but it would also severely limit our ability
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to move our naval ships. We have a very significant
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: portion of our fleet in the Atlantic. The Panama Canal
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: cuts weeks off the transit to get those ships to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the Pacific, and should there be a conflict in the Pacific,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the Chinese would like to force our Atlantic fleet to
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: stay in the Atlantic and not be able to traverse
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the canal. And so it was a very productive meeting,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: stressing that the United States was going to do whatever
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: is necessary to make sure that the canal is safe
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: and that the Chinese don't control it. The final step
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of the codell was Mexico, and I spent yesterday or
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the day before in Mexico with multiple senior government officials.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Met with the Foreign Secretary, and met with the Defense secretary,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and met with the Agriculture Secretary.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: We had very productive.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Meetings, and the focus of my meetings was very much
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: safety and security. Number one, securing the border, and number
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: two going after the Mexican drug cartels, and we have
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: seen extraordinary success securing our border because President Trump is
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: back in office and because we have a president who
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: is willing to secure the border, and we have seen
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: illegal border crossings drop ninety nine percent. When I was
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: in Mexico, I was going to the Mexican government. I
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: was asking the government to join with us, join with us,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: and partner with us in taking out the Mexican drug cartels.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: We had extensive discussions on this, and finally we're going
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to talk about how JB. Pritzker and the Democrats have
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: decided to be open that they are in support of criminals.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: They are the party of murderers. They are the party
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: of criminals. It is sadly it is the culmination of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: a long, long downward slide from today's Democrat party.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: All of you know that I am a pro Second
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Amendment guy. I've shared on numerous occasions how carrying my
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: firearms saved my life from a gang related attack. But
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: for those of you out there with family members who
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: may not be comfortable having a gun by their side,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: you still want them to be able to protect themselves
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: and others in times of danger and that's where the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Burno launcher comes in. Berna is a handheld pistol that
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: from an attacker. And I'm here with Josh Cherrard from
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Berna to share the true story of how an avid
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: hiker uses burnon to stop an attacking mountain lion. Josh
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: tell us what happened.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Jason is an avid hiker deciding to
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: take his family out on a hiper he's done several times,
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: super easy, high but super fun, all armed with his Berna.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: You know, this is one of those things where he
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: didn't expect to see anything, and all of a sudden
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: on this hike, this mountain lion appears out of no
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: work or He sends his family on down the trail,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: watches the line for a few minutes, realizing it's not
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: going away, so uses his burner, fires a few rounds
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: to scare it off. Continues down the trail, but unfortunately,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: this mountain line appears again, at which point he realized
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: he was going to have to up his aggression with
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: that burner. Fire's four rounds was able to strike the
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: mountain lion all four times at chest and torso, at
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: which point that mountain lion airs off, never to be
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: seen again. These guys make it down the trail back
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: to their car and back to home safely. Fortunately, this
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: is all it took to make sure and get this
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: family back home safe off a hike that could have
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: taken an obvious turn for the worst.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to guess that burner has been used
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: to stop other types of animal attacks as well.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, we get stories all the time of users with
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: whether it be dogs or other wildlife. We even have
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: an ecological park whose security carries burna four bears out
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: in the smoky mountains out there. That's been effective there
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: as well. So once again not just a tool for people,
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: but very affected against animals as well.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: It's really incredible. If you want to get more information
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: on how you and your family member can protect themselves
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: with the burner launcher, go to Berna dot com. That's
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: by r NA dot com. Again by RNA dot com
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Berna dot com. Senator, Let's start with these meetings that
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you just had in Mexico, and you mentioned the issue
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of safety and security that obviously is top of mind
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: for so many Americans. Explain what their reaction was, what
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: they had to say about the border being shut down
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: in essence compared to wide open border. Look, they're one
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: of their top stimulus of their economy is illegal immigrant
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: sending money back to Mexico. So this is going to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: have some sort of economic effect on their country, I'm
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: sure as well.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I started the meeting with a long meeting with Juan
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Ramon de la Fuente, who is the Secretary of Foreign
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Affairs of Mexico, and it was a very positive meeting.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: He is the minister, speaks fluent English, he is someone
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: who has spent significant time in the United States. He's
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: a professional economist, and we talked. We actually started by
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: talking about areas of cooperation and in particular trade and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: commerce between the United States and Mexico. Every year, the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: United States and Mexico, that we have roughly eight hundred
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: billion dollars worth of trade and commerce between our nations
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: and about three hundred billion of that is between Texas
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: and Mexico. And so one of by big focuses. My
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: number one priority in the Senate without fail has been jobs,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: focusing on more jobs, higher wages, greater opportunity, helping small businesses,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and so expanding trade between Texas and Mexico is good
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: for Texas farmers and ranchers and small businesses. And so
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: we talked about that. We talked about the four new
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: bridges that I've taken the lead on getting built between
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: South Texas and Mexico, to expand the ability for our
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: farmers and ranchers to sell our livestock south of the border,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to span our ability for us to sell energy south
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: of the border, to expand our ability to export manufactured
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: goods south of the border, and so on that I
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: would say the Ford Minister and I had a very
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: positive meeting, and there's steps that are going forward that
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: have been taken under the Trump administration that are expanding
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: trade mutually beneficial trade for both countries. But then we
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: shifted into okay, that will happen in an environment where
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: security is maintained, and I pressed, I said, listen, the
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: United States wants to be a friend of Mexico. We
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: want to be your partner. And I pointed out to him,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: and I pointed this out also to the Defense Secretary.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: I said, listen.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Under Joe Biden, the Mexican drug cartels became unbelievably wealthy.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Here's a stat from the New York Times. In twenty eighteen,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: the Mexican drug cartels made roughly five hundred million dollars
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: from human trafficking twenty eighteen. Last year, again, according to
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: the New York Times, the cartels made over thirteen billion
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: dollars from drug trafficking. That is a two thousand, six
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: hundred percent increase. And what Joe Biden and the Democrats
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: did to Mexico was horrible. Mexico paid a very real
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: price for that night. And I told the Foreign Secretary
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: of Defense. Secretary, I said, listen to America was not
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: being a good friend with Joe Biden and the Democrats
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: open borders. Those open borders, they did massive damage to
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the US, but they also did massive damage to Mexico
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: because we took transnational criminal organizations who are vicious murderers,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: who commit unspeakable atrocities, and Joe Biden the Democrats flooded
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: tens of billions of dollars into them, turning them into
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: dominant economic forces in the nation of Mexico. And there
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: are countless numbers of Mexicans who have been murdered, who
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: have been kidnapped, who have been tortured because of Joe
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Biden and the Democrats' open borders. And so my request
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: to the Mexican government is, and I said, listen, the
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: United States stands ready to assist Mexico in eliminating the cartels.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: The twenty twenty four election in the United States was
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: clearly a mandate from the American people to close these
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: open borders. President Trump has rightly declared the cartels to
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: be terrorist organizations, and so my pitch to them was
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: work hand in hand with us to take it to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: a different level, to take those cartels out.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: You talk about that, what is their response, because everybody
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: knows that. Look, the infiltration of the cartels in Mexico's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: government is significant and it's real, and I think everybody
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: knows that that knows anything about the cartels down there
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in general, when you say this, is it lip service
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: or is there a sense of like, hey, maybe you
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: guys can help us do something we can't even do ourselves.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: So unfortunately, the response was flat out no.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Yesterday, Mexico's President Claudia Scheinbaum was asked about my trip,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: about the offer I made for the United States to
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: assist Mexico in eliminating the cartels. And her answer was
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: absolutely not. No, we do not want America's help. This
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: is Mexico. We will handle it internally. Essentially, we don't
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: want the Yankee gringos in our country. She didn't quite
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: say that, but that was the message of it. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I would say that was consistent with what I was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: hearing from the Foreign Secretary and the Defense Secretary, both
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: of them. The phrase they repeated most often was sovereignty.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: They kept saying sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty, Mexico. We want our sovereignty.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: We don't want the American military in Mexico. And I'll
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: tell you Ben, I tried to make an historical analogy
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: and compare it to some other instances. I pointed out
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: number one, Del Salvador, and I said, look, I was
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: just in El Salvador a few days ago, and I
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: described to them the unbelievable success that El Salvador had
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: dealing with the gangs in MS thirteen eighteenth Street barrio.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: They were just like the Mexican drug cartels. They were
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: vicious transnational organizations. And when you had a leader, President Bukeley,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: who decided I'm going to value the innocent civilians, the
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: moms and dads and the kids of El Salvador, more
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: than those criminals. They knew who the criminals were. They
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: went and arrested them, and they locked them up. And
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: by the way, if you did not see our podcast
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: on Wednesday, if you did not listen to our podcast
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: on Wednesday, let me encourage you to listen to it,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: because I take you inside the Seacot Prison, the maximum
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: security prison where these very worst gang members are held.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I described or never seen anything remotely like this. I
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: describe it in detail. And I also recount an extended
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: conversation that I have with an MS thirteen member who
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: joined in the United States and faalse Church Virginia, who
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: lived for years in America, lived for years in Texas,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: and he described some of the crimes that he committed
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: in the United States and some of the crimes he
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: committed in El Salvador. If you didn't listen to it,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: go back and listen to it. But I use that
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: example with the Mexican leaders to say we can do this.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: You know who the cartel members are, go after them
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: and have the same political will. What is missing is
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: the political will, have the political will that El Salvador
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: did to say, we are not going to let the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: cartels be effectively the government of Mexico. We are going
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: to let the people. I made the argument they were
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: talking about sovereignty. I said, you want to talk about
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: sovereignty when the cartels are allowed to control the country
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: and terrify people. I described a mayor of a northern
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Mexico city who I visited with a number of years ago,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: described how in his region there were over more than
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: three thousand disappearances of Mexican nationals who just disappear. The
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: cartels kidnap them, they murder them, they throw them in
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: mass graves and abandon them. That is not the behavior
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: of a sovereign country that is protecting its citizens the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: way it should be. And so my pitch was followed
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the example of El Salvador. And then there was a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: second example I used been which was Columbia. Colombia in
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the early two thousands, George W. Bush was president, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: he made an offer to President Eurebae of Columbia. He said, Colombia,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: like El Salvador a few years ago, like Mexico, now
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: had narco terrorists controlling the country, had the murdering police
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: officers and murdering soldiers and journalists and judges and elected officials,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: terrorizing the citizenry, and Colombia President of Rebe demonstrated some
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: of the same clear eyed resolve that President Bukelli and
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: El Salvador's demonstrated. And President of Rebe said said to
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the United States, yes, we want your help. And the
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: American military came into Colombia and just all but eradicated
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: the terrorist came in with incredible force and effectiveness, but
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: did it hand in hand with the partnership of the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Colombian government. That was called Plan Colombia. And I said,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: follow that model, we will work hand in hand with you.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: And I got to tell you both the Defense Minister
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: and the Foreign Minister and then ultimately President Shinbaum yesterday
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: said no, we do not want to work with the
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: American military. We're not willing to do so. That is unfortunate.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I understand the Mexican politics. I got to say, the
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: first night I was there, there was actually a fistfight
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: in their Congress. Two Mexican senators began punching each other
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: on the face on this issue.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: So the level of this are amazing.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: By the way, because I mean, when you see the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: news break like that, you're like.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, that was right.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: When I landed in Mexico City and I looked at
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: the video of two senators getting in a fist fight,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: and it was over, should we accept America's help to
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: use military force to take out the cartels? And listen,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: there's a long history of politics in Mexico where it
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: is good politics. Generally speaking, it is good populist politics
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: to rail against the Yankee imperialist from the north, and
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: that that has elected quite a few politicians in Mexico
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: saying we're going to stand up to America. Shinbaum is
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: a protoche of am Loo.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Amlow ran on.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: A hard left anti American agenda. Shinebaum less so. But
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Mexico has a complicated situation because their economy is intertwined
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: with the United States. We are by far their largest
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: trading partner, and so there's a combination. Some of what
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: they're doing when they're saying no, we will not let
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: the United States military into our nation is that they
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: are appealing to those populous and nationalist sentiments in Mexico.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I was trying hard to say, listen, this is an
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: opportunity for you. Your nation will be safer, your citizens
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: will be safer if you accept our help.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: When you look at the response now, I think many
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Americans are going to ask the question, Okay, this goes
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: back to the Trump doctrine of declaring these cartels terrorist organizations. Yes,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and that gives us more ability to hit them. It
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is is your calculus change because of this trip? Is
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: what is your thoughts about moving forward? If they're just
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: not willing to do it or they're so compromise they
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: can't do it in Mexico.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: So I will tell you, particularly with the Defense minister,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I had a very frank and candid conversation. General Travilla
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: came in. He argued, at first, at great length. He says, well,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the cartels are not terrorist. We do not think they're terrorists.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: They're just ordinary criminals.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: They do a straight phase.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Oh he did.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: He had a whole PowerPoint presentation and and I listened
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: to him. I thought it was interesting that that's how
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: he chose to begin his presentation.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: And he also.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Argued, pointing to some some military exercises in which Mexico
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: had done very well and had done better than the
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: United States, and some military exercises.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: And I didn't bother to.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Argue with him on that's It's like, okay, fine, you
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: guys are great like like I I'm.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Not interesting in that conversation, right.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not interested in a context in a contest where
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: we're measuring appendages. And and this same Defense secretary there
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: there was a House member who previously was down there
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: who apparently got in a screaming match with him over
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: exactly this question of whose military is tougher. And I'm like, look,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to vest at any time and energy
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: arguing with you. We both know the answer to that,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: so so you can say whatever you want to say
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: face and that's fine. What I said to him was
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: the following I said. And I said, listen, I understand
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: that you care about your sovereignty. That's good and important
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: that you should care about your sovereignty. America cares deeply
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: about our sovereignty. But I said, you need to understand
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: these cartels. If these were just criminal organizations in Mexico,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: and if they were just killing Mexican nationals, that would
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: be tragic, but it would not be our concern. They're
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: not just killing nationals in your own country. These Mexican
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: drug cartils. Cartels are killing vast numbers of them Americans.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: They're committing crimes in the United States. They're murdering people,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: they're raping people, They're dealing vast amounts of drugs. Last year,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: we had over one hundred thousand people die of drug overdoses,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: seventy percent of which was fentanyl. The impact on the
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: United States is enormously harmful. And I said, in light
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: of that, because we believe in our sovereignty as well,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: we are going to act. And I told the Defense Secretary.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I also had a press conference and I said this
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: in the press conference, I said, I find it very
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: hard to believe that four years will pass and the
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: United States will not act in a serious military manner
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: against these drug cartels. And I pointed out to both
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: the Defense and Foreign Secretary. I said, listen, I'm not
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: the commander in chief. That's not my decision to make.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: The ambassador, the United States ambassador from Mexico was sitting
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: next to me. I said, that's not his decision to make.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: That decision is made by President Donald Trump. And I
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: believe sometime in the next four years you will see strong, long,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: decisive military action against the cartels. I said, the choice
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: you have to make is which way do you want
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: it to go. We would much rather it be cooperative.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: We'd much rather it be the American government working hand
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: in hand with the Mexican government. That's the best way,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: as friends and neighbors for.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Us to do this. Sure, but if you refuse.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: To act, I think it is extremely unlikely that Donald
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Trump will allow four years to go without acting militarily.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And the two examples I used also, I said, listen,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: you can talk about sovereignty all you like, but we
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: just a matter of weeks ago sent two B two's
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: across the globe to deliver bunker buster bombs to obliterate
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Iran's nuclear weapons facilities. The United States is perfectly capable
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: of acting and projecting force anywhere on the planet if
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: American citizens are threatened, if it is endangering the lives
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: of Americans, and these Mexican drug cartels are most assuredly
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: doing that. I said, you know what, we didn't ask
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: the Eye, I told this permission to do so. We
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: did so because we had a strong commander in chief
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: who was protecting the citizens of America. And I said, likewise,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: when America went and took out Osama bin Laden. I said,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: in that instance, we did cooperate with the Pakistani government.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: We did inform them and work work with them to
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: take out bin Laden because bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: But I said, I'll tell you what I think, if
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: the Pakistani government had resisted US, I believe we would
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: have taken out bin Laden as well, because he was
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: a terrorist, and he was a terrorist who had killed
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: thousands of Americans.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: And so you've got a choice to make.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: I believe America is going to act, and we are
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: going to act very directly on these cartels because they've
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: killed too many Americans for US to sit idly by.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: And your choice is.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Do you want to be our partner in doing so
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: or do you want to read about it in the
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: newspaper and watch it on the six o'clock news.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Response, I got to ask what was it? Finally?
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Look, the response was the president doing a press conference
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: and she said, no, we will not allow the US
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: military into the United States. It was defiance. It was
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: it was giving in to the populist stand up to
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: America rhetoric. You know that's fine to say in a
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: press conference when when you're feeding red meat to the masses.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: We'll see what she says to the Trump administration directly.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: And I think this is going to be an ongoing
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: discussion for the next three and a half years. But
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: as I said, I believe that President Trump, he's already
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: secured the border. I think he's going to act decisively
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: against these cartels who have been waging war on the
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: United States of America. And during the Biden administration, not
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: only were we not fighting back, but Joe Biden the
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Democrats were actively complicit in waging that war.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Which center brings us to part two of this conversation.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Let's bring it back home.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: JD.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Pritzker is a interesting man. He's got a lot of money.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: He's a governor, and he thinks he's succeeding at fighting crime.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: But getting illegal immigrant killers and rapists off our streets
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: is quote unquote dangerous, he says. And now it is
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: apparently anti American. Tie that into your trip to Mexico.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, you want to talk about to people the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: kid gotten together and had one heck of a lunch.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: The people you met with with JD, they'd be like
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: kumbayayeing this stuff.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: Well, JB. Pritzker. He is a billionaire.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Like many Democrat billionaires, he did not make his money.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: He inherited it. He inherited a vast fortune. And he's
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: now the governor of Illinois and presiding over a state
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: where the people are fleeing his state, where crime is
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: out of control, where left wing policies are are an
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: absolute disaster, and it's striking. He has the same reality
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: denying vision. Gavin Newsom has the same thing in California
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: where they both You know, it reminds me of that
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: meme of the dumpster burning in the background and saying,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: you know, everything fine here. That that is today's Democrats
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: just telling you don't believe your lying eyes. Just make
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: sure to duck the bullets when you're in your living room.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: But everything other than that is great.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: JB.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Pritzer says he's succeeding at fighting violent crime in Chicago,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and you're right. It is reminiscent of these Mexican government
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: leaders who said they're handling it just fine. Look at
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: the great progress they're making, and you look at the
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: cartels who are murdering Mexicans with impunity and who are
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: committing vast numbers of crime in the United States.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Here give a listen to JB. Prisker, Governor Illinois.
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: What we won't do, however, is engage in what is
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: a federal effort. That is to say, they have their
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: job immigration. We have our job, which is to fight
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: violent crime on the streets of our city. And by
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: the way, we're succeeding at that job. But when they
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: bring people in and don't coordinate with us, they're going
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: to cause enormous problems.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: So going to cause enormous problems they're center. I mean,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: if that doesn't sound like a threat, I don't know
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: what is.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: So.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Pritzker claims he is succeeding at fighting violent crime in Chicago.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Chicago has had the most murders of any American city
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: for thirteen consecutive years, thirteen years in a row. Chicago
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: is number one. Chicago's murder rate is three times higher
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: than Los Angeles. It is five times higher than New
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: York City, it is two times higher than Islamabad, that
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: it is fifteen times higher than Delhi. And the answer
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: to a billionaire democrat who is surrounded by police officers
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: at all times, so he's not worried about being mugged
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: on the streets of Chicago. That's not a threat he's facing.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: He says, we've got the highest murder rate in America.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: We're succeeding. This is Democrats success, you know. But he
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: goes even further. He expresses great dismay that if President
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Trump is successful in turning around crime in Chicago, that
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: would be a bad thing.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Listen to the second clip.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: So this is dangerous. They shouldn't be doing it. It's
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: anti American, it's un American. And I would tell her
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: to maybe check herself for what does she really believe?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Nothing says we're fighting crime, like threatening the woman who's
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: out there in Department of Homescurity Secretary Nome and saying
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you need to check yourself right and saying it's dangerous
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and un American and anti American to go after a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: legal American killers and rapists.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: It's stunning. The Democrats are becoming more and more open
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: that if they have a conflict between a murderer and
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: a victim, if they have a conflict between a Venezuelan
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: gang member and an innocent American citizen, if they have
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: a conflict between a rapist and a single mom, if
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: they have a conflict between a violent sexual predator and
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: your children. The Democrats will pick the criminal every single time.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: They're not even pretending anymore to go after those criminals.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Democrat Governor Pritzker says is dangerous, anti American and un American.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: And I think the American people are getting fed up.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: You know, there was a new poll from ap Slash
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: NORC that found that a large majority of Americans sixty
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: eight percent, see crime as a major problem in large cities.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: And the approach of the Democrat Party is they're not
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: going to do anything about it. In fact, the highest
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: murder rate in the US they describe as a success.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: And what it is, it's reminiscent of the leadership in
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Al Salvador when they had the highest murder rate in
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: the world, and they describe what they were doing as
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: a success. And the only answer is new political leadership
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: that actually says keeping our citizens safe is our number
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: one priority, and we're going to do so. We've seen
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: what happens when President Trump does so in the United
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: States and the border is immediately secured. We had a
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: ninety nine percent decrease in illegal crossings. We saw what
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: happened with President Bukele in El Salvador, where they had
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: a ninety eight percent drop in homicides. Ironically, we saw
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: what happened in San Francisco where President she came to
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: San Francisco and Gavin Newsom immediately cleaned up San Francisco,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: removed the homeless people, took the junkies off the street,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: and cleaned up the human feces off the street, all
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: of which demonstrates they know how to do so. If
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: they could do so on Monday, they could do so
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The reason
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: they don't, the reason the crime persists, the reason your
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: family is threatened is because the Democrats politically their ideology,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: they think it's better to side with the criminals than
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: it is with you and that I don't get that,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: but that's where we are, and I do think it's
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: part of the reason we see today's Democrat Party getting
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: more and more extreme and appealing to a smaller and
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: smaller sliver of our society.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Final question on this, I believe now that the Democratic
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Party is in such shambles that they don't even know
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: how to get out of this.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: There is no real leader.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: We're being told Obama's coming back and going to like
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: quote start mentoring people in the Democratic Party. That's how
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: desperate they are. The same guy that's the godfather, as
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I described it on Laura Ingram's show on Fox Friday Night,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: as the godfather of this type of insandi and anarchy.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: He's the that created the aocs of the party and
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: gave them power. And so you look at the Democratic
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Party now. I don't want to be over confident, but
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: what I do want to say is I feel like
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: these midterms may actually be a big opportunity for Republican
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: candidates coming up. Usually you give up seats when you
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: have all three branches in the midterms, there's a chance
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: this could actually work out for Concertives, as you mentioned,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: because the voters are so sick and tired of the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: left not keeping them safe. It's not even about the economy,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: it's about safety.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Look, I hope so, Ben, I'll confess I'm significantly more
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: worried than you. We've got cross cutting forces for the midterms.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: On the positive side for Republicans, the Democrats have gotten
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: so extreme, so whacked j out there that it seems
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: like they took a list of a dozen eighty twenty issues,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: and they said, let's take the twenty percent side of
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: all of them. And in some instances they've even taken
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: ninety ten issues and said, let's appeal to the smallest
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: liver of America we can. Generally speaking, that is a
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: really bad political strategy, so that augurs in our favor.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: On the other side, we have a real enthusiasm gap.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: And this worries me about the midterms, which is an
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: awful lot of Americans are really happy with the success
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: we've seen in the first eight months of twenty twenty five.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: President Trump has been winning major victories. The danger is
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: that when people are happy, when they're seeing success, they're complacent,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: they stay home. I'll tell you what. The left is
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: not complacent. They are in rage. They are out raising
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Republicans three to one. They hate Donald Trump. And we
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: saw we just saw a special election in Iowa state
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: senator seat that Trump had won that district by eleven points.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: They just elected a Democrat state senator in that district
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: that I believe was an enthusiasm gap. That the left
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: is motivated by rage and hate and and and that
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: means that that they are definitely showing up. And it's
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: our job to make sure that that that the the
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: common sense majority of this country is not complacent but
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: realizes if we don't show up to defend what we've got,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: that that's how you get these whack jobs elected in
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: the first place.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, grade point, it's gonna be a lot that we're
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: gonna have to watch, certainly going into the midterm elections.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Don't forget. We do this show on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: so at that subscriber auto download button wherever you get
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: your podcasts, uh, and so that you don't missing an episode.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Also on this in between days, grab my podcast, the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson podcasts as well. I'll keep you up to
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: down on the latest breaking news and the Senate and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.