Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Verdict Year in Review Part 1 : Border Chaos as Title 42 Ends, The Trump Indictment, & Big Victories for Texas

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Verdict Year in Review Part 1 : Border Chaos as Title 42 Ends, The Trump Indictment, & Big Victories for Texas · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
0:04
Speaker 2: and as we get ready for a new year, it's
0:07
Speaker 2: important that we take a look back at some of
0:09
Speaker 2: the biggest stories of this past year, some of the
0:13
Speaker 2: biggest conversations at Senator Ted Cruz and I had, and
0:16
Speaker 2: that's exactly what we're going to do. Give you some
0:18
Speaker 2: of those big stories and things to look forward to
0:21
Speaker 2: or issues that you may need to be paying attention
0:24
Speaker 2: to heading into twenty twenty four.
0:27
Speaker 1: Senator, you're at the border.
0:28
Speaker 2: You are there where Title forty two has literally just expired.
0:35
Speaker 2: What does this mean for the country and what have
0:37
Speaker 2: you seen today?
0:39
Speaker 3: Well, Ben, you and I are recording this. It is
0:41
Speaker 3: right now twelve fourteen am Friday morning. Title forty two
0:47
Speaker 3: expired at midnight, So for fourteen minutes, the last legal
0:52
Speaker 3: authority the Biden administration was using to deport illegal aliens
0:57
Speaker 3: is no longer in effect. From the first day of
1:02
Speaker 3: the Biden presidency until today, we've seen over six and
1:06
Speaker 3: a half million people crossing into this country, the worst
1:09
Speaker 3: illegal immigration in the history of our country. As of
1:13
Speaker 3: right now, it is about to get much much worse,
1:19
Speaker 3: and so I flew down this afternoon Thursday afternoon and
1:23
Speaker 3: came to the southern border with three other senators, with
1:28
Speaker 3: Roger Marshall, with John Hoven and Ted Budd and the
1:32
Speaker 3: four of us wanted to see firsthand what is happening here.
1:35
Speaker 3: We wanted to be here for the expiration of Title
1:38
Speaker 3: forty two to let the American people know what is
1:41
Speaker 3: happening and that the Biden administration wants this absolute catastrophe
1:47
Speaker 3: to unfold.
1:49
Speaker 2: It is truly shocking to watch the images that so
1:53
Speaker 2: many Americans saw, and we'll see over the weekend of
1:56
Speaker 2: the drone footage if you've been watching Fox News channel
2:00
Speaker 2: of tens of thousands of people waiting to come across
2:04
Speaker 2: the border. And there was a warning that was given,
2:08
Speaker 2: advice that was given not only to the Biden administration
2:13
Speaker 2: by border patrol, but we actually have a guest with
2:16
Speaker 2: us tonight that warned the Biden administration that this was
2:19
Speaker 2: going to happen. And the Biden transition team clearly said, no, no, no,
2:24
Speaker 2: we don't care about the chaos and the anarchy.
2:26
Speaker 1: We want this by design.
2:29
Speaker 3: Well that's exactly right, and so tonight, Ben, you and
2:32
Speaker 3: I are joined by someone who has become a very
2:34
Speaker 3: good friend of mine. Brandon Judd Brandon is the president
2:37
Speaker 3: of the National Border Patrol Council, that is the union,
2:40
Speaker 3: the national union for the men and women of the
2:43
Speaker 3: Border Patrol all across this country. And I have spent
2:48
Speaker 3: hundreds of hours with Brandon and with the heroes of
2:51
Speaker 3: the Border Patrol. I've been blessed to go out with
2:53
Speaker 3: them repeatedly on midnight patrol down on the border. I've
2:58
Speaker 3: been been with them at midnight muster. I've been with
3:01
Speaker 3: them as they're processing this deluge of illegal immigrants. I've
3:06
Speaker 3: been with them to encourage those heroes while they have
3:10
Speaker 3: political superiors who undermine them, who belittle them, who insult them,
3:16
Speaker 3: and who deliberately prevent them from doing their jobs. And
3:19
Speaker 3: I have to say it is a miracle that they
3:22
Speaker 3: continue to show up to work every day to protect
3:24
Speaker 3: this country, even while facing a president and an administration
3:29
Speaker 3: that is doing everything it can to make it impossible
3:33
Speaker 3: for them to succeed at their task.
3:35
Speaker 2: Brendan, I got to ask you about the warning and
3:38
Speaker 2: the advice that you gave to the Biden administration. You
3:43
Speaker 2: gave advice you told the Biden transition team before even
3:48
Speaker 2: Biden took office, what they need to do to keep
3:51
Speaker 2: a secure border. You represent, obviously as the president of
3:54
Speaker 2: National Border Patrol Council border patrol agents who right now
4:00
Speaker 2: I'd bless all of you for what you do, because
4:02
Speaker 2: I can't imagine going to work every day knowing that
4:04
Speaker 2: the administration is working against you the way that they
4:08
Speaker 2: are right now.
4:08
Speaker 1: But what did you tell them?
4:11
Speaker 2: And and you knew this day would come, and this
4:14
Speaker 2: hour would come, and this moment would come if they
4:16
Speaker 2: did and put in place the policies that they have
4:19
Speaker 2: now put on all.
4:19
Speaker 1: Of us, not just once.
4:21
Speaker 4: I sat down with the transition team three separate times
4:25
Speaker 4: to discuss the issues that we face on the border,
4:27
Speaker 4: to discuss what could be done to keep the American
4:31
Speaker 4: people safe. And that's what border security is all about.
4:34
Speaker 4: We've got to keep Themerican people sary.
4:35
Speaker 3: Brandon, this was not just the Trump transition team, although
4:38
Speaker 3: you sat down with them as well, talking.
4:40
Speaker 1: To I was on the Trump transition.
4:41
Speaker 3: You were on the Trump transition team. But when Joe
4:43
Speaker 3: Biden came in, you sat I did with them, I did,
4:46
Speaker 3: and you tried to help them not have this disaster.
4:50
Speaker 4: I did the best that I could I didn't vote
4:53
Speaker 4: for Joe Biden. I don't like Joe Biden, and I
4:54
Speaker 4: didn't like him as the Senator. I didn't like him
4:56
Speaker 4: as the Vice president. But I did want him to
4:58
Speaker 4: succeed as the President of United States, because if he succeeds,
5:00
Speaker 4: the American people succeed.
5:02
Speaker 1: That's all I cared about. And so I sat down
5:03
Speaker 1: with the Transition team.
5:04
Speaker 4: I sat down with them three separate times, and we
5:07
Speaker 4: went over in depth what needs to be done on
5:10
Speaker 4: the border secure to secure the border, and we even
5:13
Speaker 4: stayed within the parameters that Biden gave on the campaign trail.
5:17
Speaker 4: It's not like we offered them up radical ideas. It's
5:21
Speaker 4: not like we were telling them stick with the Trump policies,
5:23
Speaker 4: although I would have loved to have stuck with those policies.
5:26
Speaker 4: We worked within their parameters and they still rejected it,
5:29
Speaker 4: which clearly showed to me that they didn't care about
5:31
Speaker 4: securing the border. They didn't care about the American people
5:34
Speaker 4: who they're supposed to be protecting, and so it was
5:38
Speaker 4: really disgusting to me. And not only did I sit
5:40
Speaker 4: down with the Transition team, I actually spoke with Secretary
5:42
Speaker 4: of my Orchis prior to his confirmation and discussed the
5:47
Speaker 4: issues with him as well. And so when you look
5:50
Speaker 4: at this, it's not like they can claim that they
5:54
Speaker 4: didn't know. It's not like they can say we didn't
5:56
Speaker 4: know what we needed to do. They knew, They know
5:59
Speaker 4: exactly what they need to do. They knew what they
6:02
Speaker 4: needed to do. And so you have to ask yourself,
6:05
Speaker 4: are they doing this on purpose? And I think that
6:07
Speaker 4: the only answer is yes, they are. They are doing
6:09
Speaker 4: this on purpose. They are pandering to open border activists.
6:12
Speaker 4: Look at the West Wing, Look look at the West Wing.
6:15
Speaker 4: All of the political appointees in the West Wing they
6:18
Speaker 4: come from activist backgrounds. Look at the Look at the
6:20
Speaker 4: political appointees in DHS. They come from activist backgrounds. So
6:24
Speaker 4: now you have activists that are running legitimate law enforcement agencies.
6:29
Speaker 3: Brandon, you were with me when I brought down nineteen
6:33
Speaker 3: senators to the boarder and we went in to the
6:37
Speaker 3: Biden cages, to the tent city at Donnaye, and there
6:41
Speaker 3: the Biden administration refused to let TV cameras in. They
6:44
Speaker 3: refused to let Fox News in, They refused to let
6:46
Speaker 3: ABC News in because they said that the that the
6:50
Speaker 3: cameraman might have COVID. Now, mind you, these these Biden
6:54
Speaker 3: cages were packed wall to wall and as you'll recall,
6:58
Speaker 3: and Brandon, you'll recall, well, because you were standing there,
7:00
Speaker 3: I pulled out my cell phone and I began taking
7:02
Speaker 3: pictures and recording it. And the Biden DHS had sent
7:06
Speaker 3: they'd sent this little political operative who jumped in front
7:10
Speaker 3: of the camera and tried to block me. And she
7:13
Speaker 3: was she was the right hand to to to the
7:18
Speaker 3: head of CBP, and her job was prevent the American
7:22
Speaker 3: people from seeing the disaster they were creating. And so
7:26
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of laughed and said, well, you're
7:29
Speaker 3: about to make yourself famous. And I think that that
7:32
Speaker 3: video that I took on my cell phone because they
7:33
Speaker 3: wouldn't let news cameras in, it ran on just about
7:36
Speaker 3: every news station.
7:37
Speaker 1: It did, It did, and it showed.
7:39
Speaker 3: And at one point she was yelling at me, respect
7:42
Speaker 3: these people, respect these their dignity, and I said, you
7:46
Speaker 3: respect these people. You're the one that have locked them
7:48
Speaker 3: up in cages like animals, and you leave. They were stacked.
7:54
Speaker 3: You saw children shoulder to shoulder lying on the floor
7:57
Speaker 3: on mats with with with silver reflective blankets. There was
8:02
Speaker 3: a rate of COVID positivity among the kids that was
8:05
Speaker 3: through the roof, and the Biden policies kept having thousands
8:09
Speaker 3: upon thousands, and ultimately millions of people coming.
8:13
Speaker 4: As a federal employee, as a border patrol Asian. That
8:15
Speaker 4: was one of the funniest things I had ever seen
8:18
Speaker 4: in my career. It was absolutely great to see this
8:22
Speaker 4: little political appointed, this little activist, just absolutely lose her mind.
8:26
Speaker 4: And that goes back to the problem that we're dealing
8:29
Speaker 4: with this administration. We all want to have an honest conversation.
8:33
Speaker 4: When I say we all want to the honest people
8:36
Speaker 4: want to have a conversation so the American people understand
8:39
Speaker 4: what's going on. I don't care if the American people
8:41
Speaker 4: agree with me. I don't care if they come back
8:44
Speaker 4: and say that, you know, I'm wrong. All I want
8:47
Speaker 4: is I want them to have all of the information.
8:50
Speaker 4: I want them to be able to make an informed
8:52
Speaker 4: opinion upon all of the evidence, not just the rhetoric
8:56
Speaker 4: that comes out of the White House. And if we
8:58
Speaker 4: have that honest conversation, I am absolutely convinced that the
9:01
Speaker 4: American people will agree that the border needs to be secured.
9:04
Speaker 4: And I am absolutely convinced that they will blame what
9:07
Speaker 4: is currently going on on the border on this administration,
9:11
Speaker 4: and that they will know that this administration is actually
9:13
Speaker 4: killing American citizens. Fentanyl poisoning is taking place. Seventy thousand
9:19
Speaker 4: US citizens are losing their lives every year to fentanyl poisoning.
9:23
Speaker 4: And it's all because the Biden administration does not allow
9:25
Speaker 4: us to go after the cartels.
9:27
Speaker 1: They're enriching the cartels.
9:29
Speaker 3: Brandon, how frustrated are border patrol agents right now? Give
9:33
Speaker 3: me the real sentiment of the men and women on
9:35
Speaker 3: the front.
9:36
Speaker 4: We're sick of him. We're sick of him. He's got
9:38
Speaker 4: to go. As far as we're concerned, he has got
9:41
Speaker 4: to go. And we were absolutely demralized.
9:45
Speaker 1: I believe that.
9:45
Speaker 4: Every hard working person in this country, they want to
9:50
Speaker 4: feel like their job means something. They want to feel
9:52
Speaker 4: like they have accomplished something. They want to go home
9:55
Speaker 4: every day thinking that I did a good job. Border
9:58
Speaker 4: patrol agents cannot do that right now. We know that
10:01
Speaker 4: every single time we put on a uniform that we're
10:04
Speaker 4: not doing anything. All we're doing is actually aiding in
10:07
Speaker 4: a betting these criminal cartels with facilitating the transport of
10:12
Speaker 4: illegal aliens throughout the entire United States, the fentanyl that's
10:16
Speaker 4: coming in. We want to go after these cartels, We
10:18
Speaker 4: want to go after their profits. We want to stop
10:21
Speaker 4: sex trafficking. We want to save migrants' lives, and this
10:25
Speaker 4: administration won't let us.
10:27
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11:53
Speaker 2: There is so much this Trump indictment that needs to
11:55
Speaker 2: be broken down. That's going to be the goal today
11:58
Speaker 2: for people to understand this indictment. Let's walk through exactly
12:04
Speaker 2: what they have charged Donald Trump with and also your
12:07
Speaker 2: overview how serious is this in your opinion scale one
12:11
Speaker 2: to ten.
12:11
Speaker 1: We've seen like in New York there was not a
12:13
Speaker 1: lot of people worried about that indictment.
12:15
Speaker 2: They thought it was frivolous, they thought it was kind
12:16
Speaker 2: of absurd, satul limitations.
12:18
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of problems in court. Is
12:20
Speaker 1: this different?
12:22
Speaker 3: Well, the last podcast we did on Friday, we did
12:26
Speaker 3: it right after news of the indictment broke, but the
12:28
Speaker 3: indictment wasn't public. What has changed between then and now
12:31
Speaker 3: is we now have the indictment so we can see
12:33
Speaker 3: specifically what they brought. I will say now Having reviewed
12:37
Speaker 3: the specific indictment, it's pretty underwhelming. There's not a lot
12:43
Speaker 3: of there there. We talked quite a bit before the
12:47
Speaker 3: indictment about how I believed it was extremely likely that
12:50
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice was going to indict Donald Trump,
12:55
Speaker 3: that Merrick Garland I believe wants to indict Donald Trump.
12:58
Speaker 3: I think he came into office wanting to indict and
13:00
Speaker 3: to prosecute Donald Trump. But we also talked about the
13:04
Speaker 3: problem that he couldn't just base it on the classified
13:07
Speaker 3: documents because it so happened just that everyone else had
13:10
Speaker 3: did the same damn thing. And so we discussed on
13:14
Speaker 3: this podcast how I believe they would really build their
13:17
Speaker 3: case as an obstruction case. What's interesting is they did that,
13:24
Speaker 3: but the bulk of the indictment focuses on the classified documents.
13:27
Speaker 3: So if you look at the indictment, there are thirty
13:30
Speaker 3: seven counts in the indictment. It starts with criminal offenses
13:36
Speaker 3: concerning the wilful retention of national defense information, with holding
13:41
Speaker 3: a document of record, corruptly concealing a document of record,
13:47
Speaker 3: concealing a document of a federal investigation, a scheme to
13:50
Speaker 3: conceal and if you look at it all right, so
13:52
Speaker 3: counts one through thirty one, So the bulk of the
13:56
Speaker 3: indictment are multiple counts of willful retention of national defense information,
14:02
Speaker 3: and by the text of it, the terms of that
14:06
Speaker 3: crime are serious. Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to,
14:11
Speaker 3: or control over any document writing, codebooks, sign signal books, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance,
14:21
Speaker 3: or note relating to the national defense, or information relating
14:26
Speaker 3: to the national defense, which information the possessor has reason
14:31
Speaker 3: to believe could be used to the injury of the
14:33
Speaker 3: United States or the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits,
14:39
Speaker 3: or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts
14:43
Speaker 3: to communicate, delivered, or transmitted, or caused to be communicated,
14:46
Speaker 3: delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled
14:50
Speaker 3: to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails
14:54
Speaker 3: to deliver it to the officer employee of the United
14:56
Speaker 3: States entitled to receive it. Whoever being entrusted with, or
15:02
Speaker 3: having lawful possession of, or control of any document writing, codebook,
15:06
Speaker 3: signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note,
15:12
Speaker 3: or information relating to the national defense through gross negligence,
15:17
Speaker 3: permits the same to be removed from its proper place
15:19
Speaker 3: of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust,
15:24
Speaker 3: or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or having
15:28
Speaker 3: knowledge that the same has been illegally moved from its
15:30
Speaker 3: proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation
15:33
Speaker 3: of its trust, or lost or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed,
15:36
Speaker 3: and fails to make prompt report of such lost, theft, abstraction,
15:41
Speaker 3: or destruction to his superior officer. The consequence of all
15:45
Speaker 3: of that is that you face a maximum fine of
15:48
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars an imprisonment of not
15:52
Speaker 3: more than ten years, or both a noother thirty one
15:55
Speaker 3: counts of that. If those thirty one counts, if Trump
15:59
Speaker 3: were can victed of it, and if they ran consecutively,
16:03
Speaker 3: he could be sentenced to three hundred and ten years
16:05
Speaker 3: in prison. Now, on the face of that, all that
16:10
Speaker 3: sounds serious, Yeah, except for the problem that this is
16:14
Speaker 3: a president of the United States. This is a president
16:17
Speaker 3: of the United States, and every president of the United
16:20
Speaker 3: States has taken papers from his time as president. That
16:23
Speaker 3: goes back, I suspect back to George Washington. This is
16:28
Speaker 3: a general statute that if you or I are working
16:31
Speaker 3: in government, we have a classified document and we shove
16:34
Speaker 3: them down our underwear, like Sandy Berger, who was the
16:38
Speaker 3: national security advisor to Bill Clinton did. That's the kind
16:42
Speaker 3: of statute that can be used to go after you.
16:45
Speaker 3: In this instance. The press has been breathless about the
16:51
Speaker 3: allegation that Trump stored classified documents in his bathroom, in
16:55
Speaker 3: his shower, and the Biden Department of Justice Media production
17:02
Speaker 3: office helpfully took a picture, which they conveniently released to
17:06
Speaker 3: the world because this is a media production. And I
17:10
Speaker 3: say that tongue in cheek. It should not be a
17:12
Speaker 3: media production. But they are engaged in politics here. We've
17:16
Speaker 3: all seen the picture of the boxes stacked up in
17:19
Speaker 3: the marble bathroom with the chandelier, and there's something titillating
17:24
Speaker 3: about that. That's an odd place to store classified documents
17:28
Speaker 3: in a shower. Although I have to ask you something.
17:33
Speaker 3: Number one, every president has taken records. So just saying, oh,
17:37
Speaker 3: if you have a national security record, you're obviously a felon. Well,
17:41
Speaker 3: if we're going to lock up all our former presidents.
17:43
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not sure Jimmy Carter is gonna last
17:45
Speaker 3: long in doing hard time. Bill Clinton, on the other hand,
17:50
Speaker 3: could do quite well behind cars. But secondly, okay, fine,
17:55
Speaker 3: you've got an embarrassing place for documents to be, which
17:58
Speaker 3: is a bathroom and shower. Is that any more embarrassing
18:02
Speaker 3: than in a cardboard box in a garage next to
18:05
Speaker 3: an antique corvette. Yeah, that would be where Joe Biden
18:08
Speaker 3: kept his documents.
18:10
Speaker 2: Or classified documents on a server in Hillary Clinton's basement,
18:13
Speaker 2: in her bathroom.
18:15
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, the biggest problem the
18:19
Speaker 3: Department of Justice has is the screaming hypocrisy. This breathlessly says,
18:26
Speaker 3: my god, he had a classified document off with his head.
18:32
Speaker 3: And it doesn't say a word about why. They have
18:36
Speaker 3: no concerns at all about Joe Biden about all of
18:38
Speaker 3: the documents he had, not in one place, not in
18:40
Speaker 3: two places, in multiple places, left with no security, left
18:45
Speaker 3: stacked in the garage, unlocked garage. This is so obviously
18:50
Speaker 3: a double standard. This is a double standard driven by
18:55
Speaker 3: a Department of Justice that's blinded by hatred. I think
19:00
Speaker 3: they've convinced themselves that Trump actually is Adolf Hitler, and
19:06
Speaker 3: so nothing else matters. If you're going after Hitler, everything
19:09
Speaker 3: is justified. And well, yes, Joe Biden did the same thing.
19:15
Speaker 3: Well yes, Hillary Clinton did the same thing. But they're
19:18
Speaker 3: not Hitler. This is how they're thinking, goes. They're not Hitler,
19:21
Speaker 3: so it's fine. We like them, they're on our team,
19:25
Speaker 3: so it's not a crime if they do it. But boy,
19:29
Speaker 3: isn't this a good excuse to go after the devil?
19:37
Speaker 3: Looking at this indictment, I think the same thing today
19:41
Speaker 3: that I thought last week when it was announced. This
19:43
Speaker 3: is garbage. It's not the same kind of garbage that
19:51
Speaker 3: Alvin Bragg's New York indictment is. That's just legally frivolous.
19:55
Speaker 3: It's legally frivolous on the face of It's go.
19:57
Speaker 1: To one to ten.
19:58
Speaker 2: How concerned are you over that indict.
20:01
Speaker 3: The brag one? Yeah, one point five?
20:03
Speaker 1: And what about this one?
20:05
Speaker 3: Four point five?
20:07
Speaker 1: What's the biggest difference in.
20:09
Speaker 3: There are several things. Number one, this is the Department of.
20:14
Speaker 2: Justice, unlimited funds, unlimited lawyers, unlimited time.
20:18
Speaker 3: When the Department of Justice comes after you, it is
20:21
Speaker 3: a lot more serious it just is DOJ has resources,
20:25
Speaker 3: has power, It has the ability to devote massive resources,
20:32
Speaker 3: and typically far more talented prosecutors than Alvin Bragg has
20:38
Speaker 3: at his disposal. Alvin Bragg, on the face of it,
20:42
Speaker 3: the indictment is really reaching. It's trying to create crimes
20:46
Speaker 3: where none exists. In this instance, what they allege is
20:54
Speaker 3: arguably criminal for someone who's not the president of the
20:56
Speaker 3: United States. The problem with it is the double stand
21:00
Speaker 3: and the political persecution, rather than whether or not this
21:04
Speaker 3: is in fact a violation of law. The pundits on
21:08
Speaker 3: CNN will all say, ah, they've shown a violation of law.
21:12
Speaker 3: My response is great, Explain to me, why if you
21:16
Speaker 3: want to prosecute Trump, are he and Biden going to
21:20
Speaker 3: be sell mates? If you bring twin prosecutions for the
21:24
Speaker 3: same thing and put Hillary in, have the three of them,
21:28
Speaker 3: you want to prosecute all three of them? We can
21:30
Speaker 3: talk about that. Now. That would be absurd, sure, but
21:33
Speaker 3: that would at least be consistent to say, okay, any
21:37
Speaker 3: of you who had a classified document, we're going to
21:39
Speaker 3: prosecute all of you. All right, that I could understand
21:43
Speaker 3: this is so serious, off with all their heads. But
21:46
Speaker 3: that's not what they're saying with zero explanation. They say,
21:52
Speaker 3: when the guy we don't like who used to be
21:55
Speaker 3: President of the United States, who is a leading candidate
21:58
Speaker 3: to be the next president of the United States, when
22:00
Speaker 3: he does it, we will come after him and try
22:03
Speaker 3: to put him in jail. When our boss does it?
22:06
Speaker 1: Who what?
22:07
Speaker 3: Never heard Joe Biden? Who's that guy?
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23:38
Speaker 2: to two Patriot. There were some big wins that you
23:42
Speaker 2: were leading on legislation, you were leading on for the
23:46
Speaker 2: people in Texas and in this country as well. Let's
23:49
Speaker 2: talk about how big these wins were right before recess.
23:54
Speaker 3: Well, sure, and I want to focus on on a
23:56
Speaker 3: single day, and that was Thursday, the last week of July,
24:00
Speaker 3: is the last day the Senate was in session. We've
24:03
Speaker 3: been on recess for the past several weeks, and so
24:06
Speaker 3: I've been traveling across the state of Texas at doing
24:09
Speaker 3: events all over Texas. But the last day we were
24:11
Speaker 3: in session was the Thursday, the last week of July,
24:15
Speaker 3: and on that one day, I passed eight separate pieces
24:20
Speaker 3: of legislation. It was a big deal to pass eight
24:24
Speaker 3: pieces of legislation. That there are a lot of members
24:28
Speaker 3: of the Senate that don't pass eight pieces of legislation
24:31
Speaker 3: after years of serving in the Senate, and I passed
24:34
Speaker 3: eight in a single day, and so I just wanted
24:36
Speaker 3: to walk through that day to give a sense of
24:37
Speaker 3: what can be accomplished fighting for Texas in a single day.
24:42
Speaker 3: So two of them passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.
24:45
Speaker 3: And as you know, I'm the ranking member, the senior
24:47
Speaker 3: Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and there were two
24:50
Speaker 3: different bills that I'd introduced, both of which passed the
24:53
Speaker 3: Senate Commerce Committee that day. One of them focuses on
24:56
Speaker 3: AM radio and we've talked about that bill here on
24:59
Speaker 3: the podcast before, which is that eight automakers announced that
25:02
Speaker 3: we're pulling AM radios off of brand new cars and trucks.
25:06
Speaker 3: I think that's a terrible step. It's terrible for a
25:09
Speaker 3: lot of reasons, including that it denies people disaster information
25:14
Speaker 3: in the case of a hurricane or a fire or
25:16
Speaker 3: tornado or some other natural disaster.
25:18
Speaker 1: It hurts rural.
25:20
Speaker 3: Americans who rely on AM radio, and it hurts conservative
25:23
Speaker 3: speech in particular. It's an example of corporate America silencing
25:28
Speaker 3: one of the most important platforms for conservative speech. Well,
25:32
Speaker 3: I teamed up with Ed Markey, the single most liberal
25:36
Speaker 3: member of the Senate, in legislation called the AM Radio
25:42
Speaker 3: for Every Vehicle Act, which mandates that new cars and
25:45
Speaker 3: trucks include AM radio, and that legislation passed. The Commerce
25:50
Speaker 3: Committee passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support. So that was
25:54
Speaker 3: victory number one. A big deal. That impacts you. You
25:58
Speaker 3: have a radio station, radio show, It impacts all sorts
26:01
Speaker 3: of people on the radio, but it impacts up to
26:04
Speaker 3: eighty million Americans who listen to AM radio every single month.
26:09
Speaker 2: It's incredible legislation, and it's also, as you mentioned, as well,
26:12
Speaker 2: a safety issue. You look at the hurricane that is
26:16
Speaker 2: that we're dealing with right now in Florida that's going
26:18
Speaker 2: to be going up the east coast, and I've already
26:21
Speaker 2: heard it and talked to friends down there. They're already
26:24
Speaker 2: reminding people grab your crank AM radios to keep up
26:27
Speaker 2: when the power goes out so that you know what's
26:29
Speaker 2: going on. And I think there were many that thought
26:32
Speaker 2: of this as a way to silence conservative talk radio. Yes,
26:35
Speaker 2: there's no doubt there was a political side of this
26:37
Speaker 2: as well. But this other part was a safety issue
26:40
Speaker 2: when hurricanes hit, when there's natural disasters that happened and
26:44
Speaker 2: they're talking about it. I was watching the Weather Channel
26:46
Speaker 2: today as a storm was developing, this hurricane and strengthening.
26:49
Speaker 2: They were saying, make sure you have your crank AM radio.
26:52
Speaker 2: That is something that saves lives and situations like this.
26:56
Speaker 2: And that's also why it was so important to make
26:58
Speaker 2: sure these AM raders because there are people so after
27:00
Speaker 2: storm's hit and even before they can got to their car,
27:03
Speaker 2: turn it on for a second, listen to the latest
27:05
Speaker 2: updates of what's happening. And that's something that happens, or
27:08
Speaker 2: there's crank radios or battery powered radios with AM it's
27:11
Speaker 2: so vitally important for safety as well.
27:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, and other media often go down in the case
27:16
Speaker 3: of a disaster, so it's it's critical for getting people
27:19
Speaker 3: out of harm's way. A second piece of legislation that
27:22
Speaker 3: I authored that also passed the Commerce Committee that day
27:25
Speaker 3: is legislation called the Ticket Act, and it concerns if
27:28
Speaker 3: you go online and you buy sports tickets, you go
27:31
Speaker 3: buy baseball tickets, or football or basketball tickets, or you
27:34
Speaker 3: buy concert tickets you want to go see your favorite artists.
27:38
Speaker 3: Pay and all of us have had the experience where
27:40
Speaker 3: you go online to buy tickets, you pick out your seats,
27:42
Speaker 3: and you're really excited, and then you get to the
27:44
Speaker 3: final step of the transaction and you see fees that
27:47
Speaker 3: are just massive. The fees can be as upwards of
27:50
Speaker 3: forty to fifty sixty percent of the total amount you're paying,
27:53
Speaker 3: and you don't learn until the very last step when
27:56
Speaker 3: you're entering your credit card. And so I joined with
27:58
Speaker 3: Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington State is the chairman
28:02
Speaker 3: of the committee, and authored legislation that requires online ticket
28:07
Speaker 3: brokers to disclose the total amount of the ticket price
28:11
Speaker 3: with the fees up front, so that when you're searching,
28:13
Speaker 3: you can know, Okay, if this ticket's going to cost
28:16
Speaker 3: me one hundred dollars, I'm not going to think it's
28:18
Speaker 3: fifty bucks and get surprised on the back end as
28:21
Speaker 3: a consumer. I'm going to get to know upfront and
28:23
Speaker 3: have the information to be able to comparison, shop and
28:26
Speaker 3: make informed choices.
28:27
Speaker 1: Center.
28:28
Speaker 2: You mentioned that there was not just these two pieces
28:31
Speaker 2: of legislation, but more than that that happened on this
28:33
Speaker 2: single day.
28:34
Speaker 1: Walk us down that again that path of what else happened.
28:38
Speaker 3: Well, sure, the first two passed the Commerce Committee. The
28:40
Speaker 3: remaining six pieces of legislation that I passed that day
28:44
Speaker 3: all passed the entire Senate, the full Senate, and all
28:47
Speaker 3: of them on that day, the last Thursday in July,
28:51
Speaker 3: we passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which is the
28:54
Speaker 3: big bill that passes every year that authorizes the Department
28:58
Speaker 3: of Defense and our military, and it's critical for ensuring
29:01
Speaker 3: that we can defend our nation, and it is considered
29:04
Speaker 3: must pass legislation so that if you can author amendments
29:08
Speaker 3: that get attached to it, those amendments get passed into
29:10
Speaker 3: law and sign into law. I had six different amendments
29:14
Speaker 3: that passed on this year's NDAA. So one of the
29:17
Speaker 3: amendments I had was very focused on defense in the
29:20
Speaker 3: state of Texas, and it was ensuring that B one
29:24
Speaker 3: bomber wings remain in service for at least three more years,
29:28
Speaker 3: at least until twenty twenty six until they're actually replaced
29:32
Speaker 3: by newer B twenty one bombers. And this is critically
29:36
Speaker 3: important number One, to preserve the US's long range strike capabilities.
29:41
Speaker 3: But number two, many of those B one bomber wings
29:44
Speaker 3: are right now housed at Dias Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas,
29:49
Speaker 3: and we're in the process of replacing B one bombers
29:52
Speaker 3: with B twenty ones. B twenty ones are much more
29:54
Speaker 3: advanced bombers, but it takes time to produce the B
29:57
Speaker 3: twenty ones, and there's great concern Number One in West
30:02
Speaker 3: Texas that the b ones will be taken down before
30:05
Speaker 3: they're replaced by the B twenty ones, And so there's
30:07
Speaker 3: been a battle year after year to make sure that
30:10
Speaker 3: we don't decommission the b ones until we have B
30:13
Speaker 3: twenty ones in place to replace them. That battle's happened
30:17
Speaker 3: every year for a number of years, and I've managed
30:19
Speaker 3: to win temporary delays in it. This year we got
30:22
Speaker 3: a three year freeze, which is critically important for ensuring
30:26
Speaker 3: our defense capability but also for protecting West Texas and
30:31
Speaker 3: Dyas Air Force Base. So a second amendment that also
30:36
Speaker 3: passed that day is legislation that I introduced that focused
30:40
Speaker 3: on what are called spy fridges, which is there are
30:42
Speaker 3: all sorts of impliances that you buy, whether they're refrigerators,
30:47
Speaker 3: whether they're microwaves, whether they're stoves or ovens that are
30:53
Speaker 3: smart devices, and they have built in cameras and or recorders,
30:59
Speaker 3: and often people don't know when you're buying a fridge.
31:02
Speaker 3: You don't think to ask, gosh, is my refrigerator recording
31:05
Speaker 3: me in my kitchen? And so I authored legislation. It's
31:10
Speaker 3: very similar to the legislation we talked about before the
31:14
Speaker 3: Ticket Act. It's disclosure legislation that says, if there's an
31:16
Speaker 3: appliance that's being sold to consumers that can record you,
31:20
Speaker 3: that has a camera either a video camera an audio recorder,
31:23
Speaker 3: that they have to disclose to you the consumer, Hey,
31:26
Speaker 3: your fridge is spying on you. And that likewise was
31:30
Speaker 3: bipartisan legislation that likewise passed on the floor of the Senate.
31:34
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32:01
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33:02
Speaker 2: ever think you were ever going to have to pass
33:04
Speaker 2: legislation that would tells like consumers if their products would
33:09
Speaker 2: possibly be able to spy on them.
33:11
Speaker 1: I mean, it does sound insane.
33:13
Speaker 2: It's extremely important, but did you ever think when you
33:15
Speaker 2: ran for the Senate that this would be something we
33:18
Speaker 2: would need?
33:18
Speaker 1: And fast forward to twenty twenty three. It's insane to me.
33:22
Speaker 3: It really is nuts. And it's where technology is taking us.
33:25
Speaker 3: It's where so much of corporate America violates the privacy
33:29
Speaker 3: of consumers. And look, the next time, Ben, you're walking
33:33
Speaker 3: to the fridge at two in the morning and your
33:35
Speaker 3: box of shorts to get a midnight snack, just just
33:37
Speaker 3: remember that video may be in the hands of whoever
33:40
Speaker 3: sold you the fridge.
33:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thank you for passing that. I do appreciate that.
33:45
Speaker 2: I think all of us can say yes on that one.
33:47
Speaker 2: What else was on the list?
33:49
Speaker 3: All right? So two other amendments that both concerned oil.
33:55
Speaker 3: One of them concerns Nordstream two. We've talked a lot
33:59
Speaker 3: about Nordstream two, which is the pipeline that Putin was
34:02
Speaker 3: building from Russia to Germany, and I had an amendment
34:05
Speaker 3: that holds accountable the corrupt responsible the corrupt officials who
34:10
Speaker 3: were responsible for building and or maintaining Nordstream too, and
34:14
Speaker 3: so that passed on that Thursday as well. The second
34:18
Speaker 3: one focused on US oil and in particular our strategic
34:21
Speaker 3: petroleum Reserve. And as you know, Joe Biden has sold
34:26
Speaker 3: down our strategic petroleum reserve to the lowest level it's
34:30
Speaker 3: been at in four decades. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
34:34
Speaker 3: is there to protect our economy, to protect our national security,
34:37
Speaker 3: to ensure that we have energy in a time of crisis,
34:40
Speaker 3: and Joe Biden's used it to try to temporarily lower
34:43
Speaker 3: gas prices right before the last election, to get a
34:46
Speaker 3: political benefit from it. And so I teamed up with
34:49
Speaker 3: Joe Manchin and authored legislation to prohibit the federal government
34:54
Speaker 3: from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China, Russia, Iran,
35:02
Speaker 3: or North Korea, not to sell it to our enemies.
35:05
Speaker 3: And that is not a hypothetical threat, because Joe Biden,
35:09
Speaker 3: in fact sold over a million barrels of oil from
35:12
Speaker 3: the us' strategic petroleum reserve to Communist China, and given
35:16
Speaker 3: that I thought that was absurd. Joe Manchin and I
35:20
Speaker 3: teamed up together to pass this legislation and that was
35:22
Speaker 3: the fourth piece of legislation on the Senate floor that
35:25
Speaker 3: passed on that Thursday.
35:27
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