Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / What's Next for Tik Tok in America, Biden's Pandora's Box plus Trump Nominations Move Forward Week In Review

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What's Next for Tik Tok in America, Biden's Pandora's Box plus Trump Nominations Move Forward Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well come in his verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: you may have missed that we talked about this week.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: First up, TikTok went down in America, but then it
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: was saved at the last moment temporarily. So what is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: going to happen moving forward and is it a national
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: security threat. We're going to dive into that coming up
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in just a moment. Also, Joe Biden decided to pardon
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of his family members and their spouses. Well,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: could it have opened up Pandora's box? Apparently many of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: those people that got those pardons may have to come
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and testify now before Congress and will not be able
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to plead the fifth We'll explain exactly what we mean
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in just a moment. And finally, the confirmation hearings on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Capitol Hill continue to roll on. We'll have some of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the highlights of this past week of Senator Cruz talking
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: with several of the nominees. It is the weekend Review
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and it starts right now. Let's move to TikTok for
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a second, because this has actually been a big conversation
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: around the inauguration elections having consequences, laws having consequences, Supreme
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Court getting involved. So can we take it back to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: square one so that people that maybe weren't paying attention
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to TikTok maybe don't use it. They understand TikTok is
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: extremely important to a younger generation. And there are a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: lot of Americans that make a living on TikTok. There
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: are a lot of people that supports their businesses. There
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: is a lot of things on TikTok that you can
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: say are very good. There are a lot of things
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: you can also say are very bad. But explain what
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: happened with TikTok and why it was shut down. Well.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Congress passed the law last year dealing with TikTok. TikTok
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: is owned and controlled by a company called byte Dance.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Byte Dance is a Chinese company, and it's a Chinese
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: company that is under the direct control of the Chinese
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Communist government. The Chinese Communist government uses TikTok and uses
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: it in a way that I think poses a very
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: national security risk to the United States. There are some
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy million Americans that use TikTok, overwhelmingly
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: young people, teenagers, young adults, young professionals, and the Chinese
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Communist government uses it number one to engage an espionage
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: to monitor what those Americans are doing, what they're saying,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: potentially where they are, they have the potential to monitor
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: their locations. But number two, the Chinese Communist government uses
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: TikTok aggressively to push propaganda, to push propaganda that is
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: number one pro China, and they suppress content things like
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: like Tienaman Square. They suppress content about the one million
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: wigers that are in concentration camps in China. They suppress
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: content about Hong Kong or China or Taiwan. But they
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: also push anti American content. They push anti capitalist content,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: they push communist content, they push socialist content. They also
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: pushed harmful content to young people. They push substance abuse,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: they pushed self harm that they push suicidal ideation. I
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: gotta say that the same company that owns TikTok, they
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: have a TikTok version in China that's very different from
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: the TikTok in America. The Chinese kids that are on TikTok,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: they're getting videos on math and calculus, and they're limited
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: in the number of hours they can do it, but
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: it's developing the kind of skills that are going to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: make them really effective in life. You know, the Chinese
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: kids are getting calculus and our kids are getting chewing
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: tide pods. That ain't good. The Chinese Communist government is
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: not doing it because they love our kids and they
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: want to see a good outcome. We also see heavily
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: skewed political propaganda. So, for example, anti Semitism, anti Israel,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: pro Hamas, pro Hesbola propaganda is rampant on TikTok and
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: at a complete differential, wildly different ratios than on other
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: social media platforms. And so given China's malevolent use of TikTok,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Congress passed a bipartisan bill designed to force China to
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: divest from TikTok, and the terms of the bill said
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: that TikTok had to shut down by January nineteenth unless
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: it had been sold and was no longer under the
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: ownership or control of the Chinese Communist government. Now, TikTok
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: has done next to nothing to comply with the efforts
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to sell itself. In fact, they brazenly said we will
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: not sell. Instead, they've tried to do a couple of things.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Number one. They've tried to engage in litigation. They filed lawsuits,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: they went all the way to the US Supreme Court.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: They argued at the US Supreme Court, and TikTok lost unanimously.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Supreme Court said, no, your First Amendment argument is not valid.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: So the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of Americans,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: but it doesn't protect the Chinese Communist government. And the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Supreme Court unanimously concluded, this law is focused on national security.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: It's not try to suppress any Americans free speech. It
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: is trying to prevent a hostile government from being able
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: to engage in espionage and propaganda in the United States.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So they devoted a lot of time to litigation, a
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: lot of time to lobbyists. They've had lobbyists descend on
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill trying to lobby against the ban. Well, Saturday night,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: at midnight, TikTok turned itself off. And I will tell
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: you there were teenagers and young people all across the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: country that expressed enormous dismay when it shut down. But
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: they shut it down. And so TikTok for most of
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Sunday was shut down, and then Sunday afternoon they turned
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: it back on, and they turned it back on because
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Trump had indicated that he and ten to give TikTok
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and other ninety days. The statute has a provision that
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: the president can extend the ban for ninety days in
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: order to help facilitate a sale of TikTok, and Trump
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: has said that's what he intends to do. Look my
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: view on this, if in the next ninety days TikTok
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: follows through and sells the company to a non Chinese buyer,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: a non Chinese government controlled buyer, ideally to an American company,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that will be a very very good thing. The objective
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: of this law, it's important understand the objective of this
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: law was never to ban TikTok. The objective of this
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: law was to force the Chinese Communist government to end
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: its ownership and control of TikTok. I don't know if
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: that's going to happen. I hope it's going to happen.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I am not certain what Trump is going to end
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: up doing, but at least right now, he's indicating that
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: he intends to exercise the ninety day extension to give
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: TikTok time to consummate the sale. And so we'll see
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: what happens in the next ninety days.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: One last thing about TikTok your opinion if it is
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a threat to national security into our way of life,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and that's why you say it's so important for it
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to be sold to a non Chinese control company.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's why you had overwhelming bipartisan support for this
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: legislation because what China is doing with TikTok is is
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: really harmful, and it's a way to spy on Americans,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: and it's also a way to really inject harmful content.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: They're trying to drive our country in directions that tears
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: America down, and they're not doing it. You know, this
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: is not complaining about well, gosh, Hollywood producers are not
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: making wholesome movies anymore. This is an adversary that is
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: deliberately pumping propaganda to our children. And we would be
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: a foolish nation if we said, hey, we're great with
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: the Chinese communist having an open pipeline to our kids.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: That's why Congress acted. And as I said, I don't
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: know what President Trump will do, but certainly my counsel
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: to him will be use this law as leverage and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: let's force China to sell TikTok.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: this happens. Let me ask you one final question on
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: this inauguration day.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Didn't you just have a final question?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I got No. This is overall though.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Are you like a used car salesman? One more thing?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: One more thing? Would you? Would you like some undercover coverage?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm not there. I get my bonus question. That's
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: my story and I'm sticking with it. When you look
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: at where we are January twentieth, twenty twenty five, how
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: much how excited are you for what we're about to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: witness compared to January twentieth of twenty seventeen, because of
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: how prepared we are this.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Time much more excited, because I think we're much more prepared.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: We're hitting the ground running. As I said, the initial
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Trump team they'd never done this before. The initial Trump
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: White House had never worked in the federal government. I
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: think there's just a much greater level of experience and
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: also awareness of the deep state, awareness of the career
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: bureaucrats who who who fight against a common sense, free market,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: freedom oriented agenda. And look as I look at this
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: array of cabinet nominees, I'm really excited, and I think
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the most consistent characterization of these are characteristic of these
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: nominees is that they're change agents. They're disruptors, and they're
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: they're going into these agencies to change and disrupt how
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: they operate. I think that's a very good thing. Now, listen,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: there are gonna be moments of chaos. They're gonna be
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: mistakes that are made. The old Silicon Valley phrase of
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: of of you know, move fast and break things. I
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: think that's what we're going to see. They're going to
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: move fast and some things, some things won't work. But
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I'm excited because I think the overwhelming majority of what's
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: accomplished will be very, very good for the country.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, No
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: doubt about It. Lastly, I want to get your thoughts
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: on something that was said in Trump's first sit down
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: interview that he did in the Oval office. He did
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: it with our good friend Seohn Hannity, and he was
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: asked about the pardons that Joe Biden gave out, and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: he made a comment, and I want to get your
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: reaction to it about, Hey, he may have messed up
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: because he didn't pardon himself. Take a listen.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: He heard that I was going to do I didn't
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: want to do it. I was given the option. They said, sir,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself? I said,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to pardon anybody. We didn't do anything wrong.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: And we had people that suffered, their incredible patriots. We
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: had people that suffered. You had Bannon put in jail,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: you had Peter Navarro put in jail. You had people
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: that suffered, and and far worse than that. They've lost
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: their fortunes, they've lost their whatever, their nest egg, paying
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: it to lawyers and those people and people said to you,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and they don't even they wouldn't have even taken most
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: of those people. They wouldn't have even taken apart. This
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know that
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn't
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: give himself a parton.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: He didn't give himself a pardon. Senator, I gotta I
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: gotta ask you your take on that is that is
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: that a foreshadowing comment coming from from Donald.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Trump there, well listen, it may well be. And we've
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: been been very clear. We've talked a lot on on
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Verdict about how the scandal with with Hunter Biden and
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: the Biden crime family was never about Hunter being a
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: you know, guy who abuses drugs and has made a
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: lot of wrong choices in life. The scandal was always
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: that the entire Biden family made millions of dollars selling
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: favors from the big guy, selling favors from Joe Biden.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It was always about Joe Biden's corruption. And we talked
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a lot about how the Biden doj The tell in
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: terms of whether they were being politicized on protecting Biden
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: would be if they fought in the Hunter Biden investigation
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: to protect Joe himself and to prevent any inquiry into
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: his corruption. If they kept it focused on the drug
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: crime or the gun crime, or even the the the
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: income tax crimes that were personal to Hunter rather than
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: examining the corruption, That's exactly what they did. And so
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I think that corruption needs to be investigated. I think
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: we need to enforce the law fairly, regardless of party.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: And I got to say, by the way, we predicted
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: on this podcast when when the we number one predicted
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the Hunter Biden pardon, and in fact, I put the
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: odds of the Hunter Biden pardon at one hundred percent.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: We even predicted the date. I said it would be
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: December of twenty twenty four. It happened on December first
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four. But second when that happened, we
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: went on this podcast and predicted said he's going to
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: pardon the rest of his family. Well he did that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: on the very last day, moments before he left office.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: He pardoned the rest of his family because they were
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: all involved in the corruption. They were all involved in
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: selling favors. And so right now the only one with
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: potential liability is Joe Biden himself. And you know, Trump's
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: right that it's interesting he didn't pardon himself. We'll we'll
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: see if that has real consequences. By the way, one
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: of the results of all these pardons is that Congress
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: can now subpoena the members of the Biden family and
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: force them to answer questions under oath, and they don't
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: have a Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Really, okay, so why do you know that? Including me?
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So explain that a little bit for everybody, because that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: is that is big news.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: So the Fifth Amendment says that you can't be forced
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: to testify against yourself. Now, that only applies if you
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: have criminal jeopardy. If you can be prosecuted. Once you've
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: been pardoned, you have no criminal jeopardy, which means you
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: don't have the right to say, I'm not going to
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: answer that because I might incriminate myself in a crime.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Because if it's a federal crime, you can't be prosecuted
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: for it, which means if you refuse to answer, you
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: can be held in contempt and put in jail. And
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: and so it uh, it has changed. I will be there.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: There's a very there's a very real chance that members
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of the Biden crime family that were pardon could be
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: asked to come and testify in Congress and they would
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: be forced to answer the questions for the reasons you
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: just stated, yep.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: And if they don't, by the way, same is true
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: about Fauci that you know, you know, Biden pardon Fauci.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: That means Fauci doesn't have a Fifth Amendment right to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: refuse to answer questions under oath. I certainly hope that
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: he's forced to answer those questions, and I got to say.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: So, on hypothetically, you get Fauci in front of you,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you start asking him questions and he just refuses to
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: answer those questions. Is that in contempt of Congress at
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: that point.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Well, Congress has to vote to hold him in contempt
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: for refusing to answer those questions, and then the Department
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: of Justice has to prosecute him. I got to say,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I think if Congress voted to hold him in contempt,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I think DOJ would prosecute him. And by the way,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to be clear, the Biden Department of Justice Trump mentioned
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: putting Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro in prison. They did
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: that because they held them in contempt to Congress, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: that was even aside from from pleading the fifth there
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: they just refused to testify, and they argued that they
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: asserted executive privilege, and DOJ prosecuted them after Congress, after
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: the House voter to hold him in contempt of Congress.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: As before. If you want to hear the rest of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: now the podcast from earlier this week to hear the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: entire thing. I want to get back to the big
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: story number three of the week. You may have missed,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: so as I mentioned earlier, what he did do today
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: was some pretty incredible work on the Hill. Senator Cruz
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: question at least to phonic and the confirmation hearing, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I want you to hear what he had to say.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to what Senator Cruz had to say
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: today on Capitol Hill and the questioning of Elist to phonic.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Congratulations on your nomination. You're going to be terrific. I
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: want to go back to topic you discussed with Senator Cornyn.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: I want to focus on a Ram's push to build
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: a nuclear arsenal, which poses I think the most immediate
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: and acute threat to American national security. When the Iatola
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: chance death to America, he means it, and I believe
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: he would absolutely detonate a nuclear weapon over an American
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: city if he could. The Trump administration got RAN's nuclear
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: program in a box and kept it there. President Trump
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: withdrew from the catastrophic Obama Iran nuclear deal in twenty eighteen.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: He imposed maximum pressure. In twenty nineteen, he invoked the
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: UN snapback mechanism in the UN Security Council Resolution two
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: two three one to reimpose international sanctions in twenty twenty.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: For that entire time, Iran was deterred from making significant
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: advances on their nuclear program. They did not even enrich
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: uranium above five percent or cascade advanced centrifuges. Starting in
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: November twenty twenty, the Iranian regime gambled that it could
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: start rushing to a nuclear arsenal and the incoming Biden
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: administration would let them. Unfortunately, that proved correct. In November,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: advances in January guarded enriching at twenty percent at fordoh
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the underground enrichment bunker built into a mountain that the
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Obama Iran nuclear deal left open. The incoming and Biden
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: administration responded with appeasement. In February, immediately after being inaugurated,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: they rushed to the UN to rescind President Trump's snapback,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: again allowing international sanctions to expire. For the next four years,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: the administration continually dismantled pressure on the regime and refused
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: to impose sanctions. We know the result today, the Iyatola
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: has achieved a nuclear breakout time of zero. We now
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: face the very real possibility of an Iranian nuclear arsenal.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I do not believe that this is a threat the
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: US can tolerate, and I'm confident that both the President
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: and Secretary of State. I asked Secretary of State Rubio
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: whether he intends to go to the United Nations and
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: again trigger the snapback mechanism as a part of his
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: written testimony to this committee. Here was Secretary of Rubio's response, quote,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I believe it is in our national security interest for
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: the UN Security Council to snap back the sanctions that
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: were suspended under the JCPOA. I will execute the President's
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: guidance and work with our allies to ensure that snapback
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: takes place. First, do you agree with Secretary of Rubio's
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: assessment that it is in the national security interests of
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: the United States to snap back those sanctions? Yes, talk
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: about how you would execute a strategy to do so,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: either unilaterally or working with allies.
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: We will have to That will be a strategy that
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: I developed with the National Security Council in Tanhem, with
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: Secretary Rubio and President Trump, to work with our allies
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: within the United Nations, within the Security Council, and there
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: are allies that are already considering this and looking at it,
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: and that has been publicly reported. But obviously, pushing back
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: on Iran is a top priority. It was a success
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: during President Trump's first term, and we've seen the catastrophic
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: results in loss of life during the previous four years
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: when you have had an embolded Iran that has led
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: to directly the October seventh terrorist attack against Israel and
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: his Belah firing tens of thousands of rockets against Israeli civilians.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Let's move to another topic. You and I talked about
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: the deep rot in the United Nations when it comes
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: to supporting terrorism against America and our allies, especially Israel.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: As you discussed with Senator McCormick. ANRA has for decades
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: provided material support for Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: World Health Organization has also been deeply complicit in the
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: use of hospitals by Hamas for terrorist activities, including for
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: the holding of hostages. The complicity of these organizations deepened
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: after October seventh. The Biden administration embraced UNRA, and the
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: World Health Organization Congress prohibited the Biden administration from funding UNRA,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: but the administration officials circumvented that prohibition by using UNRA infrastructure. Yesterday,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: the President rightly and immediately withdrew our participation from them.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I think that was a critical first step. But the
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: next step is to enable American citizens to hold these
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: organizations accountable. We currently have a very odd legal environment
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: where these organizations enjoy more sovereign immunity than states and
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: thus are shielded from accountability. Last Congress, I introduced the
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Liable Act and was joined by four current members of
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: this committee, including as well as Secretary of State Rubio.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: The bill will allow American victims of terrorism and their
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: family to sue international organizations that support terrorism against this
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I will soon reintroduce it in this Congress. What is
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: your understanding of the role these organizations have played in
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: facilitating terrorism against Americans, Israelis and our allies.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Well, UNRA, there were individuals in UNRA who participated, who
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: executed and committed terrorist acts against Israel. On October seventh, Sinwar,
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: the leader of Hamas carried an UNRA passport. You had
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: a HAMAS data center under UNRA headquarters. So the rot
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: is deep. Congress made the right decision. I was proud
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: to be one of the leaders when it came to
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: defunding UNRA, and I am committed to holding them accountable
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: and working with the US Senate and the US House
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: and the President. If that legislation passes.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Trifect, thank you.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Now, there's also other big news that we want to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: talk about, and that deals with the Secretary of State.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: The Secretary of State now has an even bigger job
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: than any Secretary of State had during the time of
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden Kamala Harris being in office. And what's really
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: cool about what's happening now is Donald Trump is empowering
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: leaders to do their job.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Now, there was some big breaking news, and that is
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: that President Donald Trump sign an executive order suspending all
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: US foreign assistance programs for ninety days, pending a comprehensive
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: review to ensure their alignment with his administration's policy objectives. Now,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: this suspension affects a wide range of global initiatives, including
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: humanitarian aid, economic development, and health programs. Notably, the US
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: contributes approximately seventy point three billion annually in foreign aid
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: supporting various international efforts. So what did the President do.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: He said, it's time for all of this to go
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: back under a review and is calling out other countries
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: for what he described was not paying their fair share.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Who's going to be looking over this, well, that would
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: be Marco Rubio. He will do a deep dive into
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: where your tax dours are going and then come back
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with recommendations. What's also interesting is how this relates back
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to Marco Rubio and his conversation with Senator Cruz on
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: January seventeenth. Take a listen to what he had to
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: say that.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you, miss Chairman, and I got to say, boy,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: that sounds good. Mister Chairman is as good as it
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: sounds to me. Thank you, well, congratulations and I'm looking
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: forward to the next two years working together. Thank you,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: and the Sener Rubio, let me say congratulations to you
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: as well. We're going to miss you on this committee.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: We're going to miss you in the Senate, but you're
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: going to do an extraordinary job at Foggy Bottom. And
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I will say, if they capture you and tie you
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: up in the basement, we will send a team to
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: pull you out. You know, as I look back over
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: the last four years of the Biden Harris administration, there
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: are a lot of policies that have done a lot
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: of damage. Domestic policies economic policies. But I think all
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: of those pale compared to the damage that has been
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: done to national security and foreign policy over the last
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: four years. Over the last four years, this administration is
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: systematically undermined and abandon our allies, and it has systematically
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies, and the consequence
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: has been disastrous. We've gone from four years ago peace
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: and prosperity to today a situation with wars across the
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: globe and every enemy of America stronger than they were
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: when this administration came into office. I am confident the
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: incoming administration is going to change that direction. I am
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: confident that President Trump and the White House, and you
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: as Secretary of State, are going to shift us back
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: to where we should be, which is standing by our
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: friends and allies and standing up to our enemies. Do
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: you agree with that assessment? Is that what you intend
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: to do a Secretary of State?
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: Well, let me say first, the foreign policy the United
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: States will be set by the President, and my job
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: is to advise on it and ultimately to execute. I
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: think the President has been abundantly clear and that is
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: his policy is going to be driven about making America safer, stronger,
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: and more prosperous. As I said in my opening statement,
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: everything the State Department does, every policy, every program, every
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: dollar it spends, every initiative it takes has to answer
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: three questions. Does it make us safer, does it make
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: us stronger? Or does it make us more prosperous? And
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: if it doesn't, if the answer is not yes to
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: one of those three, you're going to have a hard
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: time moving that forward because that's the priority to the president,
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: and that's the priorty that, by the way, voters gave
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: this president when they elected him. You point to a
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: number of things that I think are critically important that
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: and let me I'll phrase it a different way, but
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: I think we're saying the same thing. We have lost
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: to terrence and multiple theaters around the world. So as
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: an example, and I use this as a small scale example,
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: but it's really an important one. I think of the
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: year was twenty twenty, twenty nineteen, the Wagner Group tried
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: to get cute and came after some of Americans Americans
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: operating in Syria, and fire from the sky rained down
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: on them, and that group was pushed back pretty hard.
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: That's the terrence that they threatened us and they knew
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: what the response would be. I recall the consternation here
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: and in other places when Solomoni met his demise, but
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: I can tell you it impacted Ranian behavior for a
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: substantial period of time. No matter how tough they talked,
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: it impacted their behavior. I think it's important to re
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: establish the terrence and to the extent that that's been
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: lost for a variety of reasons. The lack of deterrence
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: is an invitation to war. The lack of deterrence is
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: an invitation to hostility. It prevents the very thing that
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: we hope to achieve, which is peace and stability in
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: the world. And I do think we've lost the terrence,
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: and I think in some ways it contributed to what
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: happened in Ukraine. An item I know is very close
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: to you and you've worked very on, and we talked
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: earlier today about is energy dependence. I recall President Trump
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: at both a NATO summit and at the United Nations,
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: and I recall the United Nations one in particular, President
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: Trump said Germany is dependent, entirely going to be left
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: dependent on China, on Russia its energy and they laughed
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: at him. There were diplomats in the hall that was snickering.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: That's exactly what happened. It is one of the reasons
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: why Putin believed he could invade Europe is because Europe
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: would not push back because they depended on him so
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: much for energy. Now Europe is to be congratulated. They
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: have moved very swiftly, particularly the Germans, to diversify their
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: energy resources. But one could argue that we may never
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: have had that invasion had that depends and not existed,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: because maybe who would have thought the European response would
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: have been more forceful than he anticipated. So I do
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: think re establishing deterrence and strength is important because it
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: prevents war and it gives us leverage and diplomacy, which
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: where we hope to solve ninety nine point nine percent
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: of the global disagreements we hope to solve through diplomacy,
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: not through armed conflict.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: I think that's very well said.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: day when you listen to Verdict afterwards, I love to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.