Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Biden Accused of Witness Tampering, Garland Proud of Mar-a-Lago Raid, & What's Next for Trump on Campaign Trail Week In Review

Transcript

Biden Accused of Witness Tampering, Garland Proud of Mar-a-Lago Raid, & What's Next for Trump on Campaign Trail Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What an unbelievable week.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Welcome it is Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review,
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson with you, and we've got some incredible stories
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: that you may have missed that we talked about. First up,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden now being accused of witness tampering. The Senator
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: and I talked about that as he went to go
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: meet one of the key witnesses in the case against
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: his son. What do they talk about and what does
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: it mean for the court case that starts this coming week.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We'll deal with that.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Also, the Attorney General, Mary Garland says he is proud
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: of the Marlago raid. Will that come back to haunt him?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: And finally, how will Donald Trump handle the Felon rap
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: when it comes to the Democrats using it against him?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: What is the strategy to fight back? It's the weekend
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Review and it starts right now, Senator. I want to
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: get to the other big case, and it is a
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: very big case. It is a case that apparently is
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: so Joe nerve wracking the White House. It looks like
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the President could have been involved in witness tampering ahead
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: of the trial of his son Hunter Biden.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that yeah, that's right.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: So this trial begins on Monday, June third. Hunter Biden
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: is going to face a federal trial for his gun
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: crimes and one of the key witnesses is going to
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: be Halle Biden. Now who is Halle Biden. Halle Biden
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: is the widow of Bo Biden, Hunter's older brother who
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: tragically passed away of cancer, and also the ex girlfriend
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: of Hunter Biden, and Halle Biden is expected to be
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: a key witness. And Sunday night, Joe Biden stopped by
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Halle's house. It was about eight pm on Sunday night.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden came by and Halle was dating Hunter at
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the time of the crimes and one of the expected witnesses.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: She was married to Bo Biden. He died in twenty
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: fifteen of brain cancer. And the prosecutors alleged that Hunter
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: lied about his drug use on the gun purchase forms
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: and then that he illegally possessed at least one gun,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: which Hallie is alleged to have thrown in a public
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: dumpster in twenty eighteen. So she's the one who allegedly
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: got rid of the evidence, and so she's not just
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: a witness. She is a central witness in the case,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: and the White House spokesman when asked about, gosh, why
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: is Joe Biden visiting one of the key witnesses in
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: the case against his son eight days before the trial,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: they said, no, no, no, he visited her because of
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: the approaching ninth anniversary of Bo's passing. Now, I got
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: to say that is that strikes me as a highly
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: dubious explanation. It naturally raises the question, gosh, did he
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: did he visit Halley before the eighth anniversary? Before the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: seventh anniversary is sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, first, And
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: if he did, I'm unaware of it. And you certainly
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: would think the White House if if that was their
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: line and he had a visitor at any time previously,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: you sure do think the White House would have pointed
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: it out. But they didn't. And I got to say,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: for the President of the United States, listen, when the
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: president travels, the president never travels quietly. It's not subtle.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: You come in with a motorcade with secret service, and
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: so for him to go it's it's brazen. It is
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden, and the Biden family feels that they are
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: not bound. They behave as if they feel that they're
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: not bound by criminal law, by any any restrictions, that
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: that he's entitled to go. And the natural prison sumption
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: is that he had a conversation with her about what
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: she was going to say when she testifies.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, it would be important. Hey we want to
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: know what you're going to say, or Hey, here's what
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: we need you to say. If anyone else was in
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: this scenario, what traditionally would happen when before a trial
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: if everyone found out about the same way we did,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: regardless of an alibi, If Trump would have done this
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: if I was on trial or you were on trial
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: and we were going to meet with somebody that's about
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: to be a witness and testimony for a kid, like,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: what would happen?
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Well, you would expect the judge to make an inquiry
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: of why were you Why were you meeting with this person?
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Who expect the prosecutor to make an inquiry as to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: why were you meeting with this witness? Did you discuss
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: did you discuss what her testimony was going to be?
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: So?
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Witness temp tampering is attempting to improperly influence or change
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: the testimony of a witness within criminal proceedings, and it
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: we don't know that that happened. But the United States
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: a federal crime of witness tampering. It's decided defined by statute.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: It's eighteen USC. Section fifteen twelve, which is entitled quote
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant, and it
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: describes witness tampering is a crime even if the proceeding
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: is not pending, and it is a criminal offense even
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: if you are unsuccessful in your attempt to tamper. In
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: other words, if you try to convince the witness, hey,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: you know, it really help if you testify to X,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: even though X isn't the case. The witness might not
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: do what you said, but it is still witness tampering.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: And and that's a natural question. Now, I'm quite confident
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: the Department of Justice is not going to inquire of
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden. What conversation did you have with a witness?
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: They might ask her, It is possible they ask her,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: but I think there's no indication that the DOJ or
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: the trial court is goet even ask what Joe Biden
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: said to her.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And the media was silent on this, excluding Fox News,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: which broke this story.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Here's how they reported it.
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: President Biden also made a surprise, unannounced stop at Halle
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: Biden's house in Delaware last night. She is bo Biden's
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: widow and Hunter Biden's ex girlfriend, who was also set
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: to testify in Hunter Biden's gun trial in Delaware that
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: begins next week. White House officials are saying this presidential
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: visit to her house had nothing to do with that testimony.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: They say it has to do with the upcoming ninth
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: anniversary of bo Biden's passing.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Jillian all Right, by the way, how often does the
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: President United States of America make a surprise, unannounced visit
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: in and around Washington, d C. In a massive motorcade.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: That has not happen very often.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: So, look, it is certainly possible. Presidents do have family,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: they visit their family. So I don't know the frequency
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: with which Joe Biden visits other members of the family,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: and that presidents do that. What they don't do with
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: great frequency is do it right before you do it
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: when you're meeting with a key witness who is about
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: to testify in the trial against your son. That that
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: is a dramatically different context, and it raises obvious questions,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: questions that the media seems completely uninterested in asking, and
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: that I expect the Biden Department of Justice is completely
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: uninterested in asking.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: I was asked this question the other day and I
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: hadn't actually thought about it yet. And I was asked
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: this question when I was on Fox and they said,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: if Hunter Biden is convicted at either of these trials,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: will it have any impact on the presidential election. My
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: personal opinion, I said, is instantly, I was like, no,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think most people know who
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Hunter Biden is. They know he clearly has been trading
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: off the family's name. They know he's a drug He
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: was a drug addic and did a lot of really
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: bad things. We've seen the laptop. It's pretty darn clear.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Well it knows believe it's going to make a difference.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: So in the presential action, do you believe that it
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: will or won't.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: And there's a second trial that is set to begin
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: in September. It's in Los Angeles and it's for allegedly
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: failing to pay more than one point four million dollars
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: in federal taxes from twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen. So
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: you'll have two different trials that are scheduled. Listen, if
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: the president's son is convicted. And now remember, initially DOJ
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: tried to give him a sweetheart deal where he wouldn't
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: go to jail, and ultimately that fell apart. Hunter originally
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: agreed to a probation only deal to both the gun
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: and tax crimes in June, but he walked away from
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: the sweetheart deal at a July court hearing where his
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: attorneys demanded broad immunity a past conduct of all past conduct,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: including violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which could
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: implicate his father. And so he walked away from a
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: deal that would have gotten him largely scott free, but
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: it wasn't. And remember, I think that the judge may
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: well have signed off on that deal, but there was
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: enormous public scrutiny on it, and I think that the
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: judge decided, now, we can't do this well.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And even then he was going to admit he was
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: guilty in that deal. So there's also it's been out
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: there in the media like, hey, he was going to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to get the deal. Many he was guilty of these
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: two crimes, which in many ways insulated his father.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So if he's convicted this.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Time, I'm not sure with a lot of Democratic voters
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: it'll matter.
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Look, I don't think that that Hunter Biden is guilty
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: of gun crimes and tax evasions. Any rational person knows
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: that our ready, that's kind of maked into the cake.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: I agree with you, It doesn't alter the election. What
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: this has always been about is protecting Joe and the relevance.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: We've talked about this a lot, although it's been a
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: while since we've talked about on the podcast. Look, Hunter
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Biden is not someone of public interest, separate and apart
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: from his father. You know, he is a troubled soul
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: who seems to have struggled his whole life, which is
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: the entire White House defense that he has substance abuse
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: problems and he's just had a hard time. And I
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: don't have no reason to doubt that. That surely seems
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: to be the case. But the reason it is a
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: public import is that the evidence at this point keeps
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: piling up that his entire business model was selling favors
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: from his father, was corruption. The reason this matters is
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden, not Hunter Biden, and these two trials are
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: designed to insulate and protect Joe Biden, not to bring
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: him in at all, And as long as Joe Biden
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: is not directly implicated, I don't think Hunter's being convicted
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: will have any material effect on the election. Listen, if
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: his son goes to jail, that may be a very
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: difficult thing personally for Joe Biden and emotionally for Joe Biden.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, the Biden doj
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: succeeded in what I think its principal goal was, which
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: is protecting the big guy and ensuring that there's no
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: investigation into corruption by the sitting president.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Final question on this, what is the possibility of pardons
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: for Hunter Biden by his father.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Before the election? I think zero. After the election. I
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: think if Trump wins, I would wager large sums of
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: money before he leaves off as Joe Biden pardons his son.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And there'd be no political fallout for him because he's
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: not running for reelection again.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if he's leaving, it would be I would be
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: a Bill Clinton Midnight pardon special. And I think, particularly
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: if he loses, it's almost a no brainer that Joe
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Biden would do it. He might even do it if
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: he wins but there it's a more costly decision because
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: he'd pay a political price for it, even if as
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: he was starting a second term.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, Let's
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: remind people of Merrick Garland's own words. He was very
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: proud of this raid. In August, yes twenty twenty two.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: He went out there, Justice Department insignia behind him, the
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: just Department flag to his left, the American flag to
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: his right, and he told the world in a live report,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: everyone carried it this.
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: There are, however, certain points I want you to know. First,
• 13:00
  Speaker 7: personally approve the decision to seek a search warrant in
• 13:03
  Speaker 7: this matter. Second, the department does not take such a decision.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Lately, clearly not, Senator, because they were planning for the
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: use of deadly force to possibly be used.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: So let me give a caveat defending this in a
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: tiny respect, and then let me take that caveat away.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: The caveat I would give is this sort of authorization.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: An authorization of use of deadly force is standard when
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: the FBI is exercising a search warrant. Look, if you're
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: exercising a search warrant in any context, if you're going
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: to a drug dealer's house or something else, there is
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: a risk of armed resistance, and so an authorization of
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: deadly forces is typical with a search warrant. That's the
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: caveat Now I'm going to take back every syllable of
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: every word of what I just said. Holy crap, this
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: was the President of the United States. Are you out
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: of your mind? Like like like this is And for
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Merrick Garland to say I personally approved it the absolute
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: hubris of this administration. Listen, Merrick Garland is drunk with power.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: He believes he should be on the Supreme Court, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: he is engaged in a global revenge tour against everyone
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: he thinks who wronged him. But is there no judgment
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: on the part of the Attorney General. Is there no
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: judgment on the part of the Deputy Attorney General? Is
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: there no judgment on the part of any advisors anywhere
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: at DOJ? Is there no judgment on the part of
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: the head of the FBI. Is there no judgment on
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: the on the part of anyone involved in this process
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: to say, you know this guy was the president of
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: the United States Secret Services guarding him for a reason. Yeah,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: maybe we should not be authorizing deadly forced like can
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: you imagine listen, well, can you teach.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: You the chain of command? Just for people to understand this.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Merrick Garland's over the FBI. But also isn't he over
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the Secret Service as well?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Is that not under his No?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: No, Actually, Secret Service reports us, so they're in different
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: different silos.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So but wouldn't he be talking or realizing that he's
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: setting them up for a war?
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, and listen, it is difficult
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: to imagine. Look, who knows what happens. But the idea
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: that okay, if Secret Service resists, you guys go like that,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: there is no sense. And this reminds me back at
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: the beginning of Crossfire Hurricane. Crossfire Hurricane, you remember, was
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: the DOJ and FBI targeting the Trump campaign back when
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: he was a candidate. They went after him, and they
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: went in and wire tapped him, and they went after
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Carter Page and they created fraudulent documents that they use
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: to get a warrant from the FISA court. I mean,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: it was a grotesque abuse of power that the Department
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: of Justice Inspector General detailed in very painstaking detail, and.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: The media gave cover because they said Donald Trump was
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: crazy to imply that he was being spied on, his
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: campaign was being spied on.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: They said he was a lunatic. In fact, he was right,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the entire team.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: He was exactly right. But look, when you go back
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: to the launch of Crossfire Hurricane part of the problem,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: and this goes to DOJ during Obama when this all
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: started an FBI during Obama, there were no adults in
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: the room. Listen, there are circumstances you could imagine where
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: a criminal investigation, a search, warrant of prosecution has to
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: be authorized against a high level government official, but especially
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: when that high level official is in the opposing party,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: especially when that high level official is the leading candidate
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: for the party and the likely opponent for the sitting president.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: When you're going after your political opposition, the threshold for
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: anything should be extraordinarily high. And it wasn't at all
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: based on some ridiculous, half baked OPO research paid for
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: by the Hillary Clinton campaign that contained the notorious p
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: tape and all that nonsense, which has all been debunked.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: We now know it was all made up. But look,
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: when the Hillary Clinton campaign pays over a million bucks
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to make up OPO research, they come up with some
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: creative stuff.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: When you look at this, this is going to be
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and it has to be. I would assume a major
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: campaign issue, especially in the presidential campaign. I can't imagine
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: this not coming up with the presidential debates.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: But there also seems to be panic right now.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: In response to this, Jim Comey went on MSNBC and
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: said this, take a listen.
• 18:01
  Speaker 8: Are you concerned that it may get a test unlike
• 18:05
  Speaker 8: any other if Donald Trump is reelected. I mean, when
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: you think about a second Trump administration, what do you
• 18:10
  Speaker 8: think the implications would be for the FBI?
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Oh? Serious, for the Justice Department and the FBI, because
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: Trump is coming for those institutions. He knows their power,
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: and I think he has regrets that he didn't work
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: hard enough to corrupt them last time. So he's coming
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: for them, and that's a danger for all Americans. He's
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: going to put people in positions in those organizations. He
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: didn't have all stars the last time. He'll have the
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: bottom of the barrel this time, but people who will
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: want to do his will, and that should weary every American.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: This election matters because of a reason like that. People
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: have to participate. You cannot sit on the sideline. I
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: don't care how you feel about Joe Biden. You must
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: vote for him because the consequences on the other side
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: are too severe.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I don't care how you feel about Joe Biden, you
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: must vote for him. That's the former FBI director saying
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: that Senator.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Well, and when he talks about corrupting the FBI, I
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: will say, you know, listen, I would admit Jim Comy
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: as an expert witness at any trial on the planet
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: on corrupting the FBI, because he was front and center.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: He did exactly that. He was the point person behind
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: weaponizing the FBI. Jim Comy is someone who fancies himself
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: I believe to be j Edgar Hoover. He had delusions
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: of power. It is one of the gravest mistakes of
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: the first term of the Trump presidency that Trump did
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: not fire Jim Comy on January twentieth, twenty seventeen, the
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: first day in office. He should have said, thank you
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: for your service to the nation. Your services are no
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: longer needed. Nobody would have blinked but the White House
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: foolishly thought they could get Komy to be part of
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: the administration to do his job, to not be a disloyal,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: power hungry snake, and they were wrong. He's continuing to
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: do that. And by the way, let's understand there's an
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: enormous amount of CYA in Komy and that he's very
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: afraid if they have accountability at the FBI that his
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: personal rear end is in the sling. And so that's
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: he's like, please, please, please make sure you put people
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: in power that cover up for me and that continue
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: the corruption of the FBI and continue weaponizing it to
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: attack their enemies, because that's what I did, and I
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: don't want to be held for account That's among the
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: most self interested testimony I've ever heard.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Final question on this now, knowing what we know about
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: the raid, is it warranted and justifiable if Donald Trump
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: is elected again, for him to go in in thoroughly
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: clean house in these institutions?
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Warranted, justifiable, and incredibly necessary. What has happened is we
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: have hardcore partisans who have corrupted these institutions from the inside.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: They occupy senior positions in the career bureaucracy and If
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Trump is reelected, and I hope and pray that he is,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: he needs to point serious, strong leaders at DOJ, at
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: the FBI, and the rest of the alphabet soup of
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: the administration who understand what they're doing, who have the
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: seriousness of purpose to go in and clean them out,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: because we need to restore the institution. Listen that there
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: are some some Republican, some conservatives that say things like
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: abolish the FBI. I'm not in that camp. Why Because
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: the FBI is enormously important. The FBI does hugely important
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: things like finding and catching terrorists and stopping them from
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: killing Americans. It does hugely important things like finding kidnappers
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: and child predators and going after the mafia and mobsters
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: and going after Mexican drug cartels like all of that
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: is really damn important, and I don't want to blow
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: that up. What I want to do is restore the
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: integrity of the FBI and the DOJ by getting the
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: partisans out of office who have corrupted it. As you know,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Chris Ray, the current director of the FBI, I've known
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: for twenty five years.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Chris.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Interestingly, Chris is not a liberal, He's a Republican. He
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: still considers himself a Republican to this day. Chris's problem,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: I believe, is that he is a company man. Now look,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump put him in that position, he appointed him
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: to that position. Chris is a company man, and he
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: is He and I have had screaming arguments on this
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: where he believes it is his job as administrator of
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: the FBI, director of the FBI to defend the career
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: leaders at the FBI, and I've told him, Chris, you
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: are not defending the institution of the FBI if you
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: support people who are corrupting it and destroying its integrity.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: What does it tell you that half of America doesn't
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: trust the institution anymore because you've been so politicized, and
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: he has proven utterly incapable of seeing it and even
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: less capable of taking it on and stopping as before.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: on this topic, you can go back and dow the
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: podcasts from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: I want to get back to the big story number
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: three of the week.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: You may have missed.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: You've been in a lot of debates, Senator, and you've
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: been on the presidential debate stage.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: You debated Donald Trump.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: But I and I one of my things that I
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: love is debate prep, and I was putting myself in
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: the room tonight mentally. All Right, if I'm in the
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: room before the debate with Joe Biden, I know Joe
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Biden at some point is going to look over at
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump and say, well, you're a convicted felon. How
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: does Trump respond to that? And that's I mean, that's
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: a pretty hardcore line that they have been obsessed with,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and they've got it. Now, how do you overcome that
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: when there's people watching that I'm sure are going to
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: watch this thing and maybe just engage the very first time.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Weren't watching the trial. Don't understand how corrupt it was.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Don't understand how these charges shouldn't have ever been used,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: how they change things to get rid of the Senchul limitations,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: how the federal government didn't bring these charges eight years
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: ago for a reason. I mean, all of that they've missed,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: and they look at the president sitting president, Look at
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Don Drungle, You're a convicted felon.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: What do you do with that?
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: Well, look, I think the Biden debate prep team is
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: going to spend a lot of time trying to convince
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: Bides and try to help Biden not to seem like
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: a smug soop. His instinct is going to be smug
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: and sanctimonias and to rub Trump's face Trump's face in it.
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: I think that is a bad look for Biden if
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: he does, and my prediction is they'll fail. By the
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: way that Biden can't resist being smug and sanctimonious on this,
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: I think he probably just will. But if his debating
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: prep team is any good, they will try to get
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: him to resist that. On Trump's side on this whole
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: topic and more broadly, on everything in the debate, I
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: think they're gonna try to stop Trump from just being
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: volcanically angry. Look, Trump typically engages in very little debate prep.
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: He is not. You're right, I have debated Trump many, many,
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: many times. She doesn't engage in extensive debate prep to
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: the extent they have debate prep. I think the team
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: around him, if they're any good, likely will try to
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: get him to be calm and matter of fact and
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: not angry and cambative. If you go back and look
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: at the twenty twenty debates, the first debate Trump was
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: angry and combative, and that many observers believe that that
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: hurt Trump because he was too angry and combative in
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: the debate. I think that will be an instinct here.
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: And Trump has reason to be pissed. Look, he was
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: just railroad. He was railroaded by a kangaroo court. Any
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: natural person and any person's natural reaction would be pissed.
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: And Trump is not someone who generally his emotions. You know,
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: I'm reminded of back back in two thousand. So we
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: were talking about First versus four earlier in the pods
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: after Bushman, after the Supreme Court resolved the case, and
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: after he came in, he appointed his Attorney General, John Ashcroft,
• 26:17
  Speaker 6: and I was part of the team that prepared John
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: Ashcroft for his confirmation hearings, and so we looted John
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: Ashcroft multiple times first confirmation hearings his attorney general. And
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: you know, I'm young at this point, thirty year old lawyer,
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: and there were several of us in the room, but
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: we would try to get it noxious with Ashcroft and
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: the preparation for confirmation. We tried to piss him off.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: We try to insult it. And in the prop sessions.
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: He would blow his top, he'd yell at us, he'd
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: get mad, and we were asking if noxious questions and
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: he would scream at us. And then we'd say, okay, senator,
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: because he a senator at the time. With the enator,
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: I get what you're saying. You're right, that was a
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: totally unfair question, is completely wrong. You're perfectly justified yelling
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: with us. Here's the problem. They don't have the votes
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: to defeat you right now. The only way they'd beat
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: your confirmation is if they provoked you to say something
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: stupid at the hearing, and what you say, thanks your nomination.
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: And so we worked with him. We said, Okay, yell
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: at us, get all of your anger out of us.
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: But when you get into hearing, don't yell at the senators.
• 27:35
  Speaker 6: Give them nothing because they have nothing to defeat you,
• 27:39
  Speaker 6: and they can only win as if should give it
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: to them. So you fast forward to the hearing, and
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: you had Democrat senators that just made fool to themselves.
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: I remember Ted Kennedy at one point, leaning forward, he
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: was reading something Ashcroft has read about the Second Amendment,
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: and he talked about the Second Amendment be as the
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: framers as James Mattison, another Framers, wrote about it a
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: check on tyranny and Ted Kennedy and his Boston Brahmin
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: boys goes taranny in the United States. What you know
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: what that is? That is treason, I tell you treason.
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: And John Ashcroft, to his credit, he had Ted Kennedy
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: screaming at him and calling him a trainer. And John
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: Ashcroft said, Senator, it's confirmed as Attorney General, I will
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: follow the law. And I don't know that. His heartbeat
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: got about sixty five and he got confirmed. You know
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: John Ashcroft, Well, you and here are good friends.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's one of my mentors.
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: Yes, his confirmation hearing, he didn't take debate, I promise you.
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: In the prep sessions he did it got it out
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: of his system. I think the Trump debate prep sessions
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: will be similar. They will try to get that out
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: of his system. I don't know if it will succeed.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: Final question for you on this, and it deals with
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: the presidency and Joe Biden. I don't know how you
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: can separate what this judge did from the corruption of
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the Biden White House. We know the attorneys that left
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: the DOJ to go work on this case. We know
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: that Alvin Bragg ran on this, We know he raised
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: money off of it. We know that this judge has
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: as a as a daughter that's heavily involved in fundraising
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: And this all was orchestrated from from the Biden administration down.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Now they're trying to act like now they're sprit from
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: it like this is we stood back. We were just
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: watching the wills of justice and and and and and
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: a man be found accountable by a jury of his peers.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: That is clearly going to be their line. But make
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: no mistake, none of this would have happened. And without
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: the direction, uh of Biden. I said, today America has
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: its own Vladimir Putin. Now his name is is Biden.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden is America's Putin right now going after his
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: political opponent and trying to lock them up.
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: You know, in law, if you look at something like
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: anti trust law, there's a concept in law called conscious parallelism,
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: which is people that all have similar incentives behaving similarly.
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: But it's not a conspiracy. They just all are acting
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: according to the same incentives. I don't know that Alvin
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: Bragg is taking orders from the Biden White House. I
• 30:42
  Speaker 6: agree that the Biden Joe Biden has been dictatorially's abused
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: his power. But I think Alvin Bragg is a petty
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: dictator of his own. He's George sorows Da. He ran
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: on getting Joe Biden. You know, when his was the
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: first indictment. I think a lot of Democrats are kind
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: of sheepish. They said, Okay, this one is really sketchy.
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: They didn't want this to be the lead case. And look, ultimately,
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: the Biden do OJ. They sent the number three lawyer
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: at d OJ, who had been a Democrat donor before
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: in a Democrat themselves, and they sent him to be
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: part of the trial team. So the bidend Oj got
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: in bed with this partisan prosecution. But but I'm not
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: convinced that Alvin Bragg did so at the direction of
• 31:26
  Speaker 6: the White House. I just think he hates Trump scuts.
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: So does everyone in the bidend Oj Biden White House.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: So does Fanny Willis down in Georgia, so does just
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: about every wild eyed partisan Democrat. And so I wouldn't
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: say it as as much a direction from the White
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: House as that they're all suffering from the same Trump
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: derangement syndrome, where they're willing to burn it all down,
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: to destroy the rule of law, to abuse the justice
• 31:58
  Speaker 6: system because they hate Trump so much, and they've convinced
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: themselves if he is re elected, if he's president, it's
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: the end of democracy. I mean, we played on Wednesday's
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: Pot Robert de Niro going on and on that'll be
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: the last election ever if Trump is elected, which is
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: just it's arranged. It's unhim. But I don't think de
• 32:19
  Speaker 6: Niro is lying in that. I think he believes every
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: word he says. I suspect Alvin Brad does too, and
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: I suspect the Biden White House that DOJ does as well.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Final question. You're a poll guy. I love polls. I
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: want your prediction. The first major polls that come out
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: after this verdict has obviously come down, will they show
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: that Donald Trump starts to lose momentum. Do you think
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: he'll go backwards in the polls nationally or in swing states?
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Do you think this could even backfire more because you
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: did say, and I agreed with you, that if they
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: indict make him more powerful, his poll numbers would go up.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: That happened when the court case started. You said it's
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: gonna make people solidify their support behind Donald Trump. But
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: now that he has the he's a convicted felon around
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: his neck, and that will be what happens in the polls.
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: So when the indictment first came down, the first indictment,
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: I said on this podcast, this indictment will be worth
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: ten points for Donald Trump in the polls. Now that's
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: in the progress. A week later, Trump was up ten.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: That prediction proved exactly accurate. Now, to be fair, that's
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: a primary poll. Primary polls are different than general election polls,
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: and so it caused Republicans to rally around Trump, even
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: some Republicans who were not supporting Trump at that time.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: The general election, it's a little harder. I think most
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: of the views on both sides are baked in.
• 33:47
  Speaker 8: But if you.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: Forced me to make a prediction, my prediction right now
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: is Trump. I think it is mildly beneficial for Trump
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: and the polls. I don't think it is major league
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: because I think most of the people on both sides
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: are baked in and it almost doesn't matter at this point.
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: They're not moving. But if you, if you press me,
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: I would say, I don't think it's gonna cause for
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: showing the polls, and I would say I think it's
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: likely to be a mile positive benefit for Trump of
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: the Poles.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: with my podcast and you can listen to my podcast
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.