Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Bondi Rocks, Newsom Doubles Down on Policies Hurting Californians & Dems Demagogue Entrepreneurs

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Bondi Rocks, Newsom Doubles Down on Policies Hurting Californians & Dems Demagogue Entrepreneurs · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
0:04
Speaker 1: with you as always, Senator. This will be our last
0:07
Speaker 1: show before there is an inauguration that's going to be
0:11
Speaker 1: taking place next week, which is really fun. But it's
0:14
Speaker 1: already started on Capitol Hill with confirmation hearings. And I
0:18
Speaker 1: think it's pretty fair to say if Democrats were hoping
0:21
Speaker 1: for fireworks and they were hoping to, you know, derail
0:24
Speaker 1: some of the nominees this week, they failed miserably.
0:27
Speaker 2: We're kicking tail and taking names.
0:30
Speaker 3: So Ben, I love you, but I got to say,
0:32
Speaker 3: somebody needs to buy you a calendar. So inauguration is
0:35
Speaker 3: on Monday, which means we will have a Monday morning podcast,
0:39
Speaker 3: which means you and I will record it on Sunday.
0:42
Speaker 4: So this is our second to last podcast.
0:43
Speaker 2: All right, second inauguration.
0:46
Speaker 1: Okay, fine, So we're gonna have one more show technically
0:49
Speaker 1: on the day of the inauguration.
0:51
Speaker 3: I understand when Monday occurs is a difficult thing to
0:54
Speaker 3: figure out, so I'm going to give you that. But
0:58
Speaker 3: right now, this is Friday's podcast, and so we're gonna
1:01
Speaker 3: talk about what happened this week and what happened this
1:03
Speaker 3: week it's real simple. We had confirmation hearings for half
1:08
Speaker 3: of the Trump cabinet, and the Democrats came out pouncing.
1:11
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what the New York Times says Republicans
1:13
Speaker 3: do all the time. They pounced, and they pounced and
1:16
Speaker 3: they pounced, and the bottom line is they utterly failed.
1:20
Speaker 3: If you're a Democrat trying to think you're going to
1:22
Speaker 3: defeat the Trump cabinet, you are despondent right now because
1:27
Speaker 3: they shot at everybody and they failed everywhere.
1:31
Speaker 4: Here's the spoiler alert.
1:33
Speaker 3: I believe every single Trump cabinet nominee will be confirmed.
1:38
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about So I participated in a number
1:40
Speaker 3: and we're gonna talk about in particular Pambondi because Pambondi
1:44
Speaker 3: is Attorney General I think is the most important Trump nominee.
1:48
Speaker 3: She will be confirmed as Attorney General. But we're going
1:51
Speaker 3: to break down the issues that we talked about because
1:53
Speaker 3: it really went to the core of restoring integrity to
1:57
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice. So that's number one. We're gonna
1:59
Speaker 3: talk about Number two. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California.
2:04
Speaker 3: He's facing horrific wildfires that sadly his own misguided policies
2:11
Speaker 3: played a significant part in increasing the likelihood of in
2:16
Speaker 3: limiting the ability of California to fight against.
2:20
Speaker 4: What is Gavin Newsom doing.
2:21
Speaker 3: He's not focused on, we need more fire mitigation, we
2:24
Speaker 3: need more sensible public lands management.
2:26
Speaker 4: He's not doing that.
2:28
Speaker 3: He's not focusing on we need more sensible water management.
2:31
Speaker 3: We need to stop having empty reservoir we need to
2:33
Speaker 3: have fire hydrants full. No, he's not saying that. And
2:37
Speaker 3: he's also not saying, all right, enough with woke firefighter policies,
2:42
Speaker 3: enough with DEI, we need to actually hire firefighters devoted
2:46
Speaker 3: to fighting fires. Nope, he's not saying that, Gavin Newsom. Instead,
2:49
Speaker 3: he rolled out a proposal, and he said, if anyone
2:53
Speaker 3: offers to buy somebody's home, somebody's property that's been burned
2:58
Speaker 3: to the ground, that is DEVI stated, and I Gavin
3:02
Speaker 3: knew somethink the offer is too low, I'll criminally prosecute you.
3:05
Speaker 4: I will throw you in jail.
3:08
Speaker 3: It is again, if Saturday Night Live made fun of leftists,
3:13
Speaker 3: they couldn't come up with a better skit than this.
3:16
Speaker 4: And so I pointed that out.
3:17
Speaker 3: He went back at me, Gavin Newsom, and I went
3:20
Speaker 3: back and forth, and finally Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders in
3:24
Speaker 3: the confirmation of Scott Besson to be Treasury Secretary, he
3:27
Speaker 3: came out with the bold new Democrat policy they hate
3:33
Speaker 3: hate billionaires, well except for leftist communist billionaires who fund
3:38
Speaker 3: the Democrat Party, but other than that, they're against them
3:40
Speaker 3: all that. At the end of the day, I got
3:43
Speaker 3: to say, Scott Bessett popped him back and showed the
3:47
Speaker 3: utter and complete hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders.
3:49
Speaker 4: That's what we're covering on today's pod.
3:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna be really fun audio. You do not
3:54
Speaker 1: want to miss that in a second. So let's go
3:55
Speaker 1: back to the confirmations. And this was I think an
4:00
Speaker 1: exciting time for many Trump supporters. There was worry early
4:05
Speaker 1: on that there could be some derailing of some nominees.
4:08
Speaker 2: Here.
4:09
Speaker 1: You're up against the media, you're up against the Dems.
4:11
Speaker 1: They work together and they try to, you know, derail
4:15
Speaker 1: in any way they can. That just does not seem
4:18
Speaker 1: to be what's gonna happen here. As you said, you
4:20
Speaker 1: believe everyone's gonna get confirmed.
4:22
Speaker 4: I do so.
4:24
Speaker 3: Look we talked about in the last pot Pete Hegseth
4:27
Speaker 3: Pete Hegg Seth is clearly the one they're targeting the most.
4:29
Speaker 4: They went after heg Seth hard.
4:31
Speaker 3: But I gotta say Pete did a fantastic job at
4:34
Speaker 3: his confirmation hearing.
4:35
Speaker 4: I think he's going to make it through.
4:38
Speaker 3: If you look at Pambondy as the nominee for Attorney General,
4:42
Speaker 3: she did a spectacular job in her hearing, a masterclass.
4:47
Speaker 3: And I want you to listen to right now my
4:50
Speaker 3: questioning of Pam Bondy. So I went right after Maisie Herono,
4:54
Speaker 3: Democrat from Hawaii, who gave this long screed about how
4:59
Speaker 3: Pam Bondi and Trump was going to politicize the Department
5:03
Speaker 3: of Justice.
5:03
Speaker 4: Why And here's what Maisie asked hers.
5:05
Speaker 3: She said, well, because Trump is going to ask you
5:09
Speaker 3: to prosecute his opponents, and you're going to do it
5:12
Speaker 3: because you're a political hack. And so I went right
5:14
Speaker 3: after this. Give a listen to my questioning of Pam
5:17
Speaker 3: Bondi in the hearing this week. General Bondi welcome, Thank
5:21
Speaker 3: you for your long career in public service, and thank
5:24
Speaker 3: you for your willingness to take on this incredibly important office.
5:30
Speaker 3: You know, I have to say, I don't know that
5:33
Speaker 3: there is a more important position in this new administration
5:36
Speaker 3: than the position to which you have been nominated Attorney
5:39
Speaker 3: General of the United States. I thought the exchange just
5:42
Speaker 3: a moment ago with Senator Herono was illustrative. She asked
5:46
Speaker 3: you how you would respond if the president asked you
5:49
Speaker 3: to target his political enemies. It's rather striking because it's
5:53
Speaker 3: not a hypothetical. It has happened over the last four years.
5:57
Speaker 3: And I think perhaps the most tragic legacy of the
6:00
Speaker 3: Biden Harris administration has been the politicization and the weaponization
6:05
Speaker 3: of the United States Department of Justice. And we don't
6:07
Speaker 3: need to ask hypothetically, because Joe Biden publicly mused and
6:11
Speaker 3: allowed the New York Times to report it, calling on
6:13
Speaker 3: Merrick Garland, why will he not prosecute Trump more quickly?
6:17
Speaker 3: And Merrick Garland sadly, he sat in that chair and
6:20
Speaker 3: promised to be a political and he broke that promise
6:23
Speaker 3: almost the instant he walked into the Department of Justice.
6:26
Speaker 3: If you look on the west pediment of the Supreme
6:28
Speaker 3: Court of the United States, just above the entrance, there's
6:31
Speaker 3: a simple yet profound forward phrase, equal justice under law.
6:36
Speaker 3: We have seen over the last four years a Department
6:40
Speaker 3: of Justice that systematically targeted the political opponents of Joe
6:44
Speaker 3: Biden and Kamala Harris, and that systematically protected his friends
6:48
Speaker 3: and allies. And it is tragic to see the loss
6:52
Speaker 3: of confidence in the American people in the Department of
6:56
Speaker 3: Justice and in the FBI. I would note I don't
6:58
Speaker 3: think there's an institution in a America who has lost
7:01
Speaker 3: more respect from the American people than the FBI has
7:06
Speaker 3: in the last four years. That is a grotesque violation
7:10
Speaker 3: of the obligation of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
7:13
Speaker 3: So I want to start with just a very simple question.
7:16
Speaker 3: If you are confirmed as Attorney General, will you pledge
7:19
Speaker 3: to fairly and faithfully uphold the law, regardless of party?
7:24
Speaker 4: So help me God, Amen, Look, And I want to
7:27
Speaker 4: be clear for folks at home.
7:30
Speaker 3: I don't want a Republican Department of Justice. I don't
7:33
Speaker 3: want a Democrat Department of Justice. I want an Apartment
7:36
Speaker 3: of Justice that follows the damn law. And I think
7:39
Speaker 3: the American people do too. That shouldn't be too much
7:41
Speaker 3: to expect.
7:43
Speaker 4: Now.
7:43
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to President Trump for nominating you. I think
7:47
Speaker 3: on any objective level, you're clearly qualified for this position.
7:51
Speaker 3: You have been a prosecutor for decades. You've been the
7:55
Speaker 3: elected attorney general of the state of Florida, the third
7:58
Speaker 3: largest state in America, for eight years.
8:01
Speaker 4: Let me ask you, in terms.
8:03
Speaker 3: Of your practice, how many criminal cases over the course
8:08
Speaker 3: of your career have you personally handled?
8:11
Speaker 5: Handled? Thousands?
8:13
Speaker 3: How many of those were before a jury?
8:16
Speaker 5: Hundreds? I don't want to overstate the hundreds. I was
8:20
Speaker 5: in a courtroom for many years. I tried four when
8:23
Speaker 5: I was an intern jury trials. I think you had
8:26
Speaker 5: to try at least twenty in misdemeanor before you went
8:29
Speaker 5: to felany. Then you were in court every day, and
8:33
Speaker 5: I was also lead trial attorney for many years, trying
8:36
Speaker 5: many cases.
8:37
Speaker 3: So and how many of those cases would have been
8:39
Speaker 3: before a judge?
8:40
Speaker 5: Oh, hundreds and hundreds as well, but hundreds before a jury,
8:44
Speaker 5: I would assume.
8:46
Speaker 3: And as Attorney General of Florida, how many lawyers did
8:49
Speaker 3: you supervise?
8:49
Speaker 5: Roughly approximately four hundred.
8:51
Speaker 4: Senator Now, I also want to clarify something.
8:54
Speaker 3: During the course of this hearing, several Democrat senators have
8:57
Speaker 3: referred to you as President Trump quote personal lawyer. Now,
9:03
Speaker 3: I don't believe that is an accurate characterization as I
9:07
Speaker 3: understand it, You represented President Trump as a White House
9:11
Speaker 3: special advisor.
9:12
Speaker 4: During his first impeachment trial. Is that correct?
9:15
Speaker 5: Within office of White House Counsel, Yes, Senator, and.
9:19
Speaker 3: Is working within the White House Council's office different than
9:25
Speaker 3: representing Donald J. Trump individually as his personal lawyer.
9:29
Speaker 4: Absolutely, how's it different.
9:32
Speaker 5: You're working for the government, you're working for the Office
9:35
Speaker 5: of White House Counsel. You're not representing him in his
9:38
Speaker 5: personal capacity.
9:39
Speaker 3: And so you have not represented him in his business affairs,
9:42
Speaker 3: in his personal life, or at any of the criminal
9:44
Speaker 3: trials he.
9:45
Speaker 2: Has faced, no, Senator, And.
9:48
Speaker 3: You know, when it comes to weaponization, it's worth noting
9:50
Speaker 3: that in more than two centuries of our nation's history,
9:53
Speaker 3: no president had previously been indicted, no president had previously
9:57
Speaker 3: been prosecuted, until the Biden Harris White House came along.
10:03
Speaker 3: And in the last four years we've seen Donald Trump
10:06
Speaker 3: indicted and prosecuted not once, not twice, not three times,
10:09
Speaker 3: but four separate times, and.
10:12
Speaker 5: Two assassination attempts.
10:14
Speaker 3: Senator, I have to say Javert from Les miz would
10:17
Speaker 3: be chagrined at the efforts of Democrats to do anything
10:22
Speaker 3: possible to take him down. And I believe the real
10:25
Speaker 3: target in this was not President Trump, but it was
10:28
Speaker 3: the American people that these prosecutions were brought because partisan
10:33
Speaker 3: prosecutors were terrified if the American people would do exactly
10:38
Speaker 3: what they did in November of twenty twenty four and
10:40
Speaker 3: vote to re elect Donald J.
10:42
Speaker 5: Trump by seventy seven point three percent million Americans, seventy
10:47
Speaker 5: seven point three million Americans.
10:49
Speaker 3: Will you commit every day as Attorney General to follow
10:55
Speaker 3: the law, to follow the Constitution, to uphold the rule
10:59
Speaker 3: of law without favor and without regard to the partisan position.
11:05
Speaker 4: Of any criminal defendant.
11:07
Speaker 3: Yes, Senator, that's what we should all expect from Attorney general.
11:11
Speaker 2: Thank you, Senator.
11:12
Speaker 1: I love the way that you weighed that out to
11:14
Speaker 1: explain just so many of the attacks and fallacies, but
11:17
Speaker 1: also what her job is and the fact And you've
11:20
Speaker 1: said this before, and I think it's a great point
11:23
Speaker 1: to make again. You don't want a Republican Department of
11:26
Speaker 1: DOJ or a Democrat. You want it to be nonpartisan,
11:29
Speaker 1: because that's what God us into this mess with legal
11:32
Speaker 1: warfare against every conservative anyone around Trump. And the list
11:36
Speaker 1: is long of people that have been persecuted by this DOJ.
11:40
Speaker 3: Well, and the Democrats have been screaming at her, what
11:43
Speaker 3: will you do with trump demands go prosecute Democrats? And
11:47
Speaker 3: the point I tried to make is, listen, that's not
11:50
Speaker 3: an hypothetical, that's not some abstract question. Joe Biden did that.
11:55
Speaker 3: He did that with Merrick Garland. And by the way,
11:57
Speaker 3: Merrick Garland saluted and said sir, yes, sir, and went
12:01
Speaker 3: and indicted Donald Trump over and over again. So we
12:04
Speaker 3: know what that looks like. And I don't believe Pambondi
12:07
Speaker 3: will do that. By the way, I don't believe Donald
12:09
Speaker 3: Trump will demand that. Now, I will say we had
12:12
Speaker 3: a second round of questioning with Pambondy, and in the
12:14
Speaker 3: second round I focused on a different aspect of politicization.
12:19
Speaker 3: One aspect of it is using the machinery of justice
12:23
Speaker 3: to go after your enemies, using the machinery of justice
12:26
Speaker 3: to protect the political friends of the president. But there's
12:30
Speaker 3: a different aspect of politicization, and that is refusing to
12:34
Speaker 3: follow the law for an overarching political agenda, in this case,
12:38
Speaker 3: the radical open borders agenda. So listen to this short
12:42
Speaker 3: round of questioning that I had with Pambondy. Later in
12:44
Speaker 3: the day, an excellent job at this hearing. And I
12:47
Speaker 3: want to go back to the topic you and I
12:49
Speaker 3: discussed before, which is the politicization of the Department of Justice.
12:53
Speaker 3: I want to focus on a different aspect of it.
12:55
Speaker 3: We talked about the Department of Justice under Joe Biden
12:59
Speaker 3: and Kamala Harri being used to target the president's political enemies.
13:02
Speaker 3: We talked about it being used to protect the political
13:06
Speaker 3: friends and allies of the White House. But there's another
13:08
Speaker 3: aspect of politicization and lawlessness, and that is refusing to
13:12
Speaker 3: follow the law, utterly defying federal statutory law. And I
13:17
Speaker 3: think there's no area where this has been more egregious
13:21
Speaker 3: than as it concerns our immigration laws. We have had
13:24
Speaker 3: four years of a wide open southern border. My state
13:28
Speaker 3: Texas has born a disproportionate burden as a consequence of
13:33
Speaker 3: that as twelve million illegal aliens have flooded into this country.
13:37
Speaker 3: And what the Biden administration has done no other president
13:40
Speaker 3: in the history of America has done. The Biden administration
13:43
Speaker 3: has simply ignored the law and when illegal aliens are apprehended,
13:47
Speaker 3: they release them. Federal law says they shall be detained,
13:49
Speaker 3: says they shall be deported, and frankly, our constitutional system
13:53
Speaker 3: is not meant meant to deal with a president who
13:57
Speaker 3: defies the law. Article two says the president shall take
14:01
Speaker 3: care that the laws be faithfully executed. This administration utterly
14:05
Speaker 3: defied the law. I have said, somewhat tongue in cheek,
14:08
Speaker 3: Joe Biden did something I previously thought was impossible. He
14:12
Speaker 3: made me miss Barack Obama. Because Barack Obama, for all
14:15
Speaker 3: my disagreements with him, when it came to illegal immigration,
14:18
Speaker 3: he by and large followed the law. Barack Obama deported
14:21
Speaker 3: millions of people. The left got mad at him and
14:23
Speaker 3: called him the deporter in chief. No administration has ever
14:27
Speaker 3: done with This administration has done, which is said, we
14:29
Speaker 3: are going to facilitate the invasion of this country. We're
14:32
Speaker 3: going to release twelve million people, and we are going
14:35
Speaker 3: to see Americans murdered, women raped, children abused and murdered.
14:40
Speaker 3: We're going to see drugs flood into this country, fentanyl
14:43
Speaker 3: flood into this country.
14:44
Speaker 4: And so I want to ask you several things on this.
14:48
Speaker 3: First of all, in your experience, what are the consequences
14:52
Speaker 3: of open borders and who pays the price when illegal
14:58
Speaker 3: immigrants and in particular criminal illegal immigrants are released in.
15:02
Speaker 5: Country American citizens, Senator, and I think they're paying. I
15:06
Speaker 5: know they're paying the price every single day. We're seeing it,
15:10
Speaker 5: we're watching it. We've talked about Lake and Riley, of
15:13
Speaker 5: course multiple times. But there are multiple victims violent crime
15:18
Speaker 5: in all of our states. And as we say now,
15:20
Speaker 5: every state is a border state. I was at the
15:24
Speaker 5: border at not in your state, but in Yuma, Arizona,
15:27
Speaker 5: several months ago, and I saw firsthand. I saw the
15:33
Speaker 5: border patrol agents and Customs showed US IDs and driver's
15:37
Speaker 5: license venezuela from all of these countries. IDs just thrown
15:42
Speaker 5: on the ground, and people were allowed to walk freely
15:45
Speaker 5: into our country. Senator, I never knew the definition of
15:48
Speaker 5: a disposable child. I never heard that term in my
15:52
Speaker 5: entire career until I was there. A disposable child that
15:56
Speaker 5: the agents kept recognizing, A little boy coming over and over.
16:00
Speaker 5: You're familiar with it, I'm sure, same little boy.
16:03
Speaker 4: And let me ask.
16:05
Speaker 3: Let me ask, because my time has expired and the
16:07
Speaker 3: issue you're raising is so incredibly important. One statistic that
16:11
Speaker 3: every American should know is the number three hundred thousand.
16:15
Speaker 3: There are over three hundred thousand children that this administration
16:18
Speaker 3: has lost. Little girls and little boys who came here
16:21
Speaker 3: on accompanied were in this administration's custody. They handed them
16:24
Speaker 3: over to adults, many of them not blood relatives, and
16:27
Speaker 3: they don't know where they are. I've never seen a
16:29
Speaker 3: single Democrat in this committee ask one question about the
16:32
Speaker 3: three hundred thousand children.
16:33
Speaker 4: I want to ask you a commitment.
16:34
Speaker 3: Will you, as Attorney General investigate and make every effort
16:38
Speaker 3: to find those children and if they are subject to abuse,
16:42
Speaker 3: get them out of those abusive situations that the federal
16:45
Speaker 3: government has put them into.
16:46
Speaker 5: Yes, Senator, Thank.
16:47
Speaker 2: You, Senator.
16:49
Speaker 1: This goes back to I think one of the things
16:51
Speaker 1: we talked about and highlighted on this show, and that
16:54
Speaker 1: was just the abuse of power by majorchis and not
16:58
Speaker 1: even knowing about, for example, the wristbands which you've described
17:02
Speaker 1: on this show that were found at the border, and
17:04
Speaker 1: so many people that are traffick had to wear those,
17:07
Speaker 1: including kids.
17:09
Speaker 2: You look at how we've lost all.
17:10
Speaker 1: These kids, and hearing her commit to actually using the
17:14
Speaker 1: DOJ for this reason, which would be a non political reason,
17:18
Speaker 1: saving kids from sex slavery for goodness sakes, that was
17:22
Speaker 1: encouraging to hear.
17:24
Speaker 3: It was very encouraging that commitment was very important. Look,
17:27
Speaker 3: you and I in our last podcast two days ago,
17:30
Speaker 3: we talked about the horrific scandal in the United Kingdom
17:34
Speaker 3: of thousands of girls subject to repeated child rape for decades,
17:40
Speaker 3: and how the government turned its back on them, refused
17:44
Speaker 3: to prosecute, refused to investigate, all in the name of multiculturalism.
17:48
Speaker 3: By the way, if you did not listen to Wednesday's podcast,
17:51
Speaker 3: you ought to listen to it, because it really is
17:54
Speaker 3: there are among the stories that really bothered me, that
17:58
Speaker 3: horrify me. That's really at the top of the list.
18:00
Speaker 3: But you and I talked about on Wednesday, how it's
18:03
Speaker 3: easy to say as Americans, well, gosh, it's a shame
18:06
Speaker 3: the Brits did that, But we're somehow better than that.
18:09
Speaker 4: No, we're not.
18:11
Speaker 3: Three hundred thousand kids in America have been lost, and
18:14
Speaker 3: the Biden administration doesn't care. Democrats and Congress don't care,
18:18
Speaker 3: the media doesn't care. I am very very glad this
18:21
Speaker 3: week that Pam Bondi committed to me on the record
18:25
Speaker 3: that as Attorney General, she's going to investigate. I hope
18:27
Speaker 3: she's going to create a task force in the Department
18:30
Speaker 3: of Justice to go and find those three hundred thousand kids,
18:33
Speaker 3: to go figure out are these children being abused or
18:36
Speaker 3: are they being physically abused or being sexually abused? What
18:39
Speaker 3: happened that it's not okay for the federal government to
18:43
Speaker 3: lose three hundred thousand little boys and little girls. This week,
18:46
Speaker 3: I sat down with Bobby Kennedy, and when I sat
18:50
Speaker 3: down with him, I asked him the same question. He's
18:53
Speaker 3: going to be the next Secretary of AHHS, Will AHHS
18:57
Speaker 3: investigate and fought those children to make sure they're not
19:01
Speaker 3: being abused? And I'll tell you he committed to me
19:02
Speaker 3: in my office the same thing. That's a big deal,
19:06
Speaker 3: and it's one of the many things that makes me
19:08
Speaker 3: very excited about this new cabinet coming in.
19:11
Speaker 1: Let's talk about timing, because there's a lot of people
19:14
Speaker 1: worried that there's going to be, you know, delays with
19:16
Speaker 1: cabinet members. You mentioned half of the of the cabinet
19:20
Speaker 1: you guys have had up in front of you this week.
19:23
Speaker 1: There are twenty attorney generals that are calling for what
19:26
Speaker 1: they described as swift Senate confirmations of Chrissy Nome Pambondi
19:30
Speaker 1: Cash hotel. Are there going to be Shenanigan's who tried
19:33
Speaker 1: to lay this? Or are you concerned about that because there
19:35
Speaker 1: have been a lot of articles written about that the
19:37
Speaker 1: last couple of days.
19:38
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not really concerned.
19:40
Speaker 3: So we have had hearings already for about half of
19:43
Speaker 3: the cabinet nominees. Now I'm going to point out January
19:46
Speaker 3: twentieth has not happened yet, so it's before Donald Trump
19:49
Speaker 3: has become president. Again, none of these nominees have been nominated,
19:53
Speaker 3: so nobody can be nominated to a cabinet position until
19:57
Speaker 3: the president is in office. He will not be in
19:59
Speaker 3: office until noon on January twentieth, So the Senate is
20:03
Speaker 3: holding confirmation hearings on a whole bunch of nominees who
20:07
Speaker 3: haven't been nominated yet.
20:08
Speaker 4: And that's a good thing.
20:09
Speaker 3: I think on January twentieth, Trump will take the oath
20:12
Speaker 3: of office at noon that day will confirm I think
20:17
Speaker 3: probably a couple of Trump cabinet nominees. My guess is
20:20
Speaker 3: Marco Rubio will be confirmed as Secretary of State. I
20:23
Speaker 3: think it will be an overwhelming vote. I think he'll
20:26
Speaker 3: get north of ninety votes. He might even get north
20:28
Speaker 3: of ninety five votes. It will be all the Republicans
20:31
Speaker 3: and most of the Democrats.
20:33
Speaker 4: I think there's a good chance.
20:35
Speaker 3: John Ratcliff, who's been nominated to be director of CIA,
20:38
Speaker 3: I think he'll be confirmed on January twentieth, and I
20:41
Speaker 3: think the rest of the cabinet will be confirmed in
20:44
Speaker 3: the next thirty days. So will it be instantaneous, will
20:48
Speaker 3: it be in ten minutes, No, but I think within
20:51
Speaker 3: thirty days we'll move the cabinet through and we'll move expeditiously.
20:55
Speaker 3: And this week's been a very good week for that
20:57
Speaker 3: because the cabinet nominees have performed exceptionally and I think
21:02
Speaker 3: they're all going to get confirmed.
21:04
Speaker 1: So let's talk about and go back something you said
21:06
Speaker 1: a moment ago, and that's you know, what are you
21:08
Speaker 1: focusing on. It's very clear that the Republicans are focused
21:12
Speaker 1: on moving forward, getting things done for the people. And
21:15
Speaker 1: you look at what Democrats are doing, whether and we're
21:18
Speaker 1: going to get to this part in a minute, but
21:19
Speaker 1: whether it's them saying, oh, we don't like people that
21:22
Speaker 1: aren't our fans right now, so we're going to call
21:24
Speaker 1: them oligarks, We're going to attack people that are rich.
21:26
Speaker 1: And then you look out in California where the wildfires,
21:29
Speaker 1: unfortunately are still burning, and it seems to be pure
21:33
Speaker 1: politics right now for the governor out there who had
21:36
Speaker 1: enough time to while these wildfires are going on, to
21:39
Speaker 1: get in back and forth with you.
21:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, so, Gavin Newsom, you and I did a
21:45
Speaker 3: podcast last week and it was another podcast which if
21:48
Speaker 3: y'all didn't listen to, I'd encourage you to go back
21:50
Speaker 3: and listen to. It laid out the specific policies that
21:56
Speaker 3: California had put in place that increase the chains of
22:00
Speaker 3: disastrous and catastrophic wildfires, and that reduced the ability of
22:05
Speaker 3: California to fight those wildfires. Now, look, what is happening
22:11
Speaker 3: in California is horrific, and as you know, Heidi's a
22:13
Speaker 3: native Californian, a lot of our family is out in California.
22:16
Speaker 3: My heart is breaking for these Americans who are seeing
22:19
Speaker 3: their homes burned to the ground, the people being killed.
22:22
Speaker 3: It is an absolute tragedy. And I am grateful for
22:26
Speaker 3: the firefighters, for the police officers, for the first responders
22:30
Speaker 3: who are risking their lives to save people. Even at
22:35
Speaker 3: the time we are rallying around protecting people in harms.
22:38
Speaker 3: Ray way, I think it is valuable to ask are
22:43
Speaker 3: their policies that California enacted that made this worse? And
22:47
Speaker 3: the answer is yes. And then I got to say
22:50
Speaker 3: this week, Gavin Newsom jumped out, we're going to play
22:53
Speaker 3: the audio to second, and.
22:56
Speaker 4: Here's what he tweeted.
22:57
Speaker 3: He said, quote, today, I signed an executive order prohibiting
23:02
Speaker 3: greedy land developers from ripping off LA wildfire victims with unsolicited,
23:07
Speaker 3: undervalued offers to buy their destroyed property. Make no mistake,
23:13
Speaker 3: this is a prosecutable crime.
23:16
Speaker 4: So play Gavin Newsom saying this Altadena.
23:19
Speaker 6: I just signed an executive order with community leaders to
23:22
Speaker 6: deal with the issue that is becoming a bigger and
23:24
Speaker 6: bigger issue every day, and that's land developers that are
23:28
Speaker 6: engaging in predatory efforts to make unsolicited offers for properties
23:33
Speaker 6: at significantly below market value. This predatory behavior is disgusting
23:39
Speaker 6: in the best of times, and of course here in
23:42
Speaker 6: the midst of this tragedy at scale, it's disgraceful.
23:45
Speaker 2: So we're going to hold those folks accountable.
23:47
Speaker 6: I'm very grateful for the leadership here in the community
23:51
Speaker 6: that promoted this approach and this executive order's reflection of
23:54
Speaker 6: their direction and their commitment to preserving the unique character
23:58
Speaker 6: of this community for generations to come.
24:01
Speaker 1: Make no mistake, is a prosecutoral crime. Is what he
24:04
Speaker 1: put out there in his tweet, saying, I'm signing this
24:07
Speaker 1: executive order prohibit the greedy land developers from ripping off
24:11
Speaker 1: LA wildfire victims with unsolicited offers.
24:15
Speaker 3: So I responded, I responded on Twitter, and I sent
24:19
Speaker 3: back the following tweet. Misguided California policies number one limited
24:25
Speaker 3: fire mitigation efforts, number two produced water shortages, and number
24:30
Speaker 3: three underfunded firefighters. And by the way, that's what we
24:33
Speaker 3: discussed at depth in our podcast last week. The tweet continued,
24:41
Speaker 3: Now Democrat politicians are making it harder for those devastated
24:47
Speaker 3: by the wildfires to sell their destroyed properties. This will
24:52
Speaker 3: only hope hurt the victims. So that was my response,
24:57
Speaker 3: and then I got to say, it's in interesting. You know,
25:00
Speaker 3: Newsom is in the middle of a crisis, and yet
25:04
Speaker 3: somehow he found time to tweet back against me. He
25:07
Speaker 3: was mad at what I had to say. So here's
25:09
Speaker 3: what Gavin Newsom tweeted back. He said, quote openly shilling
25:15
Speaker 3: for scammers and bottom feeder land speculators is a weird play,
25:22
Speaker 3: even for you, Ted. Our executive order doesn't prevent anyone
25:27
Speaker 3: from selling their property. It prohibits scammers from making unsolicited
25:33
Speaker 3: offers to buy property for pennies on the dollar. And
25:38
Speaker 3: then I got to say I responded to that, and
25:41
Speaker 3: I said, leftists ignorant of basic economics have played a
25:48
Speaker 3: major role in the exodus of millions from California. Now
25:54
Speaker 3: Newsom brags that he will criminally prosecute anyone making a
25:58
Speaker 3: quote unquote vote low offer to purchase a fire devastated property.
26:06
Speaker 3: The result, many Californians won't get offers. And I got
26:15
Speaker 3: to say this back and forth. I think it actually
26:17
Speaker 3: reveals a lot the left today. They don't understand basic economics.
26:23
Speaker 3: They don't understand economics. One oh one. Let's say you're
26:27
Speaker 3: a person in LA and let's say your home has
26:29
Speaker 3: been tragically destroyed. Let's say you're in tragedy or in crisis.
26:33
Speaker 3: You don't know what to do. It's burned to a crisp,
26:35
Speaker 3: you can't afford to rebuild, you don't know what to do.
26:38
Speaker 3: And you know what, maybe someone comes in and makes
26:43
Speaker 3: it offer and says, hey, ben your property, that has
26:46
Speaker 3: been burned down, whether it's your home or commercial property
26:49
Speaker 3: where you have, I'll pay you X dollars for that. Now,
26:53
Speaker 3: before the fire, you probably wouldn't have taken X dollars
26:56
Speaker 3: because your property wasn't burned to the ground it was
26:59
Speaker 3: worth more. But after the fire you might well say,
27:04
Speaker 3: holy cow, I'm in panic. I need help. That is
27:09
Speaker 3: a life saver to me, so thank you. I will
27:13
Speaker 3: take X dollars because I can't afford it if I
27:15
Speaker 3: don't get some help right now?
27:17
Speaker 4: What is Gavin Newsom saying?
27:18
Speaker 3: Nope, if you make an offer, dammit, I'm gonna prosecute
27:24
Speaker 3: you and throw you in jail. What that means, Let's say, Ben,
27:27
Speaker 3: your home's burned or a crisp You know what, people
27:29
Speaker 3: aren't gonna make you offers because if they're worried. Wait,
27:32
Speaker 3: if I offer to buy Ben Ferguson's home, the lunatics
27:37
Speaker 3: in California are gonna come prosecute me and put me
27:39
Speaker 3: in jail. You know what, I ain't making an offer,
27:41
Speaker 3: So you know what you're gonna get for your property.
27:43
Speaker 4: Zero Because.
27:48
Speaker 3: Numbskull politicians are focused on demagoguing someone who would offer
27:53
Speaker 3: to buy a fire destroyed property rather than focusing on
27:58
Speaker 3: stopping these wired fires, preventing them and supporting the firefighters
28:03
Speaker 3: to stop them if and when they occur.
28:05
Speaker 1: There's also a family aspect of this that is concerning
28:08
Speaker 1: and you and I saw this with the massive flooding
28:13
Speaker 1: that happened in Houston. My in laws house got flooded out.
28:16
Speaker 1: They had no intent of moving, but after they got flooded,
28:20
Speaker 1: it was the right time for them to leave that
28:23
Speaker 1: house and sell that house that lot basically and move
28:27
Speaker 1: closer to where the rest of the family was.
28:30
Speaker 2: That was a family decision.
28:32
Speaker 1: And if someone knocked on the door and was like, hey,
28:36
Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to rebuild this, maybe
28:38
Speaker 1: you should. You know, this is a lot value that
28:40
Speaker 1: is worth a lot. And here's the economics of this.
28:44
Speaker 1: There were many people that made that decision as well.
28:46
Speaker 1: You just took that away from them.
28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, Look, it's not complicated.
28:51
Speaker 3: In a free society, I have a right to offer
28:55
Speaker 3: you if I see something, if I see your house,
28:58
Speaker 3: if I see your car, if I see anything and
29:00
Speaker 3: I say hey, I'll give you one hundred thousand dollars
29:04
Speaker 3: for that, I'll give you a million dollars for that.
29:06
Speaker 3: I'll give you a thousand dollars for that whatever. Like
29:10
Speaker 3: we have a free society where I can tell you, ben,
29:12
Speaker 3: you have something, do you want to sell it? I'll
29:14
Speaker 3: offer you this price. By the way, no one's forcing
29:17
Speaker 3: you to say yes. Like if someone makes it offer,
29:21
Speaker 3: you could say go pound sand No, I don't want
29:23
Speaker 3: to sell it. And that's perfectly fine. If you remember
29:25
Speaker 3: the movie Bugsy, great movie about the beginning of la
29:29
Speaker 3: and Warren Baty is playing Bugsy Siegel and he's in
29:32
Speaker 3: Beverly Hills and he sees this gorgeous mansion and he
29:35
Speaker 3: walks up to the door and knocks on the door
29:36
Speaker 3: and he says, I want to buy your house. The
29:38
Speaker 3: guy says not for sale, and he says, nonsense, everything's
29:41
Speaker 3: for sale.
29:41
Speaker 4: How much do you want?
29:42
Speaker 3: And he says it's not for sale, and then he
29:44
Speaker 3: offers some massive amount and thirty seconds later the guy
29:48
Speaker 3: leaves his house and Buggy Segel moves into his house. Like,
29:51
Speaker 3: at some level, the right to offer I will pay
29:54
Speaker 3: you X for what you have. That's the basic conduct
29:58
Speaker 3: of free people and so. But the point on this
30:03
Speaker 3: and this is economics one O one. When Gavin Newsom
30:07
Speaker 3: says I'm going to come and lock you up and
30:10
Speaker 3: put you in jail. If you make an offer to
30:13
Speaker 3: people in crisis, well, you know what, people are not
30:16
Speaker 3: going to make offers. So people are sitting there who
30:18
Speaker 3: are trapped and hopeless and who their insurance was canceled.
30:22
Speaker 3: They can't get insurance, they can't pay their property taxes,
30:25
Speaker 3: they can't they don't know.
30:26
Speaker 4: What to do.
30:28
Speaker 3: They're all going to be worse off because listen, if
30:31
Speaker 3: someone makes an offer to buy it, maybe you say no,
30:34
Speaker 3: I don't want that offer.
30:35
Speaker 4: It's not enough, I don't want it. Okay, you're not
30:36
Speaker 4: any worse off.
30:37
Speaker 3: Have you been hurt because someone called and said, I'll
30:40
Speaker 3: give you this amount for your property.
30:42
Speaker 4: You're not hurt.
30:43
Speaker 3: But for people who are in crisis, that offer maybe
30:49
Speaker 3: the the life preserver they need. And Gavin Newsom said, no, no, no,
30:54
Speaker 3: you ain't getting offers. Guess what you're just going under
30:58
Speaker 3: because we the California Socialists, we're not going to focus
31:03
Speaker 3: on protecting you. We're going to focus on demagoguing the big,
31:08
Speaker 3: bad rich person who would offer to buy your property.
31:11
Speaker 4: Instead.
31:12
Speaker 1: It is also goes back to this other narrative when
31:14
Speaker 1: we heard it from the President of the United States
31:16
Speaker 1: of America. The other night, he was obsessed with this
31:18
Speaker 1: idea of oligarchs. I actually think this was a little
31:21
Speaker 1: bit different. And Bernie Sanders started naming names when he
31:26
Speaker 1: was doing the confirmation hearing for the man who's up
31:30
Speaker 1: for Treasury secretary, and I want to get your take,
31:33
Speaker 1: and we're going to play Bernie. But one of the
31:35
Speaker 1: things I felt was really kind of icky about this
31:40
Speaker 1: was the fact that it's.
31:41
Speaker 2: Like, hey, we're warning some of you that.
31:44
Speaker 1: Have stepped out of line from the Democratic Party that
31:48
Speaker 1: we're coming after you when we get our power back
31:52
Speaker 1: if you step out too far into the conservative side
31:55
Speaker 1: of things. And that's why we're warning you that if
31:59
Speaker 1: we name you is an oligarch, then if we get
32:03
Speaker 1: our when we get our power back, there's going to
32:05
Speaker 1: be some sort of hell to pay. And you better
32:08
Speaker 1: be careful how much you work with Donald Trump and
32:10
Speaker 1: you support freedom of speech, and you support freedom of
32:14
Speaker 1: expression online and the able the ability to post things,
32:17
Speaker 1: and that's what it was boiling down to, and it
32:20
Speaker 1: was I think even more weird. It was in a
32:23
Speaker 1: back and forth with the guy for Treasury secretary, it's like, wait,
32:26
Speaker 1: are you trying to weaponize treasury to say, hey, your
32:29
Speaker 1: job is to now make sure there's no billionaires in America.
32:33
Speaker 3: Well, look, it's worth giving a listen. So listen to
32:36
Speaker 3: this back and forth. And in terms of the demagogic
32:41
Speaker 3: language of the Democrat Party.
32:43
Speaker 4: This is a great example. Give a listen.
32:45
Speaker 7: When you have a small number of multi billionaires who
32:50
Speaker 7: have enormous economic, media and political power. Would you agree
32:58
Speaker 7: with President Biden who last night stated, and I quote
33:02
Speaker 7: and Oligauki is taking shape in America of extreme wealth
33:06
Speaker 7: power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic
33:12
Speaker 7: rights and freedom's end of quote. That's what President Biden
33:15
Speaker 7: said last night. I agree with him, do you.
33:19
Speaker 8: I enjoyed our visit, and I hope you got my
33:22
Speaker 8: follow up materials that on the discussions, my predicious writings
33:26
Speaker 8: on the terraces and China and the three billionaires who
33:35
Speaker 8: you listed that all made the money themselves. Mister Musk
33:42
Speaker 8: came to the country as an immigrant.
33:44
Speaker 2: I understand that.
33:45
Speaker 7: But what I'm asking you is when you have a
33:48
Speaker 7: handful of people like Musk who will soon be part
33:53
Speaker 7: of the Trump administration and others, when you have three
33:57
Speaker 7: people owing more wealth than the bottom half of America society.
34:01
Speaker 7: When these people have enormous influence over the media, when
34:04
Speaker 7: they spend huge amounts of money in both political parties
34:07
Speaker 7: to elect candidates. What Biden said last night is we're
34:11
Speaker 7: moving toward an oligocky I'm asking you that question. Do
34:14
Speaker 7: you think, forget how they made their money, do you
34:17
Speaker 7: think that when so few people have so much wealth
34:20
Speaker 7: and so much economic and political power, that that is
34:23
Speaker 7: an oligoxic form of society?
34:25
Speaker 8: Well, I wouldn't note that they. President Biden gave the
34:30
Speaker 8: Presidential Metal of Freedom to two people who I think
34:33
Speaker 8: would qualify for his oligarchs.
34:35
Speaker 7: So this is not a condemnation of any one individual.
34:41
Speaker 2: I'm just asking you when.
34:42
Speaker 7: So few people have so much wealth and power, But
34:46
Speaker 7: do you think that that is an oligockic form of society?
34:50
Speaker 8: Senator? I think it depends on the ability to move
34:56
Speaker 8: up and down the end.
34:58
Speaker 4: No, that's not really dancer.
34:59
Speaker 7: I mean, if you had the mobility, no matter who
35:01
Speaker 7: those individuals might be. All right, But let me ask
35:04
Speaker 7: you another question.
35:05
Speaker 1: I love there how He's like, all right, I'm gonna
35:07
Speaker 1: move on because this isn't landing and just threw it
35:08
Speaker 1: back in my face that we just gave medals of
35:12
Speaker 1: the highest level of metal you can give to a civilian,
35:16
Speaker 1: to two of the people that would be categorized oligorks.
35:19
Speaker 1: One of them, by the way, is a hard core
35:22
Speaker 1: radical by the name of George Soros.
35:26
Speaker 3: George Soros just got the Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden.
35:29
Speaker 3: He celebrated. He also gave it to Hillary Clinton. And
35:32
Speaker 3: by the way, before that, Barack Obama gave the Medal
35:35
Speaker 3: of Freedom to Bill Gates. And listen, the position of
35:39
Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders is, we hate billionaires. Unless you're billionaires who
35:43
Speaker 3: support socialists and the Democrat Party, then you're okay. But
35:47
Speaker 3: to be clear, you're only okay if you're buying absolution.
35:51
Speaker 3: The instant you stop buying absolution, we will demonize you
35:54
Speaker 3: and we will burn you an effigy in the streets.
35:57
Speaker 3: And I gotta say, I like Scott Bessen's, He's like, wait,
36:01
Speaker 3: you're attacking these people. None of these three people, you're
36:04
Speaker 3: attacking none of them inherited wealth. You know, Elon Musk
36:08
Speaker 3: came as an immigrant from Africa, like he built amazing
36:12
Speaker 3: companies and and to a socialist, they don't care what
36:17
Speaker 3: you did to build wealth. They're going to demonize you.
36:20
Speaker 3: They're going to attack you. And it's an example of
36:24
Speaker 3: and and by the way, it's it's why you get
36:26
Speaker 3: so many incredibly rich, so many billionaires who backed the
36:30
Speaker 3: Democrat Party because they're basically paying for protection from Roba spear,
36:37
Speaker 3: from from from the guillotine in the French Revolution. And
36:42
Speaker 3: and I got to say that that is where the
36:44
Speaker 3: Democrat Party is. But I'll give Scott Besson a shout out.
36:48
Speaker 3: He responded with fantastic answers. Which is why Bernie ran
36:54
Speaker 3: ran to the hills and ran away because he realized
36:57
Speaker 3: it wasn't going the way he wanted. Scott Besson's gonna
36:59
Speaker 3: get affirmed. Every Trump cabinet member is gonna get confirmed.
37:03
Speaker 1: That might be the best thing we've heard all day.
37:05
Speaker 1: Every member is going to get confirmed with Trump's cabinet.
37:08
Speaker 1: And that's incredible. Don't forget. We do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
37:12
Speaker 1: and we've got one more show. I just sw the
37:14
Speaker 1: Senator wants to remind everybody one more show Monday.
37:16
Speaker 3: No, I thought you told me this was the last
37:18
Speaker 3: one before inauguration. I was listening to you at the
37:22
Speaker 3: beginning of the show. You said that you know, I'm
37:25
Speaker 3: changing here.
37:25
Speaker 1: I'm just moving with the calendar. I'm moving with the
37:28
Speaker 1: times here, Senator. So we'll have that final one for
37:32
Speaker 1: you before inauguration that will air on Monday on Inauguration Day.
37:36
Speaker 1: Don't forget our weekend review will be on Saturday as well.
37:38
Speaker 1: Hit that subscriber auto download button and we'll see you
37:42
Speaker 1: back here on Saturday, and then for one more show
37:45
Speaker 1: on Monday as well