Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Trump Conquers Colombia, CIA Comes Clean on COVID & Confirmations Accelerate

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Trump Conquers Colombia, CIA Comes Clean on COVID & Confirmations Accelerate · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: with you Center. Nice to be with you on this
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Monday and Mayo min do we have some fun things
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to talk about, including a very quick war with the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: US and Columbia over illegal immigrants.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: What a difference a week wit makes. A week ago
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden was still president. Now just seven days later,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Marines are on our southern border. Catch and release is over.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: We are deporting illegal immigrants. We are arresting thousands of
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: criminal illegal immigrants, including murderers, including child molesters, including gang members.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: And the nation of Columbia tried to stand up and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: say we will not allow Colombians to come back. Trump
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: immediately retaliated, threatening tariffs, and within hours Columbia back down.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: It went so far the president of Columbia, a radical socialist,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: said he would send his presidential plane to America to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: pick up the Colombian illegal immigrants. It is an incredible
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: victory for President Trump, for the nation for securing the
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: border in just hours. That is a big, big deal.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: But that's not all that's going on. We also have
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the CIA has confirmed its own judgment that the COVID
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: virus originated in China. That's something you and I have
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: talked about. We've talked about on Verdict for a long time.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Within hours of John Radcliffe being confirmed as the Director
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: of the CIA, he made that public. We're going to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: talk about that as well. And finally we're going to
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: talk about confirmation the cabinet members that have already been confirmed.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Who's on deck. I've told you within thirty days, every
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: single Trump cabinet member will be confirmed. We'll walk you
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: through exactly where that stands.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a really fun show.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I also want to remind you about something really important,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and that is that today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: when we remember the great evil of the Holocaust, when
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazis reign of terror. Today,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the rise in global anti Semitism and the constant attacks
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: on Israel show us that it's more important than ever
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to remember the atrocies of the Holocaust and to ensure
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: that it never happens again. That's why I partnered with
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They provide food, shelter,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and safety to Jews in Israel and around the world.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Now, your donation today will
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: help provide food, water, medicine, and other basic necessities to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the Jewish communities in need. And through your gift, you
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: will stand with the Jewish people and against this growing
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: anti Semitism and hatred that we're witnessing around the world.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So give a gift to show your support of the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Jewish people today by visiting SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That's one word,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: support IFCJ dot org. You can also call to make
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a donation eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ. That's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ or online it
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: support IFCJ dot org. So Centa. Before we get into
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the big war with Columbia, I want to start with
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the incredible news of the deportations that are taking place
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: with violent rapists, murderers, gang members, drug traffickers. That ICE
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: is picking up not just in one city but all
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: over the country, people that could have been picked up
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that were walking among us by the Biden Heirs administration
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and they refused to do it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not care that
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: murderers and rapists were allowed to wander free, They would
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: not arrest them, they would not pick them up. In
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: just a week, thousands of illegal immigrants have already been arrested.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Here are a few of the examples. The White House
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: has put out that they've arrested. Edgar Dela Cruz Monzo,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a convicted child rapist, was arrested by ice in Seattle
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on January twenty fifth. A Jordanian national with suspected tied
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: ISIS was arrested in Buffalo. On January twenty fourth, an
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador wanted for aggravated
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: homicide was arrested in Los Angeles. Also on January twenty fourth,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: a Mexican national wanted for murder was arrested in Los Angeles.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: On January twenty fourth, a Honduran national was found with cocaine,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: fetanohl and a firearm. He was arrested in Seattle. On
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: January twenty fourth. A Ethiopian national who's a convicted sex
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: offender was arrested in New Orleans. On January twenty fourth,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: a Honduran national with convictions for driving while impaired and
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: pending charges including assault and firearms offenses was arrested in Atlanta.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: On January twenty fifth. A Brazilian national convicted of vehicular
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: manslaughter was arrested in Boston on January twenty fifth. A
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Mexican national convicted of three counts of aggravated dui was
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: arrested in Phoenix on January twenty fourth. Those are just
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: a few of the examples. And let me ask you something, Ben,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Why the hell were none of them arrested when Joe
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Biden and the Democrats were in charge.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the question that every American should be asking
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: is why were they purposely allowing them to stay and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: walk among us? And how many people's lives were affected,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: how many people's lives are lost, how many children were
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: abused because of people like this in this country. They
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: knew that where they were, and they didn't take go
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: get them, They didn't deport them, something that they've done
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: in less than a week.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Notice Ice was able to find them and arrest them
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: within days. Many of those were January twenty fourth, January
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: twenty fifth, which means we had the information, we know
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: how to get them. What was missing was the political leadership.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: It's not that Joe Biden and Kamala Harrison, the Democrats
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: couldn't find these murderers, couldn't find these rapists, couldn't find
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: these terrorists, couldn't find these gang members, couldn't find these
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: child molesters. They could find them. It was actually pretty
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: easy and straightforward for ICE to do.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: So.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: The reason they weren't arresting them is that Democrats didn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: want to arrest them. And understand, it's not just Biden Harris,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: it is every Senate Democrat who over and over and
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: overgive when we tried to vote and say let's go
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: after the criminals, they voted no, no, no, straight party line.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I want you to listen to Tom Homan. The new
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: border controls are talking about what they're doing on the
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: border and what they intend to keep doing to deport
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: all of those people.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: Congress, you know, I think Congress pros has a mandate.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: There's was number one issue that people voted. I think
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Congress has a mandate to give us money we need.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: What price you find national security? What price you put
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: on what you put onto all these young ladies who
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: been raped and murdered and burned alive? What price you
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: put on that? What price are you upon Lincoln Ryan's life?
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: What price you upon national security, Like I just explained,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: when you have a sergeik is we don't secure that border,
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: that's when national security threats under the country. That's when
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: sex Chaffick grows up. That's when you know, that's when
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: the fatonyl comes in that killed with the Quarterminian Americans.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: I don't put a price in that.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: And on those detention centers. It's amazing on the media
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: keeps arguing that a quarter million Americans die from fetnohl
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: as he described it. He also mentioned Lncoln Riley and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the Lake and Riley Act was finally passed because Republicans
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: are in charge now, uh, and it is going to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: go you know, to the president. This is one of
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: those moments where it should have been completely bipartisan. But
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: these are all the things that the Bidenhirs administration stopped.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Well they blocked it. And by the way, one of
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: their excuses for not deporting people, the real reason they
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: didn't deport people is they want the illegals here. But
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: one of their excuses is they say, well, some countries
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: wouldn't take them back. I got to say, what we
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: saw with Columbia in the last last two days has
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: been stunning, So the Trump administration was flying two different
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: planeloads of Colombian illegal immigrants to Columbia, and the head
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: of Columbia, Gustavo Petro, who is a hardcore socialist, radical
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: anti American, he decided. He announced, We're not going to
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: let the planes land. We're not going to take him back. Now,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: President Trump sent out the following truth social and I
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: just want to read you what the President says. I
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: States with a large number of illegal criminals were not
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Columbia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, who was already very unpopular
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: amongst his people. Petro's denial of these flights has jeopardized
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: the national security and public safety of the United States.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: So I have directed my administration to immediately take the
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures emergency twenty five percent
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: tariffs on all goods coming into the United States. In
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: one week, the twenty five percent tariffs will be raised
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: to fifty percent, a travel ban, and immediate revocations on
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: the Colombian government officials and all allies and supporters, visa
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: sanctions on all party members, family members, and supporters of
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the Colombian government, Enhance customs and Border protection inspections of
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: all Columbia nationals, and cargo on national security grounds, AIPA, treasury,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: banking and financial sanctions to be fully imposed. These measures
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: United States. Now that truth was posted on January twenty
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: sixth at one twenty eight pm. Within hours, Colombia completely caved.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: The White House Press Secretary put out a statement that
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: read as follows quote. The government of Columbia has agreed
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: of all illegal aliens from Columbia returned from the United States,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay. Based
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: on this agreement, the fully drafted IEPA tariffs and sanctions
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: will be held in reserve and not signed unless Columbia
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: fails to honor this agreement. The visa sanctions issued by
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: the State Department and enhance inspections from Customs and Border
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Protection will remain in effect until the first plane loan
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: of Colombian deportees is successfully returned to Day's events make
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: clear to the world that America is respected again. President
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation's sovereignty, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: he expects all other nations of the world to fully
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: in the United States.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: It's amazing how fast has happened. And also the backstory.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: So this tweet that went out went out apparently while
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump was playing golf, and he was clearly focused
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: on this at the same time, He's been all over
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the country from North Carolina all the way out to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: La then to Vegas and back to Miami. And you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: look at the timeline here. It is incredible. This man
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: doesn't stop and he was ready for this fight. His
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: team was ready for this fight. That is I think
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: maybe the biggest blessing of him not getting re elected
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty is he had time to think about, Hey,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: if I go back, what would I do differently clearly
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: operating at a different level of efficiency this time compared
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen, and it's paying off big.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: It is indeed. And I got to say, the timing
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: of it, as I mentioned, one twenty eight pm, was
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: when Trump's truth social came out on January twenty sixth.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Do you know when the Press secretary set out her
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: statement that Columbia had caved?
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: What time?
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: At nine to twenty pm on one twenty six So
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: less than eight hours later. That's how long it took
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: for the Columbian president. He didn't just say, Okay, never mind,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: you can let everyone in. He said I'll send my
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: damn presidential plane to pick them up. And that capitulation.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: And this is from a hardcore leftist who hates America.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: It illustrates the strength and leverage the United States has.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Every country in the world wants to trade, wants access
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: to the US market. That gives us leverage. It's one
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of the things we've talked about a lot concerning tariffs,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: which is that President Trump uses them as leverage. Now,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: he likes tariffs generally, so we may see tariff's as
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: a broader policy, but he especially likes them as leverage
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: to change conduct that is hurting America. And Ben, I
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: want to ask you a simple question. Can you imagine
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: any universe in which Joe Biden or Kamala Harris would
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: do this.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: No, no chance in hell.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And by the way, number one, you have to imagine
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a universe in which they're actually willing to deport someone,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and then that's a big hypothetical. But let's assume they
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: sent two planes to Columbia and the Columbian president did
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: what he did to Trump. He would have done it
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: to them too, say we won't take them. It is
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: simply unimaginable that Biden or Harris would have had the
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: backbone to do anything other than the meekly back down
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and say, okay, we'll take the criminals back like this is.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: It is a simple illustration that America always had the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: power to enforce our borders if we had a president
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: who gave a damn about it and was willing to
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: do what was necessary, and thank god, finally we do.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It also sends a bigger message to other countries that
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: we're gonna have to deal with because there's a lot
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of other countries. I think simplistically, a lot of people think, well, okay,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the southern border, we have an issue with Mexico. Let's
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: be very clear, there are millions of people that are
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: in America legally from countries all over the world, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: these types of flights are gonna need to land in
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: many other countries the present. For what Donald Trump put
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: out and saying, it's not just gonna be a tear
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: for twenty five percent, but a week it's gonna go
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to fifty percent. It's not just that we're gonna make
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: sure that anybody in your country and your government, family, allies,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: friends can't come to America.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: We're gonna get rid of the by the way, that piece. Listen,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: if you're the foreign minister and your wife wants to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: go to New York to go shopping, that's a real problem.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: If she's not allowed to go to New York to
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: go shopping, you want to talk about that. That's one
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: of the areas of leverage that actually causes foreign leaders
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: to freak out when they're not allowed to ad access
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: America for many, many reasons. People travel from all over
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: the world and want to come to America, and it's
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: using leverage. And we've talked on this pot a lot
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: about about the enormous damage that was done to America
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: under Joe Biden because he was so weak, nobody was
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: afraid of him. Yeah, most of our enemies are terrified
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: of Donald Trump. That is very very good.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Well, and it goes back to this. Now, every country
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: that we're going to need to take these planes. And
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: just so people understand, they had agreed that these plans
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: could land in Columbia. It wasn't like Donald Trump random.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: We just had two plans headed towards Columbia. This had
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: been pre arranged. The President said yes. Then in the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: air he said.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Now revoke the authorization mid air, and I gotta say, look,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: look that that there's an online meme that is fa
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: fo And because this is a family friendly podcast, I'm
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: not going to spell it out, but I'm going to say,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: to speak euphemistically, screwund and find out. Yeah, and Dunald
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Trump tweeted that out. But like, okay, that's just pretty
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: damn funny.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: So every other country now that we've got to deal with,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't this, clearly, I would argue, probably a pre planned
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Any country that messes with us, here is what we're
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: going to do back to them. And now every country
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: knows you're gonna get the same treatment.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Look, I'll tell you I met a week ago with
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: a senior government official from Canada, who was very concerned
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: about the threatened tariffs on Canada. I was saying, Okay,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: what do we do? And I basically said, listen, he's
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: not bluffing. What I would advise you do is lean
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: in vigorously and aggressively to do everything humanly possible to
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: help us secure the borders, because if you don't, you're
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: gonna see those tariffs. And no matter how aggressive you
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: were thinking of being to secure the border, triple down
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: on that, because this is not a bluff. It is
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: a real, incredible promise. And I got to say, as
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: we saw in less than eight hours, it can spur
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: incredible change of conduct. By the way, in the first
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Trump term, we saw the same thing prompt the remain
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: in Mexico agreement with Mexico for the same reasons.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Well, and now it seems like he's willing to double
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: down even more than he was back then. And if
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: anyone was doubting his resolve on securing the southern border,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: just call Colombia's Petro and say, hey, how'd it work
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: out for you? Because when you have to send the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: president you're playing to pick up migrants. After Trump announce
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the sanctions, that is the biggest failure I've ever witnessed
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: in a political gamesmanship like this in modern political history.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I'll say, within an hour of Columbia refusing,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: refusing the planes to land, and Trump announcing the consequences,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: here's what I tweeted out. I tweeted out, Colombian President
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Petro is playing with fire. After he took over Columbia
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the summer of twenty twenty two. I worry this would happen.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I introduced the Act which required suspending aid to Columbia
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: unless they cooperated to reduce illegal immigration. That is child's
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: play compared to what will happen now if Petro doesn't
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: reverse course. And about six hours later he did.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I want to move to this other big headline, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: that deals with the CIA and releasing new analysis on
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the COVID origins. Doesn't matter where you read the headline,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: whether it's Fox News, Politico, AP, BBC, Wall Street Journal,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: they're all writing the same article now, and I'll go
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to Politico. CIA now says COVID nineteen is more likely
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to have originated from a lab leak. Now, the most
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: interesting part about this transparency that we're getting from the
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a friend of both of ours.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Is the fact that he made it clear, Hey, I'm
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: releasing information that they had already come to a conclusion
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: on Center when Biden and Harris were in charge. They
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: just didn't want the American people to know it. So
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: if you think I'm the one giving you this intel,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it's not me. This is intel from Biden and Harris
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that they hid from you.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the CIA had already come to this conclusion,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: and for a number of years, the CIA's public position
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: was it could not conclude with certainty where the pandemic started.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And yet two days after John Radcliffe was sworn in
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: as the new director of the CIA, they issued a
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: public statement that said, quote, we have low confidence in
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available, credible,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: new intelligence reporting or open source information that could change
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: CIA's assessment. And, by the way, low confidence typically when
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: the intelligence community has a conclusion that they will report
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: it with low confidence, with moderate confidence, or with high confidence.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: So they're saying that they're not convinced it's absolutely right,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: but they think it's correct, but it's at the lowest
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: confidence level. And they did note CIA continues to assess
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: that both research related in natural origin scenarios of the
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: COVID pandemic remain plausible. It is strik striking however, that
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: as you just said a second ago, the CIA had
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: concluded this some time ago. It's just under Joe Biden
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: and Kamala Harris they didn't bother to tell the American people.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Listen to John Radcliffe explaining.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: This, part of what we have to do is we
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: have to restore Americans trust in our own institutions like
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: the intelligence community and law enforcement, and that includes the CIA.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: And you know, one of the things that the President stress,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: you know that the purpose of the CIA is to
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: protect Americans, to keep us safe from foreign threats and
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: foreign adversaries, but we also need to be truthful with Americans.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: And he has stressed to me and others that you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: these aren't mutually exclusive missions. We can do both. And
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: so in the case of the CIA, which is the
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: best foreign intelligence service in world, after five years, to
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: not have a public assessment, to be honest with the
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: American people about where the likely source of a pandemic
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: that killed millions around the world, including a million Americans,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: and really impacted all three hundred and forty five million
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Americans in some way. People lost jobs, they lost houses,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: they lost their health, they lost their businesses, all of that.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: And so I had the opportunity on my first day
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: to make public an assessment that actually took place in
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: the Biden administration, so it can't be accused of being political,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: and it does assess the CIA has assessed that the
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: much devastation around the world was because of elaborated incident
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: in Wuhan, and so we'll continue to investigate that moving forward.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: But I think it was important for the American people
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: to see an institution like the CIA get off the
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: sidelines and be truthful what our intelligence shows, at the
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: same time of protecting us from adversaries like China, if
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: they caused or contributed to this.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, center, Wow, what else can you say? This
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: is all intel that we already had that they hid
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: and lied to the American people about.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, and I know John Ratcliffe, well, he's a
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: good friend of mine. He is someone I sat and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: spent about an hour talking with him a week ago
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: before his confirmation. And I'll tell you one of the
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: things I urged John to do is bring maximum transparency
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: that's possible. Look, the nature of the CIA, you can't
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: be transparent and everything. Obviously, we don't want the public
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: to know the identity of covert agents or or you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: secret wiretaps or things that would jeopardize national security. But
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the consequences of the politicization and weaponization of both law
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: enforcement and the intelligence community is that the public's trust
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: in those institutions has been severely diminished. That's what John
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: was talking about in that clip you just played, and
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: so I urged him. By the way, it's the same
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: thing I've urged Pam Bondi, who's been nominated to be
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Attorney General. It's the same thing I've urged Cashptel, who's
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: been nominated to be FBI director, is have the maximum
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: transparency possible. And in particular I've urged them with respect
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: to COVID and the origins of COVID, and by the way,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: any US government complicity in terms of funding the Chinese
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: research and the gain of function research that may have
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: created the COVID virus, that we need maximum transparency concerning
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: that in particular, and I think John Ratcliffe is following
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: through with that I've also urged maximum transparency concerning January
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: sixth and any US government informants who may have been
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: involved who may have enticed or entrapped people into conduct
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: on that day to make that public as well. And
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: I'm hopeful and by the way, I'll mention Trump is
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: also releasing the files on JFK and RFK and Martin
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Luther King's assassinations. I will note Ben when when Trump
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: said he was releasing the JFK files.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I know where you're going with this.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I did at least tweet just wondering what are the
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: non extradition countries Again, I'm asking for a friend, all.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Right, you can't say that without telling the backstory on
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: this one, right? Can you find people the humor here
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: on this?
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Sure? During twenty sixteen, Trump accused my father of killing JFK, which,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: for the record, no, my dad did not kill JFK.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: He did kill Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa is buried my
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: bad dad's backyard. But he didn't kill JFK. And so
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's it's a thing. And so if
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: he's releasing the the JFK files, I got to tell
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: you I'm buying a plane ticket for my dad to
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: go to Bolivia right now.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Between that and the Zodiac Killer, you're just making headlines,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: my friend.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: And it was amazing. So Ben, there is actually a
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: real poll that I have seen that show, This was
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: a few years ago, that twenty eight percent of Floridians
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: believe I may well be the Zodiac Killer.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: That's what I would frame and put on my desk.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: And given that the Zodiac Killer killed a number of
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: people in northern California in the nineteen sixties before I
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: was born, that's an amazing talent to be able to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: murder in utero, to reach like back in time. That
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: that's just you know, I'm kind of proud of that.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, if liberals a another reason to be afraid
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: of you, just know that Center crews can time travel,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: per per Internet Report.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: So as the meme says, fafo, I love it.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: All Right, let's talk about the last thing on our list,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and it is one. Were you right in your prediction?
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: When did you get home? If you listen our last show,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: we were talking about our Democrats gonna hold out through
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the weekend. Are you gonna have to stay in DC
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: all weekend? Are you gonna get to come home? They
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: were holding up the nomination jet again? So tell us
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: how that went down. When did you get back?
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Were you right?
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: So?
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I was right. I said I thought we'd get back Saturday.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: I thought the Democrats would fight tooth and nail to
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: try to beat Pete Haggseth. I said they'd lose. And
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: I said when they lost, they'd give in and they
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: want to get out of town because they want to
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: get home, just like we do. So that's exactly what happened.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: So we were there, We were there late Friday night,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: and then we ended up finishing the vote Saturday morning,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: and we all flew out Saturday afternoon. So I'm you
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and I are recording. It is twelve eleven in the
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: morning right now, Sunday night, Monday morning, I'm in Houston,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: and tomorrow morning I'll fly back to d C to
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: go back to the Senate tomorrow. So we did get out,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And where are we on the confirmations? So right now
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: four cabinet members have been confirmed. The first to be
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: confirmed was Marco Rubio, a Secretary of State. He was
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: confirmed on January twentieth. The vote was ninety nine to nothing.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: The second to be confirmed was the guy that you
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: just played that clip from, John Ratcliffe at a director.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: The vote was seventy two to twenty six, so big
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: bipartisan vote. And it's striking though that the Democrats delayed
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: that several days even though there was clear bipartisan support
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: for him. Ratcliffe should have been confirmed on January twentieth. Also,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: in fact, we thought he was going to and the
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Democrats delayed it several days just because they're engaged in obstruction.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: They're trying to delay everything, and.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: We're way behind schedule compared to other administrations.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: So if you understand that way behind is strong, but
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: they're dragging their feet, and that's why that's why we
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: ram through, forced them to stay through the weekend cape
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: that kept them late Friday night, kept them their Saturday.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: To make clear, listen, if you delay, we'll just motor through.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: And so you can decide do you want it to
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: be unpleasant or do you want to move forward. We're
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: going to move expeditiously and confirm these nominees. The Democrats,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: if they want, they can abuse the procedural rules, they
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: can drag things out, but that means they're going to
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: be there on Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays, and they're
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: not going home, and that's the most effective way to
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: get them to cave in, which is what they did.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: And so Friday night, the third cabinet member was confirmed,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: that was Pete Hegseth. That vote was fifty one to fifty.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: More on that in a second, I'll come back to that.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: And then on Saturday, we confirmed the fourth cabinet member,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: which is Christy nom for Secretary of Homeland Security. She
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: was confirmed fifty nine thirty four, so a respectable bipartisan vote,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: not overwhelming, but she got six Democrats. And next week
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: we have teed up Scott Bessent for Secretary of Treasury,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation, Chris Wright for Secretary
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: of Energy, and Doug Berga for Secretary of the Interior.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: All of them are out of committee, all of them
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: are teed up. I think all four of them will
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: be confirmed next week. We may have some others confirmed
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: next week as well, but we're moving expeditiously, and as
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I said, my prediction is that we will confirm all
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: of Trump's cabinet nominees within thirty days. We also have
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: next week in Judiciary, we will vote Pam Bondi out
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: of committee and we'll have the hearing on Cash Paateel.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And by the way, one of the things I did
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: last week is participated in in a moot preparation with
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Cash Patel, which was very productive. Cash. I think it's
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: going to do a good job. The Democrats are going
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: to go hard after Cash, Battel, They're going to go
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: hard after Tulci Gabbard. Those are their top two targets.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: And then Pete Hexseth. So Pete Hegseth. They fired everything
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: they could at him. They really wanted to defeat Pete.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: And the vote ended up being fifty to fifty on
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: the floor of the Senate. So three Republicans voted no.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Susan Collins, which was not a surprise, Lisa Murkowski again
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: not a big surprise, and Mitch McConnell, who I have
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: to admit I was not surprised that Mitch voted no,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: but that was the more surprising of the three. I
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: will say Friday.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I was surprised by that one. So explain why you
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: say you weren't surprised. I just I was shocked knowing
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: who he had voted to confirm in the past on
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the Democrat sides. Was it more of an inside baseball
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: in DC? Everybody thought, yeah, he'd probably do this. I
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: don't explain why.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: So several things. One, I think it's fair to say
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Mitch is not a fan of Donald Trump. To put
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: that mildly, I think both of them can't stand each other.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I think secondly, Mitch listen that the odds are overwhelming.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Mitch is not going to run for reelection, which means
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: he's got two years and his term is up in
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. I think for his final two years,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Mitch has decided he wants to be basically John McCain.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: He wants to fight for a bigger military, he wants
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: to fight for an aggressive, interventionist foreign policy. And I
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: think he views many of Trump's foreign policy nominees, many
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: of his foreign policy positions Mitch passionately disagrees with, and
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I think in Mitch's mind he put hag Seth into
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: that category. And so just given where Mitch is coming from,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I wasn't surprised that he voted no, and I think
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: you could see Mitch vote no. I think those three
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Collins Berkowski and McConnell could vote no on on a
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: couple of other nominees. On most of them they'll be yeses,
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: but those three. To have a good thing about a
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: fifty three vote majority is we can afford to lose three.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: We can afford to lose three and win. So it
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: was fifty to fifty on the floor of the Senate,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: which meant the Vice President J. D. Vance came late
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Friday night and he cast the tie breaking vote. So
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Pete hagg Seth is now the Defense Secretary. But that
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: was a battle, and there was some real drama, in
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: particular because Tom Tillis from North Carolina had raised real
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: issues during the day whether he would be a yes
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: or a no. And I can tell you there were
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: a lot of intense conversations with Tom, with Pete hegg Seth,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: with the White House, back and forth. Look, if one
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: more Republican had voted no, it would have taken hegg
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Seth down. But at the end of the day I
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: was confident Tillis would vote yes, and he did vote yes.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: In fact, I offered to several of my colleagues, I said,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: I'll bet you a hundred bucks he's a yes, and
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: nobody would take my bet. That's a shame because I
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: would have liked to have won one hundred dollars.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about it. All Right. So lastly, this week, seek,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: what do you think is going to happen? Is it
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: going to be a long week or are you guys
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: going to get a lot of this done and get
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: out of there on Thursday like normal, or are the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Democrats going to keep playing the games?
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, normal Senate schedule as you come in Monday night,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: your first vote is typically five thirty pm. The reason
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: it's five thirty pm that's called the comeback vote. And
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: you've got senators flying in from all over the country,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: so even from the West coast, you can fly in
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: and land in DC and get to a five thirty vote.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: So that's why we start Monday night so everyone could
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: come back to town that day. The normal Senate schedule is
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: you wrap up voting Thursday afternoon, you fly home to
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: your state, and then you're in your state. You're traveling
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: your state on Friday and the weekends. What John Thune
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: has announced is is the schedule right now every week
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: we're going to be there through Fridays. I think part
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: of that is to put pressure on the Democrats not
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: to be obstructionist. I think if the Democrats agree to
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: collapse time and to move a little faster, I think
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: we may go home Thursday afternoons as well, so we
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: can be back in the state on Friday. But if
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: the Democrats delay are an obstructionist, I expect us to
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: be there every Friday.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Incredible, don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday Friday.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: We're gonna give you a blueprint for what's happening, especially
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: during these confirmation hearings, just like we talked about, So
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: hit that subscribe or that auto download button, and on
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: those in between days, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcasts.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news as
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: well on those days and the Senate and I will
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: see you back here Wednesday morning.