Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Elon vs Trump Firestorm plus What's Next for the Big Beautiful Bill & Chinese Nationals Caught Smuggling Dangerous Pathogens into America

Transcript

Elon vs Trump Firestorm plus What's Next for the Big Beautiful Bill & Chinese Nationals Caught Smuggling Dangerous Pathogens into America · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Well, welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
0:05
Speaker 2: and we have got a very big show for you.
0:08
Speaker 2: And yes, we are going to talk about the elephant
0:10
Speaker 2: in the room, two men that have had some back
0:13
Speaker 2: and forth, the most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump,
0:16
Speaker 2: the President, and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.
0:19
Speaker 2: I want to be clear, I love both these men
0:21
Speaker 2: dearly and think they've done amazing things for this country,
0:24
Speaker 2: and we are gonna talk about it.
0:26
Speaker 1: We're gonna start with that.
0:27
Speaker 3: Well, the battle that unfolded between Elon and Trump this
0:30
Speaker 3: past week, it was painful for all of us to watch.
0:32
Speaker 3: We're gonna break it down. I was actually in the
0:35
Speaker 3: Oval office with the President when the Twitter battle started.
0:38
Speaker 3: I'm gonna bring you inside that and we're gonna assess
0:40
Speaker 3: what are the consequences and where we go from here.
0:43
Speaker 3: We're also going to talk about the one big, bold,
0:45
Speaker 3: beautiful bill, what's gonna happen, what the Senate's gonna do.
0:48
Speaker 3: I'm optimistic, but we're gonna break down the details. And
0:51
Speaker 3: then we're gonna talk about a rather remarkable story about
0:55
Speaker 3: the FBI arresting a Chinese national for bringing a dangerous
0:59
Speaker 3: path pathogen into the United States, a pathogen that could
1:03
Speaker 3: have done enormous damage. And finally, a Columbia protester, a
1:08
Speaker 3: radical Jew hater who was talking about lighting someone on
1:12
Speaker 3: fire on the Columbia campus. He's being prosecuted for his
1:16
Speaker 3: crimes of violence. We're going to break that down for
1:18
Speaker 3: you as well.
1:19
Speaker 1: We certainly are.
1:20
Speaker 2: And I also want to talk to you real quick
1:22
Speaker 2: about something that's happening in this country and around the
1:25
Speaker 2: world and how you can get involved to stand with
1:28
Speaker 2: the people of Israel. We saw what just happened in Colorado,
1:33
Speaker 2: and the first question people ask is what can I
1:36
Speaker 2: do well.
1:37
Speaker 1: You can stand up to anti Semitism.
1:39
Speaker 2: You can stand up to these radicals by standing with
1:43
Speaker 2: people in Israel. Right now, Jewish schools are being targeted
1:47
Speaker 2: right here in America. We are watching Jewish individuals be targeted.
1:51
Speaker 2: Synagogues are being threatened, and unfortunately, so many Jewish families
1:55
Speaker 2: are now living in fear, and it's time for us
1:58
Speaker 2: to stand up. Silent is not an option. This is
2:02
Speaker 2: the moment to take a stand. And that's why I
2:05
Speaker 2: want you to get involved with a group that I
2:07
Speaker 2: love dearly. It's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
2:11
Speaker 2: You may have heard of them as IFCJ. They are
2:14
Speaker 2: literally on the front lines providing real help where it
2:17
Speaker 2: is needed the most. They're giving food and shelter to
2:20
Speaker 2: Jewish families that are under threat right now in Israel.
2:23
Speaker 2: They are building bomb shelters for children right now in Israel.
2:28
Speaker 2: They are helping survivors in America and all over the
2:31
Speaker 2: world that have had their lives affected by this type
2:36
Speaker 2: of hate and the attacks. And they don't just respond
2:39
Speaker 2: to the crisis, they work every day to prevent it
2:41
Speaker 2: as well. Now, your gift of just forty five dollars
2:44
Speaker 2: will help support their life saving work by helping provide food,
2:49
Speaker 2: shelter and armored vehicles, armored ambulances and so much more
2:54
Speaker 2: like those bomb shelters. The Bible's pretty clear, I will
2:58
Speaker 2: bless those who bless you, and supporting IFCJ is a
3:02
Speaker 2: spiritual stand and it's showing up for God's people when
3:06
Speaker 2: it counts. So if you want to stand with so
3:09
Speaker 2: many that are hurting right now, and you want to
3:10
Speaker 2: stand with Israel, please call and make a donation eight
3:14
Speaker 2: at eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight
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3:23
Speaker 2: to IFCJ dot org. Every dollar helps, don't wait be
3:27
Speaker 2: the difference IFCJ dot org or eight eight eight four
3:31
Speaker 2: eight eight IFCJ. So, Senator, let's start with the Elon
3:35
Speaker 2: Musk Donald Trump back and forth. I hate seeing this
3:38
Speaker 2: because Democrats are loving it, the liberal medias are loving it.
3:42
Speaker 2: And I want to be clear, I think Donald Trump
3:44
Speaker 2: is not wrong. I also think Elon Musk is not wrong.
3:47
Speaker 2: And unfortunately, Elon is working under the assumption that Congress
3:51
Speaker 2: actually wants to do the job and save our country,
3:54
Speaker 2: and I think Trump's working under the reality that there's
3:56
Speaker 2: a lot of people in Congress that actually aren't looking
3:59
Speaker 2: at out for the American people.
4:01
Speaker 1: Both men, in many ways are right.
4:03
Speaker 3: Well. Listen, what unfolded this week was incredibly painful. These
4:08
Speaker 3: are two men whom I know very well. They're both
4:11
Speaker 3: good friends of mine. President Trump has been an extraordinary president,
4:15
Speaker 3: his election, his re election in November, save this country
4:19
Speaker 3: from absolute destruction. Elon Mosquez is one of the greatest
4:24
Speaker 3: business men, one of the greatest innovators, one of the
4:27
Speaker 3: greatest thinkers I think the world has ever seen, and
4:31
Speaker 3: he is what he has done, whether in with SpaceX,
4:35
Speaker 3: whether with Tesla, whether with all of his companies, or
4:38
Speaker 3: whether buying Twitter or creating a free speech zone where
4:43
Speaker 3: people can engage in public debate. That was massively consequential.
4:47
Speaker 3: And that doesn't even begin to touch the impact that
4:51
Speaker 3: Elon had a doze exposing massive government waste, fraud and abuse.
4:57
Speaker 3: And so I got to say, I watched the two
4:59
Speaker 3: of them, and by the way, you and I we
5:00
Speaker 3: had Elon Musk's guest on this podcast that that is
5:03
Speaker 3: one of my favorite podcasts we've ever done.
5:06
Speaker 1: At the White House. Nonetheless, it was.
5:07
Speaker 3: At the White House, and and a week ago he
5:10
Speaker 3: and the President were very very close, and and what
5:13
Speaker 3: happened today. So I was sitting in the oval is
5:15
Speaker 3: this unfolded? And I was sitting there and and and
5:19
Speaker 3: the tweets were coming, and listen, Elon is brilliant, and
5:23
Speaker 3: he is strong willed, and he's a force of nature.
5:27
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is brilliant, and he is strong willed, and
5:30
Speaker 3: he is a force of nature. And and these are
5:32
Speaker 3: two alpha males who are pissed off and and unfortunately
5:37
Speaker 3: they're unloading on each other. And I wish that were
5:39
Speaker 3: not the case, because I think the country does better
5:45
Speaker 3: when when these two amazing heroes are working side by
5:49
Speaker 3: side for the country and not not just unloading on
5:53
Speaker 3: each other, but but listen that they're they are angry.
5:57
Speaker 3: It's not complicated, but it is unfortunate. I will say,
6:02
Speaker 3: every enemy of America, every Marxist, every person who hates
6:07
Speaker 3: our country, every person who hates freedom, is cheering for
6:10
Speaker 3: this divide to be real, to be deep, to be lasting,
6:13
Speaker 3: to be permanent. They would be thrilled. Everyone who loves
6:17
Speaker 3: our country is cheering for Elon and President Trump to
6:21
Speaker 3: kiss and make up. Like Look, they may not agree
6:24
Speaker 3: on everything, but they're too significant in this country for
6:29
Speaker 3: them to be fighting at cross purposes. I don't want
6:31
Speaker 3: either one fighting at cross purposes. And I will say,
6:36
Speaker 3: you know, listen, when I was in the Oval, Trump
6:39
Speaker 3: was pissed. I mean he he was venting on this topic,
6:41
Speaker 3: and I understand it. Elon was saying some some really
6:46
Speaker 3: harsh things. I understand why Trump was pissed, and the
6:49
Speaker 3: back and forth. Knowing both of them, it was not
6:53
Speaker 3: surprising to see it, you know, I gotta say, Ben,
6:56
Speaker 3: it reminded me. There's a gift that's popular online from
6:59
Speaker 3: Anchorman where Ron Burgundy, you know, Will Ferrell's character goes. Yeah,
7:04
Speaker 3: that escalated quickly because it just went from zero to
7:08
Speaker 3: eleven instantaneously. I get it, knowing both of the players.
7:13
Speaker 3: But I hope it goes from eleven back down to
7:16
Speaker 3: zero or maybe one or two.
7:18
Speaker 1: I hope it goes every bit as quickly. Well.
7:20
Speaker 2: And as I said at the very beginning, the only
7:23
Speaker 2: people that are happy right now over this is the
7:26
Speaker 2: liberal media and the Democrat Party.
7:28
Speaker 1: Yep.
7:28
Speaker 2: And they're the ones that are sitting there going this
7:31
Speaker 2: is amazing, and I'm meaning popcorn, and look, I think
7:33
Speaker 2: both these men are right. I understand Elon musk frustration
7:37
Speaker 2: in general. I wish Washington didn't have so many swampy
7:41
Speaker 2: people there, but there's also what we wish and the
7:44
Speaker 2: reality and the reality is it is really hard to
7:47
Speaker 2: get something this big done with dealing with so many
7:50
Speaker 2: players in DC.
7:52
Speaker 1: And look, I hope there's a truce.
7:53
Speaker 2: I hope that both of them get this figured out
7:55
Speaker 2: behind the scenes very very quickly. I think there's a
7:57
Speaker 2: very good chance that's going to happen, because they're going
7:59
Speaker 2: to see the left and them celebrating over this as well.
8:02
Speaker 1: And the way that you described it.
8:04
Speaker 2: These two men are brilliant, and we need them working
8:06
Speaker 2: together for the for the good of the country. Because
8:09
Speaker 2: there's one thing I know about both them. They both
8:11
Speaker 2: love America, and I think there's no doubt about that.
8:14
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's exactly right. I hope they will
8:16
Speaker 3: come back together. On the substance we're going to discuss
8:20
Speaker 3: in a minute. Both of them are right on the substance.
8:22
Speaker 3: President Trump is right, we have to get this one big,
8:25
Speaker 3: beautiful bill pass. We're going to Elon is right that
8:29
Speaker 3: we have to make the bill better. We have to
8:31
Speaker 3: cut more spending and tackle the deficit and debt more
8:34
Speaker 3: than we do. They're both right. We're going to break
8:36
Speaker 3: that down in just a minute. But I'll say also,
8:39
Speaker 3: look the sentiment I have. I feel like the kids
8:43
Speaker 3: of a bitter divorce where you're just saying, I really
8:47
Speaker 3: wish mommy and daddy would stop screaming. I think a
8:50
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of conservatives are feeling like this
8:54
Speaker 3: is not good. Let's hug and make.
8:56
Speaker 2: Up, all right, So let's talk about the bill that Obviously,
9:00
Speaker 2: the fight with Elon and Trump has been over.
9:03
Speaker 1: You were in the Oval office.
9:05
Speaker 2: This bill is obviously something that you've talked about with
9:07
Speaker 2: the President. There are people that have concerns about what's
9:10
Speaker 2: in the bill, and there's an opportunity for the Senate,
9:13
Speaker 2: as you guys are doing reconciliation on this bill, to
9:16
Speaker 2: improve it, make it better. What do people need to
9:19
Speaker 2: know about this bill, like what' sen it that you
9:21
Speaker 2: should be proud of?
9:22
Speaker 1: And what are the changes that need to be made?
9:24
Speaker 3: Well listen on the merits of the fight between Elon
9:27
Speaker 3: and Trump. As I mentioned, both are right. President Trump
9:31
Speaker 3: is absolutely right. We need to get this passed because
9:33
Speaker 3: this is the major vehicle to deliver on the promises
9:36
Speaker 3: we made to the voters, and failure is not an option.
9:39
Speaker 3: We cannot fail to secure the border. We cannot fail
9:43
Speaker 3: to rebuild the military. We cannot fail to unleash American energy,
9:47
Speaker 3: and we cannot fail to extend the Trump tax cuts
9:50
Speaker 3: and make them bigger and bolder to unleash economic growth.
9:54
Speaker 3: All of those we are going to get done, and
9:57
Speaker 3: the only avenue to getting them done is this reconc
10:00
Speaker 3: iliation bill. So we will get it passed. But that
10:03
Speaker 3: being said, this bill can be made much better. I'm
10:06
Speaker 3: glad the House passed it that's the first step in
10:10
Speaker 3: this becoming a law. The House came together, they got
10:12
Speaker 3: a majority, they sent it to the Senate. But you
10:14
Speaker 3: know a lot of people are asking, Okay, what happens now?
10:17
Speaker 3: Does the Senate just pass the House bill? And the
10:20
Speaker 3: answer is not remotely. So what is happening right now? Isa,
10:25
Speaker 3: say that again?
10:26
Speaker 2: Say that again for everybody listening, because that may be
10:28
Speaker 2: music to some earors listening right now, Say that again.
10:31
Speaker 3: The Senate will not pass the House bill.
10:35
Speaker 1: All right, there we go.
10:36
Speaker 2: We got it, and I like, I love this, I'm smiling,
10:38
Speaker 2: keep going.
10:39
Speaker 1: So listen.
10:40
Speaker 3: Under a constitution, we have two chambers, two legislative bodies.
10:44
Speaker 3: The House has passed their bill. The Senate is going
10:46
Speaker 3: to pass our own bill. And what has happened is
10:49
Speaker 3: each major committee has been given what are called reconciliation
10:52
Speaker 3: instructions to draft their portions of the bill. I'm the
10:56
Speaker 3: chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
10:59
Speaker 3: so I've drafted my portion of the bill. The Senate
11:02
Speaker 3: bill will have similarities to the House bill. The similarities
11:06
Speaker 3: will be anywhere, my guess is from about two thirds
11:10
Speaker 3: to three quarters of the House bill. So the good
11:12
Speaker 3: provisions of the House bill will keep the bad provisions
11:18
Speaker 3: I hope will jettison and say no, we're not going
11:19
Speaker 3: to do that. And my hope what I am fighting
11:23
Speaker 3: in the Senate to do is to have the Senate
11:26
Speaker 3: cut spending significantly more than the House did. And this
11:30
Speaker 3: is a point. Look, I think there's a real possibility
11:34
Speaker 3: the Senate today is more conservative than the House. And
11:37
Speaker 3: that's unusual, that is rarely the case. Here's why I
11:40
Speaker 3: think that there are fifty three Republicans in the Senate.
11:45
Speaker 3: I think it is entirely possible that the fiftieth most
11:50
Speaker 3: fiscally conservative senator is to the right of the two
11:55
Speaker 3: hundred and eighteenth most fiscally conservative House member.
11:59
Speaker 2: And so very inching perspective, by the way, because I
12:01
Speaker 2: don't think people think about it that way at all.
12:03
Speaker 3: No, they think about that there are one hundred fire
12:07
Speaker 3: breathing conservatives in the House. That's true, but a majority
12:10
Speaker 3: in the House is two eighteen, so one hundred doesn't
12:13
Speaker 3: pass anything. So if you ask the House, okay, who's
12:16
Speaker 3: the two hundred and eighteenth, who's the wobbliest Republican that
12:20
Speaker 3: gets you to a majority, that Republican I think is
12:24
Speaker 3: actually significantly to the left fiscally compared to the fiftieth
12:29
Speaker 3: Senate Republican. So I'm not sure how bold we will do.
12:33
Speaker 3: And I may have to do a podcast where I
12:36
Speaker 3: do a maya culpa and say I was too optimistic.
12:40
Speaker 3: But my hope is what the Senate will pass will
12:44
Speaker 3: demonstrate much more fiscal restraint than what the House passed.
12:49
Speaker 3: That's what I'm arguing to my colleagues. So I mentioned
12:52
Speaker 3: I was in the Oval right as the Trump Elon
12:55
Speaker 3: battle was unfolding. I was there for two reasons. Number One,
12:58
Speaker 3: I was urging we need to cut more spending, and
13:00
Speaker 3: I gave the President a list of nearly three trillion
13:04
Speaker 3: dollars of spending cuts that we could do, urging, okay,
13:07
Speaker 3: let's cut the spending. We can do this, we can
13:10
Speaker 3: make this happen. Elon is right that we're bankrupting our
13:13
Speaker 3: country and we need to do more than the House
13:17
Speaker 3: bill does. I think the Senate will do that. What
13:18
Speaker 3: will happen The Senate will pass our bill, I think
13:23
Speaker 3: right before July fourth. Now, when the Senate passes the bill,
13:27
Speaker 3: it's probably not going to be done. The likely outcome
13:29
Speaker 3: after the Senate passes the bill is it will go
13:32
Speaker 3: to conference where the House and Senate will negotiate back
13:35
Speaker 3: and forth. The House will say we don't like some
13:37
Speaker 3: provisions in this bill. The Senate will say we don't
13:40
Speaker 3: like some provisions in your bill, and we'll reach a compromise.
13:42
Speaker 3: My guess is the final bill will be passed at
13:48
Speaker 3: the end of July, right before the August recess, and
13:50
Speaker 3: sent to the President to be signed at the beginning
13:53
Speaker 3: of August.
13:53
Speaker 1: I think that's likely.
13:54
Speaker 3: There's another chance, when the Senate passes our bill, maybe
13:58
Speaker 3: the House just says, okay, accept it, and we'll pass it.
14:02
Speaker 3: That possibility is not zero, but I think it's more
14:05
Speaker 3: likely we'll have a conference committee and reach some compromises.
14:09
Speaker 3: I will say this Ben twenty seventeen, the last time
14:13
Speaker 3: we passed big tax cuts, I was here. I spent
14:18
Speaker 3: hundreds of hours negotiating those tax cuts. One interesting dynamic
14:23
Speaker 3: if you look at the current House of Representatives, more
14:26
Speaker 3: than sixty percent of the House Republicans were not in
14:31
Speaker 3: Congress in twenty seventeen when we did this last time,
14:34
Speaker 3: and so the back it's a stunning number.
14:38
Speaker 1: That is a huge number. No one I wouldn't have
14:40
Speaker 1: guessed that. Yeah.
14:41
Speaker 3: Look, there's been a lot of turnover in Congress, and
14:44
Speaker 3: so most of the House members were not here. What
14:48
Speaker 3: happened in twenty seventeen, the House passed a good bill.
14:52
Speaker 3: It went to the Senate and we made it much
14:55
Speaker 3: much better. And then actually it went to conference committee
14:57
Speaker 3: and it became significantly better. I'll give a couple of examples.
15:00
Speaker 3: Number one, the House, when they initially passed it, did
15:03
Speaker 3: not repeal in twenty seventeen the Obamacare individual mandate. The
15:07
Speaker 3: House Conservatives or all my buddies, they said, there's no
15:10
Speaker 3: chance you Senate Republicans will do this. You guys like
15:13
Speaker 3: all of the jellyfish in the Senate, they'll never do this. Well,
15:17
Speaker 3: I led the fight in the Senate and said, this
15:19
Speaker 3: Obamacare of individual mandated is wrong, it is abusive, it
15:22
Speaker 3: is unfair, and we ended up unifying Senate Republicans and
15:26
Speaker 3: we repealed it, but the Senate added it. That was
15:28
Speaker 3: a major, major victory. Another example, the bill that passed
15:33
Speaker 3: out of the House initially in twenty seventeen had big
15:37
Speaker 3: tax cuts for sea corps, for big big corporations, but
15:41
Speaker 3: much smaller tax cuts for pass throughs and es. Corps
15:44
Speaker 3: which tend to be small businesses. And in the Senate
15:47
Speaker 3: we said that's not right. We need to fight for
15:49
Speaker 3: small businesses. We improved that dramatically. I think the same
15:52
Speaker 3: thing is going to happen. And so I was sitting
15:54
Speaker 3: in the Oval saying, number one, here are three trillions
15:58
Speaker 3: more in tax cuts you can make. And number two,
16:01
Speaker 3: I was arguing, in particular the school choice provision in
16:04
Speaker 3: the House bill. We need to make it bigger, we
16:07
Speaker 3: need to make it boulder, we need to make it
16:09
Speaker 3: more effective. That was the case I was making directly
16:12
Speaker 3: to the President in the Oval office this week.
16:16
Speaker 1: Center, let's move to this.
16:18
Speaker 2: Really, I would say, very shocking and scary news that
16:24
Speaker 2: not one, but two Chinese nationals have been charged by
16:27
Speaker 2: US federal authorities for allegedly smuggling a dangerous agricultural pathogen
16:33
Speaker 2: into the United States of America. It is basically, in
16:36
Speaker 2: Layman's terms, a fungus that poses a significant threat to
16:41
Speaker 2: crops such.
16:42
Speaker 1: As wheat, barley, and rice.
16:45
Speaker 2: It could cause massive disease and in essence famine on
16:50
Speaker 2: our agriculture in this country. And this was brought into
16:53
Speaker 2: this country, and it just screams of another example of
16:58
Speaker 2: why you don't trust and why we have to watch
17:02
Speaker 2: them and protect ourselves. It reminds, I think a lot
17:04
Speaker 2: of people of COVID nineteen. But this could literally recavoc
17:08
Speaker 2: on our entire national security from a basic we need
17:14
Speaker 2: food to live strategy if it was weaponized against us.
17:19
Speaker 3: Well, this is a story. Unfortunately you're not going to
17:21
Speaker 3: watch on the corporate media ABCNBCCBS, They're not going to
17:24
Speaker 3: cover it. But China is our enemy, and China is
17:29
Speaker 3: I think the greatest geopolitical threat we have for the
17:32
Speaker 3: next one hundred years. We saw with COVID the incredible
17:35
Speaker 3: threats of a pathogen, of a virus that can do
17:40
Speaker 3: enormous damage, can destroy trillions of dollars, can take massive
17:44
Speaker 3: toll in human life. Well, this story and I just
17:48
Speaker 3: want to read to you a tweet from the director
17:50
Speaker 3: of the FBI, Cash Betel. Here's what the FBI director said,
17:54
Speaker 3: quote new I can confirm that the FBI arrested a
17:59
Speaker 3: Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a
18:04
Speaker 3: dangerous biological pathogen into the country. The individual, Young Quinn Jian,
18:13
Speaker 3: is alleged to have smuggled a dangerous fungus called Fusarium gramminarium,
18:20
Speaker 3: which is an agro terrorism agent, into the US to
18:25
Speaker 3: research at the University of Michigan, where she works. This
18:30
Speaker 3: fungus can cause a disease called head blight, a disease
18:35
Speaker 3: of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, causing significant health issues
18:40
Speaker 3: in both humans and livestock. It is responsible for billions
18:46
Speaker 3: of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Evidence also
18:51
Speaker 3: indicates Jian had expressed loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party
18:57
Speaker 3: and had received funding from the Chinese government for similar
19:01
Speaker 3: work on this pathogen in China. Jihn's boyfriend, Zuniang Liu,
19:08
Speaker 3: also charged in the complaint, works at a Chinese university
19:13
Speaker 3: where he conducts research on the same pathogen. Liu is
19:19
Speaker 3: alleged to a first liede that admitted to also smuggling
19:25
Speaker 3: Fusarium gran grannarium into America through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
19:33
Speaker 3: so that he too could conduct research at the University
19:37
Speaker 3: of Michigan. Both individuals have been charged with conspiracy, smuggling
19:43
Speaker 3: goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud.
19:49
Speaker 3: This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is
19:53
Speaker 3: working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to
19:58
Speaker 3: infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would
20:04
Speaker 3: have grave consequences, putting American lives and our economy at
20:08
Speaker 3: serious risk. Your FBI will continue working tirelessly to be
20:13
Speaker 3: on guard against it.
20:16
Speaker 2: You go through this and let's unpack it and just
20:19
Speaker 2: go back a little bit to pain. I think the
20:22
Speaker 2: broader picture, we've seen China financially infiltrate our colleges, our
20:31
Speaker 2: best colleges. We have seen them by influence. We saw
20:34
Speaker 2: this hell with the Biden Institute. For goodness sakes, we
20:37
Speaker 2: have witnessed the number of Chinese students that we allow
20:41
Speaker 2: to come into this country, be trained here, have access
20:44
Speaker 2: to R and D here. And then we've witnessed what
20:48
Speaker 2: our government did under Fauci with the amount of money
20:50
Speaker 2: we were sending to China that was doing a lot
20:53
Speaker 2: of this type of research and other things. And we
20:56
Speaker 2: shouldn't be surprised that this has happened now. But this
21:01
Speaker 2: again goes back to the vulnerability. If China is sending
21:04
Speaker 2: you money and sending billions of dollars to American universities,
21:09
Speaker 2: and then we see this type of research and the
21:12
Speaker 2: access at these research insuits like the University of Michigan,
21:15
Speaker 2: et cetera. Why isn't there a massive red flag on
21:18
Speaker 2: every dollar now coming in from China? After seeing yet
21:21
Speaker 2: again the Chinese are enemy and they cannot be trusted.
21:25
Speaker 3: There's no doubt there should be. And listen, when I
21:28
Speaker 3: was first elected to the Senate thirteen years ago, I
21:31
Speaker 3: was saying then that China is the greatest threat we
21:34
Speaker 3: have for the next hundred years. I got to tell you, Ben,
21:37
Speaker 3: at the time, that was a very lonely view in
21:40
Speaker 3: the United States Senate. Every Democrat disagreed with me, and
21:45
Speaker 3: most of the Republicans did too. They all looked to
21:48
Speaker 3: China and they saw nothing but dollar signs as far
21:51
Speaker 3: as the eye could see. Now, COVID changed that for
21:55
Speaker 3: a lot of people. They realized the mendacity, the duplicity
21:59
Speaker 3: the damaged China causes. China engages in widespread murder of
22:04
Speaker 3: its citizens, torture of its citizens. It has over a
22:07
Speaker 3: million wigures in concentration camps, modern day human slavery, organ harvesting.
22:13
Speaker 3: But they also engage in massive propaganda, massive espionage against
22:18
Speaker 3: the United States, massive theft of intellectual property. They are
22:24
Speaker 3: engaged in a global battle for world domination. They're objective,
22:29
Speaker 3: which they've told us, They're very explicit. Their objective is
22:33
Speaker 3: to be the dominant world power and to displace America,
22:37
Speaker 3: and we need to combat them on the global stage.
22:40
Speaker 3: China is engaged in Africa, in Latin America, and the
22:43
Speaker 3: Middle East and Asia, every part of the world. China
22:46
Speaker 3: is trying to become the dominant world power. They are
22:48
Speaker 3: waging a thousand year war. And when it comes to
22:54
Speaker 3: the danger of pathogens, look you look at COVID.
22:58
Speaker 1: COVID.
22:59
Speaker 3: It was clear within the first couple of months of
23:01
Speaker 3: this pandemic that the evidence strongly suggested that the virus
23:06
Speaker 3: escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
23:12
Speaker 3: We now know that the corporate media suppressed that story,
23:16
Speaker 3: that Facebook suppressed that story at the explicit request of
23:20
Speaker 3: doctor Fauci. I will tell you this podcast Verdict with
23:23
Speaker 3: Ted Cruz in March and in April of twenty twenty,
23:33
Speaker 3: when COVID was first starting, we laid out the evidence
23:37
Speaker 3: that this came from China, from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
23:41
Speaker 3: Before you could get it practically anywhere else. China bears
23:46
Speaker 3: enormous responsibility for what happened with COVID. I think the
23:50
Speaker 3: evidence is overwhelming that COVID escaped from a Chinese government lab.
23:56
Speaker 3: I think the evidence is significant that COVID was actually
24:00
Speaker 3: invented in a Chinese government lab, that they took natural
24:03
Speaker 3: viruses and they altered them using Gaina function research. That's
24:07
Speaker 3: not as compelling as the fact that it escaped from
24:10
Speaker 3: a government lab, but I think there's a lot of
24:12
Speaker 3: evidence of that. By the way, there are multiple federal
24:15
Speaker 3: agencies that are now explicitly concluded that COVID likely escaped
24:19
Speaker 3: from a Chinese government lab. When COVID escaped, the Chinese
24:23
Speaker 3: government covered it up. They suppressed the evidence, they destroyed
24:26
Speaker 3: the samples, They did everything they could to prevent others
24:30
Speaker 3: from understanding the source of this virus and also to
24:34
Speaker 3: frustrate efforts to stop the spread of this pandemic. Now
24:37
Speaker 3: put that in the context of this story, a dangerous
24:41
Speaker 3: agro terrorism fungus that could do massive damage to crops,
24:46
Speaker 3: to livestock, to human beings in the United States being
24:50
Speaker 3: smuggled in by not one but two Chinese nationals being
24:56
Speaker 3: paid by the Chinese Communist Party. Look, it is not
24:59
Speaker 3: difficult to imagine a pathogen like that being released in
25:03
Speaker 3: the United States and doing enormous damage. And that's the
25:07
Speaker 3: sort of threat our government we need to be vigilant
25:10
Speaker 3: against when it comes to Communist China.
25:13
Speaker 2: Well, and it goes back to again some of this
25:15
Speaker 2: evidence that apparently they've been discussing the plan to smuggle
25:19
Speaker 2: these biological materials since at least twenty twenty two. The
25:23
Speaker 2: electronic device has contained documents expressing the Chinese Communist Party,
25:28
Speaker 2: the CCP, and detailing research funded by the Chinese government.
25:32
Speaker 2: So the story just keeps repeating itself. It is over
25:36
Speaker 2: and over again when we see these things happen. It's
25:38
Speaker 2: directly tied tied to the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese
25:42
Speaker 2: Communist government, and we should not be surprised as is happening.
25:48
Speaker 2: Will there be any reaction or anything that Congress can
25:51
Speaker 2: do on this very quickly?
25:53
Speaker 3: Well, listen, this has been an area I've been legislating
25:55
Speaker 3: for a long time. So, for example, one of the
25:57
Speaker 3: very first bills I passed into law dealt with Confucius institutes.
26:01
Speaker 3: Confucius institutes were formed on us universities all across the country,
26:06
Speaker 3: hundreds of them, and they were funded by the Chinese
26:09
Speaker 3: Communist Party. They conducted espionage and propaganda. I introduced legislation
26:14
Speaker 3: to cut off federal funding the universities that have Confucius institutes.
26:18
Speaker 3: Passed it into law, and as a result, we've shut
26:21
Speaker 3: down most of the Confucius institutes across the country. So
26:24
Speaker 3: we can fight this, but we need to be vigilant
26:27
Speaker 3: and we need to fight.
26:28
Speaker 2: All right, Senat, I want to move on to another story.
26:30
Speaker 2: We tease this earlier Columbia protester and self proclaimed Jew
26:36
Speaker 2: hater had direct links to hamas Tersel. Disturbing new phone
26:41
Speaker 2: records revealed that the DOJ has come out with another
26:45
Speaker 2: example of we were not doing a good enough job
26:49
Speaker 2: of protecting America and letting people in that we did
26:52
Speaker 2: not know exactly who they were.
26:54
Speaker 3: Well, today's Democrat party has rallied around defending the anti
26:58
Speaker 3: Semitic protesters on college ca campuses, and the media has
27:01
Speaker 3: as well. And yet the viciousness, the hatred, the violence,
27:05
Speaker 3: and the ties to terrorists on these protests are significant.
27:09
Speaker 3: So this is a story that broke just this week,
27:12
Speaker 3: and I'm reading now from The New York Post quote
27:15
Speaker 3: a jew hater who protested against Israel on Columbia University's
27:20
Speaker 3: campus and contemplated setting a student on fire, allegedly had
27:27
Speaker 3: a direct link to Hamas's deadly Al Cassam Brigades militant group.
27:33
Speaker 3: The Post can reveal. Tarek Bazruk, awaiting trial after being
27:38
Speaker 3: indicted on three federal hate crimes against Jewish people, was
27:43
Speaker 3: quote a member of a chat group that received regular
27:48
Speaker 3: updates from Abu Obidan, the official spokesperson for the Brigades.
27:55
Speaker 3: According to allegations in federal documents, the accusation is the
28:00
Speaker 3: first evidence of an agitator receiving information directly from Hamas
28:05
Speaker 3: and taking action during protests on the university campus. Basruk twenty,
28:12
Speaker 3: who was not a Columbia student and many of the
28:15
Speaker 3: people who were conducting these protests were not students at
28:18
Speaker 3: the universities, also frequently wore the green headband used by
28:22
Speaker 3: Hamas terrorists and boasted to friends about having relatives overseas
28:27
Speaker 3: who were part of the terror group, Prosecutors claim in
28:31
Speaker 3: a letter filed with the court. While on Columbia's campus
28:36
Speaker 3: during protests in April twenty twenty four, Basruk allegedly texted
28:41
Speaker 3: a pal saying he lit a flare and considered lighting
28:46
Speaker 3: someone on fire, but that there were quote too many
28:50
Speaker 3: people around him for him to take on otherwise he
28:53
Speaker 3: would have quote herded them. Columbia University says it has
28:59
Speaker 3: no record of Bazruk being on campus and it wanted
29:03
Speaker 3: to be clear that this individual is not affiliated with
29:05
Speaker 3: our university in any way, adding the school strongly condemns
29:09
Speaker 3: anti Semitism and violence, and we are horrified by the
29:12
Speaker 3: violence and hate crimes described in the indictment. Bazruk, a
29:17
Speaker 3: US citizen born and raised in New York, was also
29:20
Speaker 3: arrested next to the campus in December twenty twenty four
29:24
Speaker 3: for one of the three attacks against Jewish peoples of
29:27
Speaker 3: which he stands accused. This is the kind of violent
29:32
Speaker 3: hate and violent hate tied to terrorism that we've seen
29:37
Speaker 3: erupting at universities across the country.
29:39
Speaker 2: It's such a concerning, I think thing now, because if
29:43
Speaker 2: you're a Jewish student, do you feel safe on any
29:45
Speaker 2: college campus? It's an honest question that we should ask.
29:48
Speaker 2: If you are a student on a college campus now,
29:51
Speaker 2: do you feel safe and feel like the campuses are
29:55
Speaker 2: going to protect your safety when they allow these protesters
29:58
Speaker 2: on college campuses. A guy that refers to himself as
30:02
Speaker 2: a Jew hater, right who protests against Israel on Columbia University.
30:06
Speaker 2: So now this is completely infiltrated that the best you know,
30:10
Speaker 2: quote universities that America has to offer are actually now
30:13
Speaker 2: becoming the most radical.
30:16
Speaker 1: And yet there are still people on the left.
30:18
Speaker 2: That are saying, no, no, no, you got to allow this
30:20
Speaker 2: to happen, No matter what, you got to allow these
30:22
Speaker 2: these disturbances and these takeovers, and the and the and
30:26
Speaker 2: the sit ins, and the and the and the taking
30:27
Speaker 2: over buildings and the attacking of Jews. It goes back
30:32
Speaker 2: to the anti semitism that has festered on our college campuses.
30:37
Speaker 3: And that the Democrats are defending. By the way, we
30:39
Speaker 3: have text exchanges between Chuck Schumer and Columbia University where
30:44
Speaker 3: where Chuck Schumer said, look, it's only the Republicans who
30:46
Speaker 3: are concerned about this anti semitism. We the Democrats were
30:50
Speaker 3: fine with it. I mean, I mean that that is
30:52
Speaker 3: the explicit position. There is a Prohamas wing of the
30:57
Speaker 3: Democrat Party. It is tragic that didn't use to exist,
31:00
Speaker 3: but it is how radicalized they've gotten. And this particular
31:04
Speaker 3: individual who's charge, according to the Department of Justice, he
31:07
Speaker 3: had a picture of Obeida, who was the spokesperson for
31:11
Speaker 3: Al Caasom, the military arm of Hamas, and one of
31:15
Speaker 3: an individual waving a Hama's flag. This was on his phone,
31:18
Speaker 3: and an Al Casom brigade's meme which reads, quote by God,
31:24
Speaker 3: I would not trade the al Casom Brigades for the
31:26
Speaker 3: world and everything in it. May God be pleased with
31:30
Speaker 3: them and allow them to break the wicked enemy through him.
31:35
Speaker 3: Also included in his phone are quotes from text messages
31:38
Speaker 3: in which Baruk Bazruk rather allegedly identifies himself as quote
31:44
Speaker 3: a Jew hater, so that's his term for himself, labels
31:48
Speaker 3: Jews as quote worthless, exhorted Allah to quote get us
31:54
Speaker 3: rid of Jews, and called an acquaintance an effing Jew
32:01
Speaker 3: and told a friend to slap that be and he
32:04
Speaker 3: did not abbreviate be in reference to a woman with
32:08
Speaker 3: an Israeli sticker on her laptop, according to court documents,
32:12
Speaker 3: and understand this individual that there was a real risk
32:19
Speaker 3: of violence he was. He kicked one Jewish student college
32:25
Speaker 3: student in the stomach. In a text message four days later,
32:28
Speaker 3: he wrote that quote, if he ever sees a Jewish person,
32:32
Speaker 3: he is going to boom boom them. He's accused of
32:36
Speaker 3: slugging a Jewish Columbia University student in the face while
32:39
Speaker 3: ranting about Hitler and the Nazis, and he's been arrested
32:45
Speaker 3: a total of six times first conduct at Israel and
32:48
Speaker 3: Gaza protests, including multiple assaults. Law enforcement searched his Manhattan
32:54
Speaker 3: apartment and found brass knuckles, four knives, a Taser, an
33:01
Speaker 3: airsoft gun that looks identical to a revolver, spent casings
33:05
Speaker 3: from an actual firearm, and five hundred thousand dollars in cash.
33:12
Speaker 3: An additional search turned up another two hundred and fifty
33:16
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Now, Ben, who the hell has seven hundred
33:21
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand dollars of cash in his apartment? Let
33:24
Speaker 3: me give you one other fact that just to color this. Bazruk,
33:27
Speaker 3: a twenty year old, lives with his parents. He has
33:31
Speaker 3: said he has a net worth of three thousand dollars
33:35
Speaker 3: and that he's quote unemployed and supported by his parents.
33:41
Speaker 3: Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash.
33:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the big question is how many more are
33:48
Speaker 2: out there like them? Final question on this Trump administration
33:52
Speaker 2: also escalating pressure on Colombia as the Department of Education
33:55
Speaker 2: is questioning the university's accreditation. Is this the right way
33:59
Speaker 2: to start to deal with these radical universities?
34:01
Speaker 1: Yes?
34:02
Speaker 3: Yes, stand up to them. The Trump administration is doing
34:05
Speaker 3: exactly right. These violent protests occurred because radical administrators, radical faculty.
34:12
Speaker 3: They sided with the pro hamas protesters, and I am
34:16
Speaker 3: very glad. Look, you ought to just ask the question
34:19
Speaker 3: why was nobody arrested during the Biden administration while we're
34:23
Speaker 3: none of the protesters arrested, while we're none of the
34:26
Speaker 3: funders arrested, while we're none of the universities having their
34:29
Speaker 3: their funding suspended. And it's because the Democrats they were
34:33
Speaker 3: cheering on the protesters as.
34:35
Speaker 2: Well as always thank you for listening to Verdict with
34:38
Speaker 2: senter Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to
34:41
Speaker 2: deal with my podcast and you can listen to my
34:43
Speaker 2: podcasts every other day you're not listening to Verdict or
34:45
Speaker 2: each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards, I'd love
34:48
Speaker 2: to have you as a listener to again. Ben Ferguson
34:50
Speaker 2: Podcasts and The Center, and I will see you back
34:52
Speaker 2: here for the weekend review on Saturday morning.