Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Inside the Room with the Heroic Soldiers Wounded in the Maduro Raid & with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado

Transcript

Inside the Room with the Heroic Soldiers Wounded in the Maduro Raid & with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome in is Vertic with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
0:04
Speaker 1: with you. It's nice to have you with usespecially if
0:06
Speaker 1: you're listening on the radio around the country.
0:08
Speaker 2: And a reminder, this show we.
0:10
Speaker 1: Also do as a podcast three days a week, so
0:12
Speaker 1: make sure for free you download Verdic with Ted Cruz
0:15
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast centers. We've got a big
0:19
Speaker 1: show for people today, including a really special day for you.
0:22
Speaker 1: You got to spend with some amazing heroes who recovering
0:26
Speaker 1: in the hospital after they went in in an incredible
0:29
Speaker 1: raid in Venezuela.
0:31
Speaker 3: Well, Ben, We're living in incredibly consequential times. The entire
0:35
Speaker 3: world is changing before our eyes. I started this week
0:38
Speaker 3: by having the chance to visit the three soldiers who
0:41
Speaker 3: were wounded arresting Maduro, and I got a chance to
0:45
Speaker 3: visit with each of them. I'm going to share to
0:46
Speaker 3: you exactly what they had to say from there. I
0:50
Speaker 3: also this week sat down with Maria Carino Machado, the
0:54
Speaker 3: opposition leader in Venezuela. She came to Washington, she met
0:58
Speaker 3: with President Trump at the White House. How she met
1:00
Speaker 3: with me and several other senators. I'm going to bring
1:02
Speaker 3: you inside that meeting tell you what she had to say.
1:05
Speaker 3: Beyond that, I joined Secretary Pete Hegseth going to the
1:08
Speaker 3: F thirty five Plan in Fort Worth, Texas, an incredible
1:12
Speaker 3: an incredible so course support of our military strength. And
1:19
Speaker 3: then from there we both went down to Brownsville, Texas,
1:22
Speaker 3: to SpaceX, to Starbase with Elon musk and and tour
1:27
Speaker 3: the facilities there. We're going to bring you inside all
1:29
Speaker 3: of that on Today's Verdict.
1:31
Speaker 2: It really is cool.
1:32
Speaker 1: I also want to talk to you an amazing organization
1:36
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1:39
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1:42
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1:50
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1:53
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1:56
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2:00
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2:03
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2:06
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2:53
Speaker 1: So let's get back to this. Just incredible meeting the
2:57
Speaker 1: heroes and the bravery, especially the story is that we've
3:00
Speaker 1: been told going in after Maduro and look, the guy
3:04
Speaker 1: who lived on a military base, he had these fighters
3:07
Speaker 1: that were supposed to be protecting him from Cuba. Seeing
3:10
Speaker 1: that what we had compared to what they had on
3:12
Speaker 1: the ground and the way that we came out without
3:14
Speaker 1: losing a single American life is just unbelievable. There were
3:18
Speaker 1: those soldiers, however, that were injured and shot, and you
3:22
Speaker 1: got to meet them as they're recovering in the hospital
3:25
Speaker 1: in San Antonio, talk about just their story. What did
3:29
Speaker 1: they have to say, what was their perspective.
3:32
Speaker 3: So we had three of our soldiers who were wounded
3:35
Speaker 3: during the raid, and they're all at the hospital in
3:39
Speaker 3: San Antonio. They're being treated. The good news is that
3:42
Speaker 3: that that they're all in good condition. None are in
3:44
Speaker 3: life threatening condition. Now, they were in good spirits. We
3:47
Speaker 3: had the opportunity to visit with each of the three
3:49
Speaker 3: of them, with each of their wives as well. They
3:51
Speaker 3: were there with their wives, and I will tell you
3:54
Speaker 3: that the first one we met with was a soldier
3:58
Speaker 3: who was in charge of helping plan the entire higher raid.
4:01
Speaker 3: He was leading one of the helicopters, and he had
4:04
Speaker 3: been shot in the leg, and he continued, even in
4:07
Speaker 3: the midst of being shot in the leg. Continued. He
4:11
Speaker 3: did not step back from the fight, and he was
4:14
Speaker 3: critical in terms of his location, making sure protecting his
4:19
Speaker 3: fellow soldiers. You know, I got to tell you he
4:22
Speaker 3: was he was in great spirits. His wife was incredibly
4:27
Speaker 3: proud of him. And with all three of the soldiers,
4:32
Speaker 3: I took an opportunity to tell them, I said, look,
4:34
Speaker 3: you were part of history. You were part of history
4:39
Speaker 3: in a way without exaggeration, that changed the entire Western hemisphere.
4:45
Speaker 3: What you did was profoundly important. And I also told
4:48
Speaker 3: them I took the chance on behalf of Texans and
4:51
Speaker 3: American just to say thank you, thank you for your bravery,
4:54
Speaker 3: thank you for your heroism. They went into a situation
4:59
Speaker 3: where they were vastly outnumbered, and and and and the
5:03
Speaker 3: Cuban military that were guarding Maduro opened fire and and
5:07
Speaker 3: and it is amazing, It is an incredible testament to
5:11
Speaker 3: the precision and effectiveness of our military that not a
5:14
Speaker 3: single soldier on the American side was was killed, that
5:18
Speaker 3: there was a very large number of Cuban forces defending
5:21
Speaker 3: Maduro who were who were killed in that firefight, and
5:24
Speaker 3: and just taking the chance to to thank them. And
5:27
Speaker 3: then the first soldier who had been shot in the
5:30
Speaker 3: leg I was there with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of
5:33
Speaker 3: Defense and and and Pete said, uh, you know, if
5:38
Speaker 3: there's anything you need, let me know, and and and
5:41
Speaker 3: he said, well, actually there is something you could do
5:43
Speaker 3: and and Pete said what And he said, I'd really
5:46
Speaker 3: like the bullet, the bullet that went into his leg.
5:50
Speaker 3: And the hospital had it, and and and the the
5:52
Speaker 3: medical director at the hospital he said, well, we have
5:54
Speaker 3: the bullet, but we're not allowed to give it over
5:57
Speaker 3: unless we get give a waiver, and and to his
6:00
Speaker 3: credit said the waiver is granted. You can have the bullet.
6:03
Speaker 3: And that soldier was beaming. He was thrilled to have
6:08
Speaker 3: the bullet. And actually the second soldier we met, he
6:10
Speaker 3: had been he had been shot, but he had also
6:12
Speaker 3: been cut by a piece of shrapnel. He had a
6:14
Speaker 3: cut that ran the whole length of his arm. Oh wow,
6:17
Speaker 3: And he had the exact same request. He said, I'd
6:21
Speaker 3: really like the shrapnel. So they had the piece of
6:23
Speaker 3: metal that had cut his arm open. And again the
6:25
Speaker 3: hospital said, we have it, but we're not allowed to
6:28
Speaker 3: give it to him without the waiver. And again Pete said,
6:31
Speaker 3: we're granting the waiver, you can have it. So both
6:33
Speaker 3: of those I assume that they're going to frame it
6:36
Speaker 3: or otherwise keep it as just a memento to the injury,
6:40
Speaker 3: the purple heart that they earned fighting for their country,
6:44
Speaker 3: but also being a part of profoundly impacting history.
6:51
Speaker 1: You mentioned their wives were there, and I don't know
6:53
Speaker 1: if you can tell us, but age range twenties thirties,
6:56
Speaker 1: for like, how old are these guys.
7:00
Speaker 3: One of the soldiers, the first soldier who helped plan
7:02
Speaker 3: plan the raid was was a little bit older the
7:04
Speaker 3: other two were were young guys and and they were, uh,
7:08
Speaker 3: you know, they were young guys, and they they were
7:11
Speaker 3: not someone like if you saw them walking down the street,
7:14
Speaker 3: you wouldn't do a double take. The first guy kind
7:16
Speaker 3: of looked a little like Captain America. He was a
7:17
Speaker 3: little but but the other two, look, they were fit,
7:22
Speaker 3: they were in good shape. But but the skill that
7:26
Speaker 3: you know, they have, the heroism you know they have
7:29
Speaker 3: if you just saw them on the street, you you
7:32
Speaker 3: wouldn't immediately know that. And and their wives were young
7:38
Speaker 3: and and it was interesting their wives were, you know,
7:42
Speaker 3: they said, there were women of faith. They were praying
7:44
Speaker 3: for their husbands. They were really proud of their husbands, proud,
7:47
Speaker 3: proud of everything that they had been through. And I'll
7:50
Speaker 3: tell you that the first soldier, he said, well, you know,
7:56
Speaker 3: he asked he he heg seth asked him, well, how
7:59
Speaker 3: are you feeling? And he said, I'm ready to go again.
8:02
Speaker 2: That's amozing.
8:03
Speaker 3: And I said, great, can you do Saturday? And he said, well,
8:08
Speaker 3: can we hold off till Monday? So that kind of
8:11
Speaker 3: gives you a sense of the spirit they were. They
8:14
Speaker 3: were really in good spirits. And actually with two of
8:20
Speaker 3: the soldiers. There was an additional soldier there that was
8:24
Speaker 3: there in the in the hospital room who said he
8:26
Speaker 3: used to be their commanding officer and he had rotated
8:29
Speaker 3: off the unit about six months before the raid, and
8:32
Speaker 3: he said, look, I'm really disappointed. I mean it, it
8:34
Speaker 3: broke his heart that he just missed going on the raid.
8:37
Speaker 3: So he was there to be with his guys, but
8:39
Speaker 3: he did not go on the raid and he was
8:41
Speaker 3: just cheering them on center.
8:43
Speaker 2: You talk about incredible week.
8:44
Speaker 1: You meet with three heroes that that risked their lives
8:48
Speaker 1: to go capture mean Duro, that's unbelievable. But you also
8:51
Speaker 1: got to meet with who I would describe as another
8:53
Speaker 1: hero for Venezuela, and that is the opposition leader. You
8:57
Speaker 1: got to meet with her. She met with the president
8:59
Speaker 1: and I said America as well. That is a really
9:03
Speaker 1: I think a very important moment, a signal that the
9:07
Speaker 1: that the president met with her as well to give
9:09
Speaker 1: hope to the people in Venezuela.
9:12
Speaker 3: Well, Maria Corrino Machado, who is the opposition leader in Venezuela,
9:16
Speaker 3: You're right, She's shown incredible heroism, incredible bravery, standing up
9:20
Speaker 3: to Maduro, standing up to the communist regime. And by
9:23
Speaker 3: the way, other opposition leaders like Leopoldo Lopez, like Juan
9:27
Speaker 3: Guido likewise have shown incredible courage, have faced Lopez spent
9:32
Speaker 3: years in prison. I mean, I mean, you to stand
9:35
Speaker 3: up and be an opposition leader to a communist regime
9:40
Speaker 3: like Hugo Chavez or Nicholas Maduro, you are quite literally
9:43
Speaker 3: taking your life in your own hands. And a great
9:45
Speaker 3: many of the opposition leaders face arrest, face torture, face
9:50
Speaker 3: you know, if you're in the opposition, you can face murder.
9:53
Speaker 3: And so Machado last year was awarded the Nobel Peace
9:59
Speaker 3: Prize for her heroism and in standing up to Maduro.
10:03
Speaker 3: And and she came, she came to Washington this week,
10:06
Speaker 3: and she went went went to the White House, and
10:08
Speaker 3: she met with President Trump. And she did something that
10:11
Speaker 3: I think was very very savvy and and showed a
10:14
Speaker 3: lot of wisdom and showed a lot of humility, which
10:17
Speaker 3: is she presented the Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump.
10:20
Speaker 3: She had it framed for him. It's beautifully framed, and
10:24
Speaker 3: and and and she had presented to the president and
10:27
Speaker 3: and with with the thanks of of the people of
10:29
Speaker 3: Venezuela and and and I think President Trump appreciated that
10:33
Speaker 3: a great deal. Look, a lot of us, you and
10:35
Speaker 3: me included, believe President Trump should have been awarded the
10:38
Speaker 3: Nobel Peace Prize. But there's no way, there's no way.
10:41
Speaker 3: The lefty Europeans. It doesn't matter if if like he
10:46
Speaker 3: cured cancer and and like ended every war that has
10:51
Speaker 3: ever happened in the history of humanity, they will not
10:54
Speaker 3: give him the Peace Prize because they haint.
10:55
Speaker 1: Someone said to me the other day, and I made
10:57
Speaker 1: me laugh. They said, the chances of Donald Trump getting
10:59
Speaker 1: to know Peace Prize from these like you said, European
11:02
Speaker 1: you know, lefties.
11:04
Speaker 2: They said, I would.
11:05
Speaker 1: Put more money on Vladimir Putin getting it before Donald
11:08
Speaker 1: Trump does.
11:09
Speaker 2: Not crazy. By the way, that's sad.
11:11
Speaker 3: That's not hyperbole. That that's actually not hyperbole. Remember, these
11:15
Speaker 3: are the same idiots who awarded Barack Obama the Nobel
11:20
Speaker 3: Peace Prize when he'd been in office a couple of months,
11:23
Speaker 3: and he was literally awarded it for simply not being
11:26
Speaker 3: George W.
11:27
Speaker 2: Bush.
11:27
Speaker 3: That was the entire basis. You're not Bush, Okay, you
11:30
Speaker 3: get the Nobel Peace Prize. He hadn't been there even
11:34
Speaker 3: long enough to screw everything up, which he spent the
11:36
Speaker 3: next eight years doing. He just he had just moved
11:38
Speaker 3: in and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. These are
11:40
Speaker 3: also the same people. If you go back several decades,
11:44
Speaker 3: you look at Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was never awarded
11:47
Speaker 3: the Nobel Peace Prize, despite the fact that he ended
11:50
Speaker 3: the Cold War without firing a shot. And so this
11:53
Speaker 3: is a very ideological prize, and and I think in
11:58
Speaker 3: this past year it is questionable that Donald Trump deserved it,
12:03
Speaker 3: but they weren't going to give it. And she showed
12:06
Speaker 3: when she was awarded it. She showed real life, like
12:09
Speaker 3: I said, wisdom and humility, that it's a beautiful presentation.
12:14
Speaker 3: And she just said, look, the difference you have made
12:18
Speaker 3: for the people of Venezuela is transformative. I think that
12:24
Speaker 3: was a wise decision on her part.
12:26
Speaker 1: So let's talk just a little bit about about her
12:29
Speaker 1: and what was her message to you, Senator for Venezuela
12:34
Speaker 1: its future. Obviously there's a lot of people in Venezuela
12:37
Speaker 1: that hope that she would be the leader of that country,
12:40
Speaker 1: but she is clearly spending time in DC as an advocate.
12:44
Speaker 1: I also think the president meeting with her make no mistake.
12:48
Speaker 1: That is to send a message to those in Venezuela
12:51
Speaker 1: that if you don't play by the rules that we've
12:54
Speaker 1: talked about, we are talking to others that will play
12:57
Speaker 1: by those rules.
12:58
Speaker 2: I think that's a really and political point as well.
13:01
Speaker 3: Well. And Machado right now is an exile. She's in
13:04
Speaker 3: the United States. She she fled for her life because
13:07
Speaker 3: Maduro was was was going to kill her.
13:09
Speaker 1: Uh.
13:09
Speaker 3: And and she wants to go back. And and so
13:12
Speaker 3: when she when she left the White House, left meeting
13:15
Speaker 3: with President Trump, she came to Capitol Hill, and she
13:18
Speaker 3: met with about a dozen senators and we sat down
13:20
Speaker 3: and spent oh probably forty five minutes talking with her.
13:24
Speaker 3: And and and I got to say, I've visited with
13:26
Speaker 3: her before. She has uh. I think an enormous amount
13:30
Speaker 3: of courage, an enormous amount of grace, grace. I asked her,
13:34
Speaker 3: I said, tell me the reaction on the street. Tell me,
13:36
Speaker 3: tell me how people are reacting just in Venezuela. And
13:39
Speaker 3: she said, they're just they are overjoyed that there's a
13:43
Speaker 3: level of relief, there's a level of just they can't
13:46
Speaker 3: cannot believe Maduro is finally gone. They've also because the
13:52
Speaker 3: Trump administration has been pressing the Maduro regime been pressing
13:56
Speaker 3: Delsi Rodriguez, who's the acting president. They've released a significant
14:00
Speaker 3: number of political prisoners. So the political prisoners, many of
14:03
Speaker 3: them have been released. And she said, there's a lot
14:05
Speaker 3: of celebration on the ground for that. But she said, look,
14:07
Speaker 3: the political prisoners are still being monitored, They're still being watched,
14:11
Speaker 3: they still have to check in. And she emphasized the
14:14
Speaker 3: regime is still the communist regime. Delsi Rodriguez is a communist.
14:20
Speaker 3: She she was was Maduro's right hand and and and
14:25
Speaker 3: so she says, there's there's enormous celebration. But the second
14:29
Speaker 3: question I asked her is I said, listen, what steps
14:33
Speaker 3: do we need to take to move towards free and
14:36
Speaker 3: fair elections? And that was one of the things she
14:39
Speaker 3: really wanted to emphasize. She said, look, the people of Venezuela,
14:43
Speaker 3: they want UH to have a chance to vote to
14:45
Speaker 3: elect their leader. And and and and she said, right now,
14:48
Speaker 3: the Rodriguez administration is the Maduro administration. It is illegitimate.
14:53
Speaker 3: They were beaten in the last election, they were roundly defeated,
14:57
Speaker 3: and and Maduro held onto power just through brute force,
15:01
Speaker 3: because he controlled the army, and so the fact that
15:03
Speaker 3: the voters voted him out office didn't matter to him.
15:06
Speaker 3: Rodriguez is in office for the same reason, and so
15:09
Speaker 3: my view is we need to move swiftly towards free
15:13
Speaker 3: and fair election. There was some conversation. One Democrat senator
15:17
Speaker 3: asked her what time frame for election. She was wisely
15:22
Speaker 3: noncommittal on that, and she said, look, I just hope
15:25
Speaker 3: it moves swiftly. And the Democrat senator says, well, if
15:28
Speaker 3: it goes a year, will that be too long. I'll
15:30
Speaker 3: tell you what I chimed in. I said, I think
15:32
Speaker 3: it should happen within six months. I think that is
15:34
Speaker 3: the right timing. I think you need a little bit
15:36
Speaker 3: of transition. But I think the faster we move to
15:40
Speaker 3: elections and someone with legitimacy who will be elected and
15:44
Speaker 3: will be a friend of America, the faster the better.
15:49
Speaker 2: Senator.
15:49
Speaker 1: If people just joining us right now, we're talking about
15:51
Speaker 1: an incredible wee. Can you get to meet with the
15:53
Speaker 1: opposition leader of Venezuela in Washington, d C.
15:57
Speaker 2: You mentioned, by the way that the meeting you had.
15:59
Speaker 1: With her after she met with the president of the
16:01
Speaker 1: United States of America, Donald Trump. Well, it was with
16:04
Speaker 1: twelve different centers. So how does that room get made?
16:06
Speaker 1: And it sounds like it was by parson You mentioned
16:08
Speaker 1: a Democrat that was in that room. Does everybody get
16:11
Speaker 1: an invite or only certain people? How does that work?
16:14
Speaker 3: So no, it was a smaller subset. And and typically
16:17
Speaker 3: what happens when you have heads of state come to Washington,
16:21
Speaker 3: they will often reach out to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
16:24
Speaker 3: And I sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and
16:26
Speaker 3: so often we will have regularly we'll have at like
16:30
Speaker 3: afternoon coffees or lunch lunches with heads of state when
16:33
Speaker 3: they could they come to town. And and in the capital
16:36
Speaker 3: there's an office where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets
16:39
Speaker 3: with There's a hearing room with this big ornate table
16:43
Speaker 3: that they'll set up and they usually put you have
16:45
Speaker 3: some coffee and some some pieces of cheese and crackers
16:50
Speaker 3: and like a little bit of a good stuff. Yeah,
16:53
Speaker 3: you know, it's but it look it is. It's an
16:57
Speaker 3: opportunity to visit with with world leaders. In this instance,
17:00
Speaker 3: it wasn't the Senate Form Relations Committee. It ended up
17:04
Speaker 3: being we met in the office of Dick Durbin, who
17:07
Speaker 3: was the number two Democrat. He was the one hosting it.
17:10
Speaker 3: And initially I think durban was making the invites. And
17:14
Speaker 3: then this is actually something Marina Karina Machado did that
17:17
Speaker 3: I think was very wise. Also, she invited a number
17:20
Speaker 3: of people. So the reason I was there is because
17:22
Speaker 3: she invited me.
17:23
Speaker 1: And and look, I say, Durbin, you didn't make the
17:27
Speaker 1: cut on Durbin's is group chat. You're not in that
17:30
Speaker 1: group chat with them.
17:31
Speaker 3: So look, I suspect that there were some Democrats that
17:36
Speaker 3: wanted to have at a meeting of just Democrats in
17:38
Speaker 3: her Yeah, and I think that would have been really
17:42
Speaker 3: unfortunate if that had happened, because I think the Democrats
17:44
Speaker 3: would have wanted to use it to attack Trump. And
17:47
Speaker 3: I think she realized that that would be that would
17:50
Speaker 3: not further the people of Venezuela, that would not be
17:53
Speaker 3: good for anyone, and so she reached out. And we
17:57
Speaker 3: had four Republicans who was there were there, So I
17:59
Speaker 3: was there, Rick Scott from Florida was there. Uh, Bernie
18:03
Speaker 3: Moreno uh from Ohio was there, and and then John
18:06
Speaker 3: Curtis from Utah was there. So that was the four
18:08
Speaker 3: Republicans who were in the room, and then there were
18:10
Speaker 3: about seven eight nine Democrats that were there, so it
18:13
Speaker 3: was a larger group of Democrats, and they were all
18:17
Speaker 3: posing for the cameras and and and and look, I
18:21
Speaker 3: think Rick Scott had had obvious reason to be be there.
18:24
Speaker 3: There's a big, big Venezuelan population in Florida. Uh, Rick
18:29
Speaker 3: Scott has a lot of support from the Venezuelan population
18:32
Speaker 3: in Florida, so it made sense for him to be there. Bernie,
18:35
Speaker 3: his family's from Colombia, and so you know, he you know,
18:38
Speaker 3: Bernie and I are are the two two Hispanic Republicans
18:42
Speaker 3: that are in the Senate. Yeah, and and since he's
18:45
Speaker 3: Colombian American, I'm Cuban American. We kind of talked smack
18:48
Speaker 3: at each other quite a bit, and Colombians and Cubans
18:51
Speaker 3: usually throw down a little bit. And and you know
18:55
Speaker 3: what it as for me. Look, there's a significant Venezuelan
18:58
Speaker 3: population in Texas, in particularly because Venezuela has the largest
19:03
Speaker 3: proven reserves of oil in the world, and Houston is
19:09
Speaker 3: obviously the energy capital of the world. And so there
19:11
Speaker 3: are a lot of Venezuelans who were in Houston. A
19:14
Speaker 3: lot of Houston oil companies have been down in Venezuela
19:17
Speaker 3: over the years. For many years, there was a group
19:21
Speaker 3: called the Sitgo six that were Americans who were imprisoned
19:25
Speaker 3: in Venezuela, and they were Houstonians. They worked for Citgo,
19:28
Speaker 3: the oil company, and and Maduro had put them in prison,
19:32
Speaker 3: and I was their leading advocate in the Senate. I
19:34
Speaker 3: went to the Senate floor repeatedly. I spoke out for them.
19:37
Speaker 3: I leaned repeatedly on the regime, and ultimately the Sitgo
19:42
Speaker 3: six were released. But it had been you know, I
19:45
Speaker 3: visited with with brick Orinomachado previously, had been engaged. I'd
19:50
Speaker 3: been engaged with the opposition leaders for some time. And
19:54
Speaker 3: and part of that is listen, I hate communists. It
19:58
Speaker 3: is you know, my family was imprisoned and tortured by communists.
20:03
Speaker 3: My dad was in prison and tortured by Batista was
20:05
Speaker 3: not a communist, but my aunt, Mike Deasagna, was imprisoned
20:09
Speaker 3: and tortured by Castro's goons. And and so when it
20:12
Speaker 3: comes to communists, my.
20:15
Speaker 2: You're talking, one of the level is extremely low.
20:17
Speaker 3: I think they're in the embodiment of evil, and and
20:20
Speaker 3: and and one of the real missions that I've had
20:22
Speaker 3: really since since the day I got elected to the Senate,
20:25
Speaker 3: is trying to highlight dissonance. I think there's a real
20:28
Speaker 3: power to dissonance. There's a real power to those that
20:31
Speaker 3: stand up to tyrants, that that that show courage and
20:35
Speaker 3: that face prison and human rights abuses, because we've seen
20:40
Speaker 3: tyrannies collapse because of the threats to their legitimacy. And
20:44
Speaker 3: so I've tried in my time in the Senate really
20:47
Speaker 3: to shine a light and amplify the message of dissonance.
20:50
Speaker 1: And I got you and I, by the way, I've
20:51
Speaker 1: talked about this this week when I was up in
20:53
Speaker 1: DC and we had Bruce pearl on. By the way,
20:55
Speaker 1: if you missed that show, go back and listen to it.
20:57
Speaker 1: The famous basketball coach is a man sitting up for
21:01
Speaker 1: Israel right now.
21:02
Speaker 3: And that was a fun podcast.
21:05
Speaker 2: It really was go back and grab it. But you
21:07
Speaker 2: and I have talked about it.
21:08
Speaker 3: And by the way, I did talk with someone last
21:10
Speaker 3: night who said said she loved the podcast, and she
21:13
Speaker 3: was she cracked up the most by hearing that Bruce
21:16
Speaker 3: and I shared having both run around naked in college
21:19
Speaker 3: streaking on campus. So if you want to hear the
21:21
Speaker 3: story of that. Go listen, Go listen to the last podcast.
21:25
Speaker 2: There you go. That's an easy tease right there.
21:28
Speaker 1: You and I I've talked about the moment that we're
21:31
Speaker 1: living in right now could be one of the biggest
21:34
Speaker 1: historical moments, certainly of my lifetime, and that is we
21:38
Speaker 1: have three countries that without Donald Trump being president right now,
21:43
Speaker 1: if Kamala Harris is in the White House, we would
21:45
Speaker 1: not be having this conversation. I believe that are on
21:47
Speaker 1: the verge of quite possibly having free and fair elections
21:50
Speaker 1: within the next twelve months. And that would be Iran,
21:53
Speaker 1: that would be Venezuela, that would also be Cuba. People
21:57
Speaker 1: are standing up for them stillselves and saying to their
22:00
Speaker 1: government because they're being inspired by Donald Trump and what
22:04
Speaker 1: he's also said, which is we have your back.
22:07
Speaker 3: Well, and I want to take a moment for us
22:09
Speaker 3: just to reflect on the incredible consequential times we're living.
22:14
Speaker 3: And this is a point that I made to Machado
22:16
Speaker 3: when she was in DC. I said, Look, it is
22:19
Speaker 3: entirely possible that in the next few months, in the
22:23
Speaker 3: next six months, we could see the regimes fall in Venezuela,
22:28
Speaker 3: in Cuba, and Iran. We could see elections in Venezuela,
22:34
Speaker 3: in Cuba and Iran, we could see leaders elected by
22:39
Speaker 3: the people who stand for freedom and who want to
22:42
Speaker 3: stand with America and be friends with America. We could
22:45
Speaker 3: see that in Venezuela, in Cuba, and Iran, Iran. It
22:48
Speaker 3: could happen literally in the next few hours of the
22:52
Speaker 3: next few days. What is happening in Iran is so consequential,
22:56
Speaker 3: what is happening in Venezuela is so consequential. In Cuba
22:59
Speaker 3: is not far behind. And if that happens, that will
23:05
Speaker 3: be the single most significant foreign policy development the world
23:09
Speaker 3: has seen since the Berlin Wall was torn to the ground.
23:14
Speaker 3: It will literally remake the geopolitical map and the consequences
23:20
Speaker 3: of that. Now, to be clear, there are a thousand
23:23
Speaker 3: things that can go wrong. There are a thousand things
23:25
Speaker 3: that could go wrong in Venezuela, in Cuba, in Iran.
23:29
Speaker 3: It's not guaranteed. In fact, it is guaranteed to not
23:32
Speaker 3: be smooth and without challenges at is one hundred percent.
23:36
Speaker 3: It will be bumpy and there will be challenges. But
23:39
Speaker 3: all three regimes are in a panic, they are in
23:42
Speaker 3: a free fall, and the people of all three countries
23:46
Speaker 3: are energized. If you were to pick three countries that
23:49
Speaker 3: for decades have been explicitly passionately anti American, the regimes,
23:56
Speaker 3: the rulers have been responsible for terrorists, I'm responsible for
24:01
Speaker 3: threatening the lives of Americans. It would be difficult to
24:04
Speaker 3: find three more dangerous than Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. And
24:10
Speaker 3: you're right. This is the direct consequence of strong leadership
24:14
Speaker 3: from the commander in chief. And it was interesting. One
24:16
Speaker 3: of the Democrat senators who was in the meeting with me,
24:19
Speaker 3: he actually pulled me aside afterwards and said, you know, Ted,
24:22
Speaker 3: you made this point yesterday that this could be a
24:25
Speaker 3: time as consequential as the Berlin Wall being torn to
24:29
Speaker 3: the ground. And he said, I hadn't really thought about
24:32
Speaker 3: it that way, but you're right, and it was an
24:35
Speaker 3: interesting point. And I have to say one of the things, Look,
24:40
Speaker 3: I was really impressed with Machado, how she handled her message,
24:44
Speaker 3: by the way, to the senators, was that America's support
24:49
Speaker 3: is really important to Venezuela and seeing some unity. Look,
24:53
Speaker 3: her message, she was not in any way chastising the Democrats,
24:58
Speaker 3: but she did say unity is really important, and what
25:02
Speaker 3: is happening the people of Venezuela. This would not have
25:05
Speaker 3: happened without President Trump. And there were some very partisan
25:08
Speaker 3: Democrats in that room who were not thrilled to hear
25:11
Speaker 3: that message, because their message every day is Trump bad,
25:14
Speaker 3: Trump bad, Trump bad. But but she didn't want to
25:18
Speaker 3: argue with them on that. But she just said, listen,
25:21
Speaker 3: this is a moment we've waited decades for. And and
25:25
Speaker 3: and in the opposition, she said, so many people in Venezuela,
25:28
Speaker 3: what they said is this day would never come. This
25:31
Speaker 3: day would never come, and it came, and it is here,
25:33
Speaker 3: and and and seeing unity from America right now is
25:37
Speaker 3: so important. Look, I think the same is true for Iran,
25:40
Speaker 3: seeing unity standing with the protesters against the Ayahtola. If
25:47
Speaker 3: we are six months from now, with the with the
25:49
Speaker 3: governments and the leaders of those three countries being pro
25:52
Speaker 3: American and want wanting to be our friends.
25:56
Speaker 2: That is like Holy Cow.
25:59
Speaker 3: That makes the world much safer, and that makes every
26:02
Speaker 3: American much safer.
26:04
Speaker 1: Sata, I want to ask you real quick before we
26:06
Speaker 1: get back to Texas, where you had an amazing trip
26:08
Speaker 1: with the Secretary of War. You got to go to
26:11
Speaker 1: the plant where they make f thirty five. That's incredible,
26:14
Speaker 1: and you got to go meet with Elon Musk again
26:17
Speaker 1: and take a tour of what he's doing down in Brownsville, Texas.
26:21
Speaker 1: But one other question I just want to get your
26:23
Speaker 1: reaction to, and that is what are you hearing? What
26:26
Speaker 1: have you guys been told this week about what's actually
26:29
Speaker 1: happening in Iran? To be clear, depending on when you
26:31
Speaker 1: hear this, things could change. So it's changing quickly. But
26:35
Speaker 1: we've had an internet blackout there, the phones and the
26:38
Speaker 1: landlines they've shut down. They didn't want information it out.
26:40
Speaker 1: We saw the death toll rise significantly during that blackout period,
26:44
Speaker 1: and then the president said the killing had stopped. He
26:46
Speaker 1: said that the White House and he's like, look, I'm
26:48
Speaker 1: looking at all options on the table.
26:49
Speaker 2: What do you know and what have you been told?
26:52
Speaker 3: Well, we have been saying for a number of days now,
26:55
Speaker 3: over a million Iranians taking to the street day after
26:58
Speaker 3: day after day and pro test. It's the administration that
27:02
Speaker 3: the regime is doing everything they can to try to
27:04
Speaker 3: put the protests down. They're responding with violence. It is difficult.
27:09
Speaker 3: Anytime you have a conflict, you have unrest. In this case,
27:13
Speaker 3: you have potentially a revolution, that there is a fog
27:15
Speaker 3: of war, and so it is difficult to get clear
27:18
Speaker 3: and accurate numbers. I've seen death tolls as high as
27:21
Speaker 3: twelve thousand Iranians murdered by the regime trying to put
27:26
Speaker 3: down the protesters, and they continue standing up and risking
27:29
Speaker 3: their lives. It is incredible heroism. It is difficult to
27:32
Speaker 3: get accurate information from the ground, although one of the
27:36
Speaker 3: things that has helped is Elon Musk is providing free starlink.
27:40
Speaker 3: So even though the Iotola and the mulas are blocking
27:43
Speaker 3: the Internet, blocking television, starlink is operating for free. You know,
27:47
Speaker 3: just a few minutes ago, a friend of mine who's
27:49
Speaker 3: a senior official at the State Department, texted me said,
27:53
Speaker 3: I'm currently in the Middle East. This region feels ready
27:57
Speaker 3: to break free from Iran and turn to the future
28:02
Speaker 3: like it. Wow, this could be imminent. This could happen
28:06
Speaker 3: within hours or days. And it's powerful.
28:11
Speaker 2: What's happening.
28:12
Speaker 1: It really is also the president keeping all options on
28:15
Speaker 1: the table. I think that's one of the great parts
28:17
Speaker 1: of his foreign policy. Yes, there's a lot of people
28:20
Speaker 1: that are that are you know, there's warhawks that want
28:21
Speaker 1: them just to go in and bomb things. There's also
28:24
Speaker 1: I think some Democrats that wanted to do that so
28:26
Speaker 1: they can then criticize him. I think he has done
28:29
Speaker 1: a masterful job this time with diplomacy and also transparency,
28:33
Speaker 1: but also making it clear there is a red line
28:35
Speaker 1: with the United States of America and I'm not afraid
28:39
Speaker 1: to use the military if I need to save the
28:41
Speaker 1: people's lives that are being persecuted.
28:43
Speaker 3: Well, and there's a massive difference between now and two
28:46
Speaker 3: thousand and nine when you had the Green Revolution. The
28:48
Speaker 3: last time you had Iranians really rising up in big,
28:51
Speaker 3: big numbers. In two thousand and nine, Barack Obama was
28:54
Speaker 3: in the White House and they made a conscious decision
28:56
Speaker 3: to undermine the protesters and stand with the regime. And
29:00
Speaker 3: it was exactly backwards. And I gotta say.
29:03
Speaker 1: People of that scenario because that story still is astounding
29:06
Speaker 1: if you think about it compared to what we're seeing now.
29:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, look at it was the Obama administration decided they
29:13
Speaker 3: were going to stand with the Iatola and stand with
29:15
Speaker 3: the Mullas, and so that they discourage the protesters, they
29:19
Speaker 3: did not support them. And it is night and day.
29:22
Speaker 3: Donald J. Trump is not Barack Obama, and he's not
29:24
Speaker 3: Joe Biden. He is instead telling the people of Iran,
29:28
Speaker 3: we are with you, we have your back. He's also
29:31
Speaker 3: saying he is threatening real consequences to the regime if
29:35
Speaker 3: they murder the protesters. I think that's a real deterrent.
29:38
Speaker 3: He's telling the protesters write down the names of anyone
29:41
Speaker 3: attacking you. There will be consequences. And you're right. President
29:45
Speaker 3: Trump has been reluctant to use military force unnecessarily, but
29:50
Speaker 3: he hasn't been afraid to wield a stick. And that
29:54
Speaker 3: is why our adversaries are so terrified. It's why you're
29:57
Speaker 3: seeing change sweeping glow.
30:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:00
Speaker 1: Now, let's go back to Texas, and in this deal's
30:03
Speaker 1: national security as well. Uh, in our military. You you
30:07
Speaker 1: toured with a Secretary of Wars, Pete Headseth, a good
30:11
Speaker 1: friend of both of ours. Something that I'm jealous. I'm
30:13
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. I would have gone. I would have
30:16
Speaker 1: driven for this invite. You got to go to the
30:18
Speaker 1: F thirty five factory. How cool is that?
30:22
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, so Monday was a full day. I started
30:24
Speaker 3: in Houston, I drove to San Antonio. I visited the
30:26
Speaker 3: three soldiers who were wounded in the Maduro Raid. I
30:31
Speaker 3: then flew with the Secretary of Defense to Fort Worth,
30:33
Speaker 3: went to the F thirty five plant, then flew to Brownsville,
30:36
Speaker 3: went went went to Starbase, and then flew to DC
30:39
Speaker 3: all in one day, so it was five cities in
30:41
Speaker 3: one day.
30:42
Speaker 2: Wow.
30:43
Speaker 3: Fort Worth. The F thirty five plant is incredible. The
30:46
Speaker 3: plant is over a mile long. They're building F thirty
30:50
Speaker 3: five fifth generation fighter jets. The technology on them is incredible.
30:55
Speaker 3: One of the reasons that we're able to prevail in
30:57
Speaker 3: military conflicts and and no one else can really come
31:00
Speaker 3: close is because of the incredible technology and Texans. We're
31:04
Speaker 3: proud F thirty five's are built right here in Texas.
31:09
Speaker 3: The workers that are there, we had a chance to
31:12
Speaker 3: visit with a great many of them. Secretary heag Seth
31:15
Speaker 3: gave it address to the workers, thank them for their
31:18
Speaker 3: incredible work helping protect America, helping keep America strong. And
31:25
Speaker 3: then I got to say down in Star Bas, Elon
31:28
Speaker 3: was there. We spent several hours with Elon, toured around
31:32
Speaker 3: and I've been I've been to the F thirty five
31:33
Speaker 3: plant before, I've been to starbas down in Bocachica multiple times.
31:37
Speaker 3: I got to tell you. Every time I go to
31:39
Speaker 3: starbas it's advanced further. So this time around they're now
31:44
Speaker 3: on the third generation starships. Last time I was there,
31:47
Speaker 3: there were on the second generation starships. The third generation
31:50
Speaker 3: has substantially more lift. The new engines are in it.
31:54
Speaker 3: You look at the degree of rapid innovation, and they're
32:00
Speaker 3: objective they want to make. They want to make rocket
32:03
Speaker 3: ships like airplanes, where basically you think about an airplane,
32:06
Speaker 3: you take off, go to your destination, refuel, and you
32:09
Speaker 3: go to the next place, and you refuel and you
32:11
Speaker 3: go to the next place. And it is such a
32:13
Speaker 3: system change from a paradigm shift from the old world
32:18
Speaker 3: that a rocket you fire off once, drop at the
32:20
Speaker 3: ocean and you're done. In this instance, the objective is
32:25
Speaker 3: to dramatically lower the cost of spaceflight. And I will
32:30
Speaker 3: tell you for our military look. Secretary of Hegseeth gave
32:35
Speaker 3: a major address at SpaceX talking about innovation at the
32:40
Speaker 3: Department of War, talking about moving away from the old
32:44
Speaker 3: legacy contractors, moving away from the bureaucracy and instead pride,
32:48
Speaker 3: prizing and incentivizing innovation, bringing in new innovators. He's also
32:54
Speaker 3: talking about leadership that he's doing to shake up the
32:57
Speaker 3: old bureaucracy, and to integrate AI in the decision making
33:01
Speaker 3: and and and and obviously Elon and x Ai is
33:06
Speaker 3: helping lead the world in AI and and one of
33:09
Speaker 3: the challenges this is something Pete and I have talked
33:11
Speaker 3: about quite a bit. The Pentagon with some frequency fights
33:16
Speaker 3: the last war, they think about the war that just
33:19
Speaker 3: happened rather than the next war. And and if we
33:23
Speaker 3: find ourselves in a military conflict with say, god forbid China.
33:27
Speaker 3: And look, everyone wants to avoid a military conflict with China,
33:30
Speaker 3: but if we find ourselves in a military conflict with China,
33:33
Speaker 3: it's not likely to be aircraft carriers that that decideth
33:37
Speaker 3: the way they have in previous military conflicts. That next war,
33:41
Speaker 3: particularly with a near peer power, is likely to be
33:44
Speaker 3: fought with thousands or tens of thousands, or even hundreds
33:47
Speaker 3: of thousands of drones controlled by AI and and and
33:52
Speaker 3: so at SpaceX Elon was leaning in, heg Seth was
33:57
Speaker 3: leaning in saying, we are trying to create in the
33:59
Speaker 3: Pentagon the innovation mindset, so we are ahead of our
34:03
Speaker 3: adversaries so that we can avoid war through peace through strength.
34:07
Speaker 2: It's incredible, don't forget.
34:09
Speaker 1: We do the show three days a week, so make
34:11
Speaker 1: sure you download Verdict with tech Cruz. Wherever you get
34:14
Speaker 1: your podcast, hit the subscribe or auto download button.
34:17
Speaker 2: If you're lit's stay on the radio.
34:18
Speaker 1: We'll see you back here next week as well, but
34:20
Speaker 1: grab the podcast in between you and also watch it
34:22
Speaker 1: on YouTube. It's been Verdict with Ted Cruse, Ben Ferguson
34:25
Speaker 1: with you have a great week.