Middle East Talks Teeter on the Brink, Waltz plays Spy Games in Minnesota & the Shocking Search for Missing Migrant Kids Week In Review

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Episode: Middle East Talks Teeter on the Brink, Waltz Plays Spy Games in Minnesota & the Shocking Search for Missing Migrant Kids – Week In Review
Date: June 13, 2026
Host: Ben Ferguson (w/Senator Ted Cruz and Markwayne Mullin as primary contributors)

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Episode Overview

In this week’s “47 Morning Update” Week In Review, Ben Ferguson spotlights three major stories:

1. The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and the American diplomatic efforts to contain it, including exclusive interviews and discussion with President Trump.
2. A bombshell Minnesota corruption investigation, where the governor’s staff is alleged to have retaliated against whistleblowers exposing social services fraud.
3. The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children lost during the previous administration, highlighting failures and abuses during Biden’s term and efforts now to recover and protect these vulnerable kids.

Throughout, the discussion is sharp, highly critical of Democratic policies, and leans hard into unfiltered commentary and political critique—offering alternative narratives to what Ferguson and guests call the “mainstream media.”

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[Key Segments and Discussion Points]

1. Middle East Tensions: Israel-Iran Flare-Up

Timestamps: [02:42 – 11:42]

• Situation Update:

  • Israel retaliates against Iranian missile strikes by bombing targets in Iran for the first time since the April 8 ceasefire.
  • President Trump is engaging in direct calls with Israeli PM Netanyahu to urge restraint and preserve the fragile ceasefire.

• Analysis of Trump’s Iran Policy:

  • Senator Ted Cruz and Ferguson praise Trump’s firm stance and criticize the mainstream media’s adversarial posture during his recent Meet the Press interview.
  • President Trump's "red lines" are detailed:
    • No nuclear enrichment or weapons for Iran; hand over all enriched uranium
    • Iran stops funding terrorism
    • Open the Strait of Hormuz
    • No sanctions relief until compliance

• Memorable Quotes:

  • Donald Trump, on Iran’s nuclear material:
    • "Yes. Yes." – President Trump asserts U.S. knowledge of Iran’s nuclear stockpile [05:53]
    • "We know where they are, too... Most of the drone factories have been knocked out..." [08:52]
  • Senator Ted Cruz:
    • "It's not possible to negotiate a deal with someone whose only objective is to murder you. And the media refuses to acknowledge that." [10:13]
    • "If the Ayatollah got nuclear weapons, we could see hundreds of thousands of Americans murdered in a flash of an eye. And the President is not going to let that happen." [10:43]

• Insight:

  • The media is accused of rooting against U.S. interests and for appeasing Iran.
  • Trump’s detractors in the media insist he hasn’t delivered a new deal, but he counters it’s too soon—he’s “only three months in” and cites major military success against Iran’s capabilities.

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2. Minnesota Whistleblower Scandal & Fraud Cover-Up

Timestamps: [14:23 – 26:21]

• Allegations and Findings:

  • Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s staff accused of hiring private investigators to intimidate and silence whistleblowers over massive social services fraud.
  • House Oversight Committee reports a culture of retaliation against employees who raised fraud concerns—staff were warned, monitored, and had personal details investigated.
  • Emphasis on fears of being called racist or Islamophobic when reporting fraud, with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) themes intertwined.

• Memorable Quotes:

  • Senator Ted Cruz:
    • "Apparently that's not the case in Minnesota. And if you want to know how the Somali fraud got so bad, it might actually be because the governor was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing the crimes..." [14:23]
  • Senator Ted Cruz, on the depth of corruption:
    • "This demonstrates, I think, powerfully they are lying. Not only did they not want to go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about the fraud." [20:42]
  • Cruz & Ferguson (paraphrased):
    • There is skepticism Minnesota or federal officials will actually hold Walz, Keith Ellison, or involved commissioners accountable. They note the political interest in fraud going unpunished, suggest federal prosecution may be necessary due to complicity of state actors.

• Analysis and Next Steps:

  • Discussion of criminal versus civil accountability: DOJ is urged to prosecute; civil litigation is predicted by whistleblowers for damages.
  • Broader claim: Similar fraud and coverups have happened predominantly in Democratic-run states with similar political incentives.

---

3. The Search for Missing Migrant Children

Timestamps: [29:15 – 39:41]

• Background:

  • Over 300,000 children are alleged to have gone missing after being released to unvetted sponsors during the Biden administration, with exposure to sexual and labor exploitation.
  • Trump’s administration claims to have recovered more than 146,000 since returning to office; ongoing efforts highlighted.

• Memorable Quotes:

  • Markwayne Mullin, DHS Secretary:
    • "I will move heaven and hell to go find these kids." [33:14]
    • "We found 146,000 kids so far. We still have nearly 300,000 missing. We're investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped six to seven hundred times." [35:47]
  • Senator Ted Cruz:
    • "Six to 700 times. That is a number that I do believe should haunt everyone listening." [38:32]
  • Cruz and Guests:
    • Harsh condemnation of Democrats: recounting party line votes against deporting criminal aliens and suggesting indifference to immigrant children's suffering.
    • Sanctuary cities are cited as havens for human traffickers due to lack of cooperation with federal authorities.

• Insight and Emotional Appeals:

  • The plight of the children is used to drive home a political narrative about the comparative morality and priorities of the two parties.
  • The show hammers the argument that Biden-era policies weren’t compassionate but enabled trafficking and abuse, while current efforts by Trump’s administration are pitched as actively rescuing children.

---

[Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps]

• Trump on missile strike data:
  "They have some missiles... I would say percentage wise, maybe 21, 22% of their missiles." [09:03]

• Cruz on media attitude:
  "Yet the entire interview had that level of hostility in it." [09:46]

• Markwayne Mullin on the search for lost kids:
  "I haven't quit smiling since I’ve been Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. But I have to take that back, because when we start digging into these cases... we found 146,000 kids so far. We still have nearly 300,000 missing." [35:22–35:47]

• On Sanctuary Cities:
  "If you think about sex trafficking... you would go to a sanctuary city that is the safest place for you to operate." [37:02]

---

[Episode Structure & Tone]

• Tone is combative, populist, and partisan: explicit in its critique of Democrats and the media.
• Guests (Sen. Ted Cruz, DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin) bolster the host’s narrative with policy details and personal outrage.
• There is a strong emotional throughline when discussing government accountability, whistleblower treatment, and especially the fate of migrant children.
• Throughout, speakers use anecdotes, analogies (e.g., referencing criminal cases in discussing Iran negotiations), and direct quotations from news and reports to back up claims.
• Urges listeners to seek “the rest of the story” via older episodes or related podcasts.

---

[Summary Takeaways]

Listeners are brought up to speed on:

• The precarious state of U.S. negotiations and military activity in the Middle East, and the Trump administration’s approach.
• A major alleged scandal in Minnesota, framed as emblematic of Democratic corruption and whistleblower persecution.
• The scale and horror of missing migrant children and renewed recovery efforts under the Trump administration, with an indictment of prior policies.

---

For those who haven’t listened:
This episode serves as both recap and rallying cry—condensing headline-grabbing investigations, exclusive interviews, and stark political revisionism into one densely-packed “week in review.” The show is notable for its emotional appeals, willingness to assign blame, and readiness to weave together national scandals with broader political messaging.

Transcript

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human

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[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

hi, it's Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. Want the full story? Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes and in fact she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamar and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

[Child]

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[Parent]

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[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

No idea. Last week it was dinosaurs. This week it's Lingokids.

[Parent]

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[Child]

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[America 250 Announcer]

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[Child]

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[Senator Ted Cruz]

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[Child]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront

[Meet the Press Host]

payment of 45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required Intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] welcome it is Verdict

[Senator Ted Cruz]

with Ted Cruz, Week in Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And here are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, Iran and where we are now in the politics of this deal. Could we get a deal done? And how much does this have to do with national security? We break it down for you. Also, we have got a shocking story coming out of Minnesota that the governor there actually paid private investigators to spy and to intimidate government employees who had whistleblown on the massive fraud that was taking place. And finally, the Trump administration going all out to find children that were released into the country after they came across the southern border. And these children are missing by the hundreds of thousands. So who are they found? Well, it's an incredible story. We have that for you as well. It's the Week in Review and it starts right now. All right, let's timestamp this. It is 12:37am Eastern Time as we are recording right now, center. And so let's talk about what's happening right now in the Middle East. We have had a flare up, I think it's a fair way to put it. Israel involved, Iran involved, hitting terrorist targets as well in Lebanon. This has turned into a bigger deal. The president trying to still get this deal done with Iran making phone calls apparently to BB Netanyahu saying, hey, let's not go too heavy here. Let us see if we can keep this framework together, trying to keep that ceasefire together as well. There's an awful lot happening right now.

[Child]

Well, let's talk about the latest news. And as you noted, it is Sunday night, so things could break by Monday. By the time this podcast is out, we could have more news breaking. But as of right now, the latest news, Axios reported just a few minutes ago, quote, the Israeli air force conducted strikes on military targets in central and western Iran on Monday morning local time. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The strikes in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack against Israel mark a new phase in a growing escalation that started on Sunday morning. This is the first time Israel has struck Iran since the April 8 ceasefire. Further exchanges of fire could unravel the negotiations between the United States and Iran and lead to the resumption of the war. President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours before the strikes not to retaliate after Tehran conducted a retaliatory attack on Israel. A US Defense official said the US Military was not involved in the Israeli strikes on Iran. The official said the Israeli strikes were relatively limited in their scope so we have returned to firing missiles. Active hostility between Iran and Israel. Both have fired missiles at each other in the past 24 hours. That certainly has the potential to escalate. And also Sunday morning, President Trump was on Meet the Press. He was asked about Iran. Here's what President Trump had to say.

[Donald Trump]

Their leaders are gone.

[Meet the Press Host]

Do you know where all of Iran's nuclear material is?

[Donald Trump]

Yes. Yes.

[Meet the Press Host]

Would you unfreeze any Iranian assets or lift any sanctions up front as a part of any deal? So that would come after.

[Donald Trump]

Comes after. Yeah. If they turned over their job, we started talking. Yeah. Material unlike Obama. Obama Flew A Boeing 757, a plane I know very well. They took the seats out and they loaded it up with $1.7 billion in cash from the banks in Maryland and Virginia and D.C. they emptied out the banks and they gave them 1.7 in green and they gave them tens of billions of dollars. Just kept giving them money and it didn't work.

[Meet the Press Host]

Would any again?

[Donald Trump]

It never works.

[Meet the Press Host]

But again, Mr. President, you promised that you were going to negotiate a better deal.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Do you listen to the President there? And I do think it's really interesting to see how quick on Meet the Press they wanted to get back in his face, go. But this is a disaster. Like, he's like, it's three months. Like, what I'm doing right now is really tough. Others said they were in favor of what I'm doing. They didn't do it the way I'm doing it. I'm holding them accountable. This goes back to just perspective here, I think, is the biggest thing that the president saying.

[Child]

Well, what the president said that is very clear is he's drawn a red line and he's insisting that Iran comply with his red line. His red lines, which we've talked about at length, are, number one, no nukes, no nuclear materials. They have no nuclear enrichment. And they have to hand over the enriched uranium they have. Number two, they have to stop funding terrorism. Number three, they have to open the Strait of Hormuz. And you will not see, he has said, sanctions relief. You will not see money going to them until they comply with those conditions. That's the right way to negotiate. Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden just flooded billions into Iran, as the President said. Obama literally flew a plane filled with almost $2 billion in cash, pallets of cash, into Iran in the dead of night. There was another exchange President Trump had had with Meet the Press. Give a listen to this one.

[Donald Trump]

And they would have had a nuclear weapon five years ago.

[Meet the Press Host]

But Mr. President, I'm curious, because when you were campaigning, you said you would rip up the Iran nuclear deal, but negotiate a better deal. Why didn't you negotiate a better deal at the time? Because after it was ripped up, there were guardrails and they escalated their production of enriched uranium.

[Donald Trump]

It takes years to do these things. These people have been fighting for 47 years. They've been killing Americans. They've been taken off their legs and their arm and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly. I'm moving very fast. I'm into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I'm into my third month. And all I do is say, well, when are you going to win? If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way. But it doesn't matter to me. I've gotten so used to it. Look, we have totally destroyed their military. They have some missiles left. They have some drones left.

[Meet the Press Host]

You know how many missiles?

[Donald Trump]

Yes, exactly how many? I don't want to tell you. Can you give me a left? No, but they have. I know almost to the number. And we know where they are, too, and we know where their drones are, and we know where their drone factories are. Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, Most of the launching pads have been knocked out, and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21, 22% of their missiles. It's a lot of missiles, but it's not what it was when we first attacked.

[Meet the Press Host]

So you're saying they have 21, 22% of their missiles left?

[Donald Trump]

Correct. Yes.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I just. I got to say, I laugh at how they want him to tell them. Infringement. I'm not going to tell you that publicly. Well, why won't you? Because I'm not going to tell the enemy what I know. On everything, this seems pretty normal. Yet the entire interview had that level of hostility in it.

[Child]

Yeah, look, I mean, NBC, unfortunately, it is approaching this and it has approached this like, like the rest of the corporate media with. With effectively rooting for the United States to lose. As the President laid out, the United States has had extraordinary military results in this conflict. 80% of the missiles, 80% of the drones destroyed. Virtually all of the drone manufacturing and missile capacity destroyed. The Air Force in rubble, the Navy sunken at the bottom of the ocean, The Ayatollah dead, Many of the mullahs dead, many of the leaders of the IRGC dead. And her question, she says, well, why didn't you negotiate a better deal. You know, I'm listening to that, wondering, you know, it's like someone saying to the police, why didn't you negotiate a better deal with Charles Manson? Why didn't you negotiate a better deal with Jeffrey Dahmer? Why don't you negotiate a better deal with Ted Bundy? It is not possible to negotiate a deal with someone whose only objective is to murder you. And the media refuses to acknowledge that. They're like, you know, the right solution is send them billions of dollars. That's what Democrats want. It is complete appeasement. It is denial of the reality that when the Ayatollah says death to America, he means it. And the reason President Trump is waging this war is because if the Ayatollah got nuclear weapons, we could see hundreds of thousands of Americans murdered in a flash of an eye. And the President is not going to let that happen. And it is, I gotta say, by the way, I'm quite confident the folks at NBC News are cheering the results of the LA mayors race because the last thing they want is a mayor that can actually put out fires or arrest criminals.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

[America 250 Announcer]

This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party. Hosted by America 250, America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to giving 4th, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark [e-mail]

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

hi, it's Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar. Want the full story? Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes, and in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode, spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamar and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Goodbye.

[Child]

Mom, can I have Lingokids, Dad? Lingokids, please.

[Parent]

When did we become the Lingokids house?

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

No idea. Last week it was dinosaurs. This week it's Lingokids.

[Parent]

Why Lingokids?

[Child]

Because it's the best thing ever. We can play games with astronauts, wild animals and superheroes.

[America 250 Announcer]

With more than 4,000 interactive games, songs and shows, LingoKids is the number one

[Child]

entertainment platform for young kids.

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

So no dinosaurs and dinosaurs, rainbow cakes.

[Parent]

Everything kids love. Download it for free. Professional wrestling fans, the action continues every week. Watch TNA Thursday Night Impact every week on amc. It is like electricity blowing through your veins. Don't miss the adrenaline, the drama and the total non stop action.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

No one can ever be as good as this right here.

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[Senator Ted Cruz]

NMLS 696891 now on to story number two. All right, I want to move on to this other incredible story. Senator, coming out of Minnesota and in life, especially in government work, you're told that if you're a whistleblower, that you have protections and that if you're a whistleblower, you should not be afraid for your job or that someone's going to come after you. Certainly the government that you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case in Minnesota. And if you want to know how the Somali fraud got so bad, it might actually be because the governor was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.

[Child]

Well, that is inevitably, number one, the law, federal law, and typically state law that protects whistleblowers, that gives you legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud. But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers, attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law on whistleblowers. That is powerful indication of a guilty mind, that you're covering something up. It's sort of like if someone is murdered in Central park and you catch a person burning their clothes from that night and destroying the murder weapon. That is powerful, powerful evidence that they're the murderer. That it is typically the guilty who destroys evidence, who tries to cover it up. That if you're not guilty. You have far less motivation, far less likelihood to try to silence whistleblowers to try to destroy evidence. So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller. The headline is Tim Waltz's Staff Hired Private Investigators to Silence Fraud Whistleblowers Committee Report Fines Senior Minnesota state officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud, a House committee report released Monday found. The 200 page staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud. Soliciting private investigators to reveal employees personal details.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

Wow.

[Child]

Titled the Cost of Doing Nothing How Tim Waltz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota's Fraud Explosion exposed that senior state officials as high as allegedly Governor Waltz were aware of widespread fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told federal investigators she was pressured, quote, at every turn by her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote, hand slapped when she continued to investigate, according to the report. The official also reported that she was warned by state administrators to, quote, stop digging into things as it would appear that she was, quote, targeting certain groups. This is DEI and fraud all coming together, all along with corruption to elect Democrats, the article continues. Dozens of other whistleblowers reported, dozens that they were told to stay silent about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services because they would be labeled, quote, racist or Islamophobic. DHS also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm the state, the report said. Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary investigations to photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers, and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now it's going to get worse. Then temporary Commissioner Sherene Gandhi. By the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing that Ms. Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead, she confirmed in a testimony copied in the report that the State Department used outside entities to conduct these investigations of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS management would regularly meet and quote, check in on employees who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these check ins on DHS whistleblower Faye Bernstein, quote, a year or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi, quote, shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns about fraud and quote, excluded her from further meetings on the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former State Commissioner Jody Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that, quote, employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nola told colleagues that he, quote, did intelligence research within the army and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses to former colleagues in order to find the locations of whistleblowers email addresses. An email obtained through a public data request showed. Now it's about to get even worse. The report also alleged that DHS de anonymized an internal fraud hotline for employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked the email address. Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous, but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy commissioner of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi as commissioner of DHS in February 2026, but removed her in May before her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations. This is anyone who claims, gosh, the elected officials of Minnesota, they were victims. They didn't know they wanted to go after the fraud. Which, by the way, both Waltz and Ellison keep saying, oh, we wanted to go after the fraud, we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think, powerfully they are lying. Not only did they not want to go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about the fraud.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability. If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true, there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you do these things, are you breaking the law? And if it goes all the way, the governor, is he breaking the law? And the people below him, are they breaking the law? And is there any accountability for this or is this just. Well, Waltz isn't running for reelection, so it doesn't really matter anymore and we'll just move on and, yeah, we may continue to do things like this in the future without accountability.

[Child]

Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new division focused at going after fraud. And I hope everyone who made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations that they are prosecuted. I am hopeful. I can tell you. I'm urging the Department of Justice hold them accountable. The way our, our constitutional system works. It's not the legislature. Look, I'm, I'm in the Senate I can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but I can't. The power to bring an indictment, the power to go before a grand jury to get an indictment, to prosecute, that is exclusively within the executive branch, within, principally the U.S. department of justice at the federal level. And so I can tell you this. I am urging the Attorney General and DOJ prosecute every single person who committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited from it, who knew what they were doing. And this is a real smoking gun.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And if the ag. I go back to Ellison there, we know his name well, if he's involved in this and is using and weaponizing the government to go after those that were not committing the fraud, those that were trying to whistleblow on the fraud, and they are harassed, is there any lane for the people that were being harassed to somehow have, like, you know, restitution for what they went through? If you're being harassed for two years after you put in a tip, that's got to put a lot of stress on your life. I'm assuming it puts stress on your career. I'm assuming it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions that they deserved.

[Child]

Yeah, look, and I would assume we're going to see civil litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and seeking compensation for this. And that litigation could well be successful in terms of criminal prosecution. This would not surprise me. I don't know, sitting here, if Minnesota law makes doing this a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course the federal government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would take a Minnesota district attorney to bring that case. And I gotta admit, I'm very skeptical that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable. If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with federal law. And given that these are federal funds that were effectively being stolen and funneled to Somalia, funneled to Somalian fraudsters, being sent, among other places, to Al Shabaab. And we on this podcast that the single largest funder of Al Shabaab, which is the radical Islamic terrorist group that is in Somalia, their number one funder was the taxpayers of Minnesota, and those are also federal taxpayer money. So, look, I expect the Department of Justice, they've already prosecuted a number of the fraudsters at the lower level, but I hope they go right up the ladder of accountability and any politicians that are responsible and to be clear. This happened because it was in politicians political interest for this to happen because they were getting money from campaign donations and they were getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to rob the taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And look, this has happened also in other states. It's happened in Maine under the Democrat governor there. It's happened in California, it's happened in Illinois. It's happened I think all over the country, but much pretty predominantly in Democrat states where there are Democrat politicians who are benefiting from turning the other way to fraud. And I think everyone who committed a criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences as before.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the

[America 250 Announcer]

entire thing this July 4th come celebrate at America's Block Party hosted by America 250, America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to giving 4th, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark [e-mail]

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

hi, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar. Want the full story? Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes and in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamarr and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Goodbye. With my mom and dad living in Orange county, when we bring my five and seven year old to visit, we are sometimes in for a two hour drive that could feel like 10.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

Oh, as an avid camper, I know all about this.

[Child]

We'll pack up the RV and know

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

this is either going to be the trip of a lifetime or a complete disaster.

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

Which is why we load up the iPads with Lingokids before we even pull out of the driveway.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

It's what dreams are made of.

[America 250 Announcer]

Lingokids keeps kids engaged and quiet with

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

over 4000 interactive games, songs and shows that kids simply cannot get enough of.

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

You can pack whatever you think you'll need, but Lingokids is the only entertainment you'll need for a stress free car

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

ride or really any ride, plane, train, hovercraft, whatever.

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

Download Lingokids for free today or unlock

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

even more amazing content with LingoKids.

[Karen Kilgariff or Georgia Hardstark]

Plus choose the yearly plan and save up to 60%. Search LingoKids in the app Store or

[Parent]

Google Play Lingokids everything kids love professional wrestling fans. The action continues every week.

[Child]

You got it coming.

[Parent]

This is total nonstop TNA Thursday Night Impact every week on AMC. For showtimes and more information visit TNA

[Senator Ted Cruz]

wrestling.com why should you listen to Armstrong

[Child]

and Getty on demand?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

We're not boring.

[Child]

A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

He's Joe Getty.

[Child]

We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world.

[Donald Trump]

How about something about a comedic tone?

[Child]

We have a winner.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

Yes.

[Child]

Listen to Armstrong. You get it on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I want to get back to the big story number three of the week. You may have missed center. I want to move into another story that we highlighted here months ago. It's an important story about the children that were lost by the prior administration. There were kids that were led into this country. They were not vetted, but with the adults that were with them. They were then given out to different people to, quote, take care of them in this country and they disappeared. These children, many of them have been abused. Many of them have been abused sexually. Many of them have been abused even in work conditions. And they were lost by the prior administration. And now luckily many of them are being found because of what Donald Trump and the administration are doing.

[Child]

So perhaps the biggest lie about Joe Biden and the Democrats immigration policies is the lie that they embrace open borders because of compassion. The reality is it is precisely the opposite. The Democrats had zero compassion for the Americans who were murdered by the violent criminal illegal aliens they released. They had zero compassion for the women who were raped by the violent criminal illegal aliens they released. They had zero compassion for the kids who were brutalized and sexually assaulted by the violent criminal illegal aliens they released. Another aspect of this tragedy is specifically the kids. During four years of Joe Biden's administration, the Biden administration lost over 300,000 children.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Child]

Verdict has covered this at length. We've this is a topic we talked about throughout the Biden years, but it was staggering. And these are kids, often kids that come across the border unaccompanied. We had over 12 million illegal immigrants come into this country during the Biden years. And in many instance, you'd get a little boy, you get a little girl, they'd be in government custody. And what the Biden administration would do is they would hand it over to adults that came to pick them up, but they wouldn't check to see if those adults were family members. They wouldn't do DNA tests to see if they're related. They'd hand them over to adults and then they simply lost them. Uh, and they would end up with, with random adults that have kids. And the Biden administration said, we don't know where they are. We, we, we have no contact for them. And, and a significant number, we don't know how many, but a significant number of those kids were put into forced child labor. A significant number of those kids were put into sex slavery, were, were sexually abused. And no one in the Biden administration gave a. When, when Alejandro Mayorkas, who ran the Department of Homeland Security, would testify before the Senate, I would question him about it. And he was defiant. Well, thankfully, one of the very top priorities the Trump administration came in with is we're going to find those kids. And they've already found over 146,000 of them. They're still looking. I want you to listen to current DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen at a press conference this week. Give a listen.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

We're going to enforce our nation's laws and we're going to right the wrongs that the Biden administration turned a blind eye to. It's because of President Trump's leadership. It's horrific to what's happening right in our own country because of four years of a blind eye that allowed unvetted sponsors to come pick up 450,000 thousand kids on our borders. Knowing their reports, why the Biden administration was in office. Their own reports was reporting that over a third of the females, regardless of age, was sexually assaulted before they made it to their border. They knew it was human traffickers that were trafficking these young kids to the border. And then they were unvetting or refusing to vet the so called sponsors and there was zero wellness checks. And they want to claim that Republicans. Because we're enforcing the laws, it's inhumane somehow. What's inhumane about taking care of our kids? As a father of six with three young kid girls, I'll do whatever I have to do. I'll re, I will move heaven and hell to go find these kids.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

You know, I love the commitment there. And I want to remind people of the vote center that have taken place. The Democrats, you had 145 Democrats that vote against mandating deportation for illegal aliens who commit sex crimes. You have 160 Democrats vote against mandating deportation for illegal aliens with DUIs. You have 186 Democrats who voted against mandating deportations for illegal aliens who commit welfare fraud. And you have 190 Democrats who voted against mandating deportation for illegal aliens who harm police animals. I, I think it's clear Democrats have literally never met illegal alien. They're not willing to feed, protect, defend and allow to then take children and unvet them. There's nothing they won't do to have an open border policy.

[Child]

Yeah, look, that, that's right. And those votes were all in this past year. If you go back to during the Biden administration In the Senate, 100%, every single Senate Democrat voted in favor of open borders over and over and over again. We would tee up the votes. I led the fight on many of these. And the Democrats straight party line would vote in favor of open borders. It was. And when you asked them about the kids, they didn't have a response. They don't dispute these figures that. They just don't talk about them. And it's, look, I want you to listen to Secretary Mullen talking about the kids they found so far and what they continue looking for.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

You know, I tell people that I haven't quit smiling since I've been Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. But I have to take that back, because when we start digging into these cases and you start hearing the absolute horrific things that took place underneath the Biden administration under true neglect at best and criminal at worst, to allow 450,000 kids to go missing throughout this country. President Trump has made it a point to go find these kids because of our partnership with hs, HHS and doj, Department of Homeland Security, truly using the best, the best, which the Democrats sometimes want to demonize because a lot of times, this is ice, this is hsi, this is cbp. These individuals that the Democrats seem to want to defund. But because of President Trump, we finally funded them for three years, were able to push and go find these kids. We found 146,000 kids so far. 146,000 kids. We still have nearly 300,000 missing. We're, we're investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped six to seven hundred times. I don't care who you are, five kids. If you don't have kids. I don't care if you're liberal, you're independent, you're a Democrat, you're Republican. If you can't stand for law enforcement to go find these kids. Who are you? Who are you? Every leader should understand what's going on. And do you know, we're finding the most of them sanctuary cities because they know they're safe.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

If you think about sex trafficking, a child center, you would go to a sanctuary city that is the safest place for you to operate. You and I have talked about this

[Child]

bluntly well, and it's worth explaining why. Because in a sanctuary city, you have Democrat elected officials, you have Democrat district attorneys who won't prosecute the human traffickers, who won't prosecute the sex traffickers, who have decided as a political matter that their party, the Democrat Party, is for open borders. You know, you remember Chris Murphy when he, he said on tv, the, the very liberal Democrat from Connecticut, he said, the people we care about most, illegal immigrants. That. That was his phrase, the people we care about most. And by the way, that's a lie. Also, he doesn't care about the little girls and little boys being raped and turned into sex slaves. He doesn't care about them at all. What he cares about is letting in as many illegal immigrants as possible who will then vote Democrat and keep the party in power. I want you to listen to Secretary Mullen making this point that as there were multiple reports of kids being trapped in sex slavery, no Democrat gave a damn.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

It was being reported at the time it was happening, and there was no outrage. And no one tried to hold these people accountable. And kids now have been paying for it. They've been getting raped over and over and over again because this previous administration chose not to enforce our nation's laws and protect the most vulnerable. That is shameful.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Six to 700 times. That is a number that I do believe should haunt everyone listening.

[Child]

Yeah, look, I want you to remember when Alejandro Mayorkas testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. And I showed him the plastic bracelets, the colored bracelets that traffickers would put on every illegal they brought into this country. And they were color coded for how many thousands of dollars they owed them. And it was literally, they were treating human beings like cattle. And when you stand on the border down by the Rio Grande river, you see hundreds of these in the grass. And I asked him what the colored wristbands were. And his answer was, I have no idea. I've never seen them before. Which, which I gotta admit, made me really angry because it means he hadn't bothered to go to the, to the border at all. He, he did not care about the children being trafficked. And I view those colored wristbands as modern day leg irons. This is slavery today in America, and the Democrats were responsible for it. And one of the most important things the Trump administration is doing is stopping this horrific abuse of kids that the Democrats allowed to have happen.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast. And you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.