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Senator Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, we've got a packed show today.
Ben Ferguson
Well, there's a lot happening right now. We've all seen the blockbuster verdict that came out against Donald Trump over $355 million. We're going to talk about what that means and what's next. We've also seen the news that Joe Biden and his team believe they did nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with Afghanistan, that that disgraceful withdrawal and surrender was a model of success. We'll talk about that. And then the breaking news that Alexei Navalny, the dissident in Russia, has died in jail. And we're going to talk about what caused that, what Joe Biden could have done to prevent it. And all three of these stories we're going to explain have a common theme, a thread intertwined between them all.
Senator Ted Cruz
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Ben Ferguson
Well, that's exactly right. And we've talked a lot in this podcast about the lawfare that is directed at Donald Trump, about the effort to use the courts, to use the justice system to try to destroy Donald Trump. And understand the objective here is fundamentally attack on democracy. The objective here is to stop the American people from electing Donald Trump once again as President of the United States. We've seen in the last nine months three different verdicts against Trump, all in New York, one for seven figures, one for eight figures, and now one for nine figures. We saw initially a $5 million verdict last year. Then we saw an $83.3 million verdict against Trump last year. And then just this past week, we saw a $354 million verdict. Now, of all of them, this latest one is the most disgraceful. Why is that? Because there was no victim in this entire case. There is literally not a person injured. Nobody injured. Not only was nobody injured, the alleged victims made money, were happy about it, and wanted to do it again. So understand what this claim is. So Donald Trump is a real estate developer. He's developed a lot of real estate. When he develops real estate, he takes a lot of loans. Like every other real estate developer on planet Earth, he takes loans from banks. Now, Letitia James, who is a left wing partisan Democrat, she ran for office promising to get Donald Trump. That was her campaign promise. You elect me and I'm going after Donald Trump, I'm going to get him. So this was not a fair and objective application of the law. This was a political vendetta from day one.
Senator Ted Cruz
Let me ask you this. How is that not against the law to run for office? Saying that when you become what is supposed to be a steward of law and order, that you're actually running to lock up someone you disagree with politically? How is that legal in America today?
Ben Ferguson
Well, I think that's gonna be a very serious claim on appeal. And I think there is a significant chance this gets overturned on appeal, but that's gonna take a long time. The prosecutor on her, on her face is not fair, is not impartial, but is engaged in a partisan political vendetta. She said that before she knew the facts of anything. She had her target, her target was Donald Trump. And because partisan Democrats in New York hate Donald Trump, that that was a good election year message that got her elected. But, but understand, so this theory is actually not seeking to put him in jail. It's simply trying to take his money and, and, and trying to shut down his business and destroy his business. And, and the argument is that when he was getting loans from giant global banks that he overstated the value of his real estate. And look, I don't know if he did or not. If he did, he's probably like every other real estate developer on planet earth. And in my experience, real estate developers pretty much all think their development is worth a ton of money. And reasonable minds can differ. That's part of the real estate business. Now, to whom did he allegedly overstate the value of his properties? Well, it is to these global banks who, mind you, didn't take his word for it. It's not like they said, oh, okay, he says it's worth this, let's just give him the money. No, they have appraisers, they're sophisticated. They go in and say, yeah, yeah, be quiet. We're going to look at the property, we're going to figure out what we think it's worth and we're going to value it. That's exactly what they did. The testimony at trial was that the loans he took out, he paid every penny of it with interest. The banks made money. They were very happy about it. They made their own independent assessment of the values of the property. And in fact, internally, they considered him a, quote, whale. That was their term. And they wanted to do more loans because they were very profitable loans for these banks. And yet leticious James's theory as well, we think the values were overstated. And so therefore we're going to make him pay $354 million. Now, we also know the trial was conducted in front of a partisan Democrat trial judge who was smirking and condescending and self righteous and clearly loathes Donald Trump and loved every minute of being in the limelight that he and Letitia James are getting to go after and hammer Donald Trump. And what we saw was a travesty. It was an abuse of justice. It was using the legal system to attack your political enemies. It was not a fair and neutral application of the law.
Senator Ted Cruz
Let's talk also about, there's a big X factor here. And there's so many that have asked me this question on my show, which is where does this 300 plus million go if there's no one that says that they were defrauded by Donald J. Trump or his sons or his businesses. There was no one to. There's no one to make whole here. There's no one claiming that they are deserving of those dollars. So how do they say that Donald Trump defrauded somebody when no one claims they're being defrauded? And the people that in theory would have been defrauded were actually in court defending Donald Trump, saying, we were not defrauded.
Ben Ferguson
Well, it goes to the state of New York. And so Letitia James is just trying to take the money for the state of New York and understand that even if this is overturned on appeal, the impact on Trump is very significant. Why is that? Because in order to appeal it, you have one of two options. Either you have to put the money up, so you're looking at, with interest, over $400 million that he's got to write a check into escrow for, or he's got to put up a bond. Now, a bond, you go to a bonding company and typically you put up 20% of the amount of the bond, and then you put up collateral to back up the bond. And either way, it is a very expensive proposition. Now, Trump testified that his cash on hand right now is about $400 million. So assuming that testimony is accurate, and he had, here was the quote, he said, quote, we have, I believe, 400 plus and going up very substantially every month. My biggest expense is probably legal fees, unfortunately. So if you assume he has roughly $400 million, this verdict would take all of his liquid cash. And that is a big blow for anyone, even for someone with the resources Trump has. And that's what it's intended to do. And not only that, this judge went after and penalized find Donald Trump Jr. Find Eric Trump, and barred all three of them from doing business in New York, from serving on the board of their own company for three years. This is a punitive result born out of spite. And it is yet another example of the weaponization of our legal system and the willingness of partisan Democrats. We talk a lot on this podcast about what the radical left accuses their opponents of doing is in fact what they. They are doing themselves. In this instance, their favorite line is, we must defend democracy. This is an assault on democracy. It is intended to be an assault on democracy. They are going after him for the same reason that Colorado and Maine are trying to pull him off the ballot, because they're terrified that the American people in November are going to pull the lever for Donald J. Trump and reelect him as president.
Senator Ted Cruz
How significant, Senator, will it be on appeal that New York's Democratic governor came out over the weekend and assured, quote, real estate developers that they won't be targeted for real estate valuations like Trump? That the governor's told New York businesses not to fear about Trump verdict, nothing to worry about, meaning we're just doing it to him. But don't worry, we won't do it to you.
Ben Ferguson
So, number one, I'm not sure businesses are gonna trust that. Because what the governor's really saying is, so long as you stay on our good side, so long as you contribute to Democrats, so long as you don't piss us off, we won't go after you and try to bankrupt you too. But let's be clear. If this verdict is upheld, every real estate developer in New York, New York City, the Attorney general can go after and hit with a similar verdict. I mean, this is a power. The only thing that keeps them, keeps them from this happening to them is, is the leniency, is the kindness of the Attorney General. That's not very comforting to anyone. But I gotta say, beyond that, you know, the governor, you know, I really do think the governor needs to send a letter to the Federal Election Commission acknowledging an in kind contribution to the Donald J. Trump campaign and in particular her statements. I guarantee you are gonna feature prominently in Trump's appeal. Because on the face of it, what she's saying is, no, no, no, don't worry. This is a selective prosecution. We only do this to people we hate. This is not applying the law fairly. This is because he's Donald Trump. As long as you're not Donald Trump, you'll be safe. Well, that, that, that might be good politics in New York, bare knuckle politics, but that is not due process of law or the equal protection of laws. Instead, that is deliberately abusing power and then the governor brazenly admitting it.
Senator Ted Cruz
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Ben Ferguson
Well, look, it is consistent with a pattern with the lawfare, with the abuse of power we see against Trump. What is happening is Democrats are putting their own partisan interest above the rule of law. They are putting politics above doing what's right. The same thing is happening with Afghanistan. We've talked a long time about how when it comes to foreign policy, this White House views everything as a domestic political issue. They view everything through a partisan political lens. So why was Afghanistan such a train wreck? Well, a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is Joe Biden decided he wanted to have a press release of a complete and total withdrawal by the anniversary of September 11th. So he set an arbitrary deadline. We must be out by September 11th. And once he set that political deadline, that was not driven by military realities on the ground, it was driven by a political objective to make the left in the Democrat Party happy. He then disregarded military advice, and in particular, military advice that told him that, that, that it would require a significant number of troops to secure and keep secure Bagram Airfield, and Bagram Airfield was necessary to have safe evacuations of Americans. Now, the problem is Biden apparently really didn't care. He had a political objective, and national security was not going to get in the way of that political objective. And so he dictated that the troop drawdown Must be significant. And the military was faced with a choice, the number of troops they were allowed to keep. They could either keep Bagram or they could have troops to go at, at Kabul International Airport. And they chose the airport in Kabul. They gave up Bagram. Now, Bagram was a multibillion dollar secure military airfield the United States had built. If we had done the evacuation from Bagram, we would not have seen 13 servicemen and women killed because Bagram was built to be secure, where terrorists could not murder our American servicemen and women. But because the Biden White House puts politics above national security, they didn't care. Now, what happened here, what happened here is that Biden believed they'd done nothing wrong. And in fact, Politico reported after Afghanistan, quote, no one offered to resign in large part because the president didn't believe anyone had made a mistake. Ending the war was always going to be messy. And in fact, they continue and say Biden told his top aides that he stood by them and that they had done their best during a tough situation. Quote, there wasn't even a real possibility of a shakeup. A White House official told the reporter, now understand that this was universally acknowledged by everyone as a complete massive screw up. We saw planes taking off Afghan in Afghanistan with people clinging to the wheels, running in desperation. We saw terrorists murdering not just 13 servicemen and women, but murdering Afghans who had helped America. Torturing Afghans who had helped America. Every fair and neutral observer watching this recognized it was an absolute debacle. And yet Biden's view was nothing to see here. Hey, this was all great.
Senator Ted Cruz
I get frustrated because people's lives were changed because these decisions. Their family trees were changed. There are people that never got to see their kids, their boyfriends, their wives or husbands ever again because of what happened. And there used to be, we've talked about this before on the show, that if you were an American, there was almost like an invisible bubble around you when you're around the world because you don't mess with Americans, because if you did, there was going to be major consequences. We are seeing that, Senator, that that imaginary bubble has basically disappeared. The terrorists aren't afraid of messing with us. They're not afraid of going after American troops in the Middle East. We've seen these 150/160, 170 attacks, whatever the newest number is since the attacks on Israel against Americans. And we have a president now that they know you can mess with us and we will not respond. How do you gauge the national security threat of just that? Mindset change. And how do you hold this administration know responsible for that?
Ben Ferguson
Well, this story gives more details and in particular it says that the Pentagon pushed hard to keep troops in Afghanistan and Biden gave a withdrawal order in April of 2021. And the sides fought about what to do on. On May 8, 2021, they were doing a rehearsal for the evacuation offer operation with Jake Sullivan, who's Biden's national security advisor, with Lloyd Austin, who's the Defense Secretary and with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, General Mark Milley. And the Defense Department argued that it would be too dangerous to have the embassy to continue to try to do business as usual. And Brian McKeon, who was the Deputy Secretary of State, jumped in. He said the diplomats would be just fine. And his quote was quote, we at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys. And the writer at Politico writes that quote, Milley, that would be General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, quote, Millie nearly jumped out of his chair but restrained himself from shouting how he and many serving in the armed forces had lost friends in war. Austin, the Defense Secretary showed no signs of anger but later told colleagues that he was offended by McKeon's remark. That was the attitude of, of this administration. And in fact it wasn't just just the attitude. There is simultaneously a story that is in the Spectator that says, and this is by Matthew Foldy, quote, at the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden administrator administration officials said behind closed doors that the Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, quote, don't give a F. And F was not abbreviated. It was spelled out fully about rescuing Americans from the clutches of the Taliban. The admission came on a late August 2021 phone call held between the Department of Defense and congressional Democrats. Based on the spectators review of contemporaneous text messages during the conversation, a Pentagon official acknowledged in response to frustration from Democrats that two of the most, two of the senior most officials working on the evacuation, Blinken and Sullivan, were indifferent to the plight of their fellow Americans. Think about that for a second. That is reporting that the Biden White House didn't give I'm going to sanitize it and say a damn about rescuing Americans from the Taliban. That is this partisan political White House.
Senator Ted Cruz
You know, this also goes to the next topic we were going to talk about and that deals obviously with Russia and Vladimir Putin killing his in essence top political adversary this past week. But before I get that, I want to go back to, does this also explain when we were getting out a WNBA player because it was high profile file, we left another American behind there in Russia. Why would you be afraid of Joe Biden if this is your mentality in Afghanistan with Americans, does an American life in a jail, in prison really matter?
Ben Ferguson
Well, unfortunately for Biden, it's all politics. And so the Biden administration focused on a WNBA player because that was high profile and that was consistent with their political objectives, but were more than happy to leave other Americans, including servicemen and women, behind because that was not their priority. There's a consistent theme about it. It's an elevation of partisan politics. And look at the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal. I said then that the weakness and the incompetence displayed by the Biden White House has made the world much, much more dangerous. That every enemy of America is looking to the Oval Office and is taking the measure of the commander in chief. And I believe that all of them concluded that the, that the commander in chief was weak and feckless and ineffective. In other words, they concluded what the Biden Department of Justice just argued in writing, that he was a feeble old man with a limited memory. And what I said at the time of the Afghanistan debacle is the chances of Russia invading Ukraine just increased tenfold and the chances of China invading Taiwan just increased tenfold. Bad guys do not fear weakness. Weakness encourages them to be worse. And that's what Biden has done to every enemy of America.
Senator Ted Cruz
Let's talk about what's happening also with this adversary to Vladimir Putin and give a little context here so people understand. The Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei for now, years. You go back to Joe Biden and he even went on the record in Geneva, Switzerland back on June 16th of 2021, saying that there would be major consequences if he died in captivity by the, by the Russians, by Putin. I want to play this from June 16, 2021. Mr. President, just a quick follow on the same theme of consequences. You said just now that you spoke to him a lot about human rights. What did you say would happen if opposition later, Alexei Navalny dies?
Joe Biden
I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia. I'll go back to the same point. What do you think happens when he's saying it's not about hurting Navalny. This all the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny and then he dies in prison? I pointed out to him that it matters a great deal.
Senator Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, that was 20, 21. What changed?
Ben Ferguson
Well, actually, nothing changed. And I'm going to explain in a minute that he didn't believe what he was saying then. But before I explain that, let's play what Biden is saying now, because even he is admitting today that what he said then was full of crap. Listen to what he's saying right now.
Joe Biden
Now's the time for even greater unity among our NATO allies to stand up to the threat that Putin's Russia poses. You know, I send my deepest condolences. Alexei's staff and supporters who are going to continue his work despite this loss, despite all of Putin's desperate attempts to stamp out the opposition, and most of all, to his family, especially to his wife, his daughter, and his son, who already sacrificed so much for their family and a shared dream for a better future for Russia.
Senator Ted Cruz
Now, that was him making his first statement at the White House. But then the media asked him that question. Hey, what happened to what you said three years ago? First, was this an assassination?
Joe Biden
The answer is, we don't know exactly. But there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.
Senator Ted Cruz
And to be clear, you warned Vladimir Putin when you were in Geneva of devastating consequences. If Navalny died in Russian custody, what consequences should he and Russia face?
Joe Biden
That was three years ago. In the meantime, they faced a hell of a lot of consequences. They've lost and or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers.
Senator Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, he doesn't answer the questions. He says that was three years ago. And now because the war with Ukraine. Well, they've had some, somehow, some consequences that have nothing to do with killing this individual.
Ben Ferguson
Well, he did answer the question, actually, and his answer is nothing. That he's so weak that he's so ineffective that he's not going to do anything. And Putin knows that. Everybody else knows that. Navalny knew that. So last week, when, when. When the news of Navalny's death broke, here's the statement that I put out. Quote, the Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei Navalny for years to stop his criticism of Vladimir Putin's corruption and ontocracy and to intimidate the Russian people from similar criminal criticism. Tragically, they appear to have finally succeeded in murdering him. We must ensure that they will never succeed in silencing him. The regime interprets weakness from the United States as appeasement and has only escalated its oppression in recent years. The Russian people are entitled to express their views peacefully, without fear of retribution. And I will work with my colleagues to hold accountable those in the Russian regime responsible for this atrocity. So that's what I put out. But I want to go back because I said that that Biden didn't mean the tough consequences when he said that. How do I know that? Because if you go back to 2021, you go back to the beginning of the Biden administration, where Vladimir Putin poisoned Alexei Naval. He actually poisoned him in August of 2020. And he was poisoned with a Novichok class nerve agent, which is the same class that was used by Russia in the 2018 assassination attempt against a former British intelligence agency. It's a strategy of murder that the Russians are fond of poisoning. And at the time, Biden announced really mild sanctions on Russia, said, okay, we're going to slap your hand. And what I called for at the time was sanctioning and shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Now, remember, Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a pipeline that Putin was building that went straight from Russia to Germany. It circumvented Ukraine. The entire point of The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was to enable Russia to get its natural gas to Europe without needing to go through the pipelines in Ukraine. Why did Putin want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? So he could invade Ukraine? I authored the sanctions that shut Nord Stream 2 down. I passed them into law in December of 2019. Got overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate. Got overwhelming bipartisan support in the House. Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law. And listen to this. Putin stopped building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Literally the day, the very same day that Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation, the pipeline was done. That was December of 2019. December of 2020, I passed another set of sanctions legislation on Nord Stream 2, again with overwhelming bipartisan support. Again, Donald Trump signed it into law. The pipeline remained dead. Now, Fast forward to January 2021. On January 20, Joe Biden takes the oath of office. He becomes president four days later. 4. January 24, 2021, Putin resumes deep sea construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, literally four days into the Biden presidency. Why? Because Biden was already showing weakness. Putin understood Biden was weak. And by the way, that foreshadowing of weakness was true. It was accurate. Why do we know that? Because several months later, Biden formally waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. He gave Vladimir Putin a multibillion dollar gift. He let him complete that pipeline and that pipeline. Waiving those sanctions is why Putin invaded Ukraine. It is Biden's fault. But when Navalny, when Putin went after Navalny, I called on Biden. I said all right, you gave Biden this gift of Nordstream 2. How about now when Navalny's in jail? How about now impose the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. How about now grow a backbone and stand up to, to, to Putin. And Biden refused to do so. Instead put little slap of the wrist sanctions on it. And so when he said severe consequences, he didn't mean it in 2021. And, and, and he's admitted it now. The consequences he has in mind are nothing. And you know what? Putin will continue to behave worse, will continue to be more oppressive, will continue to, to, to be more of a threat. China Xi will continue to behave worse, to be more oppressive, to be more of a threat. North Korea will, Venezuela will, Iran will every enemy of America, Hamas will Hezbollah will all of them. When we have a weak commander in chief, America is at greater peril and every one of our allies is at greater peril.
Senator Ted Cruz
I want to ask you one question about sanctions real quick. Before I do that. Let me remind you right now, if you want to get the best cup of coffee your life, take advantage of blackout coffee and the 20% off your first order right now by going to blackout coffee.com verdict. It is a premium cup of coffee that you're going to love to drink each and every day without the woke agenda of many of the left coffee companies. You know the ones I'm talking about. And if you are not willing to settle for an average cup of coffee. I start my day early every day. I'm on the radio at 8, 7 o'clock in the morning. I have got to make sure I have a really good cup of coffee in front of me. And that is why I love blackout coffee and I want you to try it. The coffee is 100% America, 0% woke. Blackout coffee committed to conservative values from the sourcing of the beans, the roasting process, customer support and shipping. They embody true American values and accept no compromise on taste or quality. Go to blackout coffee.com verdict. Use the promo code verdict. You'll get 20% off your first order. You're going to love it, I promise you. Check them out. Blackout coffee.com verdict. Be awake, not woke with your dollars and your cup of coffee. That's blackout coffee.com verdict. 20% off your first order promo code verdict. Senator, final question for you on sanctions. What is the point of having sanctions and you mentioned multiple countries there that we have sanctions on that we're not doing anything, we're not enforcing the sanctions. And if the President and his Administration will not enforce the sanctions. Is there any checks and balances that can come into play on the House, the Senate, Congressional oversight? Because if you've got the sanctions and they're worthless because you don't enforce them, who does that fall on and can it change?
Ben Ferguson
Well, it certainly can change, and Congress can force the President to do it. And the best example of that. Let's go back to Nord Stream 2 and I'll finish the story. When Biden waived the sanctions, my response is I put a hold on every single nominee at the State Department. I blocked them in the Senate, and it caused the Biden administration to go nuts. It caused Senate Democrats to go nuts. And I said, listen, Joe Biden is, is handing a massive gift to Vladimir Putin. He is causing war in Europe. He is causing Russia to prepare to invade Ukraine. This makes no sense. And it is endangering Europe, our allies, and it's endangering America. For all of 2021. I had those holds in place in December of 2021. I cut a deal with Chuck Schumer. I let, I think it was 34 of those holds go in exchange for scheduling a vote on new sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in January of 2022. Schumer agreed. So I forced the vote on the Senate floor. Now, when the vote came up In January of 2022, the week before the vote, President Zelensky in Ukraine publicly begged the United States Senate, please, please, please pass Cruz's sanctions legislation. This legislation is the last best hope to stop Russia from invading Ukraine to avoid war. That same week, the government of Poland put out a formal statement pleading with the United States Senate to pass my sanctions legislation. Poland said, if you do not do so, Russia will invade Ukraine. Now, Ben, that is highly unusual. Foreign countries generally do not put out statements on particular votes in the Senate asking the Senate to do something. In this case, both Ukraine and Poland put out those statements. The day of the vote, Joe Biden came 16 blocks from the White House down to Capitol Hill and he went to the Democratic Senate lunch and he personally lobbied the Democrat senators. This was the first time he had done so since he became president. And he came there to lobby them. His request was, please, please, please vote against Cruz's sanctions legislation. Please vote for Russia and Putin. So twice when I had introduced my legislation and passed it to law, all the Democrats had come together and supported it. So they were on record twice supporting my, my sanctions. In January 2022, because of Biden's personal lobbying, 44 Democrat senators flipped their votes. They voted against sanctions. They voted in favor of Russia. They voted in favor of Putin. And as a result, a month later, Russia invaded Ukraine. And we have still today the biggest war in Europe since World War II. Look, I'm someone who hates war. Yeah, I am very reluctant to go to war. But I agree with Ronald Reagan, I agree with Winston Churchill, I agree with Donald Trump in the philosophy of peace through strength that the best way you avoid war is being strong enough, your enemies don't want to mess with you. And sanctions can be a very powerful tool for avoiding war. What the Biden White House is all about when it comes to our enemies is weakness and appeasement and waiving. These sanctions directly caused the war. Once the pipeline was complete, Putin's view was he could invade because he could still get his gas to Europe even if the pipelines in Ukraine were destroyed.
Senator Ted Cruz
No doubt. Don't forget this week, it's going to be a big week with breaking news. We're going to keep you updated on all of it. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we do the show. And don't forget, you can listen to my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson Podcast and those in between days. I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news. So make sure you subscribe to that the Ben Ferguson podcast as well. And we will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
In the February 19, 2024 episode of The 47 Morning Update, host Ben Ferguson, alongside Senator Ted Cruz, delves into three major political developments impacting the United States and the international community. The episode addresses the substantial legal verdict against former President Donald Trump, critiques President Joe Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and examines the tragic death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Throughout the discussion, Ferguson and Cruz emphasize themes of political vendettas, weakened national security, and the erosion of democratic principles.
Ben Ferguson opens the episode by discussing a significant legal verdict against Donald Trump, which demands a payment of $355 million. This verdict is part of a series of financial judgments accumulated over the past nine months, all emanating from civil cases in New York. Ferguson characterizes these legal actions as part of a broader "lawfare" strategy aimed at undermining Trump's political ambitions and eroding democratic processes.
Ferguson elaborates on the nature of the verdict, explaining that Trump faces nearly half a billion dollars across three combined civil cases. This figure does not account for interest payments, ongoing appeals, or the financial strains associated with securing bonds — all of which significantly impact Trump's financial standing.
Senator Ted Cruz questions the legality of targeting a political opponent through legal mechanisms. Ferguson responds by asserting that the legal actions against Trump are driven by political vendettas rather than genuine legal grievances. He points out that the Attorney General's office, under Letitia James, has selectively prosecuted Trump without any direct victims, implying that the legal system is being weaponized to serve partisan interests.
Ferguson discusses the potential consequences of the verdict on Trump's financial resources, emphasizing that appealing the decision would require significant monetary commitments, thereby crippling his ability to finance future campaigns or business ventures. Additionally, the verdict imposes restrictions on Trump's ability to conduct business in New York, further isolating him politically and economically.
The episode highlights Governor Kathy Hochul's recent assurance to New York businesses that real estate developers would not be targeted similarly to Trump. Ferguson criticizes this stance as insincere, arguing it masks a willingness to pursue selective prosecutions based on political favoritism.
Ferguson challenges President Biden's assertion that the Afghanistan withdrawal was executed successfully. He attributes the chaotic evacuation and subsequent security lapses to Biden's political motivations overtaking national security considerations. According to Ferguson, Biden set arbitrary political deadlines that disregarded military advice, leading to disastrous outcomes.
The discussion emphasizes that military officials recommended maintaining a significant troop presence at strategic locations like Bagram Airfield to ensure safe evacuations. However, Biden prioritized political timelines over practical military assessments, resulting in the withdrawal from Kabul International Airport instead.
Ferguson argues that the weak and politically driven withdrawal has emboldened America's adversaries, reducing the perceived threat of retaliation against U.S. actions abroad. This shift, he contends, undermines global stability and America's standing as a formidable military power.
The episode highlights reports indicating that high-profile American holders, such as a WNBA player, were prioritized in evacuations, while others, including servicemen and women, were left behind. Ferguson criticizes the Biden administration's selective rescue operations as indicative of a broader disregard for American lives not aligned with political interests.
Alexei Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in August 2020, an attempt widely attributed to the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin. Despite Biden's earlier threats of severe consequences for such actions, Navalny's recent death in Russian custody raises questions about the efficacy of U.S. policies.
Ferguson critiques Biden's conflicting messages regarding Navalny. Initially, Biden warned of devastating consequences if Navalny were harmed, but later statements suggest a lack of substantial action to enforce these warnings. Ferguson accuses Biden of not following through on his commitments, thereby undermining the United States' stance on human rights abuses.
The conversation shifts to Biden's inconsistent approach to sanctions, particularly concerning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Ferguson attributes the resumption of the pipeline's construction to Biden's waiving of sanctions, which he argues directly facilitated Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine.
Ferguson discusses the role of Congress in enforcing sanctions and holding the executive branch accountable. He recounts his efforts to pass stricter sanctions on Nord Stream 2, highlighting the Biden administration's opposition and eventual failure to heed congressional mandates, which he believes emboldened Russian aggression.
The episode underscores the broader implications of Biden's policies on international relations. Ferguson asserts that the perceived weakness of the U.S. under Biden has led to increased threats from major powers like Russia, China, and North Korea, thereby compromising global security and American interests.
Throughout the episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz articulate a strong critique of the current administration's handling of legal challenges, foreign policy, and national security. They argue that political motivations are undermining democratic institutions and weakening America's global standing. The discussion calls for a reassessment of enforcement mechanisms, greater congressional oversight, and a reinstitution of policies grounded in strength and strategic foresight to counteract adversarial threats effectively.
Note: Timestamps in this summary correspond to the original podcast transcript to provide context for the quoted statements.