← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Angry Children at Stanford Law School Shout Down a Federal Judge, Biden's Out-of-Control Budget & DOD Caught Leaking Classified Docs to Spin Chinese Spy Balloon
00:38:29
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- [00:00]
Talkspace Sponsor
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You, you'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist. Today at talkspace.com save $80 with code space80@talk.
- [01:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Nice to have you with us today. And Senator, we've got a lot to talk about, including leaks coming from the Democrats, classified leaks to try to give them cover on China and the balloons. We'll talk about that. We also have to talk about an insane federal budget and a bunch of wokeness in it. But before we get to that, this is going to be something right up your wheelhouse. Stanford Law decided it would be a good idea to bring in a judge, a federal judge to lecture, to talk, to educate, to inform students. It didn't go very well for the 5th Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan who was basically shouted down. Obviously this was, this was pre organized and pre planned to make it where the man virtually couldn't speak. Is this part of the problem we have now in America that no one that has a different perspective with these woke lefties can get anything, even a normal debate anymore?
- [02:02]
Senator Ted Cruz
It absolutely is. What happened this week at Stanford Law School was remarkable. A federal judge, a federal court of appeals Judge in the 5th Circuit, Judge Kyle Duncan was invited by the Federalist Society chapter at Stanford to come speak. Now Kyle Duncan is a judge who was appointed by Donald Trump, who was confirmed by the Senate. He's been sitting for several years now in the 5th Circuit. It's not uncommon for judges to go speak at law schools. That happens all the time. What happened this week at Stanford is extraordinarily uncommon. In fact, I don't know of it ever happening to another judge in history, which is when Judge Duncan came and had prepared remarks. A group of Stanford Law students began screaming, began heckling, began shouting him down, began cursing, began literally every word or two that he said, screaming and stopping the other Stanford Law students from hearing what Judge Duncan had to say. And unfortunately, it got worse. You had law students who were shouting down a federal judge. And then an administrator showed up, an administrator named Tiran Steinbach, who is the school's diversity dean. So she is in charge of dei and she shows up. And Stanford Law School claims to have a free speech policy. They claim to have a policy that you can't silence a speaker just because you disagree with him. So with the arrival of the dean, you would think that the dean would enforce the school's policies. Well, that's not what happened.
- [03:36]
Ben Ferguson
Not even close. In fact, even the judge had this to say after the heckling would not stop. And she comes in the room and then she decides she wants to basically give a speech. And even before he could get back to what he was there to do, he made the obvious point, which was this.
- [03:59]
Tiran Steinbach
Can I say something? Is that okay? Is that okay?
- [04:03]
Ben Ferguson
So you've invited me to speak here.
- [04:05]
Senator Ted Cruz
And I'm being cackled non stop, and I'm just asking for an administrator to sign.
- [04:13]
Ben Ferguson
Now you can hear it there. He's like, let me get this straight. You asked me to come here to speak. I'm being heckled nonstop. You're the one that's supposed to be basically putting Law and Order back into this lecture, back into this classroom that's supposed to be at a higher level in law school, and now you're here basically wanting to give a speech to me.
- [04:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, he didn't know that at that moment. And when she comes in and there's video of this that's online too, so you can watch this whole thing transpire. But when she comes in, he doesn't know that she's an administrator. He doesn't know that she's a dean, much less the DEI dean. But she comes in and the mob scream, she's an administrator. And what happens next is remarkable because it turned out she had a written speech, not to the students, to tell them shut up and listen to the judge or leave. Which is what an administrator should have done, but rather she proceeded to, to lecture and denounce the judge herself as the administrator, as the dean. And this too is remarkable. She went on for about six minutes, let's play about half of what she said because it's really, it takes your breath away.
- [05:23]
Tiran Steinbach
I have to write something down because I'm so uncomfortable up here. And I don't say that for sympathy. I just say I'm deeply, deeply uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable because this event is tearing at the fabric of this community that I care about. And I'm here to support. And I don't know. And I have to ask myself, and I'm not a cynic to ask this, is the juice worth the squeeze? Is this worth is an aesthetic. But for many people in this law school who work here, who study here, and who live here, your advocacy, your opinions from the bench land as absolute disenfranchisement of their does land, and it impacts directly their people, humans, their families and their communities. And I'm uncomfortable. And it's uncomfortable to say this to you as a person. It's uncomfortable to say that for many people here, your work has caused harm. Has caused harm. And I know that must be uncomfortable to hear. I know that must be. Let me please finish, and I want to give you space to finish your remarks too, Judge Duncan. I'm also uncomfortable because many of the people in the room here, I have come to care for and in my role at this university, my job is to create a space of belonging for all people in this institution. And that is hard and messy and not easy. And the answers are not black or white or right or wrong. This is actually part of the creation of belonging. And it, it doesn't feel comfortable and it doesn't always feel safe, but there are always places of safety and there is always an intention from this administration to make sure you all can be in place where you feel fully, you can be here, learn, grow into the amazing advocates and lawyers and leaders that you're going to be. I'm also uncomfortable because it is my job to say, you are invited into this space. You are absolutely welcome in this space, in this space that people learn and again live. I really do wholeheartedly welcome you because me and many people in this administration do absolutely believe in free speech. We believe that it is necessary. We believe that the way to address speech that feels abhorrent, that feels harmful, that literally denies the humanity of people, that one way to do that is with more speech and not less and not to shut you down or censor you or censor the student group that invited you here. That is hard, that is uncomfortable, and that is a policy and a principle that I think is worthy of defending even in this time, even in this time and again, I still ask, is the juice worth the squeeze?
- [08:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
What does that mean?
- [08:22]
Tiran Steinbach
I mean, is it worth the pain that this causes and the division that is causes? You have something so incredible important to say about Twitter and guns and Covid that that is worth this impact on the division of these people who have sat next to each other for years who are going through what is the battle of law school together so that they can go out into the world and be advocates.
- [08:45]
Ben Ferguson
So they can go out into the world and be advocates Center. I mean, she clearly pre planned this and knew what she was going to do, which was in essence tell off a federal judge.
- [08:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, there's so many things wrong with this that it's difficult to know where to begin. But maybe where to begin is where she ends. So they can go out into the world to be advocates. Notice she didn't say attorneys. This is Stanford Law School. They are trying to train social justice warriors. They're trying to train Occupy Wall street, burn it all down, left wing radicals. They're trying to train antifa. They're not trying to train lawyers. Their attorneys present arguments in front of judges. I have, in my entire life, I've been a lawyer roughly half my life, I have never seen a federal judge on the left or right treated like that, ever. The idea that at Stanford Law that law students would think it's appropriate to scream and yell and heckle. Can you imagine how people would react if Sonia Sotomayor went to a law school and a bunch of right wing law students began screaming and yelling and cursing? People would lose their minds. And quite rightly, because that's not how a lawyer is trained to deal with a judge. If you did that in a courtroom, you would be put in handcuffs, you would be held in contempt of court and you would be sent to jail. That's actually how our justice system works. You don't get to scream and yell at a federal judge in a courtroom. For law students to do it on the faculty is disgraceful. And by the way, it also the entire week, it was preceded by a concerted effort. So when the judge was invited, left wing activists put all over Stanford Law School flyers with the names and pictures of the students on the board of the Federalist Society at Stanford, along with the words you should be ashamed with ashamed and bright red sort of Halloween looking dripping letters. This is deliberately targeting those students. This is threatening those students. This is using threats of force. This is if it happened on the other foot. If a conservative put up a list with pictures and names of nine liberal students and said you should be ashamed for advocating for whatever left wing cause you're advocating. I guarantee you the law school would discipline, if not expel any students who did that. And to see this happening to a judge is astonishing.
- [11:29]
Ben Ferguson
You mentioned that this group that was bringing them in is a group that a lot of people may have heard of. They don't necessarily know what they do. And a lot of Americans obviously have not gone to law school. I want you to kind of explain Federal Society. I want you to explain how law school works with speakers that come in. Before I get that, I want to tell you real quick about our friends at GUSA Precious Metals. You know what's been happening in the headlines in the economy. You know what's been happening with interest rates. And if you've been saving for retirement for a long time, you know how important it is to protect your assets. Well, you can protect some of your assets by putting some of your money with a gold ira. I'm excited to tell you about a company I trust and I use, Augusta Precious Metals. They're different because they even tell you if a gold IRA isn't your answer. There's no pressure with Augusta Precious Metals, just the facts about how it could work for you and your retirement. Now, if you have an IRA or 401k and you've saved more than a hundred thousand dollars and you know how crazy the economy is and you know how important it is to protect your assets, especially if you're close to retirement because there is no time to make up losses, call Augusta Precious Metals. Not only will you get their free guide, but you will also get a web conference. Now the web conference is amazing. I've done it. And you'll sit down and chat with someone one on one about your goals. Call them 8774, the number 4 Gold IRA. 877-the-Number 4 Gold IRA or online augustaprecious metals.com Use my name, Ben and you will actually get fees for up to 10 years for free. Augusta Precious Metals. Senator, you mentioned this group. Tell a little bit of background on the group and how law school works. Bringing in judges and bringing in famous lawyers is a part of law school. Bring in speakers is a part of law school. That's very normal. It's been going on for decades and decades and decades.
- [13:29]
Senator Ted Cruz
So the Federalist Society is, is a group that was formed in 1982. So it's 41 years old. And it was formed by a group of students from Yale and Harvard University of Chicago Law school. And it was formed with the idea of challenging the left wing orthodoxy. That was the prevailing view of the faculty and many of the students in law schools. And it was initially formed by students and some law professors. And some of the early mentors and founding figures of the Federalist Society include Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge Robert Borkman. The Federalist Society now has chapters all over the country. It has chapters at more than 200 law schools. And its lawyers division has more than 70,000 practicing lawyers all over the country. And so in law schools, they regularly host events. They host a national conference for law students, the lawyers conventions. They're in cities all across the country. They regularly host events as well. They bring in speakers, they have debates. There's also every year a national lawyers convention in Washington that is that thousands of conservative and libertarians and or libertarian lawyers come to. I've been a member of the Federalist Society for 31 years. I joined when I was at one Ellen Law School in 1992, so it was just 10 years old at the time. And I've been to dozens of national conventions. One of the things that's interesting about the Federalist Society is they often have debates. They invite lots of liberals. Liberals attend, liberal law professors attend, Liberal judges attend. I've seen many left wing judges. I've seen Antonin Scalia and Steve Breyer debate at a Federalist Society convention. And you know what, what happens at a Federalist Society convention? I have never seen a crowd of either law students or lawyers treat a liberal judge disrespectfully. I've never seen it. I can't imagine that it would happen. The left has tried to make the Federalist Society a badge of shame. In fact, you'll see in the Senate Judiciary Committee, when a judge is nominated, the Democrats will ask, are you a member of the Federalist Society? And they treat it like, you know, it's very Joe McCarthy. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I frequently go back and forth with Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the liberals on the Judiciary Committee, about the Federalist Society. But in this instance, the behavior of the left wing activists was shameful at the outset, attacking the students in the Federalist Society, trying to make them pariahs, trying to shame them, trying to force them to cancel the event. And they were pushing for them to cancel. Do not bring this judge to campus. I'll tell you, I've spoken at many Federalist Society events across the country at left wing universities, and this pattern has been Growing. Look, we saw about a year ago, something similar happened at Yale Law School. There was a lawyer, Kristen Wagoner, who came to speak and came to speak about religious liberty case that she'd argued at the US Supreme Court and that she'd won and she'd prevailed. And she was talking about that case. And the same sort of things happened, which is a group of left wing students yelled, screamed, harassed and shut down the speech, prevented her from speaking. It was shameful for Yale. It also similarly happened at University of California Hastings when a libertarian law professor named Ilya Shapiro Elias, a friend of mine, a terrific law professor, again, left wing activists screamed and yelled and shut down his speech. So they've done this before to lawyers and professors. To my knowledge, they've never done it before to a judge. And there are lots of questions that this raises, one of which is what's Stanford gonna do about it? Now, the president of Stanford, the dean of the law school, have already apologized in writing. They apologized to Judge Duncan, they apologized publicly. That was the right thing to do. I'm glad they apologized. That's, that's more than many institutions do. But the obvious question is what consequences are the students going to face? Look, we know who those students were. There are videos of them. Any student that is shouting down a federal judge. And by the way, they weren't just, just shouting down, they were yelling profane and, and explicit language to the judge, including one man, a gay man, who, who described in, in profane terms that, that he had sexual relations with other men. And he said, I know where the, the, the prostate is. And, and, and he demands of the judge why he can't find a particular part of a woman's genitalia. Like, what the hell?
- [18:43]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, welcome, welcome to Diversity at Law School at Stanford, one of the top ones in the country.
- [18:48]
Senator Ted Cruz
And this is a law student screaming profane expletives at a sitting federal court of appeals judge. As far as I'm concerned, every student there who engage in this conduct should face disciplinary action. And the big question is, what's going to happen to this, to this dean? And I guarantee you, Stanford's going to say, well, we apologized. Look, this Dean, what she did was premeditated. Stanford claims to have a free speech policy. Not only did she not enforce the policy, she, she effectively joined the mob. Her speech was disgraceful as well. And I gotta say, the whole, you know, you are causing pain. And I feel, I know it feels uncomfortable to hear me say this. It's the entire lingo of the left where they sound like a combination of Mr. Rogers and a therapist. And they're just like, oh, oh, I'm so sensitive and my feelings are hurt. And then I gotta say, my head explodes when I see all these lefties snapping. That's the way so many left wing activists like to applaud on campuses. They go. And they also hiss like snakes when they don't like something, they hiss. When they like it, they snap. And let me say right now, this dean should be fired. If it is not a firing offense for a dean of a law school to side with students who are attacking, insulting, cursing at a federal judge, to side with the mob against a federal judge, against an invited speaker, then I don't know what would be a fireable offense. But I'm going to predict right now Stanford won't fire her because dei, diversity, equity and inclusion is more important to them than the actual mission of training lawyers. And I'll tell you this, Stanford's gonna have an interesting question because every one of those law students, presumably when they graduate, is gonna take the bar, and the state bar is going to have to assess the student's character and fitness to practice law. And I gotta tell you, if. If you're sitting on a state bar and you're seeing that as a law student, this person screams and yells and curses at federal judges. I don't know a whole lot of state bars that would say you have the character and fitness to be an attorney. You have the character and fitness to appear in federal court in front of a federal judge. When you don't have the decency to actually behave like a lawyer and engage in a respectful conversation, you can ask harsh questions, you can disagree with a judge's opinion. But screaming and cursing and yelling and trying to deny your fellow students the right to hear a speaker they came to hear, that is not remotely consistent with, with the obligations of being a member of the bar.
- [21:36]
Talkspace Sponsor
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist. Today at talkspace.com save $80 with code.
- [22:34]
Ben Ferguson
Space80@Talkspace.Com you said something earlier at the very beginning and you said it's clear that Stanford and the way that the dean talked about this is they're basically trying not to graduate lawyers. They're trying to graduate activists. And you can connect this directly to what's happening right now in Washington with the Biden budget. It's an activist budget. You don't have to take my word for it or your word for it, Senator. It's in the budget. The words the activists woke words are in the budget. Before we go through that, I want to tell people about Patriot Mobile real quick. Patriot Mobile is the only Christian conservative cell phone company in the US and if you're sick and tired of woke companies that you pay money to every month and then they actually go against your values, you've got an option now in the cell phone industry. You can actually switch to Patriot Mobile and it's easy. You can keep your same cell phone number, you can keep your same cell phone or switch to a new phone. Maybe you want to upgrade. You can do that. The other great thing about Patriot Mobile is when you pay your bill every month, they take a portion of that bill and they give it back to conservative causes and organizations that actually stand for what we believe in. We're talking about first and second Amendment right organizations standing up for the rights of unborn children and even helping people with adoptions. If you're ready to have a company stand with you and what you believe in, you're going to have a cell phone anyway. You might as well support what you believe in when you pay your bill. Call them. 878 Patriot. That's 878 Patriot. 878 Patriot. Use the promo code. Verdict. You'll get the best deals of the day. Patriotmobile.com verdict Now Senator, you kind of went on a, a, a really blunt, I would, I would call it a tirade and I mean that in a positive way. In Congress this past week, talking about Biden's budget, the budget that he has put together that the Democrats have put Together is not an actual budget. It's a massive increase of government spending, but with a whole hell of a lot of wokeness in it that has nothing to do with an actual budget.
- [24:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, this past week Biden rolled out what he calls his budget and it is a left wing manifesto. It is extreme. He proposed just for fiscal year 2024, $6.9 trillion in spending, almost $7 trillion in spending. And under the budget that he laid out, he is proposing that the national debt should exceed $50 trillion by the year 2033, which would be a debt to GDP ratio higher than the record we set right after World War II. That's what he's proposing on the front end. Now, amazingly enough, despite having 50 trillion in debt, he also is proposing 4.7 trillion in new taxes. A lot of those taxes are targeted at oil and gas, at energy exploration because he wants the price of the gas pump to go higher because the Green New Deal is much more important to him than actually working families who are having a hard time making ends meet, who are having a hard time fill their pump. If you look at what is in, in this budget, he would increase the business tax rate to 28%, which the Tax foundation has estimated would kill 159,000 jobs, shrink the economy by $720 billion. It would have the United States have a higher business tax rate than communist China. But that is, can you say that again?
- [26:21]
Ben Ferguson
I, I think people really need to understand and realize why they're doing what you just said, having a higher corporate tax rate than China. And that's to basically make our government. I, I would say communist socialist, however you want to describe it, but make sure that you just can't really succeed to a certain level of success in America any longer. They wanted, they want to tamper success.
- [26:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
I'm just going to tell you what they're doing. This is a socialist budget. This is a budget to bankrupt America. This is a budget to kill jobs. This is a budget to create even more inflation, for example. Let's just work at, look at a simple word count. The word equity appears in The Biden budget 63 times. The word climate, 148 times. The words environmental justice, they appear 25 times. On the other hand, how about issues that, that Americans actually care about? The word inflation, it's mentioned just 10 times. Police officers mentioned four times. Parents mentioned three times. Gas prices three times. Fentanyl just two times. This is a left wing budget and it doesn't address the real problems like we have the worst illegal immigration in our nation's history. You know how many new border patrol agents are funded in this budget?
- [27:46]
Ben Ferguson
I'm going to guess not that many. Knowing how much they love an open budget.
- [27:50]
Senator Ted Cruz
Open border, I should say 350.
- [27:54]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [27:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Mind you, the budget not only funds 87,000 new IRS agents, it puts even more money into the IRS because their objective is a federal government to harass and go after the American people and small businesses. They're perfectly fine with open borders. They're perfectly fine with fentanyl flooding across the border. Here's the good news. This left wing budget, the chances of it passing into law are 0%. There's no chance this budget will pass. And by the way, the Biden White House knows this. They know that a Republican House of Representatives would never pass this radical budget. So, so why did they propose it? What's interesting is because they know it won't pass. This is a political document. This is, they're telling you, this is what we believe in. And what becomes clear is what they believe in is climate, justice and equity and, and everything except actually securing the border, protecting our homes, protecting our families, growing the economy, creating jobs, lowering inflation, having gas prices be affordable. None of those do they care about. This is instead, I am activist, hear me roar that that is this budget.
- [29:18]
Ben Ferguson
How much of this center could make it? And you did say you think there's zero percent chance this budget will be passed, but a budget will have to be passed. So is this start out on the most extreme and then you, you negotiate down to a significant chunk of this extremism showing up in the budget?
- [29:36]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it'll depend on the back and forth between the House and the Senate. The Republican House is going to have very different priorities. Unfortunately we have a Democrat Senate. So my guess is that some of the Democrats in the Senate think Biden's budget should be even bigger, he should spend even more. For example, one of their talking points that the White House is bragging about is they say, well, we increase defense spending 3%. Now of course inflation is between 6 and 8%. So that is in real terms a cut of between 3 and 5% to defense. But that's their talking point. Where we end up at the end of the day is going to be a result of the negotiations between the House and Senate and the White House. It's going to go back and forth. And the two pivotal leverage points where the fight is really going to be fought out are going to be the debt ceiling and are going to be September 30, the expiration of federal funding. Those are going to be the two battles. I expect both will be epic battles. I believe if Republicans stand firm, we can make real progress. But we'll see a if Republicans stand firm and be what Democrats do in response.
- [30:48]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, this, this budget, as you said, seeing how the sausage is going to be made will be very, very interesting. I want to move on to one other issue, Senator, and that is one where a Biden official apparently leaked classified info about the Trump era Chinese spy balloons to deflect criticism of the Biden administration. Senators are now saying and accusing this of happening. Before I get your thoughts on that though, I want to tell you about chalk. If you're a real American man and you want to maximize your masculinity by boosting testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days, you can actually do it with the chalk male vitality stack. Now, if you're a guy and you just feel like you've lost a little bit of that edge, you're getting a little bit older and you don't feel like yourself anymore, you can fight back again, that war on masculinity and you can do it with chalk. Choq, they are here to help real men just like you and I maximize our testosterone levels by boosting them up to 20 over 90 days. If you are ready to get that feeling back, then you need to check out chalk. Go online to choq.com use the promo code BEN for 35% off any chalk subscription for life. Plus you can cancel anytime. Choke.com promo code BEN for 35% off center. This last story is one that should be making really big headlines. It's not. And that's the fact that apparently Biden officials leaked classified info about the Trump air Chinese spy balloons just to deflect criticism from Joe Biden's administration.
- [32:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, this is another illustration of what happens when when the woke angry children at Stanford Law School grow up and get jobs in the Defense Department. In this instance, remember back to the Chinese spy balloon and we talked quite a bit on the podcast about the Chinese spy balloon at the time. And when the news broke, remember the Chinese spy balloon initially crossed over American airspace in Alaska. The Biden administration did nothing. It then went over Canadian airspace. The Biden administration did nothing. It then crossed over into American airspace again, crossing in Idaho and Montana. And what happened is it happened to be a remarkably clear day and a couple of Montana guys looking up in the sky saw the damn thing and they took pictures of it and they put it on the Internet and reporters covered It. And suddenly people are like, what the heck is that in the air? And as you'll recall, for eight days, the Biden administration allowed the spy balloon to traverse the entire continental United States conducting espionage over sensitive military installations. And they did nothing until its mission was complete. And then they shot it down over the Atlantic. Now, if you recall how when this, when this was unfolding, Biden was getting a lot of heat. Why are you so weak? Why are you so impotent? Why are you allowing the Chinese to spy on us? And about midway through that process, suddenly there were stories everywhere that says, said, oh, well, Trump did the same thing. The Chinese spied on us during the Trump administration, and Trump did nothing as well. And that was a story. The Biden flacks, they flacked hard. They're like, look, look, look. See, Trump did it too. Ha ha. Our guy's not weak. And what we now know. So there was a letter that was sent by two of my colleagues, Roger Wicker and Marco Rubio, which the letter alleges that the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a guy named Colin Call, who is a left wing activist, he is a hard partisan. He's someone who has a long history of misusing classified information and being willing to leak it for political and partisan purposes. What the Wicker Rubio letter alleges is that it was Colin Call, who is the one that put out there that it had happened under the Trump administration. But what we also know now is that when Call told that to reporters, he omitted one really critical fact, which is the Trump administration didn't know about it. Trump didn't know about it. You know, remember afterwards, there were lots of folks, Mike Pompeo went on TV and said, I don't know what they're talking about. I don't know anything about this. The head of the Director of National Intelligence under Trump said, I don't know what they're talking about. Colin Call knew that the Trump administration was unaware of these Chinese balloons. They omitted that detail because they wanted to say, Biden's not weak. Trump did the same thing. Well, you know what? You can't shoot down a balloon that you're not aware at the time it's there. And so he deliberately either leaked or, or potentially declassified the documents. So Colin Call has a history of doing both, of playing fast and loose with classified documents, but in this case, doing it in a very misleading way because the story ran everywhere. This happened three times under Trump, and he did nothing without including the really critical fact that they were unaware of it at the time, and the government only found out later. This is a big deal. And there's a reason every single Republican in the Senate voted against confirming Colin Kahl. Because he's a partisan activist rather than someone taking seriously the job of defending this nation. And look, this goes right back to where the podcast started. In law school, whether you're on the left or right, you are training to become an attorney, a member of the bar. You're training to acquire skills. You're training to learn how to think like a lawyer. You're training to be able to represent a client in front of a judge, even a judge you disagree with, even a judge who may rule against your client. Even if in. Look, in a capital murder case, it could be a judge who might sentence your clients to death. You have a very serious responsibility as an advocate, as a member of the bar. Those Stanford law students are demonstrating they're unfit to carry that responsibility in the Defense Department. Likewise, if you're charged with defending this nation from our enemies, it is a grave and serious responsibility. And this is another example where you put hardcore partisans into those positions. They elevate their partisanship above the seriousness of their responsibility, and in this instance, leak classified information and do so affirmatively, misleadingly.
- [37:26]
Ben Ferguson
I feel like I asked you this question far too often. Will he get in trouble for this leaking? This is still a hardcore no, because the same people are in charge of the deep state.
- [37:38]
Senator Ted Cruz
The Biden White House wants him to do this. I suspect the Biden White House was celebrating. This is. These are the same people that wrote the Biden budget. These are hard partisans that Biden has populated this administration with. And so I, I suspect they were giving him high fives because when, when all the. The news began covering, oh, Trump did the same thing. Suddenly their pr, pr CR crisis, they had a reprieve from it. And, and look, we talked about on the pod how the entire Chinese spy balloon the Biden White House didn't treat as a national security matter, didn't treat it as an espionage matter. It treated as a public relations matter. It treated as a communications endeavor. It's why after Biden's weakness was exposed by allowing the spy balloon to complete its mission, he shot down three random things in the sky that we still don't know what they are. You know, we think one of them was like a high school science project that he sent a $400,000 missile to shoot down a $12 balloon. But the purpose wasn't to take it out. The purpose was to have a press release. See tough man Biden, him shoot thing down. These are not people who are serious about protecting America. These are partisans engaged in public relations who believe in violence. Look, when the Stanford law students are screaming down the judge, that's no different than the rioters and protesters that show up at the homes of justices screaming and threatening their families. And Merrick Garland, the attorney general, refuses to enforce the law and prosecute them even though it's a federal crime. Merrick Garland agrees with them and Biden agrees with them. And you can see what it is in those screaming students at Stanford Law School.
- [39:34]
Ben Ferguson
Couldn't I couldn't agree with you more. Senator, Always a pleasure. I'm gonna get to do one bonus thing here. I'm trying to get the center into golf a little bit. A Texan has won the fifth major, the players. But the cool story is center of this real quick is Scotty Scheffler, a Texan. His 88 year old grandmother walked every single hole with him this week, all 72 holes. At 88 years old, he's bringing back the players to Texas. I thought that was a cool note to end on. Age is just a number. Clearly this grandmother and she's been following him all week. I love stories. When you see him like this, that's.
- [40:13]
Senator Ted Cruz
Spectacular and a good thing.
- [40:16]
Ben Ferguson
It's a feel good story. No doubt about it. Don't forget we do this show three days a week. Hit that subscribe or auto download button so that you get this show each and every day that we publish the center and I will see you back here in a couple of days.