← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Biden Caught with Over 5,000 Fake Emails, plus 8 BIG Legislative Victories for Texas
00:49:51
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- [00:02]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is a verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And we've got a jam packed show including this pretty shocking number of emails that we now are trying to get our hands on. And it's more than 5,000. The deal with Biden's fake email addresses that he had set up. We're also going to give you an update on some pretty impressive legislative movements that have happened through Senator Cruz's office. And also, you are not going to want to miss the end of the show tonight. We have put together one of the most incredible montages that deals with the media and how they covered Donald Trump referring to banana republic issues. And they're completely silent right now. What's happening at the DOJ covering for Biden, that is something that's going to go viral. You're not going to want to miss that. But first, center, I want to get your reaction to this shocking new intel that is out. And that is former President Barack Obama. They're now saying should allow the National Archives to release President Joe Biden's emails and records linked to his alias. These are his fake email address accounts. That is now what people are calling for. Explain this a little bit more so people understand just how important these emails may be.
- [01:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, sure. We did a previous podcast focused on the fact that it's now come to light that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, he used fake emails. He had pseudonyms. The three that we know of that he used were Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and J.R.B. ware. And he would use these pseudonyms on official government emails that were to and from Hunter Biden. Now, Hunter Biden was not an employee of the US Government. He was his son. And what has been reported is that some, if not many of them, concerned Ukraine. You know, if you're wondering how much the Biden family business was Hunter selling access to and more fundamentally, favors from Daddy. The news that broke this week is the number of emails with Joe Biden's fake email addresses. The National Archives and Record Administration acknowledged that they possessed up to 5,400 of them. That's a stunning number. Look, as I said, we had a prior pod where we discussed there is no legitimate reason for the sitting Vice President of the United States to use a fake email on official government emails to his son about Ukraine. At the same time that Hunter Biden was making millions of dollars being paid by a Ukrainian oligarch for Daddy's favors. The fact that the volume of it now is up to 5,400 emails. And by the way, The National Archives and Record Administration still hasn't handed them over. So we don't know what Joe Biden was saying. We don't know why it was. Why, why is it? How did he determine when he used his real email and when he used the fake names Robin Ware, Robin Robert L. Peters or JRB Ware? We haven't seen Joe Biden answer a question about this because the Biden White House believes he's not accountable to the American people. And we've seen the corporate media completely silent on this. Cnn, msnbc, abc, cbs, NBC, they don't cover it. It's not news. Why? Because it counters their official propaganda line and so they just utterly ignore it. But on its face, there is no legitimate explanation for this. And the Biden White House has not even tried to suggest a legitimate explanation for this.
- [03:49]
Ben Ferguson
Do you remember when the media freaked out and I think it was on January 6th where they said that the White House was, it was a cover up of Watergate proportions and there were missing phone calls that day from the phone logs and then they, they had egg on their face and they found out, no, no, he was just using his cell phone during that time. So those calls wouldn't have actually been on the official transcripts from the White House. They were talking about these missing periods of time. They lost their mind over that. Can you imagine if Donald Trump would have had alias email, like burner email accounts that he used while he was the President or anyone at the White House at any level of importance, they would have gone full blown investigation into this.
- [04:30]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, listen, if you use a burner email, a fake email, if you use a burner phone, as it's now been reported Joe Biden did, the natural implication is you're trying to hide something, you're trying to get around the law. There's a reason you're hiding who you are. If not, there's no reason to have the fake email. And again, the White House has not attempted to give any innocent explanation for this. And to be honest, I can't imagine what an innocent explanation would be. But their innocent explanation is, well, gosh, we're the White House and so the media doesn't cover it.
- [05:06]
Ben Ferguson
It's going to be very interesting, Senator, to see how this plays out because we do know the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who we had on a two part series here, and I'll say it again if you missed it, go back and listen to what he had to say about the money coming into the family. But he has requested the archives hand over all documents and communications in which then Vice President Joe Biden used these names you just mentioned, Robert Peters, Robin Ware, JRB Warehouse. The archives, he says, need to be transparent and provide these unredacted records to the GOP oversight. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. We're going to keep covering it for you, Senator. I also want to move on to something else. And I don't think people realize what a day in the life in Washington or a week in the life of Washington can look like when it comes time to vote on important legislation. There's a lot of it that happened recently. We've had so much breaking news we didn't get to talk about as much as I think we should have. And I want to fix that right now because there were some big wins that you were leading on legislation you were leading on for the people in Texas and, and in this country as well. Let's talk about how big these wins were right before recess.
- [06:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, sure. And I want to focus on on a single day, and that was Thursday, the last week of July, which is the last day the Senate was in session. We've been on recess for the for the past several weeks. And so I've been traveling across the state of Texas and doing events all over Texas. But the last day we were in session was the Thursday, the last week of July. And on that one day, I passed eight separate pieces of legislation. It was a big deal to pass eight pieces of legislation. There are a lot of members of the Senate that don't pass eight pieces of legislation after years of serving in the Senate. And I passed eight in a single day. And so I just wanted to walk through that day to give a sense of what can be accomplished fighting for Texas in a single day. So two of them passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee. And as you know, I'm the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee. And there were two different bills that I'd introduced, both of which passed the Senate Commerce Committee that day. One of them focuses on AM radio, and we've talked about that bill here on this podcast before, which is that eight automakers announced they were pulling AM radios off of brand new cars and trucks. I think that's a terrible step. It's terrible for a lot of reasons, including that it denies people disaster information in the case of a hurricane or a fire or tornado or some other natural disaster. It hurts rural Americans who rely on AM radio, and it hurts conservative speech in particular. It's an example of corporate America silencing one of the most important platforms for conservative speech. Well, I teamed up with Ed Markey, the single most liberal member of the Senate, in legislation called the AM Radio for Every Vehicle act, which mandates that new cars and trucks include AM radio. And that legislation passed. The Commerce Committee passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support. So that was victory number one. A big deal that impacts you. You have a radio station, radio show, it impacts all sorts of people on the radio, but it impacts up to 80 million Americans who listen to AM radio every single month.
- [08:35]
Ben Ferguson
It's incredible legislation. And it's also, as you mentioned as well, a safety issue. You look at the hurricane that is that we're dealing with right now in Florida that's going to be going up the east coast. And, and I've already heard it and talked to friends down there. They're already reminding people, grab your crank AM radios to keep up when the power goes out so that you know what's going on. And I think there were many that thought of this as a way to silen conservative talk radio. Yes, there's no doubt there was a political side of this as well. But, but this other part was a safety issue. When hurricanes hit, when there's natural disasters that happen and they're talking about it on. I was watching the Weather Channel today as a storm was, was developing this hurricane and strengthening, they were saying make sure you have your crank AM radio. That is, that is something that saves lives in situations like this. And that's also why it was so important to make sure these AM radios, because there are people after storms hit and even before they can go out to their car, turn it on for a second, listen to the latest updates of what's happening. And that's something that happens. Or those crank radios or battery powered radios with am, it's so vitally important for safety as well.
- [09:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. And other media often go down in the case of a disaster. So it's critical for getting people out of harm's way. A second piece of legislation that I authored that also passed the Commerce Committee that day is legislation called the Ticket Act. And it concerns if you go online and you buy sports tickets, you go buy baseball tickets or football or basketball tickets, or you buy concert tickets, you want to go see your favorite artists pay. And all of us have had the experience where you go online to buy tickets, you pick out your seats and you're really excited. And then you get to the final step of the transaction and you see fees that are just massive. The fees can be as upwards of 40 50, 60% of the total amount you're paying. And you don't learn until the very last step when you're entering your credit card. And so I joined with Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington State is the chairman of the committee and authored legislation that requires online ticket brokers to disclose the total amount of the ticket price with the fees up front so that when you're searching you can know, okay, if this ticket's going to cost me $100, I'm not going to think it's 50 bucks and get surprised on the back end. As a consumer, I'm going to get to know up front and have the information to be able to comparison shop and, and make informed choices.
- [10:55]
Ben Ferguson
It is, it is an important piece as well because as you mentioned, it happens so often where people get to that end and then they're like, really now this is what it is. And it's a, it's a surprise or shock. And that's why that is another piece of just transparency. It shouldn't be this hard, by the way to be transparent when it comes to basic things like this in commerce. And yet you have to spend time doing this and that's going to help so many people that do tickets all the time in so many different venues all over the country and in Texas as well. I want to tell you real quick about our friends Augusta Precious Metals. And if you have been watching what's going on in the economy, you've seen some of the big bank failures that have happened. You've seen interest rates that have more than doubled on homes now. The highest interest rates on home that we've seen in 21 years there. We've seen inflation issues and that is where it is affecting your retirement, your 401k. We know that it's important to diversify your investments, especially if you are close to retirement or in retirement. That's why I want you to know about Augusta Precious Metals. They can help you protect your hard earned dollars, your hard earned investments. And that is why you should talk to Augusta Fresh emails now. They do things differently. It's really cool. Not only will they send you an investor's guide on gold so you can understand how gold can help you diversify and protect your assets, but they actually do a one on one web conference. They answer all of your questions. They'll talk about your strategy, your investments and tell you if a gold IRA isn't the right answer for you, you should check out what they can do for you at Augusta precious metals.com call them right now, get the Free Investors guide on gold and work with a company that can, that you can trust to help you protect your assets. 877-the-4 Gold IRA. That's 877, the- number-4 Gold IRA. Or online at Augusta precious metals.com that's Augusta precious metals.com. senator, you mentioned that there was not just these two pieces of legislation, but more than that that happened on this single day. Walk us down again that path of what else happened.
- [13:04]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, sure, the first two passed the Commerce Committee. The remaining six pieces of legislation that I passed that day all passed the entire Senate, the full Senate, and all of them on that day. The last Thursday in July, we passed the National Defense Authorization act, which is the big bill that passes every year that authorizes the Department of Defense and our military and is critical for ensuring that we can defend our nation. And it is considered must pass legislation so that if you can author amendments that get attached to it, those amendments get passed into law and signed into law. I had six different amendments that passed on this year's ndaa. So one of the amendments I had was very focused on defense in the state of Texas. And it was ensuring that B1 bomber wings remain in service for at least three more years, at least until 2026, until they're actually replaced by newer B21 bombers. And this is critically important, number one, to preserve the US's long range strike capabilities. But number two, many of those B1 bomber wings are right now housed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. And we're in the process of replacing B1 bombers with B21s. B21s are much more advanced bombers, but it takes time to produce the B21s. And there's great concern, number one in West Texas, that the B1s will be taken down before they're replaced by the B21s. And so there's been a battle year after year to make sure that we don't decommission the B1s until we have B21s in place to replace them. That battle's happened every year for a number of years and I've managed to win temporary delays in it. This year we got a three year freeze, which is critically important for ensuring our defense capability, but also for protecting West Texas and Dyess Air Force Base. So a second amendment that also passed that day is legislation that I introduced that focused on what are called spy fridges, which is there are all sorts of appliances that you buy, whether they're refrigerators, Whether they're microwaves, whether they're stoves or ovens that are smart devices and they have built in cameras and, or recorders. And often people don't know when you're buying a fridge, you don't think to ask, gosh, is my refrigerator recording me in my kitchen? And so I authored legislation, it's very similar to the legislation we talked about before in the Ticket Act. It's disclosure legislation that says if there's an appliance that's being sold to consumers that can record you, that has a camera, either a video camera, an audio recorder that they have to disclose to you, the consumer, hey, your, your fridge is spying on you. And that likewise was bipartisan legislation that likewise passed on the floor of the Senate.
- [16:00]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, did you ever think you were ever going to have to pass legislation that would tell like consumers if their products would possibly be able to spy on them? I mean, it does sound insane. It's extremely important. But did you ever think when you ran for the Senate that this would be something we would need? And Fast forward to 2023. It's insane to me.
- [16:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
It really is nuts. And it's where technology is taking us. It's where so much of corporate America violates the privacy of consumers. And look, the next time, Ben, you're walking to the fridge at 2 in the morning in your boxer shorts to get a midnight snack, just remember that video may be in the hands of whoever sold you the fridge.
- [16:42]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for passing that. I do appreciate that. I think all of us can say yes on that one. What else was on the list?
- [16:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
All right, so two other amendments that both concerned oil. One of them concerns Nord Stream 2. We've talked a lot about Nord Stream 2, which is the pipeline that Putin was building from Russia to Germany. And I had an amendment that holds accountable the corrupt officials who are responsible for building and or maintaining Nord Stream 2. And so that passed on that Thursday as well. The second one focused on US Oil and in particular our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And as you know, Joe Biden has sold down our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the lowest level it's been at in four decades. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is there to protect our economy, to protect our national security, to ensure that we have energy in a time of crisis. And Joe Biden's used it to try to temporarily lower gas prices right before the last election to get a political benefit from it. And so I teamed up with Joe Manchin and authored legislation to prohibit the federal government from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum reserve to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, not to sell it to our enemies. And that is not a hypothetical threat because Joe Biden, in fact, sold over a million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Communist China. And given that, I thought that was absurd. Joe Manchin and I teamed up together to pass this legislation. And that was the fourth piece of legislation on the Senate floor that passed on that Thursday.
- [18:27]
Ben Ferguson
How concerned are you real quick on that piece of legislation that this administration is setting us up for a disaster. Our strategic oil reserves are at the lowest levels I think they've been in my lifetime. I can't remember how many decades it is, but they're. And they're getting lower. Also. The shock that we've been allowing when we do release some of this oil for it to actually go to our adversaries is even more shocking, especially when some of it was connected directly to companies that apparently the Biden crime family had a vested interest in a tanker that went straight to China. But when you look at this, just from a standpoint of national security, there doesn't seem to be a course correction yet. Is there anything that you guys can do in Congress, in the Senate, to correct this or this, the sole discretion where those reserves are of the President?
- [19:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, when this legislation is signed into law, and I fully expect that it will be, it will take out of the President's hands the ability to sell that oil to our enemies, to sell it to China or Russia or Iran and North Korea, and those four countries are specified. And I'll tell you, previously, I went to the Senate floor and tried to pass this legislation as freestanding legislation. And Senate Democrats came down and objected at that time, and they countered with their own proposal to make it illegal for any American company to sell any oil or gas to any foreign nation, which is utterly bizarre, would destroy tens of thousands of jobs in the United States. And as I debated on the Senate floor and made the case, I said, look, one of the reasons why we shouldn't be selling oil to our enemies is we ought to be instead sending it to our friends and letting our friends come off of Russian oil. There's a war waging in Ukraine and Russia's getting its revenue from selling oil and gas. And I pointed out the Democrats take the proposition, let's not sell oil to our enemies, and they translate it to let's not sell oil to our friends, which is an utterly bizarre next step because it hurts US national security. And I gotta say, when it comes to energy policy, this administration and congressional Democrats regularly hurt US national security by making us more and more vulnerable to foreign players and by weakening the US Energy industry and in fact, waging war on domestic oil and gas production. And so this legislation that passed was a significant step to take away the Biden administration's ability to undermine our security in pursuit of their own political agenda.
- [21:01]
Ben Ferguson
And it truly is, I think, scary that in Washington now, you would even have to pass legislation that says, yeah, don't give our oil reserves to our enemies.
- [21:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
This should be a no brainer, but. But at least for the Biden White House, not only is it not a no brainer, it's directly contrary to what they've done, which is why this legislation was necessary. The last two pieces of legislation that I passed on that day are the two biggest, and they both have huge, huge consequences, not just for the state of Texas and for the entire country. One deals with four bridges from Texas to Mexico. And we've talked about this at length on the pod as well, so I'll just quickly summarize. But there are four bridge projects right now pending in Texas to either build brand new bridges that go from Texas to Mexico or to expand existing bridges. And the way it works is to build any bridge in the United States requires what's called a NEPA environmental review. And that's standard U.S. law. But if you're building an international bridge, if you're crossing a border to another country, you are required to get a special permit from the President of the United States. And the way it used to operate is the President would grant that permit contingent upon the NEPA review being completed. And that expedited the whole process because it let you move through quickly. When Biden came into power, they announced they were reversing that process. And in particular, the President announced he would grant no permits whatsoever for new bridges across the international borders unless and until the NEPA review was entirely concluded. What that did is it delayed all four of these bridge projects substantially, potentially two, three, four years. And not only did it delay it that long, it potentially delayed it even longer because a number of the project sponsors were having difficulty getting financing because the banks didn't want to commit to financing until the presidential permit was granted and because the Biden White House wouldn't grant the presidential permit, everything slowed down. This was stupid. This hurt Texas. It hurt America. And so I introduced legislation expediting the approval of these bridges and mandating in particular that once the legislation is signed, that Biden has 60 days, has a shot clock. He has 60 days to grant the Permits. And if he doesn't grant the permits within 60 days, they're deemed automatically granted as a matter of law. That legislation, I got bipartisan support. It was passed on the Senate floor as part of the ndaa. Ben, this has massive impact for jobs and economic growth in the state of Texas. Every year we have over $800 billion of trade and commerce between Texas and Mexico. And by speeding up the construction of these bridges or the expansion of these bridges, that will result in thousands upon thousands of new jobs in Texas, that will result in billions of dollars of new economic activity. And it will benefit Texas farmers and ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers, and it will benefit consumers all across the country who will be able to get goods in their stores cheaper with less transportation costs, with less delay. And it also benefits US national security by helping us move more and more manufacturing out of China and closer home, either to the United States or to our close neighbors, which improves our national security as well. And that was a massive victory that I had spent two years fighting to get. And we got it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support on the Senate floor.
- [24:44]
Ben Ferguson
Why does something like that take two years to get the votes when it seems like it's such a common sense piece of legislation that helps not just Texas, but so many other states and individuals? And it really seems like it's saying it's non political. It's not like it helps Republicans more than Democrats. This helps everyone.
- [25:06]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it does. And look, to this date, I can't figure out why the Biden administration adopted this policy. We've never been able to find a senior official who takes responsibility for it or defends it. And my theory is there's some bureaucrat either in the bowels of the State Department or in the bowels of the White House who is a little green New Deal knucklehead and who just decided, nope, nope, we don't want anything built, nothing, until all the environmental stuff is fully complete, because it makes this knucklehead feel good. Now, ironically, the policy of the Biden administration, not only was it terrible for jobs, it was terrible for the environment. If you look at the World Trade Bridge, the World Trade Bridge is in Laredo, and it is the largest land port in the United States. It is a bridge on which there are massive, massive amounts of commerce traveling through there every day. On any given day, on the Mexican side of the bridge, you will see a line of 18 wheelers that will extend 4, 5, 6 miles. And those 18 wheelers will sit there sometimes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, hours waiting to cross the bridge in a giant bottleneck. And by the way, when they're sitting there, they're spewing pollution in the air, they're spewing carbon in the air. It is terrible for the environment to force those 18 wheelers to sit there. And you also have a problem that when they sit there that long, the drivers can time out. There are limits on how long a driver can drive. And if they sit there in a bottleneck all day long, they then have to park overnight. And it extends the transportation time even more. The city of Laredo wants to expand the World trade bridge from eight lanes. They want to add 10 additional lanes that would dramatically accelerate trade and commerce across that bridge. And yet. So when I first found out about this issue was a little over two years ago, and it was fairly early in the Biden administration. And it was when the city leaders from the city of Laredo came to meet with me in D.C. and they came to my office. And I regularly meet with leaders from cities all across the state of Texas and counties across Texas and business leaders across Texas. And this was a number of leaders from Laredo who raised this issue, said, gosh, the new Biden administration, they just switched their policy and now they're not granting these permits. And that was the first I'd heard of it because it was a, it was a new issue with the new administration. And so the process, it started with me having my policy team say, okay, let's look into this. Let's figure out, how do these permits work? Why do you need them? What's the delay? And we started by just pressing informally, by making a call to the State Department, by making multiple calls to the State Department, by pressing, pressing, number one, mid level bureaucrats and ultimately senior level leaders at the State Department. That unfortunately did not create movement. I sat down with Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, in my office, and I leaned in hard on him and I said, look, this is a stupid policy, and the administration is hurting the environment, hurting transportation. You need to press State to change what they're doing. Buttigieg said he would try to be helpful, and then, as far as I can tell, did not do anything. Or if he did anything, it didn't succeed because State did nothing to change their policy. The next step is I worked to try to build bipartisan consensus in the South Texas congressional delegation. And I wrote a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken. The letter was joined by John Cornyn, my colleague in the Senate from Texas. And then it was joined by Henry Cuellar, who was a Democrat from South Texas, Monica Dela Cruz, who is a Republican from South Texas, Vicente Gonzalez, who is a Democrat from South Texas, and Tony Gonzalez, who is a Republican from South Texas. So we got all of the South Texas congressional delegation, all to join my letter to Tony Blinken saying, this new policy is idiotic. It hurts Texas, it hurts America. You need to change it. And unfortunately, once again, the Biden administration basically said, go jump in a lake. They just, they just stiff armed us. They just did nothing. And this is a good one to go a little bit of a deeper dive because it actually shows how you fight and win battles in the U.S. senate. And that I did several things. One of the things I did is I placed holds on multiple State Department nominees. And I said, they can't move forward until we get this bridge problem solved. That has a way of really focusing the mind of the senior leadership, both in the State Department and the White House. And so I'm a big believer in using both carrot and stick. The stick was you don't get your nominees till you fix that problem. The carrot. Because I'm the ranking member on the Commerce Committee, I have the ability to sign off or block legislation that is moving through the Commerce Committee. And one piece of legislation we're working on is the FAA reauthorization. There are lots of senators who care about different elements of the FAA reauthorization. And so some of my colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee had amendments they cared deeply about that I worked to get included in that bill, which in turn, when I needed to move this bridge legislation on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they were more than willing to help me move it forward. Ultimately, to move it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I had to get the chairman, Bob Menendez, to support me. And that took significant horse trading. It took ultimately getting the Biden State Department and the Biden White House to back down. We had an email exchange where the Biden State Department said, so let me get this straight. If we agree to go along with Cruz's legislation, he'll lift the holds on our nominees? And my guys said, yeah, of course, the whole point of these holds was to get the problem fixed. If you fix the problem, yeah, we'll lift the holds. And both State and the White House said, wow, that seems like a really good deal to us. We want to get these nominations moving. That's what it took to move the administration. And that in turn, along with some additional legislative negotiation, is what it took to bring the Democrats on board. But that Process takes literally hundreds of hours and it ultimately took two years to get done. But at this point, this legislation, I believe, is extremely likely to be signed into law by the end of the year. And once it is, the 60 day shot clock starts. And that is going to benefit South Texas massively.
- [31:46]
Ben Ferguson
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- [33:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, and this last one is a big deal. It was the sixth piece of legislation that I passed on the senate floor that day, the eighth piece of legislation altogether that I passed that day. And it concerns semiconductors. And then we've talked about this on the pod before as well. When it comes to economic and national security vulnerabilities of the United States, there are few that are more acute than our vulnerability on advanced semiconductors, which right now the vast majority of advanced semiconductors are manufactured in China or Taiwan, and we manufacture very few of them here in the United States.
- [33:46]
Ben Ferguson
And we didn't realize how this was until Covid happened. And that's when we realized this is a national security issue as well.
- [33:56]
Senator Ted Cruz
Absolutely right. Just about every piece of electronics you use uses semiconductors. And whether that is your iPhone, whether that's your computer, whether that's your car or truck, we use them. Or whether it's the spy fridge that is monitoring Ben and his boxers getting midnight snacks, all of them are using it. And that I apologize to our listeners for that image. I really didn't mean to put that in your head. It but it's cruel. But nonetheless, hopefully some of you chuckled as you're listening. Not only is it an economic vulnerability, but it's a military vulnerability. Just about every weapon system we use in the military, whether it is a fighter jet, whether it's a tank, whether it is a missile system, whether it is radars, just about all of the equipment relies on advanced semiconductors. And not only are we dependent on China, but Taiwan. One of the reasons why China's military threat to Taiwan is so profoundly dangerous is if China invaded Taiwan and they took over that semiconductor manufacturing capacity, they would have the ability to put a stranglehold, to literally crater the US economy at their whim. And also to hold our military captive that we couldn't get the chips we need. Remember during COVID and coming out of it, the massive shortages there were of new cars and trucks that was because of a shortage in chips that you couldn't get a new car or truck because without the chips they couldn't make them. So it is a national security imperative, I believe, to bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. And in the last Congress, Congress passed a bill called the CHIPS Act. The CHIPS act had two elements. One element of it was what was called the FABS Act. The FABS act lessened the tax burden on new semiconductor manufacturing. I was a co sponsor of the FABS Act. It enthusiastically supported it. The second component of the CHIPS act was direct federal funds, billions of dollars in subsidies for building semiconductor manufacturing. I voted against that because I think that corporate welfare is a bad idea. And I think you get into the specter of corruption when US taxpayer dollars are going in multi billion dollar corporate checks to giant corporations. That being said, it passed once it passed. My view is okay, if the federal government's going to spend that money, it ought to spend it in a way that meets clear objective standards and metrics based on merit. And it shouldn't be politicized. And in Texas, there are tens of billions of dollars of new manufacturing that is currently in planning and underway to manufacture semiconductors. And what's happening now is suddenly people as they're building these new fabs are discovering that the federal environmental regulations The NEPA regulations can be unbelievably burdensome and they can delay a new semiconductor fabs potentially for years. And even Democrats were discovering, wait a second, if we want to build these plants, we've got to expedite, we've got to streamline these regulatory burdens. So what happened is there was what was initially pitched as bipartisan legislation in the House and also in the Senate that would lessen the regulatory burdens on new fabs. And so I looked at that legislation and the sponsors of it wanted to attach it to the ndaa. Now for them to be able to attach it, that legislation is in the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, which means they needed the sign off of the chairman and of myself. I had an absolute veto. As I studied the legislation, I discovered that what they said in their press releases, which is this lessons the regulatory burdens on new plants, was not entirely accurate because as drafted, it functioned as essentially a subsidy for blue states. A subsidy because what it said was if your state's state environmental standards are stricter, if they are tougher than the federal standards, then you get an exemption from the federal requirements. But if not, you're out of luck. You got to comply with all the, all the federal regulatory provisions. Now, what that meant is if it had passed, it would have been basically a subsidy for states like New York and California and it would have screwed Texas. It, it was a, A, a harm to the state of Texas. And so since they needed my approval to get it on the ndaa, when they sent it over to me, my, my answer was which part of hell no do you not understand? A subsidy for blue states that hurts Texas. I'm not signing off on what I did next, Ben. And this is again important in terms of how you win these legislative fights. I directed my legislative staff, let's draft legislation that actually does what their press release says that lessens the regulatory burdens on building new fabs in the United States. We did that. Mark Kelly, who had been the lead sponsor of the original legislation, the Democrat from Arizona, Mark, came to me and he said, ted, would you be willing to work with me on drafting legislation that could actually pass? And look, they're looking at again, billions of dollars of semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona. So Mark cared deeply about it and I said, sure, I'm happy to do that. And so my office redrafted the legislation, working with Mark Kelly's legislation legislative team, and we ended up attaching that bill, it was Kelly Cruz, to the ndaa. It is a big, big deal. It will produce billions of dollars of economic activity in Texas and in states across the country. It will produce thousands of new jobs. And critically, it does so in a way that it doesn't put a finger on the scale benefiting big blue states at the expense of the state of Texas. It was a massive victory. And to have eight victories simultaneously in one single day at the Senate, that was a big, big deal.
- [40:07]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, huge deal. And congrats on those victories because they're gonna have a huge impact for people in Texas and also around the country. Want to tell you about Patriot Mobile. If you have a cell phone like I do and 99% of the people out there do, there's one thing that is pretty crazy and that is where many companies are giving your money. Did you know that some of the big mobile companies are massive donors to Planned Parenthood? Did you know they're actually fighting against your values? Now, people that did find this out, there was a problem. Where else were you going to go to get dependable nationwide coverage? There wasn't an option. Well, there is now and that's Patriot Mobile. They offer you that dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks, which means you get the same coverage that you have been accustomed to without funding. The woke left when you switch to Patriot Mobile and this is the part I love the most, you're sending a clear message that you support free speech, religious freedom, sanctity of life, the second amendment and our military are veterans and first responder heroes. Now why do I say that? Because they take a portion of your bill and they give it back to these causes. Now they have a 100% US based customer service team. So you are dealing with a company that values American workers and they make switching easy. Whether it's for you, your entire family or a business or a small business. You can keep your same numbers, you can keep your same phones or upgrade. The team will help you find the best plan for your needs. So check out patriot mobile.com all right, slash verdict. That's patriot mobile.com verdict or call them. If you use the promo code verdict, you'll also get free activation when you use that promo code verdict. 878 Patriot. That's 878 Patriot or patriot mobile.com/verdict. Senator, finally I want to pay off on on what we tease. At the very beginning. We know just how corrupt the media is and lately it feels like we are in a banana republic. What's funny is it's actually the media that was talking about the Banana. Banana republic. When Donald Trump was looking to investigate the corruption of the Biden crime family. Now that we actually have that level of corruption in our White House and the DOJ that is trying to cover it up and the FBI that's trying to cover it up, what's funny is now no one's talking about the banana republic that we're living in. We have a montage that we put together, then we want to play it for you. You're going to want to share this with your family and your friends. This is an incredible moment. And we're going to go back and forth. You're going to hear them talking about Donald Trump and Bill Barr back in 2019, 2020 with the election, and then you're gonna hear some of the different things they said back and forth about it with today. Take a listen carefully. This is truly shocking. And share this on your social media platforms.
- [43:08]
Media Personality
Right. Attorney General in position to do it. We now know they really have been trying to gin up criminal prosecutions and criminal investigations into the president's perceived enemies. Politically motivated persecution. Right? Courtesy of Bill Barr. I'll roll in the FBI on you. That's how banana republics work. Right?
- [43:27]
Senator Ted Cruz
The home of the 45th President of the United States has been raided by the FBI.
- [43:32]
Media Personality
Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. I feel worried about the prospect of the Justice Department being used as a tool of this president or any. In our little banana republic. Any capable prosecutor can get a grand jury to hand down an indictment of something as innocent as a ham sandwich. They an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump.
- [43:56]
Ben Ferguson
Breaking news on former President Trump. He's been indicted for the fourth time in five months.
- [44:00]
Media Personality
Bill Barr, on the president's behalf, is weaponizing the Justice Department to go after the president's enemies. When you win an election, you don't seek to just prosecute the losing side. The president using the Justice Department as a weapon to get what he wants.
- [44:14]
Senator Ted Cruz
Department of justice is totally politicized. Seeking the Department of Justice on political.
- [44:19]
Media Personality
Opponents, threatening to imprison his political rival, banana republic style. Trying to exact revenge against all of his enemies. Tin pot dictator and a banana republic.
- [44:28]
Senator Ted Cruz
Is acting more like a banana republic dictator.
- [44:32]
Media Personality
He's using government resources to go after his political opponent.
- [44:36]
Senator Ted Cruz
Essentially, we are a banana republic. That we are. We are seeking to have a bogus and criminal investigation into a political opponent.
- [44:46]
Ben Ferguson
And that's using the Department of Justice.
- [44:49]
Media Personality
To also target Trump's political opponent for nefarious reasons. This is a massive abuse of power and a betrayal of our values.
- [44:56]
Ben Ferguson
President of the United States is targeting a family member of a political opponent. This is the type of thing that happens in a banana republic.
- [45:04]
Media Personality
And trying to take out a political rival in Joe Biden.
- [45:07]
Ben Ferguson
Criminally investigating an American political rival, someone the president is worried about losing to.
- [45:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
In the next election.
- [45:12]
Media Personality
To investigate my principal opponent or a principal opponent in the upcoming election. Houston, we have a problem.
- [45:19]
Senator Ted Cruz
Don't you think that's something that should be investigated when the incumbent political party opens a counterintelligence investigation on the candidate of the opposing party? We know Trump is itching to politicize the Justice Department and the Attorney general has been super shady.
- [45:35]
Media Personality
The President is weaponizing the Department of Justice to bring cases against his enemies. The Department of Justice is in an existential crisis again. It's yet another example of the Justice Department basically losing all of its independence in this administration. This is now about corrupting the next election. And for me, this was crossing the red line. A president who is actively trying to potentially steal the upcoming election.
- [45:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
But to try to take out a political rival. The end goal being 2020. Donald Trump and his attorney general are.
- [46:06]
Media Personality
Using the Justice Department. The only difference between this and. And a banana republic is that Trump.
- [46:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Does not eat fruit. The 2020 election is really the last chance we have to stop our system from fully sliding into a corrupt banana republic.
- [46:18]
Media Personality
Bill Barr has done everything that Donald Trump has wanted him to do. Yeah, we're living in a banana republic right now.
- [46:23]
Senator Ted Cruz
When you start using the Justice Department to go after your enemies, that's. That's very, very dangerous.
- [46:30]
Media Personality
Donald Trump is using the Department of Justice to go after his enemies in any way that he can. Having to head of the chief federal law enforcement agency essentially working on his behalf to investigate a political rival, to investigate a.
- [46:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
The family of a political opponent. Basically banana republic behavior.
- [46:50]
Media Personality
We're no better than some, you know, some banana republic.
- [46:54]
Ben Ferguson
And he's using the abuse of power.
- [46:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
And every element of the presidency to.
- [47:00]
Ben Ferguson
Try to do something, to smear me. We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by.
- [47:09]
Media Personality
If we.
- [47:10]
Ben Ferguson
If he does run. If he does run. Wow. Senator, when you hear it together, there is no such thing as a. Is a media that's authentic or genuine anymore. This is all straight up propaganda. And they accused the Trump administration of doing exactly what's happening in real life right now.
- [47:29]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. The corporate media today is utterly and completely corrupt. It's hypocritical. The irony is what they were accusing Trump of doing and the Trump DOJ of doing they weren't doing. You didn't see the Trump Department of Justice trying to indict Joe Biden. You didn't see them using the Trump Department of Justice to go after their enemies. You didn't see this kind of abuse of power, the politicization that has unfolded. Look, in over 200 years of our nation's history, we've never indicted a president or a former president. And now we have done so not just once, but four separate times in the last year. And you want to talk about a banana republic, that's what banana republics do. And the fact that all of these useful idiots on TV use that language, it shows that they actually understand what abuse of power looks like, what it means, but they just don't care. It is only from their perspective an abuse of power if it's the side they don't like, even if the side they don't like isn't doing it. And it's a principle we've talked about quite a bit, which is what the left accuses their opponents of doing is almost without exception, what they are in fact doing themselves. And I gotta say that is powerfully, powerfully true in that montage, because every single thing they falsely accused the Trump Department of Justice and the Trump FBI of doing is exactly what the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI has been doing.
- [49:14]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. Make sure you take this podcast, share this with your family and friends. They can hear that montage because it is so powerful. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So hit that follow button if you are listening on Apple or the auto download or subscribe button, they call it different things on different platforms. Make sure you that you do that. Also listen to my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, on those days when we don't publish on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, as I do a podcast every one of those days. So we'll keep you informed on the latest breaking news. So download that as well and we will see you back here in a couple of days.