← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Biden DOJ Executes Search Warrant to Compile an ENEMIES LIST of Everyone Who Has Ever LIKED a Trump Tweet, plus Fireworks on Senate Judiciary Committee
00:46:49
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- [00:02]
Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And we've got quite a few issues to talk about, including some fireworks that happen in the Judiciary Committee over some nominees and some people that just flat out aren't qualified. What are the Democrats doing? We're going to take you behind the scenes to what happened there, why this is so important for this country. Coming up in just a moment. Also, the center makes, I think, what may be his debut in Hollywood and a new movie that's out. Tell you about that coming up in just a moment. But before we get to that center, I want to get your reaction to some news that broke. Special Counsel Jack Smith seems to be putting together together an enemies list, and quite a few listeners of this podcast may be on that list. He has demanded that X, formerly known as Twitter, is to give all information on all Americans who interacted with Donald J. Trump in the on Twitter between October of 2020 while he was the President of the United States of America to January of 2021. This would include people that did something as simple as liking a tweet of the President of the United States of America. Your reaction to this heavily redacted search warrant requesting everyone's intel that interacted with Trump?
- [01:30]
Ben Ferguson
It's completely outrageous. The Biden Justice Department wants information about you, and you mentioned an enemies list. That's exactly what they're compiling. They have literally served on Twitter a search warrant that demands every single person who liked a tweet from Trump or who retweeted a tweet from Trump between October 2020 and January 2021. I am quite certain I liked or retweeted multiple tweets. I'm quite certain you liked or retweeted multiple tweets. So you and I are both on the enemy's list and so is anybody else. That they're basically trying to compile a list of the social media of every Trump voter. And it's not even voter. It's just if you had something positive to say about the president, the Biden DOJ wants to know it. And they're also asking for, quote, all associated logs and metadata, which could, could cover location data as well. And, and, and so understand that they're asking for the physical location of every person who said something positive about Donald Trump on Twitter between October of 2020 and January of 2021. That is wildly overbroading. It is not related to anything remotely within the scope of the indictment and what they're trying to prosecute Trump for and the prosecution itself as we've discussed at great length, is bogus. But this is an example. Look, this is a political fishing expedition. They want to know every American, every American citizen, every American voter who dares say something positive about Trump. The Biden DOJ wants to know your name.
- [03:20]
Ted Cruz
This is something that you see in other countries like China, for example, and Russia, for example, and other nations where you have dictators and tyrants, where they will 100% constantly be tracking, following, and looking at every word that the citizens are saying. And what we also know is that Twitter initially delayed complying with this request, per the New York Post, resulting in a $350,000 fine levied against the company. What's also shocking about this warrant, who comes. And I. And I do think we need to remind people of exactly how radical and who this special counsel, Jack Smith is, because the warrant center also requests, quote, all IP addresses associated with the President. He was the president at the time, his account, as well as a list of all devices used to log into it. This means that any staffer, any aide who logged into the account would have the information divulged to the special prosecutor. And this isn't after Donald Trump left office. This is spying on the president and his staff while he was the President of the United States of America.
- [04:38]
Ben Ferguson
Well, look, and this is very much consistent with the abuse of power we've seen from the Biden DOJ and from Democrats. The four indictments against Donald Trump are all about weaponizing the Department of Justice, weaponizing local Democrat DAs to go after and attack the leading candidate for president on the Republican side right now. And, you know, this is very much also in the spirit of the abusive Fulton county indictment, where the prosecutor there alleges that they've indicted a number of people on RICO counts. And the basis for that, or one of the significant bases they rely upon, it are individual tweets that Trump sent. And the theory is that the President of the United States sending a tweet was somehow racketeering, that it was violated the RICO laws. This is wacky stuff. This is not. Oh, that's a reasonable argument that. I mean, saying that the President of the United States by sending a tweet, is committing a felony is utterly bizarre, and it demonstrates a contempt for free speech. Look, the President of the United States has a free speech right to send tweets. You may not like his tweets. You don't have to read his tweets if you don't like them. But Democrats have, number one when it comes to Trump, just Their brains are broken. They hate him so much that, that they now believe, apparently, that his sending a tweet is a criminal act. And they also want to know if you sent a tweet. And by the way, on the same theory, I don't know if maybe retweeting Trump in their twisted world is a criminal act. What it demonstrates is a political obsession, a willingness to abuse power, a grotesque over breadth, and a complete contempt for free speech and the First Amendment.
- [06:42]
Ted Cruz
There's also another aspect of this, and that is, look, you've done this, I've done this. I've retweeted people that I disagree with to bring light to something that they've said that I think is egregious or just incompetent or maybe even just laughable. I shouldn't be dragged into a special counsel's obsession over that individual just because I, on a public forum, retweeted someone that I disagree with. I've retweeted AOC and Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and Joe Biden countless times with things that they've said. And others are liberals in the media that I've retweeted before. That shouldn't give them the right to then come look at what I've been doing because somehow it's connected to that individual. Or am I wrong?
- [07:31]
Ben Ferguson
You're not wrong. But this is. It's an enemy's list. It is an abuse of power from doj. And Jack Smith is. He has Captain Ahab and he is going after his white whale and he is going to try to plunge a harpoon into Donald Trump and he wants to kill him no matter what. It is his obsession. And by the way, that's why Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith to that position, because they want to frustrate democracy. And this is where, you know, Ben, it's actually amazing. The radical left has an almost Freudian projection. Whatever they accuse you of doing is in fact what they are doing. So the standard Democrat talking point nowadays is they're defending democracy. They're defenders of democracy. That's what this election is about. Joe Biden loves saying that. The reason for these indictments are because the Democrats are terrified of democracy. The reason for these indictments is the Democrats are terrified that the voters, come November, will go in and vote for Donald Trump. And so they're trying to use the justice system to destroy the leading Republican candidate. Why? Because they want to interfere with the election. They want to stop democracy from operating.
- [09:01]
Ted Cruz
There's also an invasion of privacy aspect of this. I'm going to talk about something else that's in this warrant in just a moment that deals with that. But first let me tell you about our friends over at patriot mobile. For 10 years, patriot mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. And when I say only, trust me, they really are the only one. The team at Patriot Mobile put this coming together so that you could stop giving your money to woke big mobile companies that give massive donations to Democrats and massive donations to organizations like Planned Parenthood. Patriot Mobile also offers dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks. What does that mean? It means you get the same coverage that you're accustomed to without funding the left's agenda. And when you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're sending a clear message that you support free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, the second amendment as well as our military, our veterans and our first responder heroes in this country. They have 100% US based customer service team that also makes switching easy. And you get to keep your same cell phone number if you want to. You get to keep your same phone you have right now or upgrade to a new one. And every month when you pay your bill, a portion of your bill goes back to support conservative causes at no extra cost to you. So stop giving your mind awoke companies and switch to Patriot Mobile. Go to patriot mobile.com verdict. That's patriot mobile.com/verdict. Use a promo code verdict. You'll get free activation as well. Or you can call them 972-PATRIOT. That's 972-PATRIOT patriot mobile.com verdict Senator, there was also something else in this warrant as we were getting some of this information that was coming in that was very alarming to me. And it's, and it's a, it's a free speech, but also a invasion of privacy aspect, especially when you're talking about them wanting to get this information on who was the then sitting President, United States of America. And that was this, quote, all information. And this is what the warrant had in it on Trump's quote connect and notification tabs within the Twitter app was requested as well as his entire search history. All of the people that he blocked on Twitter, anyone that he didn't block but you can mute so you don't see their tweets. And the most shocking part was this, even drafted tweets that he never sent out. How can they justify that type of invasion of his privacy?
- [11:44]
Ben Ferguson
Well, they're engaged in a fishing expedition, I will say, given that there is an active indictment against Trump. That electronic information they can probably get, and that's, you know, if you've been indicted and have a criminal prosecution against you, and you have electronic records that are arguably relevant to the case, the prosecution can get those. And where the warrant goes wildly overboard is extending not just to Trump, who is now a criminal defendant and has to defend himself, but it's extending to 80 million Americans. It's extending to every American who hit retweet or like for a period of three months on any Trump tweet. I mean, that's insanely overbroad. I will note also that the warrant instructed Twitter not to notify Trump of the search order. That.
- [12:49]
Ted Cruz
Is that, is that a normal way of a warrant reading or is that also egregious in the way that they describe it?
- [12:56]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it depends. And what. So Twitter went and argued and tried to fight this. And Jack Smith in court argued, quote, there is reason to believe notification to the former president, a sophisticated actor with an expansive platform, would result in a statutorily cognizable harm. The non disclosure order was granted based on facts showing that notifying the former president would result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, or other serious jeopardy to an investigation or delaying of trial. Look, if you're, if you're seeking someone's electronic records, that's not that unusual to say, don't like. If someone goes after your bank records, it's not that unusual that they would not notify you of it. What is unusual is going after every other person who was not involved in the case in any way at all and getting the record of every time Ben Ferguson liked Donald Trump, that is completely overbroad.
- [14:05]
Ted Cruz
I have to say, I want to give some credit here to X. Twitter, not only did they initially delay complying with this request that resulted in a $350,000 fine, but they also went to court trying to stop this abuse of power. And I think that's something that should not be overlooked in this story, that they were trying to protect the users and they realized, I think, how egregious this was and they deserve to, I think, give. A lot of us, a lot of us should appreciate the fact that Elon Musk didn't just say, come on in, here's the books, grab whatever you want, and said, no, no, no, you, we're gonna, we're gonna fight you. This is not okay.
- [14:43]
Ben Ferguson
Yep, fully agree. And I think Twitter or X, they handled it exactly right. But this Biden doj, this is a political department of justice, and it's doing enormous and ongoing damage to the integrity of DOJ and to the rule of law. Politicized prosecutions and weaponizing criminal prosecutions, that does big, big damage.
- [15:09]
Ted Cruz
I wanna move on also to some other news, and it is not really hit outside of what happened within the Senate Judiciary Committee. And there was a lot of fireworks that happened the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. We're taping this late, obviously, on Thursday evening. But. But explain what was going on the Senate Judiciary Committee and what was happening there. As the Hill's headline was Senate GOP Stages Hearing Walk out to protest Supreme Court Related subpoenas. Lindsey Graham slammed Democrats. John Cornyn blasting Democrat Senator Dick Durbin. You were blasting and defending your colleague, Senator John Kennedy, and ripping apart the Senate Democrats for consistently serving a rubber stamp, as you described it. So tell us how this all happened and kind of out of nowhere.
- [16:01]
Ben Ferguson
Well, we began the day with a markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and it began by the Senate Judiciary Committee voting on two judges that actually Democrats had voted out of committee before, but one of the Democrats was not physically present in the room. And so we didn't have a quorum. And so they screwed it up last time. They had to go back and do it again. And then there were also other judges that were up, up for being voted on. And on top of that, the Democrats were seeking to issue subpoenas to go after Leonard Leo, who was long time with the Federalist Society, very active in judicial matters and judicial selection, a very longtime friend of mine, and to go after Harlan Crow, a very successful Texas businessman who is very close friends with Clarence Thomas. And so we had over two hours of fireworks. I mean, Judiciary is always vigorous. It's a little bit like the Roman Coliseum, where you get, you know, strong partisan warriors on both sides of the aisle. They go at it a lot. That being said, what happened today was really extraordinary. So we started off that Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, wanted to vote on the two nominees that he screwed up last time and didn't have a quorum for. And a number of Republican senators wanted to speak. John Cornyn wanted to speak, John Kennedy wanted to speak, Marsha Blackburn wanted to speak. And Durbin just plowed right over them, just said, shut up. No, you can't speak. You can't speak on these judges. We're just voting. And it was. It was a remarkable thing.
- [17:44]
Ted Cruz
It's something that's not the normal course of business. That doesn't happen. Correct, on a normal Normally that's abnormal, right?
- [17:51]
Ben Ferguson
It is wildly abnormal. I've never seen it anymore. John Cornyn, who usually does not get all that excited or worked up, here's what he said to Durbin. He said, quote, you just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate. Congratulations on destroying the United States Senate Judiciary Committee to try to silence your opponents. Well, it reflects the arbitrary abuse of power that characterizes the Biden DOJ and characterizes the Senate Democrats. We also saw Senate Democrats once again, just, just rubber stamp nominees. And you know, I was unloading in particular on a nominee out of Connecticut who has a really radical record. She, she signed a letter during COVID urging the governor of Connecticut to release as many prisoners as possible from jail and by the way, with no distinction to whether they're violent. And the letter, among other things, called on the governor to release 100% all of the prisoners in pretrial detention. So if you've been arrested, say for murder, this nominee was saying, well, we should just let you go if you're arrested for rape or child molesting, all of them. And that's really a radical, radical position. And so I unloaded on the Democrats for being so extreme, so out of step. And in fact, I suggested to them, I said, look, just because you're Democrats doesn't mean that you have to just roll over and rubber stamp whatever it is the Biden White House wants. And I pointed out, as Republicans, we didn't do that to Donald Trump. And in particular, you know, I invoked the well known bracelets that some people wear. Wwjd. What would Jesus do? And I said, look, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, let me suggest a modification on that, which is y'all ought to wear a bracelet that says wwjkd, which is what would John Kennedy do? And the reason I use that analogy is that John Kennedy, multiple times with Trump, judges had withering cross examinations. And for judges who were not qualified, those cross examinations resulted in those nominees being defeated. And I was telling the Democrats, you know, you actually can behave like a senator. You don't just have to be puppets of the White House, but not one of them.
- [20:37]
Ted Cruz
Let's play a few of these clips because they're important and I want people to be able to hear what was happening because this is a room filled with a lot of tents, moments, and here's a few of those.
- [20:47]
C
Constitution gives this body the power of advice and consent, but it only works if people have the backbone to use it. If you view your job as I'm a rubber stamp for the Biden White House, whoever they send us. Look, the Democrats on this committee have already signed off on three nominees. The Department of Justice who want to abolish the police. You've already signed off on a radical judge who describes himself in his own words as a, quote, wild eyed liberal, says he wakes up every morning motivated by hatred for conservatives. He's a federal judge in New York. God help you if you're a conservative and you're in his court. You go sit there. Your honor, you realize your honor woke up that morning motivated by hatred of you. But every Democrat thought that was fine. That looks like good judge to us.
- [21:34]
Ted Cruz
That was one of your best moments. And then as you mentioned, you were talking about John Kennedy and reminding that Republicans have held their own to a higher standard as well.
- [21:45]
C
Because John Kennedy actually respects what it means to be a judge.
- [21:48]
Ben Ferguson
He spent too many time, too much.
- [21:50]
C
Time in too many courtrooms to know.
- [21:52]
Ben Ferguson
If you have a jackass who doesn't.
- [21:54]
C
Know what he's doing or an ideologue on the bench. It's bad for the rule of law. And y'all remember John Kennedy torpedoed Trump judge after Trump judge. We had a lot of great judges, but we had some that weren't great. And the ones that weren't great, the Republicans on this committee said, no, go back and do it again. Is there even a single Democrat who could look at that bracelet? What would John Kennedy do and say, you know what? A judge who calls for releasing every violent criminal in the state of Connecticut, who's on pretrial containment, that shouldn't be a judge.
- [22:40]
Ted Cruz
Did it change the demeanor of the room when you were talking that bluntly and reminding them of the facts that, hey, we've gotten rid of some of our own bad nominees, or was it just, nope, we're Democrats and we're going to just keep doing exactly what we do and you guys need to shut up.
- [22:54]
Ben Ferguson
So the amazing thing is the Democrats don't engage at all when I'm talking. They're all looking down, they're looking at their feet, they're looking at their phones. They don't look up, they don't engage. None of them respond on the merits to anything you say. You know, when I point out this radical judge's record and I pointed out, I went down the road, I said, listen, I don't care how blue your states are. You know, some of the Democrats there, they're from Illinois and Rhode island and Minnesota and New Jersey and California and Delaware. I said, look, Look, I don't care how blue your state is. Go to Vermont. Peter Welch is from Vermont. Bring your, Bring your constituents together. Ask them if they think it's a good idea to release every violent criminal that's being held on pretrial detention. Every murderer, every serial rapist, just let him go. Like, even in the blue Estates, they will say, that's nutty. And this goes back to a theme that we've talked about a lot, that I talk about a lot in my new book on Woke, which is because the media is so corrupt, the Democrats know that no matter how egregious the votes are they cast, the media won't report on it. So they'll never get asked back home about the radicals they're voting for because it'll Never make the 6:00 news. CNN won't cover it. The New York Times won't cover it. It just, it disappears. And, and so they don't have substantive responses to these points. They just utterly ignore it. And as I said today, I said, look, look, they vote like the Politburo in the old Soviet Union. They just raise their hands and go, dah. And in fact, when it came to voting on this one radical judge, when it came to me, I decided to vote. Normally, I would have voted no, but instead I voted nyet, which did at least get a couple of chuckles, but not a single Democrat, if they have any shame, they don't demonstrate it.
- [25:07]
Ted Cruz
I did love the way that Texas was really represented. You mentioned John Cornyn earlier. He's a guy that doesn't usually get that, you know, kind of animated, excited. But. But I want to play this because it was a great day for all Texans in the Senate.
- [25:23]
Ben Ferguson
Chairman, who has not been allowed to speak on that.
- [25:26]
D
Mr. Chairman, you just destroyed.
- [25:28]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [25:28]
D
One of the most important committees in the United States Senate. Chairwood. And you set a precedent. The church will be repeated. Every time one party or the other takes advantage and takes the low road, it sets a precedent that will then be come the norm. Congratulations on destroying the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
- [25:53]
Ted Cruz
I mean, you've served with Senator Cornyn for a long time. That's his I'm pissed voice. And he was not going to be interrupted as he was making that point. And it was a great moment, at least for Texas, especially for citizens here, because you guys were united in saying. And the way he described it, you guys are taking the low road here. And this is going to come back to bite you one day.
- [26:12]
Ben Ferguson
Well, look, that's exactly right. And then after, After The Democrats rammed these nominees through. They then voted on the subpoenas. And they had subpoenas, as I said, for two private citizens. One of them is Leonard Leo. I've known Leonard for 30 years. Leonard for years was with the Federalist Society. I joined the Federalist Society in 1992 when I was just graduated from college and I was a first year law student. I joined the Federalist Society when I was a first year law student. I've known Leonard since that time, since 1992. So we've been friends for 30 years. He is a principled conservative. He has been a warrior fighting for constitutionalists on the bench. And the Democrats hate him because they don't want constitutionalists on the bench. And then they also were voting on a subpoena for Harlan Crow, someone else I know very, very well, an incredibly successful real estate developer and businessman in Texas and Dallas, who he and his wife are very, very close friends with. Clarence Thomas and Justice Thomas wife. And all of us were horrified at their ongoing campaign. The Democrats campaign to delegitimize the Supreme Court and in particular to smear Clarence Thomas and the attacks that they directed. Clarence Thomas I think are suffused with racism. I agree that four left wing Democrats, they have a hatred for Clarence Thomas that is qualitatively different from any other justice on the court, any other conservative. You know, for years Clarence Thomas served alongside Antonin Scalia. Both were equally conservative and yet the left didn't hate Scalia. They disagreed with him, but they didn't hate him. For today's Democrats, they have a contempt, a loathing for a black man who dares to be a conservative. That, that, that for today's leftist is triggering. They believe an African American man does not have the right to disagree with the left wing orthodoxy that the cultural Marxists are trying to force down your throat. And so they heap contempt. You know, I put up in hearings before magazine covers where they've shown Clarence Thomas, they've drawn him as a lawn jockey, they, they've drawn him as an Uncle Tom licking the boots of Justice Scalia. I mean just, just, just heavily racist cartoons from the left. And so in response to these subpoenas, Senate Republicans did two things. Number one, we did what's called, we invoked the two hour rule, which is a Senate, Senate rule that, that limits the length of a hearing. Because we invoked that rule, it meant that they had to conclude all of their business by noon. Well, Durbin screwed up again. He didn't finish by noon and he actually voted on the subpoenas at 1202. So he was two minutes late. Under the Senate rules those subpoenas are invalid because at noon the committee was no longer allowed to conduct any business under the Senate rules. So the subpoenas were invalid, number one, because Durbin did it too late and did not comply with the two hour rule. But number two, we did something very unusual which is every Republican got up and left, walked out of the hearing room when they began to vote on the subpoenas. And the reason we did that is we denied the committee a quorum. Under the rules there have to be at least two members of the minority party in the room for the committee to be able to conduct business. And so we left and denied them a quorum. Now Durbin, the Democrats don't care if they're following the rules. So he just voted with only Democrats and then he announced that, that, that the 11 Democrats had voted and so the subpoenas would issue. But if and when anyone tries to enforce those subpoenas, the lawyers for the targets of the subpoenas, the lawyers for Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow will undoubtedly argue that the subpoenas are invalid, number one, because they violated the two hour rule. And number two, cuz they were issued without a quorum. And that for, for all of the Republicans to walk out and deny a quorum is something extremely rare. And it is indicative of just how, how much the Democrats are abusing their power right now.
- [30:56]
Ted Cruz
And Senator, I also want to ask you just about this double standard with them coming after Clarence Thomas, but completely overlooking some of the major ethical problems that some of the Democrats should have to answer for, especially on the Supreme Court. Before I do that though, I gotta tell you about our friends at blackout coffee. I do late nights like tonight and early mornings. I DO radio at 7am and I. There's one thing I look forward to in the morning and that's a good cup of coffee. Not just a cup of coffee. I want a good cup of coffee. Well, if you like a quality cup of coffee, then you're gonna love blackout coffee. Why? Because when number one they're an American first coffee company. Yes. This coffee is 100% America and, and 0% woke blackout coffee is 100 committed to conservative value. So you're getting rid of that prospect of giving your money to another woke coffee bean company. You know the ones I'm talking about. From sourcing the beans to the roasting process, customer support and shipping. Blackout coffee embodies true American values. And they accept no compromise on taste or quality. Quality that's what I'm talking about is that premium coffee. Now here's the cool thing. You can try out blackout coffee right now by going to blackoutcoffee.com verdict and you're going to save 20 off your first order by using the coupon code verdict. So go to blackoutcoffee.com Verdict Use promo code VERDICT20 off your first order. You can check out all of their incredible gift ideas for Christmas. So if you have a coffee drinker that works with you, you need to give him a gift or family member or stocking stuffer. Go check out blackout coffee and save big blackoutcoffee.com verdict. Be awake, not woke. That's blackoutcoffee.com verdict use promo code verdict. You know, one of the issues I think here is also the fact that when it comes to ethics complaints, Democrats, they, they came after Clarence Thomas and will never stop. But there's even headlines. You don't have to look for them. One of them is the Associated Press. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books. That would be a major violation of ethics, right?
- [33:15]
Ben Ferguson
Well, we've seen from the Democrats a complete double standard when it comes to the so called ethics standards. So everything they're accusing Clarence Thomas of doing, of taking trips, of going, going flying on private planes, of traveling to give speeches or go to some swanky resort, everything that Clarence Thomas did, the left wing justices did, too. Stephen Breyer did so. Ruth Bader Ginsburg did so. Sonia Sotomayor did so. Stephen Breyer flew all over the world on planes of left wing billionaires and the Democrats. And to be clear, the Supreme Court's ethics rules allowed both of them to do that. They were both complying with the ethics rules. And so what the Democrats are doing here is they're playing a game of gotcha, which is they are attacking Clarence Thomas for doing the same thing all the other justices are doing. And they're ignoring the fact that the ethics rules that govern justices allow them to take those trips. And it is their objective is it's not complicated. They want to smear. They want to destroy Clarence Thomas, number one. But number two, they want to delegitimize the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court is the one major institution in Washington that the left right now does not control. And even worse, from their perspective, the Supreme Court is holding the Biden administration to account and forcing them to comply with the Constitution and with the law. And the radical left doesn't want to comply with the Constitution and the law. And so this is a political effort designed to attack and tear down the court.
- [35:06]
Ted Cruz
And part of delegitimizing the court. Final question on this is if they can delegitimize it, then they can pack the court and say that's how they're going to fix this illegitimate court. How concerned are you that that idea and dream could become a reality in the next five, 10 years? Because it seems that they're really focused on this idea of, all right, well, if we don't have the numbers, we'll just pack the damn court and then, bam, we remake it. Now we're in charge. We can do whatever the hell we want to do.
- [35:36]
Ben Ferguson
The Democrats are one vote away from having the votes to pack the U.S. supreme Court. So the Democrats tried to end the filibuster. The filibuster is the requirement that it takes 60 votes to pass major legislation in the Senate. 48 of the Democrats are willing to end the filibuster. There are only two who refuse to do so, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. By the way, Manchin's not coming back. He's announced that he's not running for reelection. So one of those two will be gone. And if the Democrats go from 48 to 50 and Kamala Harris is still the Vice president, they will have the votes to end the filibuster. They would do so. And one of the very first things they would do is pack the U.S. supreme Court. They would, they would grow the number of justices from nine justices to 13. So they could immediately appoint four radical left wing justices who would then overturn landmark decisions protecting free speech, protecting religious liberty, protecting the Second Amendment. If they are able to pack the Supreme Court, they have the potential of doing permanent damage to the rule of law and to your and my constitutional rights.
- [36:59]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, it's something we're going to have to watch certainly in this election year, this presidential election year coming up and remind people these are those reasons why it's so important to actually go out and vote. When we see low voter turnout in presidential areas, I always, I always say go back to Supreme Court and you look at what we were able to accomplish with Donald Trump and Supreme Court nominees. It was incredible. And that is a legacy that can, can be there for decades on end. Finally, let's, let's talk about something that was really fun, I think, and I googled this, but I got inconclusive exclusive data here. Senator, I think that you had your silver screen debut with a new movie that has come out. Lady Ballers. It is a Daily Wire movie, Lady Ballers. And it's making everybody freak out, which makes even more fun in the media. And they're saying you're now starring in a transgender film, which really made me laugh when I saw that headline. So. So talk about this debut of yours. Congratulations, movie star. I guess we can put that in on the resume, right? This is pretty cool.
- [38:07]
Ben Ferguson
Well, it was very cool. So last night I went to the world premiere of the movie, and it was in Nashville. The name of the movie is Lady Ballers, and it was put out by the Daily Wire. And it's a comedy. It's a really funny comedy. It reads. It's an awful lot like dodgeball. It's kind of the same sort of slapstick. But the script is really well written. It's got a. It's got a terrific cast. And the premise is that you have five guys who won the Tennessee state high school basketball championship, and 20 years later, they're all kind of down on their luck, and they decide they're going to compete as women's basketball players and dominate women's basketball. And because of today's WOKE ideology, if they say they're women, uh, they get praised as. As. As beautiful and brave and. And. And it. I. I gotta tell you, the script is. It's just really damn funny. So I went. I was in a big theater in Nashville. The theater was packed. Everyone was cracking up, laughing. There are a whole bunch of cameos in. In the movie Now I have a tiny cameo. So. So I'm in the movie. I. I have two lines. Uh, but. But it was fun. I. I flew to Nashville while they were filming.
- [39:26]
Ted Cruz
Hold on, hold on. How many takes it. Take you to get it right? That's. That's the real question, if you've gone pro here in the movie world.
- [39:32]
Ben Ferguson
Well, I. They probably had me do about 20 takes of it now. I don't know. I don't know that I screwed it up 19 times, but. But they kept telling me, okay, do it again, do it again, do it again. So I did, did, did, did a whole bunch of takes of it, and it. It was a ton of fun. I flew in for one afternoon and shot the scene and left. But it was a blast, and it was really cool. And I will say the movie. Look, this is something we've talked about. This is something I talk about at a lot of length in my new book on woke. The chapter on entertainment. Entertainment is enormously consequential. And I talk about in the book on woke how the radical left has killed comedy. Late night TV shows are unwatchable and in fact, ironically so. Jimmy Kimmel, I blast in the book and I talk about how, you know, instead of like actually having real humor, we now just have angry leftists standing there screaming, I hate Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the devil.
- [40:39]
Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [40:39]
Ben Ferguson
Ironically, Jimmy Kimmel took that excerpt from my book and he read it in his monologue and it was, it was, it was actually even funnier. Kimmel then followed it up by having a drag queen read excerpts of my book to little kids, which was as much as I said it was unfunny. That was actually kind of funny that he did that. I gotta laugh at that.
- [41:01]
C
But look.
- [41:04]
Ben Ferguson
Entertainment is powerful, culture is powerful and comedy is powerful. And what I was happy about this movie is that it's really funny. I mean, it is. I mean, as you know, I'm a huge movie buff. I love movies, I love comedies, I love, you know, laughing and cutting up and having fun. And this, the movie, I would recommend it to everyone. It's. And I'm glad to see, look, the Daily Wire is investing a lot of money and trying to compete against Hollywood producing good content. And that's one of the critical tools we have to do if we're going to take the institutions back.
- [41:47]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, it's so important. And you look at just. It's not just that when these come out that we support them. And I think that's the point you're making is, look, go watch this movie and support it. Because if we do, then we get to make more of them and others will be inspired. When you see people that are trying to fight back in spaces that are really hard, like Hollywood, and they put something out that's on Netflix, that something that's, that is made for, for, for our audience and conservatives, make sure you support it. Because if you don't, the left will continue to beat the living crap out of us in the entertainment industry. And they do change hearts and minds. I mean, there was a there, I mean, you. When you ran for president, I'm sure you saw the data likability. And if Hollywood's behind you and if you have famous stars behind you, I mean, the Democratic National Convention is not about the politicians. It's about the movie stars and the mood and the music groups that show up to entertain the people watching on tv. And they beat us at that game. And that's why it's so important to get behind movies like this.
- [42:50]
Ben Ferguson
Look, I think that's exactly right. The movie also has A bunch of different cameos in it. So Ben Shapiro is in it. Jeremy Boreing is actually one of the stars of it. Matt Walsh is in it, Clay Travis is in it, Riley Gaines is in it, Jordan Peterson is in it. So there are lots of cameos that are really fun and well done. And like Matt Walsh plays basically this like hippie dippy character who's really funny and Shapiro has just a quick little snippet. But it's hysterical what Ben does in it and that it was one of the fun things. And actually for Verdict listeners, you're in my dear friend Michael Knowles, the, my original co host on Verdict. Michael actually has a pretty sizable role in the movie. He plays a TV actor and he's got, you know, in the movie he's got like a little mustache that he wears. And so I saw Michael, I saw everyone at the premiere last night and I was giving Michael enormous grief saying, you know, you really need to keep that stash, Michael. I mean, it really does kind of, it has sort of a B level porn star actor look. Like, you know, I said, michael, you're rocking the Ron Jeremy look. And I think it really, it's worth continuing. Thankfully, he had the good judgment not to follow my advice on that front.
- [44:24]
Ted Cruz
I loved it. There was a picture he tweeted out of when your date night gets hijacked, third Wheel with you sitting next to him last night having a little fun at the premiere. It was a lot of fun. Make sure that you take a look at this movie and support conservatives when they do this. It's so vitally important. You're talking about standing up for what you believe in. And if you're against Guy and you are sick and tired of feeling like you've gotten a little bit older, maybe you, you feel like weakness and complacency have set in. You're not alone. Testosterone levels have literally fallen off a cliff historically and they're now at an all time low. Now, thankfully, the patriots at Chalk are here to help real men just like you, take back your right to proudly maximize your masculinity by boosting testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days. Yes, 20% over 90 days. Now, I've been taking the male vitality stack and it's manufactured right here in the US Of A. Chalk's natural herbal supplements are clinically proven to have game changing effects on your energy, your focus and your mood. So if you're ready to fight back and not give in to the weakness that everybody seems to be obsessed with, then check out chalk choq.com boost your testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days. Go online to choq.com that's choq.com check out the mail Vitality stack and use the promo code BEN for 35 off. That's right, you'll save 35% off right now for life at chalk c-oq.com promo code BEN don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a weekend recap on Saturdays. Make sure you share this podcast please wherever you are on social media. It also helped us tremendously reach new audience members if you write a five star review for us wherever you're listening. So if you would do that, it helps us reach more conservatives and more people that may not be listening to this show. And as always Monday, Wednesday and Friday we do the show. So hit that subscribe or follow button. And on those in between days, download my show, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. I'll keep you up to date on the breaking news in between those days. So download the Ben Ferguson Podcast podcast as well. And the Senator and I will see you back here for the weekend review on Saturday.