← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Biden Goes to War w/ Texas, China Donates to Penn Biden Center, & The Hard Road of a Presidential Campaign Week In Review
00:27:55
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, the week in review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, Joe Biden goes to war with the state of Texas and now it's gone all the way to the Supreme Court over the issue of securing the southern border. So why did the Supreme Court actually go with the Biden administration? Senator Cruz will break that down for you. Also, China donating massive amounts of money to the Biden Penn Center. How much? I'll give you the details on that. And finally, Senator Cruz shares his thoughts on the race for the GOP nomination. It's all over. So why is Nikki Haley still staying in? It is the week in review and it starts right now. Can you explain exactly what just happened at the Supreme Court when it came to the Supreme Court ruling that the Biden administration in a 5 to 4 decision can resume removal of the razor wire that was installed by the state of Texas along the border, specifically near Eagle Pass and they say at least while the litigation is ongoing. What was even more shocking I think is the fact that Roberts and Amy Comey Barrett sided with left leaning justices to rule in Biden administration's favor and allow the border patrol to go in and remove the razor wire which the Texas National Guard then put back up, at least from the latest videos we've seen from the border. This is a shocking moment. Many people in Texas are angry about this, saying what about states rights here? And how could these two conservative justices side with with the Biden administration?
- [01:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, this, this is a horrible decision. I'm angry about it. It is deeply disturbing fact. Number one, we are seeing an invasion at our southern border. 9.6 million illegal immigrants have crossed in under Joe Biden. It is deliberate. He wants this to happen. It is the worst illegal immigration in our nation's history. Number two, it's deliberate. Biden wants this to happen. The Democrats want this to happen. They are facilitating it. The they're accelerating it. That they are actively wanting more and more and more of it. So Texas understandably is responding to defend ourselves. I commend our governor. I commend our state legislature for acting to protect the sovereignty of Texas and for investing billions of dollars in border security and law enforcement and putting personnel and putting up barriers to try to stop this invasion of our state. Now what happened on this case? It arose to the Supreme Court on an emergency appeal on an injunction. There was an injunction against the federal government to stop the federal government from cutting down the razor wire. The Constantino wire that Texas had erected. And the Fifth Circuit, the Federal Court of Appeals, had upheld the injunction. What happened today, Tuesday, is the Supreme Court, by a vote of 5 to 4, vacated that injunction. What that means is right now the federal government has the legal ability to cut down that razor wire to allow illegal immigrants to continue invading the state. Now the good news, the merits of the appeal is still pending. And so the 5th Circuit can still rule on the merits of the appeal as to whether Texas has the authority. And by the way, the Supreme Court could still rule on the appeal. So it is possible that Texas prevails, that the results of an emergency appeal on an injunction are not always the same as the merits results on the substantive issue. So that's true. But at the end of the day, you had the three liberals, plus John Roberts, plus Amy Coney Barrett ruling for the Biden administration saying you can cut down this razor wire. Now, on one level I understand it that there is a heavy presumption in Washington, in federal courts, which is that the federal government gets to trump the states. And that is part of the Constitution is the supremacy clause that says the Constitution of federal law is the supreme law of the land. I think it is a real problem that John Roberts is a creature of Washington. I don't think he understands what is happening at the southern border. I think Amy Coney Barrett is a law professor from Indiana. I don't think she has any understanding of what's happening at the southern border. In ordinary times. If this were just a regular time and a state were trying to block what the federal government was doing, the Supreme Court would fairly routinely rule with feds. What I don't think these justices have a real appreciation for is how horrifically bad it is, how lawless it is what the Biden administration is doing. There's never been a president who refuses to follow the law like Joe Biden did. So here's the statement that the Border Patrol union put out today. Quote, the Supreme Court's decision today is going to undoubtedly encourage more illegal immigration. Unfortunately, this means Border Patrol agents are going to be tied up dealing with give ups rather than going after the criminal elements that constantly cross our border illegally. The administration no doubt will say this is a win for border security. But if they sought rank and file input, they would be told this will do the exact opposite. Agents support what Texas was trying to accomplish in the absence of true border security policies from this administration. I agree with the Border Patrol union and so I am angry, I'm frustrated. I think the Court is out of touch. I think they're just reflexively agreeing with the federal government against the states. And I think it is a profound mistake that that continues the invasion that's happening at our southern border.
- [06:25]
Ben Ferguson
To be clear. One other thing on this is when you hear the Biden administration say that they are working to secure the border, I think everybody needs to remember this moment that they, not only are they not, they went all the way to the Supreme Court to make sure they could unsecure portions of the border where razor wire was put up to secure the border. That's how much.
- [06:47]
Senator Ted Cruz
Hold on. I want to underscore what you're just saying. So today in the Capitol, as I was walking to the Capitol, lots of reporters wanted to ask me about this decision. And they said, well, gosh, Biden just says if Congress will pass the supplemental bill, then he'll have the ability to secure the border. And I said, listen, understand, Biden doesn't want to secure the border. He wants this crisis. He wants more illegal immigrants. And I said, for Pete's sakes, Biden is actively litigating against the state of Texas to stop Texas from securing the border. That's what they want. They want this invasion. And that's exactly what the Biden administration is doing with the emphatic support of essentially every Democrat member of the Senate and every Democrat member of the House.
- [07:33]
Ben Ferguson
It will be a huge election year issue. We will keep covering it here, that I can promise you. But I want to make sure that we got this out there. For many people that are asking that same question, why do these two justices, a lot of people, you know, believe they were conservative and they screwed the state of Texas, they screwed conservatives, they sided with the Biden administration. Your explanation hopefully will make a little bit of sense to people and understanding of why this happened. And it's still being litigated. I think that's something else we need to be clear about. It's still being litigated and that will play out. How long will it take for this to get a final ruling with through this litigation?
- [08:10]
Senator Ted Cruz
Potentially years. It could take a long time. And if Trump wins, it'll become mooted because Trump will stop litigating.
- [08:17]
Ben Ferguson
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now on to story number two. This is an issue at the University of Penn and the University of Penn, to remind people is what hosts the Biden think tank. And we are seeing now through the Biden Penn Center Chinese donations have skyrocketed, including money directly from the CCP sources. This coming from Fox News. It says the University of Pennsylvania, home of President Biden's think tank, recently tripled its donations originating from China. Records reviewed by Fox News digital Show the Washington, D.C. office of Biden's think tank, the Penn Biden center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, previously found itself under a microscope after confidential documents, top secret documents, were found at the center. The discovery led to questions regarding Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, which harbors that think tank. And that's just the beginning of this story.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it is. And the numbers are stunning. So from 2021 to 2022, Penn received $8.6 million from Communist China. 8.6 million in one year. Now that number staggering, but actually the next year they tripled their haul. So between mid 2022 and mid 2023, Penn pulled in $25 million from entities and individuals in China. So they tripled the amount. And overall, Penn has amassed nearly $130 million in donations from China between mid-2018 and mid-2023, which is a massive, massive increase. Why is China investing so heavily in Penn? And Penn just quinty, quinky dinky, happens to be the place that was paying Joe Biden before he was president nearly a million dollars a year for a no show job where occasionally showed up to teach a class and other than that, jetted around the world living like the idle rich. Coincidentally, is is a university where we now know that that Joe Biden illegally had classified documents stored. And, and all of this is intertwined. We know that Hunter Biden and the Biden family made millions of dollars from communist China, that Hunter Biden shook down the Chinese Communist for personal enrichment. And the obvious inference is it wasn't just enrichment of their family. It was also enrichment of Pennsylvania, which in turn was enriching the Biden family.
- [11:06]
Ben Ferguson
And the part that also is so frustrating is there's really no one that's covering this story. Stuart Varney on Fox Business, he did cover it and this is what it sounded like. But the rest of the media silent on this.
- [11:19]
Stuart Varney
Now this, the University of Pennsylvania seeing a big surge in Chinese donations. Lauren, how much are we talking about? And do we know why we got this big surge?
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Lauren
How much? $25 million dollars in one year between mid 2022 and the Middle of last year. That was triple the year before. Why? Good question. One donor is actually a political consultant for the ccp, another a private equity founder in China with ties to President Xi, President Biden was a professor at Penn. After he was vice president, the school paid him $776,000. That is way more than a professor makes.
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Unnamed Speaker
Yeah.
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Lauren
It hosts his think tank.
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Stuart Varney
Okay. You know, you know where we're going here.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
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Stuart Varney
I mean, the Biden family has taken a great deal of money from China.
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Lauren
Yeah, right. Yeah. And now the Chinese are giving money to the school where his think tank is and where his doc. Personal classified documents were found. Remember, in the office there.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. Yeah.
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Ben Ferguson
One of the things in that, in that reporting there that I think we should talk about is you're getting a donation from someone that advises the Chinese Communist Party. Senator, you deal with a lot of donations when you're running for office. If somebody gives you a massive donation and they're advising the Chinese Communist Party, I'm assuming you're not going to accept that. And if you. Or you're going to give it back, of course, this is not hard. And there's nobody asking the White House, hey, are you guys going to give this money back to communists that are trying to clearly buy influence?
- [12:48]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, they're clearly trying to buy influence at Penn. And nobody gives that kind of money for nothing. They don't give that kind of money without expecting to get a benefit in return. And the interconnection of the Bidens. Look, the Bidens, all of the evidence indicates that the Bidens made a decision decades ago that they were going to get rich by shaking down the enemies of America and shaking them down demanding millions of dollars in exchange either for favors from Joe Biden or millions of dollars in order not to be targeted for retribution by Joe Biden. Now, if that is correct, that is called bribery and it is a felony. It is also explicitly enumerated in the Constitution as grounds for impeachment. And the entire corporate media could not care one iota. The New York Times cannot be bothered to worry if the President of the United States has been bribed by Communist China. That is not news in their politicized world. CNN can't be bothered to worry about it. Msnbc, not news. There. Abc, NBC, cbs. Why is it that you had to play Fox Business? Because none of the corporate media is willing even to cover it. Facts be damned. They have a political mission uphold.
- [14:14]
Ben Ferguson
Will there be any of this that you think will be used to actually expose the Biden family in this campaign cycle? I mean, when you're talk about this much money, it's not a little bit of money. It's a hell of a lot of money. And the other part Here is they mentioned the numbers tripled, right. When we got closer to this election, when he announced he was running for reelections. Like, oh, wait, he's still in the game. Okay, we better send money.
- [14:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I think there needs to be a serious investigation. There needs to be enhanced federal scrutiny of universities that are on the take from Communist China. One of the very first pieces of legislation that I ever authored and passed when I was a brand new baby Senator was legislation focusing on exactly this issue and in particular, what are called Confucius Institutes. So Confucius Institutes have been started at US Universities all across the country, and they're funded by Communist China, they're controlled by Communist China. And China goes to the schools and say, hey, we'll start this institute and your students can learn Chinese and they'll get educated on China. And China uses them, number one, for espionage and number two, for propaganda to push the messages that they want us College students to hear from Communist China. And so when I was newly elected to the Senate, I introduced legislation that prohibited federal Department of Defense dollars from going to a university that has a Confucius Institute that if you're going to take the Chinese money, you don't get DOD money. And I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time I introduced it. I ended up getting bipartisan support for it. And it was adopted with both Democrats and Republicans supporting, passed through the Harry Reid Senate. So we had a Democrat majority Senate, and ultimately Barack Obama signed it into law. And my legislation resulted in dozens of Confucius Institutes shutting down because universities made the very reasonable decision that they wanted DoD dollars more than the Chinese money for Confucius Institutes. We need to do more on this. We need to cut off this Chinese money that is going to universities across the board. But with Penn, there appears to be more than simple influence peddling. China's doing this in a lot of universities, and it's a broad problem. But with Penn, the volume is so great that on the face of, seems to be deeply intertwined with Joe Biden and the fact that Penn gave a home for him. And so giving money to Penn was a way to give money directly to Joe Biden.
- [16:49]
Ben Ferguson
Do you believe that Joe Biden will dodge the debates against Donald Trump? Because now he's going to have to answer these questions on stage. I mean, if he's much more vulnerable now than he was when they ran against each other last time? Because last time he could just say, hey, it's all a lie. The laptop's a lie. I got 50 plus people they're saying it's a lie. None of this is real. Now, you can't do that this time.
- [17:14]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, I actually don't. I think Biden, if he is the nominee, will debate. I think we'll have a couple of debates. I think their strategy will be to hide Joe Biden in the basement for the entirety of the campaign. And so the debates may be about the only time you see Biden during the entire campaign. And I think for the debates, they'll pump him full of a bunch of drugs and try to make him alert for an hour, for 90 minutes, and that'll be it. And look, will they debate internally? Will they discuss internally? Does Joe Biden skip the debate? Sure, they would love to. And by the way, we saw precedent last cycle. The governor of Pennsylvania refused to debate a Democrat. The governor of Arizona refused to debate a Democrat. It's a very dangerous precedent. I think the Democrats will conclude that if Biden ducks the debate, the American people will assume he's too feeble and mentally diminished to be able to debate. And so I think that will scare them enough that they will end up producing Biden for a couple of debates, pumped full of drugs for a little.
- [18:17]
Ben Ferguson
Little while, as before. If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week. You may have missed.
- [18:32]
Unnamed Speaker
I think anyone that runs for president that's a serious candidate and drops out. People have asked me, what's it like on a presidential campaign when it's over? I'm like, it's like a funeral.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
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Unnamed Speaker
If you're a true believer in the campaign, in the candidate, you're giving it your all. You're a staffer, you want your guy to win, and it's over. It's like a funeral.
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Senator Ted Cruz
It. And I spent a lot of time after, like, our team. I still think the team we assembled, and I'm not impartial, but I think the team we assembled is the best campaign team, certainly, that I've ever seen. And they were like family. And so I went and assembled the entire team. Our headquarters was here in Houston. And I thanked all the staff. This, like, a day or two later, I thanked everyone and brought them in and just talked about, reflected on what the campaign meant and what they'd accomplished. And when we started, nobody thought I had a prayer. Nobody thought we could win a single state. And we came within inches of winning the whole thing. And I will tell you, we had. So our campaign office was like an entire floor of cubicles here in Houston.
- [19:38]
Unnamed Speaker
Not far from where we are right now.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Very close to where we are right now. And as everyone, you know, went home, I remember walking through that campaign office and just all the empty cubicles and, you know the song from Les Mis, empty Chairs and Empty Table.
- [19:57]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah.
- [19:58]
Senator Ted Cruz
That was the song I kept hearing in. In my mind. In fact, I'm sure Ron and Casey are feeling the same thing. And it's. It is a hard thing because everyone pours themselves into it. I. You know, years ago, someone told me there's a reason that both politics and war use the word campaign, because it's all consuming. There is nothing else in life like when you are on a campaign, it is 100% of your will and your heart and your mind and your soul and everything. And, you know, you do feel like you've let people down. You know, you're getting people that are pouring, they're uprooting their lives, they're moving their families, they're giving sacrificially. They believe in you. And look, at this point, I've won elections, I've lost elections. Winning is much better. Yeah, those nights are a lot better. But the reality here, I think this outcome was ordained the night of the Iowa caucuses, when Trump won a dominating victory. It was clear DeSantis had no oxygen. And Haley, as I mentioned, she will likely be competitive in New Hampshire, but I see no path for her beyond that. And so now we are going to test. Look, there are some big donors in the Republican Party that are never Trumpers, that who do not like Trump and are writing millions of dollars to try to change the outcome. I don't think the money can do it at this point. You know, they've got enough money in New Hampshire. They could practically send a masseuse to give everyone a back rub and a foot rubber on the way to the polls. But as you get on to South Carolina, I think Trump's lead is way too large for Haley to have a chance. And from there, I don't think there's any path beyond final question.
- [21:55]
Unnamed Speaker
Your advice to Nikki Haley. If you don't have that pathway that you just described, what's the point of staying in?
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Senator Ted Cruz
Oh, look, you know, I actually try to refrain from giving advice to other candidates that everyone's got to follow their own heart and do what they think.
- [22:09]
Unnamed Speaker
Is right and their own timeline.
- [22:10]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, calling on people to get out. I don't think.
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Unnamed Speaker
Let it play out.
- [22:18]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, it will play out. It's gonna play out naturally. It's gonna play out naturally and pretty quickly, I think. And so, you know, I recognize the decision to suspend a campaign is not easy. And look, depending on when it occurs, it can often mean. So in 2016, you know, a bunch of the candidates suspended early, long before Iowa. And so I ended up. Of my opponents, five of my opponents ended up endorsing me in that race. And so I got endorsed by Rick Perry and Carly Fiorina and Scott Walker and Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham all backed me. And, you know, you go out and campaign, so, you know, Rick Perry, you know, went and campaigned with me in Iowa, you know, and, you know, I remember being in Barnes there, and, look, Rick Perry was my governor, someone who I knew and respected. He's older than I am. So it was a little surreal having someone like Rick Perry come and campaign and say, go vote for Ted. You know, Lindsey Graham, my colleague, you know, he had famously said that if you killed me on the floor of the Senate and the jury were other senators, you couldn't find a jury to convict me, to convict the murderer. And so when Lindsey endorsed me, I jumped on and he helped raise some money for me. And I remember saying at the time, I said, wow, this is the first time in my life I've ever been endorsed by someone who's publicly called for my murder. Politics can be a strange. And Lindsay and I have become friends since then. But it was, you get interesting Carly Fiorina, who I thought was a terrific candidate that cycle, you'll recall, I announced that if I'd won, she would have been my vp. Yeah, that was an unusual step to do it early. But frankly, I was trying to break through the narrative, the wall of the $3 billion of free media. And I was trying to find something that actually would be heard by the voters. But the corporate media had no interest in anything being heard. Frankly, I think most of the media wanted Trump to be the nominee because they wanted Hillary to win.
- [24:44]
Unnamed Speaker
And they thought that was what all of them were saying was, give us Trump, he's the easiest to beat, and Hillary Clinton will become the President of the United States of America and will break that glass ceiling of that beautiful building.
- [24:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
I think that was a very deliberate strategy. And I will say, for all those bastards, it kind of backfired. And they got four years of Donald Trump as president, and they may be about to get four more years of Donald Trump as president. And it's, you Know the self declared media overlords. There is an old saying, be careful what you wish for.
- [25:15]
Unnamed Speaker
No doubt about it. I love these conversations. I love that we get to do this. Thanks for pulling back the curtain on 16 and explaining it from a candidate's perspective. Because as you mentioned, what people go through when they have to drop out, especially DeSantis right now, it's tough. It can take months to come out from that fog of war afterwards because all of a sudden you go from nine to nothing to it's all over, as you mentioned. And how long does it take to get out of that fog? I think it depends on the candidate.
- [25:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
It depends a lot. Look, everyone has a period where you just kind of, it's like, morning. I assume Ron will do this, but just about everyone goes and goes somewhere on vacation. And my advice, when I talk to a candidate after they've lost, and this is true, I talk to lots of candidates who are running for Senate and House and some win, some lose. But for the ones that lose, I say go somewhere, unplug, get off email, get off your phone, get off Twitter. Just go sit by the beach with a pina colada and just recharge, recharge. Be with your family, hug your kids, just get away for a while. And look, the world gets a lot quieter in a presidential campaign. It's deafening. And then when you suspend it, it's like, okay, I'm out of this crazy game, at least for now. And then to come out of the funk, Listen, every presidential candidate that loses, I think without exception, goes into a funk. I mean, you have a bit of depression and grieving.
- [26:47]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah.
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Senator Ted Cruz
And the key to kind. I was no exception to that. I had a period where I was just kind of in a funk. Yeah. And I think the key to coming out of it is finding something to lean in that you love, that you engage in. And you know, listen, I have a day job of representing 30 million Texans, which I love doing, and pour all of my heart, mind and soul into it. And that became. And then when Trump became president, you.
- [27:14]
Unnamed Speaker
Had somebody to work with.
- [27:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
And I rolled up my sleeves and said I am going to lead the fight in the Senate for us to deliver on our promises, we have work to do. And so pouring yourself into the fight and into the work is, I think, a really important part of coming out of it. And some candidates do that more quickly than others. It varies person by person.
- [27:35]
Ben Ferguson
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.