Big Tech Exposed for Hurting Kids, plus Biden ATTACKS Texas & Americans by Restricting LNG Exports

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson – Episode Summary

Title: Big Tech Exposed for Hurting Kids, plus Biden ATTACKS Texas & Americans by Restricting LNG Exports
Release Date: February 2, 2024
Host: Ben Ferguson
Guest: Senator Ted Cruz

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I. Introduction to Big Tech Oversight and Child Safety

In this episode, Ben Ferguson hosts Senator Ted Cruz to discuss a pivotal Capitol Hill hearing focused on Big Tech's oversight, particularly concerning the safety of children online. The hearing featured CEOs from major social media platforms—Facebook (Meta), TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Discord—who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about their platforms' roles in child exploitation and the spread of harmful content.

Key Points:

• Child Exploitation on Social Media: Senator Cruz emphasized the severity of the issue, highlighting how predators exploit these platforms to target children for extortion and abuse, leading to tragic outcomes like suicides.
• Overcrowded Hearing Room: The hearing was emotionally charged, with standing room only as parents shared their heartbreaking experiences of losing children to online abuse.

II. Senator Cruz's Examination of Facebook and TikTok CEOs

Senator Cruz delved into the specifics of Facebook's (Meta's) practices regarding child safety. He referenced a Wall Street Journal expose revealing that Facebook was inadvertently aiding pedophiles by allowing access to child pornography content through search functions.

Notable Exchanges:

• Warning Screens and User Choices:

  • [05:36] Senator Ted Cruz: "Instagram also displayed the following warning screen to individuals who were searching for child abuse material. These results may contain images of child sexual abuse..."
  • [05:59] TikTok CEO: Attempted to justify warning screens by suggesting they direct users towards helpful resources.
  • [06:23] Senator Cruz: Challenged the CEOs' transparency, questioning the lack of data on how many users bypassed warnings to access illegal content.

• Lack of Accountability:

  • [07:50] Senator Cruz: Pressed Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's actions post-warning screen engagement, receiving evasive responses about data availability.
  • [09:50] TikTok CEO: Claimed proactive reporting to organizations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), asserting leadership in industry reporting but failing to provide concrete numbers when pressed.

III. Big Tech’s Political Influence and Financial Support

The conversation shifted to the political clout of Big Tech companies, particularly their financial contributions to Democratic causes and candidates. Senator Cruz highlighted the significant donations from Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders, suggesting a correlation between these contributions and the lack of legislative progress on Big Tech regulation.

Key Points:

• Zuckerberg’s Financial Contributions:
  • [23:24] Senator Cruz: Revealed that Mark Zuckerberg alone donated approximately $400 million to support Democratic election efforts in 2020, overshadowing major Republican donors.
• Legislative Stagnation:
  • Despite bipartisan support for bills aimed at protecting children online, Senator Cruz pointed out that these measures are stalled in the Senate Commerce Committee, attributing the delay to Big Tech's lobbying power and financial influence over Democratic leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

IV. National Security Concerns with TikTok

A significant portion of the discussion focused on TikTok's ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese company, raising national security concerns. Senator Cruz questioned the platform's potential link to the Chinese government, especially in light of China's National Intelligence Law, which compels companies to support national intelligence efforts.

Notable Exchanges:

• Chinese Government Oversight:

  • [15:34] Senator Cruz: "TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is subject to China's National Intelligence Law..."
  • [15:36] ByteDance CEO: Claimed TikTok is not available in mainland China and has segregated its operations to prevent Chinese government access.

• Content Suppression Allegations:

  • [17:07] Senator Cruz: Presented data showing significant discrepancies in the prevalence of politically sensitive hashtags on TikTok versus Instagram, suggesting censorship.
  • [19:37] Senator Cruz: Asserted that the ByteDance CEO was effectively defending the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), questioning the platform's integrity and commitment to free speech.

V. Biden Administration's Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Export Restrictions

The episode also covered President Biden's recent decision to halt new permits for LNG exports, which Senator Cruz interpreted as a calculated move to penalize the state of Texas. He argued that this decision not only harms Texas economically but also inadvertently benefits geopolitical adversaries like Russia by limiting the U.S.'s ability to supply global natural gas needs.

Key Points:

• Economic Impact on Texas:

  • [29:11] Senator Cruz: Described Biden's policy as a "sanction" on Texas, aiming to undermine the state's economic standing and retaliate against its border security measures.

• Environmental Implications:

  • [31:38] Senator Cruz: Claimed that U.S. natural gas production is cleaner than Russian alternatives, and halting exports forces reliance on more polluting sources, thereby exacerbating global environmental issues.

• Geopolitical Consequences:

  • Restricting LNG exports limits the U.S.'s role in the global energy market, potentially increasing Europe's dependence on Russian gas amidst geopolitical tensions.

Notable Quote:

• [36:00] Senator Cruz: Referenced a Washington Post editorial, stating, "Biden's Liquid National Natural Gas Decision is a win for political symbolism, not the climate," underscoring the political motivations behind the policy rather than genuine environmental concerns.

VI. Conclusion and Legislative Outlook

Senator Cruz concluded by expressing optimism about ongoing bipartisan efforts to enhance online child protection, despite facing significant opposition from Big Tech's financial influence. He emphasized the need for robust legislative action to hold these companies accountable and protect vulnerable populations from exploitation and harm.

Closing Remarks:

• Ben Ferguson encouraged listeners to stay informed and engaged with forthcoming legislative developments, reinforcing the show's commitment to delivering critical insights and unfiltered commentary on pressing national issues.

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Notable Quotes:

• [02:52] Senator Ted Cruz: "What is important is that Big Tech not only allows our children to be in jeopardy but is profiting off of addicting our children to social media and everything dangerous that comes from it."

• [09:32] Senator Ted Cruz: "Your company and every social media company needs to do much more to protect children."

• [17:30] Mark Zuckerberg: "There is not a difference between what kids see in China and what kids see here."

• [23:24] Senator Ted Cruz: "Google was the number one supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016. In the 2020 cycle, the top Republican donor... Sheldon Adelson gave $100 million, while Mark Zuckerberg gave $400 million."

• [31:38] Senator Ted Cruz: "Joe Biden's announcement this past week was horrible for the environment. He is declaring war on Texas and driving up energy costs for American families."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions between Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz, highlighting the multifaceted issues surrounding Big Tech's impact on child safety, political influence, national security concerns with platforms like TikTok, and the broader implications of the Biden administration's energy policies.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, there was a big hearing on Capitol Hill that dealt with Big Tech oversight. There were CEOs there from Facebook and TikTok. And I want to start with Facebook Center. You had the opportunity to talk to Mark Zuckerberg specifically over an issue of child exploitation being the material being shared on Facebook. Talk a little bit about why this hearing was so important.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, sure. Let me set the stage. So this, this was Wednesday morning. It was a hearing of five CEOs of Big Tech. So you had Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram and others. You had the CEO of TikTok, you had the CEO of X, formerly Twitter, you had the CEO of Snapchat, and you had the CEO of Discord. And they were all testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the focus was the abuse of children, and in particular, children being targeted by predators, by pedophiles, children being subject to extortion. And you have to picture the hearing room. So it's a very large hearing room. It's the hearing room where we do, for example, hearings on Supreme Court justices. So it's one of, if not the biggest hearing room on Capitol Hill. It's got a big audience. And in the audience, the room was filled, it was standing room only with parents who had lost their children to suicide, to abuse, who had been traumatized and abused online, and predators had approached them online. In many instances, predators will do things like convincing young children, convincing teenagers to send them compromising pictures, to send them naked photographs. And then these scammers will often blackmail the kids and threaten, we're going to release these pictures unless you pay us money. And in a number of instances, the kids pay money. And repeatedly we've seen children taking their own lives, committing suicide. And so you had a room full of parents who had photographs of their children, most of whom presumably had lost their lives, some of whom maybe had survived but had been badly impacted, whether it was by sexual predators or other other forms of hostile activity. And so the focus of the hearing was on Big Tech and Big Tech really not only allowing our children to be in jeopardy, but profiting off of addicting our children to social media and everything dangerous that comes from it.

[Ben Ferguson]

You talk about the dangers and not just Facebook, but also TikTok is there's been lots of warning from those in the medical community, pediatric doctors, about the depression and also the addictive nature of these apps. They've created them to become life altering for young people. And it takes over their lives. And that's where you're talking about. Not only are these predators using it, but the depression that comes in. And yet they're readily available. And almost all these kids have them.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, that's exactly right. You know, there's a great movie that is called the Social Dilemma, which, if you haven't watched it, I recommend it to you. It's a movie about how social media companies target our kids, how they have algorithms designed to addict our kids to keep them watching more. And it's a great movie. Heidi and I sat down with our girls. We made them both watch it. They were kind of bored. They didn't think it was very interesting. But we wanted them to at least hear and understand what it is that big tech is targeting them with so they can understand what's going on. And what is infuriating is big tech. They're printing money and they give lip service, but yet they are not doing nearly enough to protect children online.

[Ben Ferguson]

Let's talk about part of this exploitation and child exploitation. You know, you know that bad actors are going to do it. But the most shocking part is how this is allowed on social media. And let's start with Facebook. You had a moment where you and Mark Zuckerberg had a back and forth, and I want to play it for people and listen to and. And part of this center, explain these warning signs because people aren't going to be able to see the posters that you held up, explain what you were showing and how these warnings worked. And then to put it in context.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, so the Wall Street Journal last year did an expose about how Facebook was assisting pedophiles. Assisting pedophiles in number one, targeting children, but number two, finding child pornography online. And they had a warning screen. So if you typed in a search that was designed to pull up child pornography, they would have a warning screen that would pop up that says, says the search you put in is likely to produce images of child pornography, which is a crime. You can be prosecuted for it. And then it gave you two links. Do you want resources for help or do you want to proceed to your search request to see the child porn you're searching for? And so I asked Mark Zuckerberg why, why on earth they were doing that? Here, give a listen.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Instagram also displayed the following warning screen to individuals who were searching for child abuse material. These results may contain images of child sexual abuse. And then you gave users two choices. Get resources or see results. Anyway, Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?

[TikTok CEO]

All right. Senator, the basic science behind that is that when people are searching for something that is problematic, it's often helpful to, rather than just blocking it, to help direct them towards something that could be helpful for getting them to get help.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

In what I understand, get resources. In what sane universe is there a link for see results anyway?

[TikTok CEO]

Well, because we might be wrong. We try to trigger this, this warning or we tried to when we think that there's any chance that there is.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Okay, you might be wrong. Let me ask you, how many times was this warding screen displayed?

[TikTok CEO]

I don't know.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

But the, but the, you don't know? Why don't you know?

[TikTok CEO]

I, I, I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head.

[Ben Ferguson]

I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. You also had a follow up question there right after that, Senator, where you looked at him and you said of the people that got the warning, how many of those people, those child predators clicked on see it anyway? And he's like, I don't know if we have that data really well.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And look, what is important. And what I followed up right after that is I pointed out that a year ago I asked Facebook in writing that question and they refused to answer. So there's a reason I asked him there. I expected him to say I don't know. But the point is they don't know because they don't want to know. And more importantly, they, they don't want anyone else to know. And so they've been stonewalling Congress. And further. I asked him a very simple question. Look, if someone searches for child porn, searches for images of little children being sexually abused, I asked him, what does Facebook do with that? Do you report the guy? Do you look into the children who are in the images to see if they need help? Do you do anything? He refused to answer any of that. Here, play the next exchange.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Well, you know what, Mr. Zuckerberg, it's interesting you say you don't know it off the top of your head because I asked it in June of 2023 in an overlay oversight letter and your company refused to answer. Will you commit right now to within five days answering this question for this committee?

[TikTok CEO]

We'll follow up on that.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Is that a yes, not a will follow up? I know how lawyers write statements saying we're not going to answer. Will you tell us how many times this warning screen was displayed?

[TikTok CEO]

Yes or no, Senator, I'll personally look into it. I'm not sure if we have.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Okay, so you're refusing to answer that. Let me ask you this. How many times did an Instagram user who got this warning that you're seeing images of child sexual abuse, how many times did that user click on see results anyway, I want to see that.

[TikTok CEO]

Senator. I'm not sure if we stored that, but I'll personally look into this and we'll follow up after.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

And what follow up did Instagram do when you have a potential pedophile clicking on I'd like to see child porn? What did you do next when that happened?

[TikTok CEO]

Senator, I think that an important piece of context here is that any context that we think is child sexual.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Mr. Zuckerberg, that's called a question. What did you do next when someone clicked, you may be getting child sexual abuse images and they click see results anyway, what was your next step? You said you might be wrong. Did anyone examine, was it in fact child sexual abuse material? Did anyone report that user? Did anyone go and try to protect that child? What did you do next?

[TikTok CEO]

Senator, we take down anything that we think is sexual abuse material on the service and we do.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Did anyone verify whether it was in fact child sexual abuse material?

[TikTok CEO]

Senator, I don't know if every single searcher is worth following up on, but.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Did you report to people who wanted it?

[TikTok CEO]

Senator, do you want me to answer your question?

[Mark Zuckerberg]

I want you to answer the question I'm asking. Did you report the people who click see results anyway?

[TikTok CEO]

That's probably one of the factors that we use in reporting. And in general, we've reported more people and done more reports like this to ncmec, the national center of Missing Exploded Children, than any other company in the industry. We proactively go out of our way across our services to do this and have made, I think it's more than 26 million reports, which is more than the whole rest of the industry combined. So, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Zuckerberg, that we.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Your company and every social media company needs to do much more to protect children.

[Ben Ferguson]

By the way, the question I would love to know, Senator, is this. Yeah, you may have reported more. You're also bigger than all the other ones. So how much sexual exploitation of children has happened because of your platform?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, and understand, the Wall Street Journal expose that I was asking about demonstrated how on Instagram they had hashtags that pedophiles could use to find children and to find child porn. And so their algorithms were actively assisting pedophiles in doing this. By the way, Instagram no longer has this screen of see results anyway. You know, when they Took it down when after the Wall Street Journal reported on what they were doing. So it was only when they got caught that they realized, yeah, maybe we shouldn't be aiding and abetting children being abused. That was the only time they took it down. But they're still not affirmatively acting to protect kids the way they should.

[Ben Ferguson]

One thing I do know about these companies, they have no problem trying to use these warnings to silence conservatives. Uh, how do I know this? Because we put a picture up of the pictures that were put in front of Congress of Hunter Biden. They were all blurred out and for six months we lost the ability to promote and or reach and or be found by people on Instagram and on Facebook. So. And there was hundreds of conservatives that that happened to because they were putting out information about Hunter Biden that they didn't like. Welcome to the power of these companies.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Welcome.

[Ben Ferguson]

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[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah. So understand, in the United States, there are roughly 160 million people that use TikTok. So roughly half, roughly 50% of the population of the United States of America is on TikTok. There are over a billion users nationwide, but in the United states, it's about 160 million. Where TikTok is particularly powerful, is among kids, is among young people, is among preteens, is among teenagers, is among college kids. TikTok is. Is ubiquitous. It is universal among sixth graders and seventh graders, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th graders. That is their target audience. And understand also that TikTok is wholly owned by a company called ByteDance. ByteDance is a Chinese company, and under the rules of China, the Chinese government has the power to monitor everything that is on TikTok. So, look, all of the social media companies are responsible for very significant damage, but TikTok is a qualitatively different damage because none of the other major companies are Chinese companies that the Chinese communist government has the power to engage in espionage, to engage in spying, and to engage in pushing propaganda. And so the CEO of TikTok was there, and I took the opportunity to ask him about this as well. Give a listen to that exchange in.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

The next couple of minutes. I have. I want to turn to you. You're familiar with China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, which states, quote, all organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with the law and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

[ByteDance CEO]

Yes, I'm familiar with this.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

TikTok is owned by ByteDance. Is ByteDance subject to the law for.

[ByteDance CEO]

The Chinese businesses that ByteDance owns? Yes, it will be subject to this. But TikTok is not available in mainland China. And senators, we talked about in your office, we built Project Texas to put this out of reach.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

So ByteDance is subject to the law. Now, under this law, which says shall protect national intelligence work secrets, they are aware of it compels people subject to the law to lie to protect those secrets. Is that correct?

[ByteDance CEO]

I cannot comment on that. What I said again is that we have.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Because you have to protect those secrets.

[ByteDance CEO]

No, Senator, we. Tick Tock is not available in mainland China. We have moved the data into an.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

American is controlled by Bike Dance, which is subject to this law. Now, you said earlier, you said, and I wrote this down, we have not been asked for any data by the Chinese government and we have never provided it. I'm going to tell you, and I told this when you and I met last week in my office, I do not believe you. And I'll tell you, the American people don't either. If you look at what is on Tick Tock in China, you are promoting to kids science and math videos, educational videos, and you limit the amount of times kids can be on TikTok in the United States you are promoting to kids self harm videos and anti Israel propaganda. Why is there such a dramatic difference?

[ByteDance CEO]

Senator, that is just not accurate.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

There is not a difference between what kids see in China and what kids see here.

[ByteDance CEO]

Senator, TikTok is not available in China. It's a separate experience there.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

But what I'm saying is you have a company that is essentially the same, except it pretty promotes beneficial materials instead of harmful materials.

[ByteDance CEO]

That is not true. We have a lot of science and math content here on TikTok. There's so much of it.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Okay, let me point, let me point to this, Mr. Chu. There was a report recently that, that compared hashtags on Instagram to hashtags on Tic Tac, Tick Tock and what trended and the differences were striking. So for something like hashtag Taylor Swift or hashtag Trump, researchers found roughly two Instagram posts for everyone on TikTok. That's not a dramatic difference. That difference drums jumps to 8 to 1 for the hashtag weaker and it jumps to 30 to 1 for the hashtag Tibet and it jumps to 57 to 1 to the hashtag Tiananmen Square and it jumps to 174 to 1 for the Hong Kong protest. Why is it that on Instagram people can put up a hashtag Hong Kong protest 174 times compared to TikTok. What censorship is TikTok doing at the request of the Chinese government?

[ByteDance CEO]

None. Senator, that analysis. The analysis is flawed. It's been debunked by other external sources like the Cato Institute. Fundamentally, a few things happen here. Not all videos carry hashtags. That's the first thing. The second thing is that you cannot selectively choose a few words within a certain time.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Why the difference between Taylor Swift and Tiananmen Square? What happened at Tiananmen Square, Senator?

[ByteDance CEO]

There was a massive protest during, in, during that time. But what I'm trying to say is our users can freely come and post.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Why would there be no difference on Taylor Swift or a minimal difference and a massive difference on Tiananmen Square?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Hong Kong Senator, could you wrap up, please?

[ByteDance CEO]

Senator, our algorithm does not suppress any content simply based on that question.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Why is there a difference?

[ByteDance CEO]

Like I said, I think this analysis is flawed. You're selectively choosing some words over some periods we haven't been around.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

There's an obvious difference, 174 to 1 for Hong Kong compared to Taylor Swift.

[Ben Ferguson]

I mean, Senator, you listen to that. I just think the guy's a flat out liar and nothing but a spokesman for the ccp. Am I wrong?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Look, he effectively reports to the ccp. By the way, at the end, that was Dick Diarmid, the Democrat chairman, gaveling in and trying to protect TikTok, trying to protect Communist China. He didn't like that line of questioning. He wanted it to stop, by the way, when Democrats were questioning, he let him go on and on and on. But Durbin wanted to jump in and stop that line of questioning. Listen, the numbers are obvious on their face, so understand the differential in those hashtags. So this was a study that compared different trending hashtags on Instagram, which a lot of young people use, and on TikTok, which again, a ton of young people use. And it found for things like, like Taylor Swift, which is something people will post about a lot, particularly young people. They're big fans of Taylor Swift, that it was roughly 2 to 1. So basically there were, there were two Instagram posts for every one TikTok post. So look, that's some differential, but it's not like a jarring differential. As I went through, the differential became massively different with messages that the Chinese Communist government doesn't like. And the most striking was, was about Hong Kong, where the differential was 174 to 1. So in other words, people could post about it on Instagram 174 times for every single time it appeared on TikTok. Now you heard all of his dodges. Well, that's cherry picking words. I don't care. Yeah, no, it's not. It's not searching for how frequently the word asparagus trends. It's actually searching for words that the communist Chinese government does not want people to know about. And miraculously, and it's not really miraculous, the words that they most want people not to know about are the words that you are least allowed to see on TikTok. And mind you, the CEO under oath is testifying. Well, no, no, no, we, we don't share anything with the Chinese Communist government. But I laid out how the law in China is. Even if they shared everything with the, with the government, they are required under the law to lie about it. So he would have to say that regardless of what the facts are, do.

[Ben Ferguson]

You believe that there is going to be any type of new legislation and or oversight that will be impactful to stop this? I mean, obviously showing the public and letting parents and grandparents be aware of the real dangers here of exploitation and blackmail and human trafficking and sex trafficking are extremely important. But what about oversight?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, I do think there is growing bipartisan interest in doing more to protect kids online. And in the Senate Judiciary Committee on which I serve, five different bills have passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I supported all five of them. They're all designed to enhance the protection for kids online. They passed with big bipartisan support, but to date, none of them have gotten a vote on the Senate floor in the Senate Commerce Committee. As you know, I am the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, which means I'm the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee. We have passed several bills out of the Senate Commerce Committee aimed at the same thing at protecting kids online. And again, they passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. None has gotten a vote on the Senate floor. And I don't think it is coincidental that Big Tech are massive financial supporters of Democrats in the 2016 election. Do you know who. Who the employer was whose employees gave the most money to Hillary Clinton in 2016?

[Ben Ferguson]

I'm gonna guess it was either at the time Twitter or it was Facebook.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Nope, neither one. Google.

[Ben Ferguson]

Wow.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Google was the number one supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016. If you look at. Do you know who the number one individual donors to Democrat causes was in 2020, the Biden election year?

[Ben Ferguson]

Who was it?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Mark Zuckerberg, the person I was questioning. So. So, and to give you a sort of order of magnitude, so in the 2020 cycle, the top Republican donor in the country was Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon Adelson owned casinos. I knew Sheldon very well. He was a good friend. Sadly, Sheldon passed away, but Sheldon gave in 2020 roughly $100 million supporting Republicans biggest in the country. He gave 100 million. How much do you think Mark Zuckerberg gave same election cycle?

[Ben Ferguson]

I'm going to guess a lot more than that based on the way that you teed that up.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

$400 million.

[Ben Ferguson]

Good grief.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

$400 million. And understand what Zuckerberg did. He did something that were called zuck bucks. He paid $400 million to literally take over the election machinery, the apparatus in big blue cities, in purple states. It was designed to dramatically increase Democrat turnout, to give the victory to Joe Biden. And there is a very real case to be made that Joe Biden is president today because of Mark Zuckerberg, that without Zuckerberg's $400 million, Donald Trump would be in the White House.

[Ben Ferguson]

And yet was he also buying the guarantee of no oversight or fake oversight so he could maximize profits doing some of the things that you exposed today?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Look, I think that is an obvious inference and it's very reasonable to ask why will Chuck Schumer not bring any of these bills to the Senate floor? And I think the answer is if you've got the major funders of the Democrat Party there, they don't want to provide oversight. You've got Democrats who will posture in hearings. So we had lots of Democrats make lots of noise asking what seemed to be tough questions. Although actually, oddly enough, this was a strange hearing in that many of the senators, most of the Democrats didn't ask questions. Like we all had seven minutes in our rounds. Most of the Democrats just gave a seven minute speech and they gave a seven minute speech about how kids are really nice and I like kids and you know, puppy dogs are cool too and rainbows are okay. But they didn't actually ask very many questions of the witnesses, which is just weird.

[Ben Ferguson]

So this is almost in essence a dog and pony show for the left. Hey, we're gonna bring you in, we're gonna maybe let them rough you up a little bit. But don't worry, there'll be no legislation that's gonna really change anything. So you're good.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well look, we'll see. As I said, Judiciary has passed five bills, Commerce has passed several bills. All of them are hitting a roadblock with Charles Schumer and, and, and Schumer I think feels no pressure to do anything.

[Ben Ferguson]

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[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yes, yes and yes. So what happened was last week the Biden administration announced that it was halting new permits for the export of liquid natural gas and for export terminal projects to export liquid natural gas. Now what does that mean? It means three things. Number one, what Joe Biden did is effectively sanction the state of Texas. This is declaring war on Texas. And I think you're exactly right. He did it. Cuz he's pissed off that Texas is standing up to the Biden administration on the border, is fighting to secure the border. And he said all right, if you're gonna stand up and fight us, we're going to attack you and try to destroy jobs in the state of Texas. This was Very deliberate. A sanction on the great state of Texas. Number two, this is a fine on American families. Joe Biden said, hardworking families. I don't care about Americans. I'm going to punish you by driving up energy costs. And number three, this announcement is a subsidy for Vladimir Putin. Understand? This announcement is Joe Biden saying, I am going to give billions of dollars to Putin and Russia. Why? Because, look, our allies, Europe, Asia, they need natural gas. Natural gas, it's produced at a gaseous form, and then it's liquefied to be transported, typically on ships. Natural gas is incredibly important for heating, for power, for all of the world. And Europe imports a ton of natural gas. Asia imports a ton of natural gas. The largest producer of natural gas in the world is the United States of America. Now, Russia is a massive producer of natural gas as well. When Joe Biden says, we're going to halt new export terminals for natural gas, he is handing a gift to Vladimir Putin. Because the Europeans are not going to suddenly not heat their homes. They're not going to say, okay, we're going to freeze to death because Joe Biden's mad. No, they're going to get the gas somewhere. And if they don't get it from the US they're much, much more likely to get it from Russia. So this is a gift to Russia. And here's the final amazing thing. You know what this decision also does? What is that hurts the environment.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

Explain it.

[Ben Ferguson]

Explain it. Because this is the ammo that everybody listening needs.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It is critically important, and I'll say twofold. Number one, US Natural gas is produced much, much more cleanly than natural gas virtually anywhere else on Earth, Much, much more cleanly than Russian natural gas. So if you want less pollution in the air, if you want less carbon in the air, you want to consume US Natural gas, because we have significant environmental protections on how we produce it here. There, they don't. So what Joe Biden is saying is, hey, let's rely more on the Russians. Let's have them produce more gas. Let's have them pollute the environment even more. And by the way, if you notice the atmosphere, it doesn't stop a country's border. Like, the atmosphere goes all around the planet. So do you know who the biggest polluter on the face of the planet is?

[Ben Ferguson]

I'm gonna go with either China or Russia. That's my best guess when it comes to this.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

China. By a huge order of magnitude, China is massively the biggest polluter on the face of the planet. China is also building more coal plants right now than the United States has in the entirety of our country. They're building new coal plants that exceed the total coal plants in America. Now, why does that matter? If you care about the environment, if you care about pollution, if you care about carbon, which country, year after year after year has led the world in reduction of carbon emissions?

[Ben Ferguson]

America.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Why?

[Ben Ferguson]

Because. Well, I think when we have tons of regulation, do we actually care about the environment?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Both true, but that's not. Neither of those are why.

[Ben Ferguson]

What is it then?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The biggest reason is the wide scale substitution of natural gas for coal and electricity production. So you want to talk about what really pollutes the hell out of the environment? It's burning coal in power plants to turn on electricity. You know, it's interesting, a lot of liberals, they think, you know, they think, oh, I've got an electric car, I've got a fancy electric car, isn't that great? And it never occurs to them, where does that electricity come from? Well, like, well, it comes from the wall. I plug it in and it just magically spews from the wall. Yeah, well, well, no, that electricity has to be generated, has to be generated in a power plant. Now, how is it generated? For years, the predominant method of generating electricity was burning coal. United States has a ton of coal. We're essentially the Saudi Arabia of coal. The problem is when you burn coal, it pollutes a lot and it emits a ton of carbon. Now, what we have seen in the last decade, because of the shale revolution, so the shale revolution. Shale, and it's also the fracking revolution, we have unlocked massive reserves of natural gas. And what that has done in the United States is we have seen tons of coal electricity plants shutting down and being replaced with natural gas electricity plants. Why does that matter? Because a natural gas electricity plant emits much, much, much less pollution than a coal plant. And it emits much, much, much less carbon than a coal plant. And that is why America leads the world in carbon reductions. And at the same time we're doing this, China is building coal plants like crazy. And so when, when Joe Biden steps in and says, we want to stop America from selling natural gas to the world, he is a saying, buy your natural gas from Russia, from Iran, from Venezuela, from enemies of America run by dictators who are very dangerous, number one. But number two, he's also saying, produce your electricity from coal, which pollutes the environment much, much more. Understand, if all you cared about was the environment. Joe Biden's announcement this past week was horrible for the environment. And he did it. I think you're exactly right as a petulant attack on Texas. He's mad that Texas is fighting to secure the border. And he said, all right, I'm going to destroy jobs in the great state of Texas.

[Ben Ferguson]

Last question on this. And I think it's interesting to see that this could backfire in a big way. The Washington Post, the liberal, hardcore socialist Washington Post, put out an opinion piece by the editorial board saying Biden's. This their headline, Biden's Liquid National Natural Gas Decision is a win for political symbolism, not the climate. They're even calling him out for. This was petty and obviously a decision made to hurt Texas. And they can cost 70,000Americans their jobs and doing it for these other reasons. And by the way, saying it's not about the climate.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

No, that's exactly right. Here's what the Washington Post editorial board said, quote, on Friday, however, that same Biden administration ordered a de facto halt to the approval of new facilities for exporting the resources to countries with which the United States does not have free trade agreements, a category that includes all of Europe. So by the way, this is also a sanction on Europe. It's an election year. SOP to climate activists that will do much more to unsettle vital U.S. alliances than to save the planet. That's a quote from the Washington Post. That's how far out of the bounds of reasonableness when you're too left wing for the Washington Post. Well, that's got to be the Biden administration.

[Ben Ferguson]

No doubt about it. Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and on Saturdays, we do a week in review for you as well for what you may have missed during the week. Make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button if you, especially if you're listening on Apple. They've changed their algorithms and many people have said, hey, I'm not following the show anymore. You're gonna have to check and make sure you're following on a regular basis from now on. That's what we've been told anyway. If it changes, we'll let you know. Don't forget, write that five star review and the senator and I will see you back here for the big weekend review on Saturday morning as well.