Senator Ted Cruz (3:21)

So this was yesterday morning. It was a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. And we had the acting director of the Secret Service. The former director has finally resigned, given the catastrophic failures we saw, and the deputy director of the FBI. And so it was a hearing that went all morning. And I got to say there was enormous concern, enormous skepticism. We saw it from both Republicans and Democrats who were asking about the disastrous failures of the Secret Service. And listen, the acting director, he is somewhat better than the old director. The old director was brazen. She was defiant. Her view was, we owe nothing. We owe no accountability. We will not answer any question. We did everything right. To his credit, the acting director began his testimony by saying, we screwed up. We screwed up really badly. And the fact that there was not an agent on the roof where the shooter was was utterly indefensible. That's a step in the right direction. That being said, he stonewalled. And he stonewalled in a way that was infuriating. And look, rather than me describe it to you, just give a listen. Here's my questioning of the acting director of the Secret Service yesterday morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (4:43)

Mr. Rowe, thank you for being here. I agree with what you said at the outset that the individual Secret Service agents demonstrated remarkable personal courage, putting their bodies in between the line of sight of the shooter and the president. That being said, the bravery of the line agents is quite different from the decisions of Secret Service leadership. Secret Service leadership committed catastrophic security failures. Indeed, the worst security failures for the. For the Secret Service since 1981, since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. It is incumbent upon this committee to determine why those security failures happened just after the shooting. Secret Service put out an official statement from your spokesperson that says there's an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources, that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.

Deputy Director of the FBI (5:47)

Was this tweet accurate with respect to Butler, Pennsylvania? It is accurate, sir.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (5:54)

It is accurate that the Trump team had not asked for additional security and had not been rebuffed.

Deputy Director of the FBI (6:03)

If you're talking about Butler, Pennsylvania, all assets requested were approved. If you're talking about the media reporting of assets requested, there were times when assets were unavailable and not able to be filled, and those gaps were staffed with state and local law enforcement tactical assets.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (6:24)

So I'm reading from The Washington Post, July 20, 2024. Secret Service denied requests for more security at Trump events. The opening paragraph. Top Officials of the U.S. secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump's security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination, according to four people familiar with the requests. Is that right that repeatedly the Trump detail asked for more resources and repeatedly Secret Service leadership turned that down?

Deputy Director of the FBI (6:54)

That is not accurate, Senator. Assets are requested. There's a process that is made.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:00)

And how many requests did the Trump team or the Trump detail ask for?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:05)

I can get you that number in a queue.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:07)

You don't.

Senator Ted Cruz (7:07)

You don't know.

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:08)

Now, I can speak to the ones that reported in the Washington Post, and we can go through them if you like.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:13)

But you don't know how many, how many requests there were in general?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:16)

How many requests since 2021 that the former Trump detail has made a request for?

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:21)

You've had two weeks. You had a spokesperson put something out that is false on its face. By the way, did you approve this statement when it went out?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:29)

I don't know if I did or didn't.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:30)

Senator, has this spokesperson. Is he still employed? Does he still have a job? So he lied on behalf of the Secret Service. He still a job? Did your predecessor, the former director, does she approve this statement?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:40)

Senator, our comms team, they send out statements. They do deconflict them, and they put them out.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:48)

Did she approve this statement?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:50)

I don't know if she did or did not.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:52)

And you don't know if you did either?

Deputy Director of the FBI (7:54)

I don't recall approving it.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (7:56)

Senator, will you commit to provide this committee in writing every written request for additional resources from the Trump campaign or the Trump detail and every response from Secret Service?

Deputy Director of the FBI (8:09)

Senator, I will commit to providing responses and getting you the information that you seeking.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (8:16)

May I ask you something? And who makes the decision to deny those requests? Did you make that decision?

Deputy Director of the FBI (8:23)

Which requests are you talking about? The ones that were in the last. Yes, the processor. Is that a detail will make a request for either staffing, technical assets. That is handled between the field office and the detail. It goes up to a logistics office between our.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (8:41)

Okay, so there's a bureaucracy. Is there a decision maker?

Deputy Director of the FBI (8:44)

It's not a bureaucracy, Senator.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (8:45)

Give me the person that's a decision maker. Is there one?

Deputy Director of the FBI (8:48)

Senator, It's a conversation. It's not just an absolute yay or no.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (8:52)

So let me tell you what I believe. I believe that the Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests. And I think the Biden administration has been suffused with partisan politics. Did the same person who denied the request for additional security to President Trump also repeatedly deny the request for security to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Whose father was murdered by an assassin and whose uncle was murdered by an assassin? Did the same person make that decision?

Deputy Director of the FBI (9:21)

Senator, what I will tell you is that Secret Service agents are not political.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (9:25)

Okay, you're not answering my but you know what leadership appointed by the President. Leadership appointed by the president is political. I have a simple question. Yes or no. Did the same person deny the Trump request that also denied the RFK request? That's a yes or no question, Senator.

Deputy Director of the FBI (9:43)

That is not a yes or no question. 1. There is a process for a candidate nominee to receive protection.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (9:49)

Is there?

Deputy Director of the FBI (9:49)

Does the buck stop? Does the buckle Bipartisan process that the.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (9:54)

Hail is a bicameral bipartisan process. What can a candidate. You are not a Congress.

Deputy Director of the FBI (10:00)

You don't have a cameral Mr. Kennedy submitted a request request that was referred over to the cpac.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (10:05)

Okay, you're refusing to answer the question. Let me ask because the failures on that day were catastrophic. By the way, is it true that on the day of the of the Butler event that Secret Service transferred agent from President Trump to the first Lady?

Deputy Director of the FBI (10:19)

No, sir, that's not true.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (10:21)

That's been widely reported.

Deputy Director of the FBI (10:22)

It's not true. There was one airport agent that actually went on the manpower request for the Trump detail. They handled the arrival at the airport.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (10:29)

What is the relative what was the relative size of the Trump detail compared to the detail that is assigned assigned to the president of the First Lady?

Deputy Director of the FBI (10:37)

Senator, the former president travels with a full shift just like the President.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (10:42)

What's the so the exact same size. Is that your testimony that President Trump had the same size detail that President.

Deputy Director of the FBI (10:48)

Biden has on the day of in Butler the agents surrounding him? It is the same number of agents surrounding the president today. There is a difference between a sitting president who also not only you're using.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:00)

President in a way that is not clear. Is it your testimony that in Butler Pennsylvania. Donald Trump had the same number of agents protecting him that Joe Biden has at a comparable event.

Deputy Director of the FBI (11:12)

I'm telling you the shift, the close protection shift surrounding. That's yes, you asked me, Senator. I'm trying to answer it.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:18)

You are not answering it. Is it the same number of agents or not?

Deputy Director of the FBI (11:22)

Senator, there is a difference between the sitting President of the United States and.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:26)

What's the difference?

Deputy Director of the FBI (11:27)

The difference 2x3x5 National Command Authority to launch a nuclear strike. I'm not ass.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:34)

How many more travel with the President? That former President will refusing to.

Deputy Director of the FBI (11:38)

But the number of Secret Service agents.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:41)

Stop interrupting me.

Deputy Director of the FBI (11:43)

Go ahead.

Acting Director of the Secret Service (11:43)

You are refusing to answer clear and direct questions. I am asking the relative difference in the number of agents between those assigned to Donald Trump and those assigned to Joe Biden. I'm not asking why you assign more to Joe Biden. I'm asking is the Difference, is it 2x? Is it 3x?

Senator Ted Cruz (12:01)

Is it 5x?

Acting Director of the Secret Service (12:02)

Is it 10x?

Deputy Director of the FBI (12:03)

Senator, I will get you that number so you can see it with your own eyes.

Ben Ferguson (12:08)

Senator, number one, let's start at the end. He says he will get you those numbers. This is not a hard question. You asked about the difference in the details and yet he clearly didn't want to answer that question. Is that because we're going to be so shocked by what that answer is?

Senator Ted Cruz (12:26)

So listen. He engaged in a very deliberate effort at deception. He said the close protective detail is identical. Now understand a Secret Service detail that is protecting someone, you have the close protective detail, which are the agents that actually surround the protectee. You also have typically a perimeter that is often at three levels. The close protection, a second perimeter level. That's often where you see magnetometers, that's often where you see people examine. And then you have the furthest out perimeter. What he did not want to answer is how many agents were protecting Donald Trump? How many agents typically protect Joe Biden? And by the way, how many agents protect the First Lady? Jill, buddy, now I can tell you, following up this, this cross examination, we have what are called QFR's questions for the record. So I am submitting written questions. I am asking the acting director of the Secret Service, number one, how many agents were assigned to Donald Trump? Number two, how many are typically assigned to Joe Biden? Number three, how many are typically assigned to the First Lady? Now, to be clear, and this is where, listen, there's some strategy in terms of how you approach a cross examination like this in a public hearing. I did not ask him this in a public hearing. Why? Because he would refuse to answer. What he would say is, I'm not going to disclose to you how many agents are assigned to Donald Trump because that would endanger the security of the protective detail. And that's a reasonable response. It's why I didn't ask the question. Because there's something that is known as law enforcement confidential. So when I ask him a question, for the record, listen, I have TSSCI clearance. I have the top level of security clearance there exists in the government. I want to know the exact number. How many friggin agents were assigned to Trump? How many were assigned to the First lady, how many were assigned to the President? I'm not going to reveal those numbers. So when I get them, I'm assuming he will tell me. If he tells me they're law enforcement confidential, I'm not going to repeat them on this podcast. But what I am going to repeat is what I asked him that he refused to answer. What is the relative difference? I understand Joe Biden, the sitting President's detail is larger than Trump's, but by what margin? Is it double? Is it triple? Is it 5x? Is it 10x? He did not want to answer that question. The American people are entitled to know that question.

Ben Ferguson (15:09)

Let's, let's also go back to some other questions that were asked of him and I think these are important. One of them came from one of your good friends and colleagues, Mike Lee. A very simple question. Take a listen.

Deputy Director of the FBI (15:23)

No information regarding a weapon on the roof was ever passed to our personnel.

Senator Ted Cruz (15:29)

How is that even possible?

Deputy Director of the FBI (15:32)

Do you want to comment to that, Senator? Again, I believe that information, and this is probably something my colleague can, can expound on, information that was in law enforcement, local law enforcement channels, but did not cross over and make it to Secret Service awareness.

Ben Ferguson (15:49)

I mean, that might be one of the worst answers I've ever heard, Senator. And the fact that he's confirming what we were terrified of, which is no information regarding a weapon on the roof or the shooter on the roof was ever passed to our personnel. Now when he refers to our personnel, he's clearly referring to those in the Secret Service or the Secret Service sniper team. And Mike Lee's response is spot on. Right? How is that even possible?

Senator Ted Cruz (16:18)

Yeah, look, this was, as I said, a catastrophic security failure by the leadership of the Secret Service. They are not taking responsibility for that failure. Now I gotta tell you, the way this hearing was set up, we had five minute rounds. It is difficult to walk through the details of what you need to get through in five Minutes. I ended up taking about seven, which meant I went about two minutes over. And that's always leery. But let me tell you some of the other questions that I had that I was prepared to ask. But because the acting director of the Secret Service was filibustering to some extent, he was interrupting me to some extent, he was belligerent to a significant extent. I didn't get to them. But there are a whole series of questions that need to be answered. And by the way, I'm asking every one of these questions in writing. So in a follow up to a hearing, you ask written questions. Number one, the shooter, when he came into the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, he was stopped by Secret Service at the metal detectors. He had a range finder with him. That was at 3pm why did secret Service not detain him? Why did they not question him about the rangefinder? Now the acting director of the Secret Service, he said, well, it was a recreational rangefinder. It was like a golf rangefinder that you used to look the distance of the pin. Now you're right, now you're with your son at the world championship, you probably have a golf rangefinder.

Ben Ferguson (17:50)

Yes, we do.

Senator Ted Cruz (17:50)

You know what, you know what? In Butler, Pennsylvania, they weren't playing golf. They weren't trying to figure out where the pin was. There is no benign or innocuous explanation for why someone shows up at a political rally with a rangefinder. So that's question number one. Why didn't you detain him? Why didn't you question him? Why didn't you say, why the hell do you have this rangefinder? They didn't. After that, two and a half hours later, at about 5:30, the shooter was seen. And by the way, let me make an aside. You will notice on this podcast, I will never ever, ever say the name of the shooter. I think people that commit heinous acts like this are evil bastards who deserve to be forgotten by history. So I will never, I'll call him the Shooter, but I will not repeat his name. But the shooter, at about 5:30 was observed using the range finder to measure the distance from where he was to the podium where Donald Trump was. The next obvious question, why did, was the, Was the shooter not detained, then questioned, then he was observed by law enforcement scoping out the distance. That is obvious and highly suspicious activity. Third question, why were there not more agents? We had repeated requests over and over and over again from the Trump team. We need more agents. We need more agents. Why were there not more agents in the outer perimeter? Why there were there not more agents on? Another question. Why was there not a Secret Service agent on that rooftop? It is obvious. It was about 140 yards away from the President. That is a clean line of sight for a sniper. That is not a difficult shot. Why was there not a Secret Service agent on that roof to ensure that nobody else was there? He did not answer that question either. Why?

Ben Ferguson (19:45)

Let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question on that, because there's a lot of people that asked me this and I want you to, to answer your perspective. If they didn't have a team, right? There's been arguments, well, maybe they didn't have a team to cover that roof. And so it was lack of resources.

Senator Ted Cruz (20:01)

Sign the damn agents. There are four. There are 4,000 Secret Service agents. Assign the agents. So one of the fundamental problems is the Secret Service. I believe I haven't had this confirmed, but here's what I believe was happening. They were treating Donald Trump as a former president. Now listen, former presidents have Secret Service protection for life. So Jimmy Carter right now, who is almost 100 years old, Jimmy Carter has a Secret Service detail. Now, to be honest. That's right. That's good. But the threats against Jimmy Carter at this point in his life are very low. There are just not a lot of activities, there are not a lot of active murderers seeking to kill Jimmy Carter at the very end of his natural life. We know by the way, the nation of Iran has hired assassins to murder Trump. So you don't just have crazy ass lunatics who want to shoot him. You literally have a nation state with billions of dollars to fund assassins to murder him. And what I believe the Secret Service, here's what I think happened. The Biden administration is political in every decision it makes. I think they didn't want to up Trump's security detail because if they did so, they would have to acknowledge his legitimacy. Listen, Trump is not just a former president who's retired and is off like painting paintings and building houses for Habitat for Humanity. He is the Republican nominee to be president right now. He is, I think, likely the next President of the United States. And the Biden administration, I believe this was all politics. The leadership of the Secret Service did not want to up his detail because it would be according credibility and seriousness to his campaign. It is, I believe, the identical reason they refused repeatedly to give a Secret Service detail to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Now listen, you and I on this podcast months ago called them out and said, it is outrageous. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. His father RFK Sr. Was murdered when he was running for President of the United States. His uncle JFK was murdered as the sitting President of the United States. RFK Jr. Has had multiple death threats. He has had multiple attempts on his life. And I believe the reason that the Biden administration didn't give him Secret Service protection is they hate the fact that another Democrat is running against what was then Joe Biden, now Kamala Harris. And if they gave Secret Service protection to him, it would be acknowledging he was legitimate. That is, if that is the basis, it is a purely political decision. It is indefensible and we need to get answers on it.

Ben Ferguson (23:00)

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Deputy Director of the FBI (25:32)

What is the nature of the Iran threat? The, the threat to former President Trump that has been mentioned, but we know that.

Unnamed FBI Official (25:43)

Let me be clear here. The terrorist regime of Iran have been targeting people our country for many, many years. Now, we've talked about that here before. I want to be clear about that. From the FBI stamp. We, we have, we know publicly they've put, they've targeted former President Trump. They've called for his assassination.

Ben Ferguson (26:06)

I mean, that they know this and they say they've been doing this for years. And yet you let this building just sit unattended. And I go back to the question I asked you earlier, because it's a question many have asked. If, let's just say hypothetical, Senator, they didn't have the manpower. Hypothetical. For the Secret Service. Not have the manpower.

Senator Ted Cruz (26:23)

Get it?

Ben Ferguson (26:23)

Why wouldn't they have used the, the, those that were on the ground there locally, the SWAT teams that were there locally to cover that roof?

Senator Ted Cruz (26:31)

Well, and to some extent. So the Secret Service was trying to pass the blame to local law enforcement. They were saying, well, local law enforcement screwed up. And so they said at one point that there were local SWAT teams that were supposed to be monitoring that roof. And there's been testimony that there was a local SWAT team there and then they disappeared. Now, they won't tell us who it was. They won't tell us who made the decision to leave that post. There has been media reports that there was someone assigned to be on that roof, but it was too hot, so they left. We need to know the answer to that. That is they're not. But what's, what the Secret Service is trying to do is pass the buck to local law enforcement. Say local law enforcement screwed up. But I'll tell you a couple other questions that I was going to ask and that I am asking and writing. So we know and We've seen the videos. In fact, we played this on this podcast. At the time, there were multiple spectators who were outside the perimeter who saw the shooter on the roof. They saw the shooter on the roof with a gun, with a rifle, and they began screaming and yelling and saying, there's a man on the roof, a man on the roof with a gun. They began doing that one minute and 57 seconds before the shooting began. That's a lot of time. They told local law enforcement it was a sign at that outer perimeter, there's a man on the roof with a gun. Now, one of the enormous problems is there was apparently zero coordination and communication between local law enforcement and Secret Service. So a natural question. A minute and 57 seconds before the shooting began, spectators observe a man on the roof with a gun. Why did the local police officers who were there not immediately radio Secret Service and say, there's a shooter pull President Trump down? That's what you do in that circumstance is you pull him down. If you have the protectee and you know that there's a potential sniper and it's a dangerous situation, you go up, you pull them down, say, Mr. President, you need to come down for a second, and you just pull them out of the harm's way, and then you go and deal with the law enforcement threat. Why did they not do that for a minute and 57 seconds? And what appears to be the answer, but. But the acting director would not answer it is. There was no interoperability. There was no communication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service. Now it gets even worse. A local police officer climbed up on the shoulders of another local police officer, climbed up to the roof. So when the people are yelling, hey, there's a guy with a gun, he climbed up to see it. He climbed up to the roof, he pulls his head up, and the shooter turns and points his rifle at the officer's head. Now, the officer ducks because he doesn't want to get shot in the head. And the testimony was he fell about 8ft to the ground. That happened 24 seconds before the first shot was fired. Now, in any ordinary, insane situation, the officer, as he sees the rifle, as he sees the man on the roof, so he knows you have a police officer that knows there's a shooter with a rifle on the roof. While the President is talking, here's what, what should happen. The officer, as he's ducking down, he pulls out his radio and he says, gun, gun, gun, shooter, shooter, shooter. And if the Secret Service hears that they have 24 seconds for the detail to run up to grab the president, to pull him down under the podium. And by the way, they also have two counter snipers. If they get over the radio. Gun, gun, gun. Shooter, shooter, shooter. You've got 24 seconds for the counter snipers to see the shooter and take him out. If that happens, President Trump is not shot. Fire Chief Corey Comparatori is not murdered. The two other people who were severely injured are not injured. And what appears to be the case, although the acting director of the Secret Service would not confirm this, is there was no radio interoperability. In other words, what the local police officer saw, he could not communicate with Secret Service. And that is utterly unacceptable. And what is infuriating, there was nothing in the hearing yesterday that suggested they've changed what they've done. So if they're relying on local law enforcement for important security and yet they have no way to communicate with local law enforcement about what they're seeing, it is fundamentally ineffective. And the most important question is, what are they doing to prevent this from happening again? And there was zero answer to that question in the hearing yesterday.

Ben Ferguson (31:27)

Final question on this. And somebody sent this to me earlier today and I'm just gonna read it the way it was sent to me. It says, quote, it's sad that we live in a country now where a hard working regular guy who goes to work from 7 in the morning till 9 o'clock at night or 8 o'clock, put in 50, 60 hour week, will, quote, face more professional consequences for sharing an offensive joke online than the unelected bureaucrats tasked with protecting our president will face for almost getting the leading candidate killed. Now, according to the acting Secret Service director, he admitted to you guys yesterday that no agent assigned to the Trump July 13 rally has been fired. And in fact, there's only the Secret, the head of the Secret Service that was forced to resign after a horrible display on Capitol Hill. But it doesn't seem like there's been any other accountability. And that's sad, isn't it?

Senator Ted Cruz (32:26)

It's infuriating. So as best I can tell, in almost four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being in the White House, not a single person has been fired from any job whatsoever. You have the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. It was an absolute debacle. It was embarrassing. It undermined the US military. It led to the deaths of 13 servicemen and women. Nobody was fired. There was no accountability. You have here the first shooting of a presidential candidate, a former president, since 1981, since Ronald Reagan. Nobody was fired like in Any sane world, the director of the Secret Service would have resigned that day. In any sane world, the President would have fired the director of the Secret Service. But there's no accountability now. You now have the acting director. And one question you asked me at the beginning of this pod, should the acting director be fired? And I'm going to say I don't know. I think the proof is in the pudding. So on one level, the acting director, whom I don't know personally, but he's been a long time career Secret Service agent and officer, his answers demonstrated massively more candor than the old director. The old director was handpicked by Joe Biden and Jill Biden. I believe the old director was there. She used to be on Joe Biden's Secret Service detail when he was vice President. I think they handpicked her because they wanted the Secret Service to cover up Joe Biden's massive mental decline. And so they put her in that place as a political decision to protect his political vulnerabilities. That's what I believe. But she was, and we talked about this in a prior podcast, when she did on all senators briefing, she stonewalled. She would not answer any questions. She said they did everything perfectly except for the fact that the President was shot. And by the way, to be clear, had the bullet been a half inch to the left, Donald Trump would be dead. Today she described this as a success for the Secret Service. It's not a success. It is, I think, God's providence. I believe God turned Trump's head. But we came within a half inch of the history of the world being changed that day. So compared to the former director, the acting director is at least admitting they screwed it up, they did something wrong. He has some modicum of candor. Here's my answer. In terms of whether he should be fired, how does he answer the questions for the record that I and other senators ask him? I believe the Secret Service needs radical transparency. Among the questions I'm asking also is how many threats are directed right now in the last year against Donald Trump? How many threats are directed against Joe Biden? How many threats are directed against the First Lady? Now, to be clear, all three need to be protected. I'm not saying that Joe or Jill Biden should not be protected, but one of the public press reports is on the day of the Butler rally, they pulled members of Trump's security detail and put them on the First Lady's detail. Now, I don't know this, but Secret Service does. But I'm going to venture A guess that the number of threats against Trump versus against the first lady, it is at least 100x. And it wouldn't surprise me if it is a thousand X that I think Donald Trump is the most threatened person on the face of the planet. And if it is the case, it is all the more indefensible that the Secret Service political leadership would not provide sufficient agents to keep him safe. And I'm asking them how many threats against Trump? How many threats against Joe Biden? How many threats against Joe Biden? We'll see if they answer that. You know, based on the testimony, I'm skeptical that they will.

Ben Ferguson (36:31)

As many of you know, I am a huge advocate for God given second Amendment rights. And without carrying a firearm, I would not be here today. I had to use my gun to protect and defend my life in an actual shooting. And it is something for me that I say all the time to people, make sure you can protect and defend yourself. I want to tell you about arms. My good friend Gordon Bond has a 30 year old Texas based company. It's called Bond Arms. Bond Arms makes the smallest, most powerful, best built personal protection that you can carry. These unique handguns are simple. They're easy to use but have unparalleled power like they're 4570 or they're 50 AE cyclops, which makes them a great personal protection option. I want you to check out their amazing handguns@getbondarms.com they are built like a tank and they've been seen in many hit TV series. Plus go to getbondarms.com and check out their new amazing guns that celebrate America and also celebrate Donald Trump. You will not be disappointed with adding some of the coolest and the unique firearms on the market to your personal collection and the firearms that can help protect you and your loved ones. Go again to the website getbondarms.com that's get bond arms.com Senator, finally I want to move to some of this breaking news and it is a important moment that's happening in the Middle east right now. Israel is doing everything they can to protect their people and they're also having success at taking out terrorists and terrorist leaders that have been orchestrating many of these attacks. Israel, including taking out someone in Iran, in Tehran.

Senator Ted Cruz (38:30)

Well, that's exactly right. And there are two huge stories in terms of the war in Israel, the war against Hamas and against Hezbollah. One story that broke late this afternoon and evening is a story that says IDF kills Hezbollah commander behind brutal attack on children's soccer field. And this is a FOX News story that's being reported everywhere. Fouad Shukr, whose death is unconfirmed by Hezbollah, was wanted by US government connection to the 1990, 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. And IDF forces on Tuesday announced the death of Fouad Shukr, the Hezbollah commander who was behind the drone strike that killed 12 children and teens over the weekend. So over the weekend we saw Hezbollah fire a rocket in northern Israel. It hit a soccer field and 12 Israeli children were murdered. Continuing back from the FOX News story, Shuker, who was also known as Hajj Mohsen, joined Hezbollah in 1985. He was also sought by the US government over his connection to the 1983 suicide bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. service members. Shukur served as a senior advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the time of his death in an IDF strike on Tuesday in southern Beirut. The IDF confirmed the news in a press release announcing that its fighter jets eliminated Hezbollah terrorist organization's most senior military commanders. Shukr, in Lebanon's capital city. Now understand this is a murderer responsible for murdering 241 U.S. service members. This is a reason to celebrate. Listen. The enemies of Israel are the enemies of America. The enemies of Jews. Those who want to kill Jews want to kill Christians, Hamas and Hezbollah. They hate Israel, but they hate America, too. And this is an example where Israel fighting the war, fighting the war against Hamas and Hezbollah at the same time is defeating someone who has murdered hundreds of Americans. That is an enormous victory for this country. And then let me say, secondly, so you and I are recording this podcast. It is 11:40pm at 11:40pm this news has just broken. So listen, anytime you're dealing with, with matters of life and death and war and peace, the news can move. So what we're recording right now, it may be different by 6am tomorrow, but at 11.40pm let me read the AP story. Iran says Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was assassinated in Tehran. And let me just read the AP story. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was assassinated in Tehran. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination. But suspicion immediately fell on Israel. No duh. Which has vowed to kill Haniya and other leaders of Hamas over the group's October 7th attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage. Haniya was in Tehran to attend. Iran President Massoud Peseshkians swearing in on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniya was killed, and the guards said the attack was under investigation. Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack. Israel did not immediately comment, but it often doesn't when it comes to assassinations carried out by their Mossad intelligence agency to come up within 24 hours, with, number one, killing the top military commander of Hezbollah, responsible for murdering 12 Israeli children in northern Israel with a rocket attack and also responsible for 241American servicemen and women being killed in Beirut in 1983. That's a big damn deal. And then this taking out the top leadership of Hamas, it's a big, big victory for Israel and a big, big victory for America.

Ben Ferguson (43:04)

Yeah, we're going to keep monitoring this. Like you said, we're getting this breaking news as we're recording this live. Don't forget the center and I do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you hit that subscriber auto download button on those in between days. Grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and I we'll keep you updated, obviously, on this breaking news story as well. And the senator and I will see you back here in a couple of days.