Choosing Illegal Immigrants over Americans, a Surveillance Scandal Bigger than Watergate & The Great Voter ID Reversal Week In Review

Summary

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The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Episode Title: Choosing Illegal Immigrants over Americans, a Surveillance Scandal Bigger than Watergate & The Great Voter ID Reversal Week In Review
Date: March 28, 2026
Host: Ben Ferguson
Guests: Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Mike Lee

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Episode Overview

This episode is a “Week in Review” edition featuring Ben Ferguson alongside Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. The discussion centers on three major stories that dominated conservative political conversation:

1. The Democratic push to block Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding and its implications for American security.
2. The explosive "Arctic Frost" surveillance scandal, described as larger than Watergate, revealing alleged weaponization of federal agencies against conservatives.
3. The political theatrics and hypocrisy surrounding the SAVE America Act and nationwide voter ID laws.

Ferguson, Cruz, and Lee provide an unfiltered, sharply critical analysis of Democratic leadership, dissecting what they see as deliberate obstruction tactics and politically motivated maneuvers harming American interests.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Democrats, DHS Funding, and Immigration Policy

[02:52–14:54]

DHS Appropriations Crisis

• Bipartisan Blockage: Senator Cruz explains that the DHS appropriations bill was negotiated with bipartisan support, but "none of those reforms have happened because [Democrats] won't allow it to be funded." ([03:49])
• Premeditation vs. Activism: Cruz distinguishes between strategic planning and reactive politics, noting that Democrats are in a “box” because their base vehemently opposes ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
  • “Their base hates ICE...these are the same people that are ‘abolish the police,’ ‘abolish ICE’.” ([06:16] Cruz)
• Consequences: There’s concern that continued withholding of funding will force critical DHS staff like TSA agents to quit, potentially leading to significant disruptions at airports.
  • “They don’t care about the fact that every TSA agent would have to quit and you would literally shut down every airport in the country.” ([06:57] Cruz)
• Proposed Solution:
  • Cruz suggests: “We should get the Democrats to fund all of DHS except ICE...then take up a reconciliation bill and fund ICE for the next 10 years...and increase ICE's budget by 10%.” ([08:10]–[08:58])

Schumer’s Leadership in Question

• Cruz reads from a Wall Street Journal article outlining internal Democratic frustrations with Chuck Schumer, but clarifies:
  • “You might say...maybe some Democrats are saying this is too obstructionist, you're too unreasonable. Nope, nope. You know who wants to replace him? The left wing. Because he's not ‘burn it down’ enough.” ([11:01] Cruz)
• Cruz compares Schumer to Heath Ledger’s Joker: “He reminds me of Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight as Batman, just saying, ‘let it burn.’” ([13:02])

The SAVE Act Update

• Ferguson and Cruz provide a procedural update:
  • Every Democrat is voting ‘no’ on the SAVE America Act.
  • Cruz wants a “talking filibuster,” but notes, “we don’t have 50 [Republicans]...there are at least four and potentially more that are nos...the problem is you have Republicans who are retiring...there’s not a whole lot of leverage there.” ([15:14] Cruz)

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2. Surveillance Scandal “Bigger than Watergate”: Operation Arctic Frost

[19:58–28:13]

Senate Judiciary Hearing Bombshell

• Senator Mike Lee launches the second segment, with Ferguson introducing the Arctic Frost surveillance story as “a 100% weaponization of our Department of Justice to go after Donald Trump and anyone they thought was important to him.” ([20:49] Ferguson)
• Scope of Arctic Frost:
  • Lee: “Watergate was about a handful of files in a single office. This reached into tens of thousands of private communications, emails, records...relating to every major conservative organization.” ([20:25])
  • “Nearly 200 subpoenas, more than 400 individuals and groups targeted...The Biden Department of Justice issued subpoenas to get the phone records for more than 20% of the Republicans in the Senate, including yours truly. It was a massive abuse of power.” ([21:02] Lee)
• Partisan Double Standards:
  • “Where is even a single Democrat Senator who has said one word about this abuse of power?” ([22:53] Cruz)
  • “When Richard Nixon...abused their law enforcement powers...Republican senators stood up to the President of their own party...Where is even a single Democrat Senator?” ([22:38] Lee, Cruz)

Explosive Committee Exchange

• Lee challenges a former senior FBI agent on whether broad fishing expeditions are justified:
  • “Would you be troubled if tomorrow the Trump Department of Justice issued a subpoena for the phone records of every Democrat that sits on the Judiciary Committee? ...Well, let me be clear. I’d be damn troubled. And that would be an abuse of power.” ([25:31]–[25:46] Lee)
• Lee accuses federal judge James Boasberg of illegal behavior:
  • “I chaired a hearing calling for Judge Boasberg to be impeached and removed from office because he is so extreme...In Arctic Frost, for every single senator that Jack Smith subpoenaed, he signed an order ordering phone companies not to disclose to us that they were subpoenaed...He concluded, ‘the court finds that we will destroy evidence if we know about it’...There’s zero basis in fact to make that finding.” ([27:09] Lee)
• Lee concludes: “It makes Watergate seem mild by comparison.” ([28:12])

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3. The Voter ID “Reversal” and the SAVE Act

[32:56–43:10]

Democrats & Voter ID: “Do As I Say, Not As I Do”

• Ferguson kicks off: “The Democrats, they said they supported voter ID, but then they immediately blocked you guys and your amendment to require it. Welcome to Democrats. You know, do as I say, not as I do.” ([33:15])
• Senator Mike Lee provides a detailed breakdown:
  • “The Save America act has two major elements:
    1. Proof of citizenship to register to vote,
    2. Photo ID to vote.” ([35:54]–[36:19])
  • Lee lists a spectrum of Democratic senators (Schumer, Booker, Warnock, Gillibrand, etc.) expressing public support for voter ID.
  • He delivers the punchline:
    • “So Republicans said, all right, we’ll call your bluff and we put a vote on just photo ID to vote. You know what happened? Every single Democrat voted no. All of them.” ([37:22] Lee)
  • Lee adds: “It is a flat up lie. And part of the reason they do that is because they know the media won’t call them on it.” ([37:26] Lee)
• He notes CBS News as a rare exception in mainstream media covering the contradiction:
  • “[CBS] reported straight out...an amendment that would require voters to show photo identification...failed...despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying...Democrats were not opposed.” ([38:13] Lee)

Broader Political Implications & Polarization

• Ferguson: “The SAVE Act...is probably one of the most bipartisan things you’re polling right now in this country, if not the very top one, and yet you have this type of divide. I actually think this plays in the hands of Republicans.” ([39:25])
• Lee argues the Democrats are the genuinely “extreme” party on everything from immigration to law enforcement to foreign policy:
  • “Republicans are supporting common sense principles...Democrats…are an open border party…abolishing the police…there is a real pro-Hamas contingent...those are extreme positions.” ([41:34]–[42:10] Lee)
  • “I try not to demonize people personally, but I do try to talk about policies and say it is an objectively unreasonable policy to support open borders...” ([42:43] Lee)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“They don’t care about the fact that every TSA agent would have to quit and you would literally shut down every airport in the country. ...They believe we can blame it on Trump and the Republicans.”
— Senator Ted Cruz ([06:57])

“You might say...maybe some Democrats are saying this is too obstructionist, you’re too unreasonable. Nope, nope. You know who wants to replace [Schumer]? The left wing. Because he’s not ‘burn it down’ enough.”
— Senator Ted Cruz ([11:01])

“Watergate was about a handful of files in a single office. This reached into tens of thousands of private communications, emails, records...relating to every major conservative organization.”
— Senator Mike Lee ([20:25])

“The Biden Department of Justice issued subpoenas to get the phone records for more than 20% of the Republicans in the Senate, including yours truly. It was a massive abuse of power.”
— Senator Mike Lee ([21:02])

“Would you be troubled if tomorrow the Trump Department of Justice issued a subpoena for the phone records of every Democrat that sits on the Judiciary Committee? ...Let me be clear, I’d be damn troubled. And that would be an abuse of power.”
— Senator Mike Lee ([25:31]–[25:46])

“So Republicans said, all right, we’ll call your bluff and we put a vote on just photo ID to vote. You know what happened? Every single Democrat voted no. All of them.”
— Senator Mike Lee ([37:22])

“It’s just a flat up lie. And part of the reason that they do that is because they know the media won’t call them on it.”
— Senator Mike Lee ([37:26])

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:52–14:54] — DHS Funding, Democratic Opposition to ICE, and The SAVE Act Procedural Update
• [19:58–28:13] — Operation Arctic Frost: Judiciary Hearings, Surveillance Abuse, and Watergate Comparisons
• [32:56–43:10] — Voter ID Debate, SAVE Act, and Democrats’ “Reversal” on Support
• Notable Soundbites/Quotes:
  • [06:57], [08:58], [11:01], [20:25], [21:02], [25:31], [37:22], [37:26]

---

Summary & Takeaways

This “Week in Review” episode is a combative, unapologetic indictment of current Democratic priorities and tactics, according to Ferguson, Cruz, and Lee. They argue that Democrats have:

• Prioritized political optics and activist demands over national security, even at the cost of severely undermining DHS operations and airport security.
• Orchestrated or at least enabled unprecedented surveillance operations (Arctic Frost) with the goal of targeting political opponents — an alleged abuse “orders of magnitude worse than Watergate.”
• Displayed hypocrisy over voting integrity, publicly voicing support for voter ID while uniformly voting against it, a stance the hosts say is enabled by media nonchalance.

The conversation is laden with frustration and a sense of urgency: Cruz and Lee advocate for procedural hardball (e.g., talking filibusters, reconciliation maneuvers) and urge Republicans to persist on immigration enforcement and election integrity. The senators close by challenging the “both sides” narrative, arguing that, on substance, it is Democrats who have veered into the policy extreme.

Listeners are encouraged to check earlier episodes for deeper dives on both Arctic Frost and the SAVE Act.

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Transcript

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[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome. It is verdict with Ted Cruz. 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, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, they wanted the Department of Homeland Security shut down and why to hurt as much as possible. We've got all of their reasoning behind it and what they're still trying to do. Also Jack Smith and Arctic Frost, the Democrats went all in to destroy Donald Trump and the people around him. It didn't work. And now what we're witnessing is truly shocking. We have the latest details of what's been exposed on that as well. And finally, an update on the Save America act where we are now and are we going to get it done. It's the week in review and it starts right now. Go over the list of what has already been given. As you're being held, I say as you, as the American people, as the travelers are being held hostage.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, and let's take more fundamentally, the DHS appropriations bill was a bipartisan bill negotiated between Republicans and Democrats that came out of the Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support. So the Democrats had all of these different reforms that they put into DHS that Republicans agreed to. By the way, none of those reforms have happened because they won't allow it to be funded.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The White House has been trying to negotiate with Democrats, although as I said, for more than two weeks, the Democrats wouldn't even meet. They had nothing to say. This was while TSA was not getting paid, while DHS was not getting paid, the Democrats position was, nope, we won't even sit and talk. And it's why I said, well, and

[Ben Ferguson]

that's, that's how, you know, it's premeditated. The point that you made earlier, like this is clearly they decided we are, this is the issue we're going to go on and we are premeditating this and we want it to hurt.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah. It's actually even different from premeditated. I think, I think to some extent they're in a box.

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[Senator Ted Cruz]

Their base hates ice. If you're a Democrat senator, look here, I'll tell you what John Fetterman tweeted this weekend, Elon Musk stepped in and said, I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is so negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans. It was incredibly generous. Elon is a patriot. Here's what John Fetterman said. This is incredibly generous. TSA agents across the country are relying on food pantries and community donations just to get by. I remain the lone Democrat to vote with my Republican colleagues to fully fund DHS and get people paid. It should never come to this point. So, Fetterman speaking the truth.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Here's the problem. Most of the rest of the Democrat senators, they're in a situation where they feel if they vote to fund ice, their angry open border activists will never forgive them. And I think a lot of them are engaged in political cowardice. They're unwilling to vote to fund ice. Mind you, that literally means that they don't want murderers arrested, they don't want child rapists arrested, they don't want gangbangers arrested.

[Ben Ferguson]

Isis, drug dealers, the list goes on and on.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Narco terrorists, I mean, ISIS, who is arresting criminals in the interior of the United States.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The Democrat political reality is their angry base hates them so much. Look, these are the same people that are abolish the police. These are the same people that are abolish ice. And so I'll tell you this week, Republican senators, when we're in session, we have lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And then actually, we were here throughout, throughout the weekend. We were in D.C. so we had, we had lunch Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well. And what I'm arguing to my colleagues, I said, listen, I think the Democrats are so wildly unreasonable that they may be content to leave DHS defunded for the entire year.

[Ben Ferguson]

Really?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

They don't care about the consequences of what they're doing. They don't care about the fact that every TSA agent would have to quit and you would literally shut down every airport in the country. Like it's, They're. They believe we can blame it on Trump and the Republicans. And they are. There's not a common ground of reasonableness.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, let me ask you, Sean Duffy said on, I think it was Face the Nation Sunday morning that he said, if you, if you think it's bad now, wait till this coming week when you miss another check. It's going to be worse. And his point was, you will have so many people quit that now you've got a problem that you don't have a big enough workforce even when you get back to being funded. How concerned are you about that? Is that Part of the Democrats plan. Like. Yeah, like it's kind of the, the way that they did with defund the police. Well, if we can't directly do it, we'll just drive them so crazy they quit their jobs. They don't want to be police anymore.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah. Look, I think plan is giving them too much credit. They don't have a plan. They're just obeying their angry activists who are just screaming. They're just engaged in a primal screen. And so what I told my colleagues is, listen, if we're working with people who are objectively unreasonable.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And who may well say we will never vote to fund ICE again. Here's what I've suggested. All right, fine. If that's the reality, we should get the Democrats to fund all of DHS except ice. Carve ICE out. Now you might say, okay, that's a terrible idea because then ICE doesn't get funded. Remember, we've already funded ICE for four years.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So agree to fund everything except ice. And then what I urge my colleagues is if they force us to do that, we should immediately take up a reconciliation bill and fund ICE for the next 10 years. And what I advocated for. And we should increase ICE's budget by 10%. So if that's going to be their price, we Democrats will never again vote for border security. We will never again vote for ice.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Then at the end of the day, the only way I see to solve this problem, reconciliation. Remember, we've talked about this before. It is the one procedural mechanism the Senate can use that does not require 60 votes.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

That just Republicans can pass it. And so if the Democrats would agree, we'll fund all of DHS except ice the next week, we should come back and do a reconciliation and fund ICE for a decade. Because I'm not convinced that these, these loons are going to change their mind in the next 10 years.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. It's a great point for people that are going to be traveling this week. What is your gut? Do you think there's a. What are the chances that we could actually get something done here where then things could start to go back to normal instead of going in the, in the direction they're going now, which is these two, three and four hour plus waits?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Look, I don't know. I think there is a real urgency in the Senate to try to get this resolved before the Easter holiday.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The question is, are the Democrats going to budge? There are a few of the kind of the Democrats who occasionally will reach a deal who are making noises like they want to. But Chuck Schumer doesn't care. Chuck Schumer is terrified of being primaried from the left. And in fact, I want to, I want to read a little bit from a story in the Wall Street Journal about Chuck Schumer. So he has been wildly left wing.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So much so that he's now done the longest shutdown in government history. And then he's turned around and turned, turned around and has shut the TSA down and refused to pay them. Here's a story that just came out in the Wall Street Journal. Growing frustration with Chuck Schumer spurs talk of replacing him. And you might say, oh thank God. Maybe some Democrats are saying this is too obstructionist, you're too unreasonable. Nope, nope. You know who wants to replace him? The left wing. Because he's not burn it down enough.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And let me read the beginning of this article. Senator Chris Murphy was dining with progressive activists at a French restaurant in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood. Could you be more cliche as a Democrat than that? I suppose maybe a vegan French restaurant would, would make it even better. When their conversation about how to advance their legislative priorities turned to a thorny question, what to do about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer? To the surprise of some attendees, the Connecticut Democrat, a rising star in the party's left flank, responded that some lawmakers had been doing informal counts to see whether enough votes existed to remove the New York Democrat from his leadership position, according to people familiar with the mid February dinner. Murphy explained that Schumer had enough backing to remain as leader. But the disclosure stood out nonetheless because it revealed the frustration inside the Senate had reached a high enough level that some Democrats were actively contemplating how to oust Schumer.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Wow.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Murphy is among a group of senators and top advisors who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Schumer's leadership, according to people familiar with the conversation. Who else? That group includes Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been initiated conversations with other senators to gauge frustrations with Schumer. Some of the people said Senator Timothy Tina Smith of Minnesota has also been active in discussions with her frustration with Schumer. In an interview, Murphy said he's frequently asked about Senate leadership, but he doesn't have a count of who would vote to remove Schumer and doesn't recall mentioning one. In more than four dozen interviews with Democrat senators and others, many said the concern about Schumer's leadership was widespread. But what are they mad at? And this is where it's amazing. Murphy, Warren and Smith are part of a batch of Senators dubbed Fight Club, who are particularly incensed by Schumer's approach to the midterms. This group of progressives believes that Schumer favors centrist candidates in some key races. So their whole argument, even though Schumer is just saying, let it burn. I mean, he reminds me of Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight as Batman, just saying, let it burn. Who cares what happens if they're terror attacks? Not Chuck Schumer's problem. If every airport is shut down. Not Chuck Schumer's problem. If people can't pay their rent or mortgage. Not Chuck Schumer's problem. And yet the Elizabeth Warrens of the party say, not enough. You need to do more. I don't even know what more would look like. But that is the reality of where Democrats are. And as long as the media does what Greta did and what so many other CNN does and MSNBC does, as long as they keep covering it up and pretending, no, no, no, it's not the Democrats who are shutting it down, they'll keep doing the exact same thing.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, they really will. I got to ask you an audible question real quick because you mentioned you're in D.C. over the weekend. Give us a 30 second update on where we are with the SAVE Act.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

We are continuing to debate it, but right now every Democrat votes no. And we are not doing a talking filibuster. We are not requiring the Democrats do a talking filibuster. So I think the expectation is we're going to vote on it this week and if nothing changes, the vote is going to go down. President Trump is deeply frustrated, as you know, as I talked about, and we did an earlier podcast, which if folks want a deep dive on the Save America act, you could have. We have an entire podcast last week devoted to explaining what was going on. I think we should use the procedural rules to force the Democrats to stand and talk and talk and talk and do a full talking filibuster. But we're not right now.

[Senator Mike Lee]

So has Trump weighed in on that

[Ben Ferguson]

idea, by the way? I mean. Oh, yeah. And what does he say?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

He's vocally in favor of it, but in order to do it, we have to have 50 Republicans stand together. And we don't have 50. That's the fundamental problem.

[Ben Ferguson]

How close are we? Is it two or three or more?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's hard to tell. We have 53 Republicans, which means we can lose at most three. There are at least four and potentially more that are nos. And the problem is you have in particular Republicans who are retiring. So they're not going to be on the ballot. That makes it very hard for the White House to pressure them. If they're not, they're not up for reelection. There's not a whole lot, there's not a whole lot of leverage there.

[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.

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[Ben Ferguson]

Now on to story number two. Senator, I want to finish the show with a really important subject and you've described it as bigger than Watergate. It's a modern day Watergate, certainly, but we now have a dive into the bombshell Senate Judiciary hearing on Arctic Frost and you had a great statement, Senator, and I want to play it for everybody. This is how you kind of described what's happening.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Watergate was about a handful of files in a single office. This reached into tens of thousands of private communications, emails, records and personal data. Toll records, bank records, donor lists, law firm records and other personal files relating to every major conservative organization were Subpoenaed

[Ben Ferguson]

Senator, that sums it up. This was a 100% weaponization of our Department of Justice to go after Donald Trump and anyone they thought was important to him that could help him win the White House again.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Well, that clip was from a hearing I chaired this week of the Senate Judiciary Committee that was examining Arctic Frost and was releasing yet more documents that showed the massive scope of the abuse of power. Look, Watergate, at the end of the day, was a handful of Cuban burglars who broke into an office of the dnc, and it was a failed burglary. They didn't even succeed. And it resulted in the President of the United States resigning in disgrace. It resulted in more than 40 people being criminally prosecuted, many of them going to jail. By any measure, Arctic Frost was ordered orders of magnitude worse. You had nearly 200 subpoenas. You had more than 400 individuals and groups that were targeted. The Biden Department of Justice issued subpoenas to get the phone records for more than 20% of the Republicans in the Senate, including yours truly. Yeah, it was a massive abuse of power. And the amazing thing is the Democrats don't care at all. And one of the points I made at the hearing, there are a bunch of Democrat senators sitting there at the hearing, and I pointed out not a one of them is going to say a word. They don't care about abuse of power. For them, partisanship and partisan control is all that mattered. And I contrasted it with what happened at Watergate. Here, listen to what I had to say. Fifty years ago, this nation was confronted with an abuse of power, and it responded not with indifference, but with. But with accountability. I'll tell you one of the big differences of Watergate versus Arctic Frost. When Richard Nixon and his corrupt attorney general and his corrupt administration abused their law enforcement powers to go after their political opponents, Republican senators stood up to the President of their own party and defended the rule of law. Where is even a single Democrat Senator

[Senator Ted Cruz]

who has said one word about this abuse of power?

[Ben Ferguson]

You're right, by the way. They're all silent on it because they don't care as long as it was spying on you. Literally.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Senator Mike Lee]

And look, I will say what happened in Watergate, what actually ended it and when Richard Nixon resigned is it was a group of senior Republican senators that drove the 16 blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and sat in the Oval Office. And they said, Mr. President, you have a choice. You either resign or. Or we will impeach you, convict you, and remove you from office. And it was a moment of real political courage for those senators to do that. I'm not a Richard Nixon fan. I think he was utterly corrupt. As you know, Ben, I've written four books. The third book I wrote was called justice how the Left has Weaponized the Legal System. And the opening chapter of that book is a deep dive into Watergate. And it details the just absolute corruption and abuse of power, what Richard Nixon tried to do, Barack Obama and now Joe Biden succeeded in doing. And one of the real differences is Republicans were willing to stand up and say, no, this goes too far. There are no Democrats willing to do so. And all right, so there was a witness that the Democrats had called who was a former senior agent of the FBI. And he gave this whole testimony about how the FBI is utterly beyond politics and it's impartial and it has no partisan agenda at all. And I actually cross examined him quite a bit. And I said, look, I agree with what you're saying. That's what the FBI is supposed to be and that's what DOJ is supposed to be. And I'm an alumnus of the Department of Justice. I served in the George W. Bush Department of Justice, and it has a more than century long tradition of being a outside of politics, not partisan at all. And I said one of the worst things that Barack Obama and especially Joe Biden did is they corrupted it and turned DOJ and the FBI into partisan tools. And this witness didn't want to admit it, but here's one question I asked him. Give a listen. Menendez is currently incarcerated in prison for corruption. And if you've got evidence of criminal conduct of one individual, the Department of Justice has an obligation to investigate that. Would you agree that's qualitatively different than a fishing expedition targeting 20% of the Republicans in the Senate? Would you agree that's qualitatively different? I'm not familiar with the details of

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either investigation, so I wouldn't want to speculate.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Well, let me ask you this. Would you be troubled if tomorrow the Trump Department of Justice issued a subpoena for the phone records of every Democrat that sits on the Judiciary Committee?

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Not if it was based on factual

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[Senator Mike Lee]

Well, let me be clear. I'd be damn troubled. And that would be an abuse of power. And I'm going to predict not a single Democrat is going to say even a word about the abuse of power on their side. And that double standard is troubling.

[Ben Ferguson]

Senator Lee, Senator, you're absolutely right there in the point that you were making.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Yeah, it really is amazing that nobody. And by the way, the entire hearing, the Democrats were completely silent. Like, when it came their turn to question, they just said, orange man bad. They just said, we hate Donald Trump. They didn't acknowledge it. Look, one of the things that happened in Arctic Frost is not only did you have Jack Smith getting subpoenas for the phone records of 20% of the Republicans in the Senate, and by the way, also getting subpoenas and wiretapping. Kash Patel, who was then a private citizen, now is the director of the FBI. They tapped the phones of Susie Wiles, who was then the campaign manager. She was running Donald Trump's campaign. I mean, this was a political opposition effort. And by the way, they taped her conversations with her lawyer, which is illegal on any level. If you look at the subpoenas they issued for the senators. They also went to Judge Boasberg, who is an extraordinarily partisan left wing judge. He's the favorite judge for these radical groups that have been getting nationwide injunctions against various Trump policies. I chaired a hearing several months ago calling for Judge Boasberg to be impeached and removed from office because he is so extreme in Arctic Frost, for every single senator that Jack Smith subpoenaed, he signed an order ordering the phone companies not to disclose to us that they were subpoenaed on our phone record. And in that order, he concluded, the court finds that we will destroy evidence if we know about it. Now. There is zero basis in fact to make that finding. Look, I'm a member of the bar. I'm. I. My integrity matters a great deal to me. I'm not going to destroy evidence. And there are no facts that could be introduced that would suggest I could. There's also a federal statute prohibiting non disclosure orders for Senate records. And yet Judge Boasberg violated the law. That was the kind of abuse of power we saw in Arctic Frost. And it was truly unprecedented. It makes Watergate seem mild by comparison.

[Ben Ferguson]

No doubt we're gonna keep covering this. Don't forget, download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast. And if you're listening to this radio show, we do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, if you're listening on the radio right now. Thank you for joining us and we'll see you back here on this station as well next week. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you on the podcast all week long. 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.

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[Ben Ferguson]

I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. Let's give an update on the latest of the SAVE act and Chuck Schumer. The Democrats, they said they supported voter id, but then they immediately blocked you guys and your amendment to require it. Welcome to Democrats. You know, do as I say, not as I do.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Well, that's exactly right. So I'm an original sponsor of the Save America Act. I've been helping lead the fight to pass the Save America Act. We should be passing it. The only way to get it passed is we need to stand together and force the Democrats to do a talking filibuster. Unfortunately, to do that we need 50 Republicans who are willing to stand and fight and be all unified together. We don't have those votes right now. I have been making that case for weeks on ends to my colleagues. We're not there yet and it is frustrating. By the way, we did a podcast two weeks ago where we broke down the details of exactly how a talking filibuster would work, how using the existing Senate rules to force the Democrats to do like Jimmy Stewart and Mr. Smith goes to Washington to force the Democrats to do like I did when I filibustered for 21 hours talking continuously against Obamacare in 2013. We have not done that yet, but I will say so. The Save America act has two major elements. Number one, it requires people to show proof of American citizenship to register to vote, a basic common sense step. Number two, it requires photo ID to vote. Well, the Democrats defense that they really hate provision one, showing proof of citizenship. And they argued, oh, some people can't do it, some people can't do it. It's nonsense. But that's what they argued. And in the course of it, a whole lot of them said, we're okay with photo ID, which at some level is not surprising because photo ID 83% of Americans support photo ID to vote. 81% of Hispanics support photo ID to vote. 81 percent of Democrats support photo ID to vote. 75% of African Americans support photo ID to vote. It's overwhelmingly popular. So the Democrats all said they supported it, but they didn't like the other elements of the SAVE Act. So one thing we did this week is we said, okay, we'll call your bluff, and we put up just a very simple bill that required photo ID to vote. It's what they all said they supported. Now, let me tell you, I want to read you some quotes from Democrats. Here's Chuck Schumer, quote, democrats support voter voter id. Here's Chuck Schumer. Again, our objection as Democrats is not to photo id. Here's Dick Durbin, quote, they say it show a voter id. I'm not opposed to that. They ask you for an ID at the airport, don't they? That's reasonable. All right, here's Caitlin Collins at CNN asking Cory Booker, quote, if it was just a clean vote on voter ID specifically, is that something you would support? CORY booker, yes. And New Jersey has voter ID laws. I've gotta show my driver's license. Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware, quote, who could be against requiring ID to vote? Rafael Warnock, Democrat from Georgia, quote, I think you should have to prove that you are who you say you are before you vote. I support voter id. Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan, quote, voter id, which hopefully all Americans are in agreement about. Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, quote, the IDs that we all have in our wallets should be good enough to vote. They always have been. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from Rhode island, quote, well, the voter ID part is probably fine. We have voter ID here in Rhode Island. Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, quote, if people want to adopt the Arizona way, which is strict voter id, I think that would be fine. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats from Virginia, quote, we support reasonable steps that help maintain trust in our elections, including the voter identification requirements we already have in Virginia. Jack Reed, Democrat from Rhode island, quote, if the polls simply required every American to show an ID at the polls, then I would not be ringing such a loud alarm. So that's what they all said.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Senator Mike Lee]

So Republicans said, all right, we'll call your bluff and we put a vote on just photo ID to vote. You know what happened?

[Ben Ferguson]

What happened? I know the answer, but it makes me laugh.

[Senator Mike Lee]

Every single Democrat voted no. All of them. Every one of them. Everyone that I just read those quotes from, all the ones that say, oh, I support voter id, they all voted no. I mean, it is a flat up. It's just a flat up lie. And part of the reason, part of the reason that they do that is because they know the media won't call them on it. Yeah, they know that they can lie over and over and over again and there will be no consequences. Now, I will say an exception to that. So CBS News, David Ellison bought CBS News, and so now suddenly CBS News is owned by someone who says he has a commitment to making it balanced and not having it be a partisan left wing network. I'll tell you what CBS News tweeted out earlier today, quote, un amendment that would require voters to show photo identification to cast a ballot failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday, despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying last week that Democrats were not opposed to such an amendment requirement. So CBS actually reported straight out, I actually had some fun with that and tweeted and said, you mean Schumer lied? And there's a reason. There's a reason you have a pinocchio emoji and I used it. But, but part of the reason they're willing to lie so brazenly is what CBS did. There is the exception. Cnn, msnbc, abc, NBC, they don't call them to account. The Washington Post, the New York Times, they don't call them to account. And so the Democrats all lie. And then when you say, oh, you

[Senator Ted Cruz]

support that, do you?

[Senator Mike Lee]

All right, well, do you want to vote for it? They all say no. They get almost no accountability for doing so.

[Ben Ferguson]

It really is incredible. And look, I do think this is going to be very interesting going into the midterms. And I want to get your reaction to this because I actually think the American people are paying attention. They were very frustrated by the Democrats constantly making their life harder on these basic type issues, just like the airport. I think those are things when you combine these issues together, the SAVE act, which is overwhelming American support. Like it's probably one of the most bipartisan things you're polling right now in this country, if not the very top one, and yet you have this type of divide. I actually think this plays in the hands of Republicans if we do it the right way. Your thoughts?

[Senator Mike Lee]

Yeah, look, I think that's right. And I think calling out Democrats for hypocrisy and lying and for just really aggressive partisanship. You know, I will say there are people who say both sides are too extreme. And I gotta say that that feels very reasonable and even handed. Gosh, one side's too extreme, so is the other. I just don't think it's accurate. If you look at where we are now, the policy positions of the Democratic Party objectively are extreme on on immigration. They're an open border party. They just refused to fund even a penny for immigration enforcement and they slashed funding for customs and border patrol. They are an open border party that opposes arresting murderers and gang bangers and child rapists on issues of sexuality. Every Democrat, all of them support boys and girls sports, men and women's sports. They support sterilization and surgical mutilation of kids. Those are extreme positions. Those are on the 10 side of 9010 issues. They support abolishing the police. They all just voted to effectively abolish the police. In the immigration context, what are the Republicans supporting?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Policy wise?

[Senator Mike Lee]

The Republicans are supporting common sense principles. Low taxes, low regulations, lots and lots of jobs, small businesses doing well, securing the border, supporting law enforcement, protecting our families. Those are common sense position. Look, the Democrats on foreign policy are embrace Hamas. There is a real pro Hamas contingent in the Democrat Party that is objectively extreme. And so I think saying the two sides are kind of both too extreme, I don't think that describes where the policy debate is. Now I will concede this on the rhetoric. There is a fair point to be made that both sides can use overheated rhetoric. I think the Democrats do so routinely when they call ice, for example Nazis and Gestapo and they call for doxing and going after the families of law enforcement officers. I mean I think that's grotesque, but there are Republicans who use overheated rhetoric as well, and I wish they did not. You know, I get that question a lot as I travel around Texas and around the country and I say, listen, I don't have the ability to change the language other people use. I can control what I say. You know, Ben, you and me in Verdict, I try not to demonize people personally, but I do try to talk about policies and say it is an objectively unreasonable policy to support open borders and to just take away the paychecks of law enforcement officers forever. And that is the position of the Democrat Party. I think that's the way we ought to have political discussions on substance and merits rather than making it personal.

[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.

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