Dick Durbin Dodges Epstein, Democrats Against Funding for Israel plus Biden Impeachment Inquiry Center Stage the Week in Review

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson Episode: Dick Durbin Dodges Epstein, Democrats Against Funding for Israel plus Biden Impeachment Inquiry Center Stage the Week in Review
Release Date: December 16, 2023
Host: Ben Ferguson
Produced by: Premiere Networks

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Introduction

In this episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Ben Ferguson delves into three major political stories that dominated the week: Senator Dick Durbin’s evasive stance on the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs, the Democratic Party’s resistance to funding Israel juxtaposed with their support for Ukraine, and the advancing impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. Featuring insightful commentary from Senator Ted Cruz and notable contributions from House Representative James Comer, this episode provides listeners with a comprehensive analysis of these pressing issues.

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1. Jeffrey Epstein Flight Logs Controversy

Key Discussion: Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Ted Cruz have been vocal in their demand for the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs through a formal subpoena. The flight logs are believed to contain names of high-profile individuals who may have been involved in Epstein's illicit activities.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson [00:01]: "Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee has asked for a basic request, and that is subpoena the Epstein flight logs."

• Ted Cruz [02:02]: "Durbin is lying. Just. Just like when Claudine Gay said Harvard doesn't know how many Jewish students we have. Baloney. Yes, they do. Durbin is flat out lying."

Detailed Analysis: Senator Ted Cruz criticizes Senator Dick Durbin for his reluctance to subpoena Epstein’s flight logs, suggesting that Durbin is attempting to protect influential Democrats and big donors. Cruz shares an exchange between a Fox News reporter and Durbin, highlighting Durbin’s evasive responses regarding his knowledge of the flight logs ([01:52]–[02:10]). Cruz further accuses Durbin of lying based on his behavior during the Judiciary Committee hearing ([07:51]–[12:35]).

Cruz recounts a pivotal moment where Durbin interrupted Senator Blackburn’s attempt to introduce the subpoena, portraying it as a political maneuver to avoid scrutiny. The episode underscores the tension between Republican senators pushing for transparency and Democratic obstructionism ([10:26]–[15:58]).

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2. Democrats Resist Funding for Israel While Supporting Ukraine

Key Discussion: The episode addresses the Democratic Party’s apparent reluctance to provide funding to Israel, contrasting it with their substantial support for Ukraine. This has raised questions about the Democrats’ priorities and their stance on international affairs.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson [13:57]: "Senator, I want to also move to one other subject real quick that I think is obviously an important one and that is to give an update on, on what's going on now with impeachment."

• Ted Cruz [14:00]: "What Chuck Schumer is trying is to browbeat Republicans into saying give us what we want even though we will do nothing on the border."

Detailed Analysis: Senator Cruz argues that the Biden administration has consistently undermined Israel, citing instances where the State Department advised Israel against military retaliation during conflicts ([14:00]–[15:58]). He criticizes the White House for treating Israel funding as a bargaining chip to secure Republican support for Democratic priorities, labeling this approach as cynical and misguided.

Cruz highlights that Democrats prioritize open borders over the war in Ukraine, suggesting a strategic shift in their foreign policy focus. He points out the inconsistency and lack of transparency in Democratic funding allocations, emphasizing the need for accountability and steadfast support for traditional allies like Israel ([15:58]–[16:50]).

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3. Biden Impeachment Inquiry Advances

Key Discussion: The House of Representatives is moving forward with an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, focusing on allegations of corruption and influence-peddling involving Hunter Biden. This development marks a significant escalation in political accountability efforts.

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cruz [16:50]: "The House has scheduled the vote today. It is a vote on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden."

• James Comer [26:43]: "Joe Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his family's corruption, influence peddling schemes."

• Ben Ferguson [25:35]: "This is his retribution. No, it's not. It's based on the facts."

Detailed Analysis: Senator Cruz outlines the rationale behind the impeachment inquiry, emphasizing evidence of corruption and bribery linked to President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden ([16:50]–[24:43]). He references specific instances, such as Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board and alleged quid pro quo arrangements involving U.S. taxpayer funds for Ukraine ([20:10]–[24:43]).

Representative James Comer’s testimony on the House floor is highlighted, where he details the Biden family's alleged financial misconduct, including the creation of shell companies and suspicious financial transactions with foreign entities ([26:43]–[29:59]). Comer urges colleagues to support the resolution, framing it as a necessary step to hold the President accountable.

Cruz refutes media narratives, particularly from MSNBC, which suggests the impeachment inquiry is an act of political retribution against former President Trump. He argues that the inquiry is grounded in substantial evidence and factual investigations, contrasting it with what he perceives as partisan media distortions ([24:43]–[30:13]).

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Conclusion

In this episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz provide a critical examination of key political controversies, including the obstruction of investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s associates, the Democratic Party’s selective international funding priorities, and the advancing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Through incisive analysis and direct quotations, the episode underscores themes of accountability, transparency, and partisan conflict within the current American political landscape. Listeners are encouraged to engage with these discussions to stay informed and critically assess the actions of their political representatives.

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Note: For a more comprehensive understanding, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson on the iHeartRadio app or their preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[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, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Ted Cruz have joined together asking for the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs to be made public with a subpoena. What will happen moving forward and why are Democrats blocking it? We'll have that for you. Also, Israel funding Democrats saying no, but they want you to send billions to Ukraine. And now it's all involved with border security. We'll have the latest on that financial fight and finally the latest with a Biden impeachment inquiry moving forward and what this means for the days ahead. It is the week in review and it starts right now. Senator, I want to move on to another issue this week that was kind of shocking your colleagues. Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee has asked for a basic request, and that is subpoena the Epstein flight logs. They exist. We should know who is on those planes. And Dick Durbin kind of wanted to have it both ways, claiming, hey, I didn't really know about this, so therefore I don't have to do it, but I'm willing to talk about it. But this should be a simple, like, yes or no question for him. Do you want Epstein's, you know, flight logs to be out there? Yes. Do we want to know who is on those planes? Yes. Do we want to know who's involved? And this human and sex trafficking? Yes. So why is he defending it? And you may have been as shocked as I was. This doesn't seem like a smart political move yet. Maybe there's so many Democrats that he's trying to protect. Here are big donors. I don't understand it.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, look, look, Durbin is doing everything he can to cover this up, to hide the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs. Take, take a look right here. This is a Fox News reporter questioning Dick Durbin as he walks to a Judiciary Committee hearing. Give a listen.

[Dick Durbin]

I don't know anything about his flight locks.

[Ted Cruz]

Why won't you subpoena them? Why don't you want to know the issue?

[Dick Durbin]

I know who Epstein was, but I certainly don't know anything about the issue.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, he was charged with sex trafficking. So why don't you want to know who was utilizing his private plane?

[Dick Durbin]

Never been raised by anyone.

[Ted Cruz]

Senator Blackburn has wanted to subpoena them and there hasn't been a vote in your committee.

[Dick Durbin]

Said a word to me. Not a word.

[Ted Cruz]

But aren't you curious, like what high profile or powerful people might be closeted predators and pedophiles does that concern you? So why won't you subpoena them if you can?

[Dick Durbin]

It's the first time anyone has raised it. Thank you, Fox.

[Ted Cruz]

So do you. Are you curious about it? Will you do it? All right, so Durbin is lying. Just. Just like when Claudine Gay said Harvard doesn't know how many Jewish students we have. Baloney. Yes, they do. Durbin is flat out lying. Now, let me give you some backstory. This fight occurred in the context. And we talked about this in a podcast about a week ago.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Where the Democrats subpoenaed Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo. Harlan Crow, very successful real estate developer based here in Texas and Dallas. Leonard Leo has been very active with the Federalist Society for a long time. Very active in helping with judicial selection, in fighting for constitutionalist judges. The Democrats hate them. And the subpoenas going after Harlan Crow and going after Leonard Leo are part of their ongoing effort to harass the Supreme Court, to delegitimize the Supreme Court, and in particular, to target Clarence Thomas. They despise Clarence Thomas. So in response to that, a number of Republicans had different amendments that we were pushing that if they were going to force a vote on these subpoenas, we were going to force a vote on our amendments. So when we went into it, I had an amendment that would subpoena the GPS data for Hunter Biden's cell phone and Joe Biden's cell phone at the exact moment that Hunter Biden sent the WhatsApp text to the Chinese Communists, saying, I'm sitting here next to my father. Because we know from the IRS whistleblowers that when the investigators wanted to find out, was he in fact sitting next to Joe Biden when he was extorting the Chinese Communists, The Biden DOJ blocked that and said, nope, you can't find that out. So that's what I wanted to tee up. I think that was important. I think we should have voted for it. I'm going to continue to look for an avenue to vote for it. Marsha Blackburn came up with, I think, an even better idea of a subpoena to vote on. And her idea was that we should subpoena the Epstein estate for. For the flight logs to his plane, and in particular, the Lolita Express, the private jet that flew down to Jeffrey Epstein's island with lots and lots of politicians, allegedly mostly Democrats. We don't know. We don't know who was on it.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, show it. If there's a Republican. Fine. Let's find out who they are.

[Ted Cruz]

Now, we do know that Epstein was an original friend of Bill, that he was very close with Bill Clinton. He was so close with Bill Clinton. Do you know what Jeffrey Epstein had hanging on the wall in his bedroom?

[Ben Ferguson]

Maybe one of the creepiest, weirdest things ever. Yeah, go ahead and tell everybody because it's truly shocking.

[Ted Cruz]

A painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress, Monica Weinsky, red high heeled pumps. Like, it's just weird. Yeah, that's what Epstein had hanging on his wall in his New York house. So Marsha Blackburn introduced an amendment to subpoena the flight logs. I thought her idea was fantastic, so I co sponsored her amendment. So it was a Blackburn cruise amendment to subpoena the flight logs. Now, the first time we were gonna vote on the subpoenas on Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo, we didn't vote on them. And I can tell you, like all the Republicans, we were all ready for combat. Let's go battle the Democrats. This is a partisan witch hunt. And what happened? So back behind the dais, there's a conference room where the Judiciary Committee meets. You have the dais there, and behind it there's a conference room. And you can go and have meetings there. I can tell you Dick Durbin was sitting in that conference room with Jon Ossoff, the freshman Democrat senator from Georgia who serves on Judiciary. And Durbin and Ossoff were having a heated, heated, heated conversation. I don't know for sure what they were discussing. I didn't overhear their conversation, but it was energetic and it delayed and delayed and delayed. And then Durbin ended up deciding not to vote on the subpoenas. And I'll tell you, all the Republican senators, we were like, what's going on?

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And a number of us thought it was. A number of Republican senators suggested the problem was Ossoff told Durbin he was not willing to vote on the Epstein subpoena. Now, I don't know if that's because he didn't want it voted on or he didn't want to vote. No, I don't know why and I don't know if it's true. I mean, we were. Durbin never explained any of it to us. He just canceled it. Fast forward then to when they did vote out the subpoenas the way he did. So he allowed no amendments. He. He just rammed it through and blocked all amendments. And so the logical inference is the only way Durbin could get his votes for the Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo subpoenas is to stop a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein subpoena. And somebody. And I think the most likely candidate is John Ossoff. Really, really, really doesn't want to vote on that. I think that's all the more reason to vote on it. And by the way, if Ossoff is listening to this and he says, hey, that's not true, I'm happy to vote on it.

[Ben Ferguson]

Great, let's vote on it.

[Ted Cruz]

Let's vote on it. There's an easy way to resolve it, but it's interesting. So Fox News asked Durbin that question in the hallway you saw at the end. He's like, thanks, Fox, with this nastiness. Well, what happened next was interesting. So Durbin went into the hearing room and he tried to rehabilitate himself.

[Ben Ferguson]

He tried to say, cover your ass politics.

[Ted Cruz]

So watch what he said as soon as he came into the hearing room.

[Dick Durbin]

Senator Blackburn, before you leave, I want to make a point for the record since I understand you made some statements about the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs. There's a Fox reporter in the hallway who asked me about this and I said I had not spoken to you one time about this issue. I think you'll back me up on that. I'm not mistaken. I didn't know that this was even a subject of your amendments, which, if you recall, you were the first on the list until the two hour rule was invoked. I don't know anything about this request on your part. I'll be happy to discuss it with you, but I haven't done any discussion with you to this point.

[James Comer]

Mr. Chairman. I know, and I think you're fully aware that I had two amendments, one dealing with Epstein and Sotomayor. I'd brought it up previously.

[Dick Durbin]

I have to confess, I didn't know that you offered that amendment. Happy to discuss it with you, but I want to point on the record, you and I have never personally discussed this, have we?

[James Comer]

We talked briefly on the floor as a committee.

[Dick Durbin]

You never mentioned what the subject matter of your amendment was. You said you wanted to offer in committee.

[James Comer]

I brought up my. The subject matter of my amendment, not my presence.

[Ben Ferguson]

Three weeks, not in my presence. Do you believe him?

[Ted Cruz]

Well, the nice thing is, as they say, we can roll the tape. What he said there is a flat out lie. It is objectively false. We're going to show that to you in just a moment. It is unequivocally false. It is possible. Giving him enormous benefit of the doubt. He forgot. Yeah, it is possible. It was not a knowing lie, but it is unequivocally 100% demonstrably false. That the words he said are wrong, and I'll show you why. We're gonna right now play the tape of that first hearing. Now, I was there. Marsha Blackburn was there, and Dick Durbin was there. And you're gonna hear Marsha bring up her amendment about Jeffrey Epstein. He just said you've never mentioned Jeffrey Epstein in my presence. I was not physically present. Well, you're gonna see Dick Durbin, recognize her, and then cut her off while she's bringing up Jeffrey Epstein. Roll the tape.

[James Comer]

I seek recognition. Senator Blackburn, since we're in the business of issuing subpoenas now, here are a few more that I filed a subpoena to Jeffrey Epstein's estate to provide the flight logs for his private plane.

[Dick Durbin]

Thank you, Senator. When I recognized you, I didn't know what subject you wish to speak to. As I announced at the beginning, the first thing we'll consider, the two judicial nominations. Then we will move to the supplement.

[Ben Ferguson]

So she's speaking to the man in the middle of the room. He's right there in the middle. It's direct eye contact.

[Ted Cruz]

He's looking directly at her. He's at the hearing room. He's in the center. Center. I'm in between Durbin and Marsha Blackburn. We're all sitting there. She flat out says, I want to subpoena Jeffrey Epstein's flight records. And he's. And he hears it. He recognizes her. Then he interrupts and says, no, no, I want to do some other stuff first. This is easy to resolve. We should subpoena Epstein's flight records. If there are politicians, Democrat or Republican or anybody else who was on that plane, who was going to that island, who was molesting and sexually assaulting children, we should know who they are. We shouldn't have Jeffrey Epstein's client list and the fact that the Democrats are apparently in a full on panic. I don't know if Durbin knows somebody on that list or multiple people or I don't know if they're just afraid. I don't know what their fear is, but they're plainly terrified of voting on it. And if I'm wrong, Durbin can solve it very easily by bringing it up for a vote and issuing the subpoena. And to be clear, when we subpoena those flight logs, we should make them public. I will tell you this. One of my favorite moments in all of Senate judiciary was when John Kennedy leaned forward at a hearing and he said, Christmas tree ornaments and Jeffrey Epstein, two things, you know, didn't hang themselves.

[Ben Ferguson]

And this is why he is a legend of the Senate.

[Ted Cruz]

I almost laughed out a lung. And I'm sitting there. John sits a couple of seats to my right. I almost fell over. I was like, I cannot believe he just said that. In a live and open hearing of Senate Judiciary. He did. But it seems to me, I don't know if Jeffrey Epstein had a visit from Hillary Clinton late at night. I don't know what happened. But it seems to me Dick Durbin really, really, really doesn't want you to know what happened.

[Ben Ferguson]

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now, on to story number two. Let's talk about that Israeli funding, because this is really important. Obviously, as you mentioned, Democrats said hell no to it. No one, not a single Democrat would go with you guys. What does it look like now moving forward? And how desperate is the need from Israel at this point? It's amazing that Democrats are going all in with Ukraine and the corruption there, asking no questions, whereas in Israel, there's none of those questions that need to be asked. And, and there's transparency and we know what's going on, and yet they're saying not so much. And even the White House now is starting to distance themselves from Israel, changing their tune a little bit over the last couple of days, which is what I expected, but it's also incredibly disheartening.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, look, the one word I disagree with that you said there is. You said even the White House. Listen, we've outlined at length on this podcast how this White House is the most anti Israel White House we've ever had. Yeah. And Joe Biden, this White House have been undermining Israel from the day Biden was sworn in as president. Repeatedly. And we've outlined from the very first minutes of this attack on October 7th, this White House has been undermining Israel, has been urging Israel, do not retaliate, do not attack Hamas, do not kill the terrorists. From day one. The State Department. The State Department literally tweeted that out on the night of October 7th while people were still being murdered, while women and children were being raped. The State Department is tweeting out, Israel, do not respond militarily. Do not kill the terrorists. And so, yes, you're right, the White House doesn't really care about the Israel funding. In fact, we know they don't, because if they cared about it, we'd pass it as a freestanding bill. It has the votes to pass as a freestanding bill, but their only interest on Israel Funding is to use it as a sweetener to try to convince Republicans to fund the rest of the Democrats priorities. And I think that's incredibly cynical. I think it's wrong. And their focus is on Ukraine. But it's interesting if you want to take away from what we've seen over the last six weeks in Washington. It's the Democrats are much, much more committed to open borders than they are to the war in Ukraine and they're willing to abandon funding for Ukraine in order to keep the tragedy of open borders at our southern border. That is a higher priority for them. And it's incredibly revealing because they, they self righteously claim otherwise. And, and, and look you look at why Zelinsky came this week, it's Chuck Schumer trying to browbeat Republicans into saying give us what we want even though we will do nothing on the border. And, and I think that has zero chance of success.

[Ben Ferguson]

Senator, I want to also move to one other subject real quick that I think is obviously an important one and that is to give an update on, on what's going on now with impeachment. We've seen the House committee is going to vote on impeachment. The House Speaker Mike Johnson says the White House is impeding the investigation to President Joe Biden and the next step will be a vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry. This also as Fox News is reporting that Hunter Biden received 250,000 thousand dollar wires originating in Beijing with a beneficiary address listed as Joe Biden's home. This is all about the as the House Oversight Committee put the Biden's influence peddling and what they have been doing this vote center is a very important vote and it's also going to give Republicans more power. Explain why this vote is important to happen now.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, the House has scheduled the vote today. It is a vote on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. And previously the House had not scheduled that vote because it wasn't clear that they had the votes to pass it. And so Kevin McCarthy when he was speaker, he didn't schedule it because it looked like the votes weren't there. What Republicans are telling the press at least is it looks like the votes are there. And so a number of the Republicans who are in blue districts that Biden carried are now moving forward. So for example, Mike Garcia in California said quote, there is enough substantiation to move forward and quote, the executive branch made clear they're not going to cooperate with the inquiry unless we formalize it. So let's formalize it. Another one, Mark Molinaro, who's a Republican from New York, again in a district Biden carried, said, quote, congress has every responsibility to provide oversight. There are serious questions of impropriety. The White House and the president have yet to comply with requests for information and subpoenas, adding that he is, quote, inclined to support the measure. And another Republican from New York, again in a district, and in fact the most Democrat leaning district of any Republican, Anthony Desposito, said that he will vote to authorize the inquiry. And so what we are hearing is the votes are there. It's scheduled for a vote today. And the resolution directs the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to, quote, continue their ongoing investigations as a part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach Biden. And so formally voting this for this is a significant step forward and I'm glad they're going to do that. I hope they pass it. And, and we will discuss on the next verdict what, what happens when the vote happens later today as before.

[Ben Ferguson]

If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed, Senator. I want to move to the other major issue and they are very much intertwined, but, but separate. And, and so let's look at this completely separately for a moment. The House formalizing the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. There has been a lot of media protection on this story. And I think it's important that we remind people why this impeachment matters, why it's not a witch hunt, how it's different from what the Democrats did against Donald J. Trump when they knew, for example, the Steele dossier was created by the DNC and Hillary Clinton, paid for by them. The FBI categorized the Steele dossier as user generated, meaning it was crap. They even offered a million, I think it was a million dollars to, to Christopher Steele to, to authenticate anything in the dossier. Couldn't do it. And yet they still used it and weaponized it to try to overthrow the will of the people. And so I want people to understand that impeachment is important. It shouldn't be used a political weapon. And Republicans are not using it as a political weapon. So let's go back and remind people why the House is formalizing this impeachment inquiry.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, the reason the House has opened the impeachment inquiry is because there is serious evidence of corruption, there is serious evidence of bribery on behalf of the President of the United States. And it's from multiple directions. But, you know, Jim Jordan sent out a very simple tweet that I think is powerful. What Jim Jordan said was, quote, four facts that will never change. One, Hunter Biden sat on Barisma's board. Absolutely true. Two, he was unqualified to do so. Absolutely true. Three, Burisma pressured him to get D.C. to act on policy issues in Ukraine. And four, Joe Biden did just that. Now, of those four facts, the only one the Democrats argue against even slightly is number three. And they have some disputes. They say, well, well, no, Burisma didn't really want the prosecutor fired who was investigating the corrupt oligarch who owns Barisma because he was a bad prosecutor. So they didn't really want him fired. Now, I gotta say, that is an incredibly weak argument, and it is contrary to the evidence the House has compiled. But that's the whole of their argument. And so remember when they say no direct evidence. We talked a minute ago about what is bribery. Bribery is quid pro quo. This for that. That's the Latin phrase. The. That was for Joe Biden to get the prosecutor fired in Ukraine. And we know that Joe Biden did that. We know that. That the quo happened because Joe Biden has confessed on video that he flew to Ukraine, that he held over a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds that are guaranteeing loans to Ukraine. He held them hostage and said, you will not get that money unless you fire the prosecutor. And then his response, we've talked about at length was, son of a bitch, they fired the prosecutor. So the quo is admitted. It is stipulated Joe Biden has confessed on video to it. The only question is the quid, which is was he paid or. And by the way, paying his family for that, that official act is also bribery. So it doesn't matter whether the money went directly to Joe Biden's bank account or whether it simply went to Hunter Biden's bank account. We know that he was making $83,000 a month. Hunter was to sit on a board. Now, mind you, I don't know of another board anywhere on earth that pays 83 grand a month to board members. That is bizarre. Just on the face of it, it's a lot more than ExxonMobil pays their board members. It's a lot more than any board I've ever heard of pays their board members. And remember, Hunter Biden had zero experience in oil and Gas. He didn't speak Ukrainian. I'm not even sure he could find Ukraine on a map. What he did have was Daddy's cell phone. What he did have was Daddy's fake email addresses. What he did have was daddy's burner phones. What he did have was access to Daddy. And I gotta say, it was a good investment. If you're a corrupt oligarch and you hire Skippy boy here and Daddy uses the full force of the US Government to get the prosecutor fired, who's coming after you? That is a great investment. So that is, number one, right at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. But number two, we have the WhatsApp where Hunter is, is shaking down a Chinese Communist and saying, I'm sitting here next to my father and he's threatening retaliation from Daddy. Not from Hunter, from Daddy, from Joe Biden. If they didn't pay him millions of dollars. And we know that they paid him millions of dollars. So that, again, look, bribery can be on either front. It can be either for, uh, getting a benefit, but it can also be bribery. Pay me money, give me a benefit, or else I will do this bad thing through government to you. That's also bribery. Um, you know, if, if, if a Prosecutor, if a U.S. attorney says, Give me a million dollars or else I will indict you, and you give him a million dollars and he doesn't indict you, that's bribery. Um, in this case, the retaliation that Hunter was threatening from Daddy, it would absolutely constitute bribery on Joe's part. And mind you, the IRS whistleblowers say that in the investigation, they wanted to get the GPS data. It's very simple to ascertain. When Hunter sent that WhatsApp text, was he, in fact, sitting next to Joe? You'll have Hunter's GPS data. You'll have Joe's GPS data. If they're in the same room, if they're sitting next to each other, that goes right to the heart of that. Joe knew and was involved in shaking down these corrupt families, foreign players. That's why the House has now opened the impeachment inquiry.

[Ben Ferguson]

Senator, I want to get your reaction to something that was said on msnbc. They're claiming now that Biden's impeachment inquiry is, quote, Trump's retribution. Take a listen to this. The fact that there is no there, there probably doesn't bother the likes of Jim Jordan. I think Representative McGovern got it right when he said, when Trump asks them to jump, they say how high? And that they're now jumping. They're now jumping for Trump. This is his retribution. And it's a pr. A pr. Very cynical, PR driven attempt to besmirch Biden without any evidence. Without any evidence. You just went through that evidence. But this is what we're up against in the media saying this is just retribution for Trump. No, it's not. This is based on the facts.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, MSNBC is not actually a journalistic outlet. They are propagandists. They are the left wing of the Democrat Party. So they're going to repeat that and ignore the facts altogether. They won't cover the facts. Look, if you watch MSNBC, you have no idea that Hunter Biden sent a WhatsApp text to a Chinese Communist shaking him down for millions of dollars. You don't know that because you know what? If they don't report on any evidence, then they can send idiots on, on camera to say there's no evidence. And if all you watch is msnbc, you're, you're right. You're right. There is no evidence because they won't report on any of the evidence. It's, it's purely circular. And that is part of why the Democrats, their behavior is so bad. The corrupt corporate media facilitates their blatant dishonesty. Because the corporate media is every bit as dishonest as the White House is.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. And I think we should end with this. James Comer took to the floor of the House. This is the man that's been digging into all this. He's been a guest on the On Verdict. There's a two part series. You can go back and listen to it, but I want you to hear what he had to say on the floor of the House. Just as a reminder, Kentucky is recognized for three minutes.

[James Comer]

Thank you, Chairman Cole. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support House Resolution 918. Joe Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his family's corruption, influence peddling schemes. He told the American people he never spoke to his son about his family's business dealings. He claimed there was an absolute wall between his official government duties as Vice President and his family. He said his family never made money from China. All of these are blatant lies. Our investigation has revealed how Joe Biden knew of, participated in and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden name around the world. Since January, we have learned some of the. The Bidens created 20 shell companies, most of which were created while Joe Biden was Vice President. The Bidens and their associates then raked in over $24 million through these shell companies from China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania between 2014 and 2019, at least 10 members of the Biden family have benefited or participated in these schemes. The Bidens layered these payments through their bank accounts to hide the sources of the money. The banks even flagged many of these transactions in more than 150 suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department. One bank investigator was so concerned about Hunter Biden's financial transactions with the Chinese company that he wanted to reevaluate the bank's relationship with him. He noted that his transactions served, and I quote, no current business purpose, end quote. That's what I call a shell company. According to Devin Archer, a Biden family associate, Joe Biden was the brand of the business. The brand showed up. Joe Biden spoke to his son's associates by speakerphone over 20 times, dined with foreign oligarchs and a Burisma executive, and had coffee with his son's Chinese associate, all when he was Vice President. Weeks after Joe Biden left the Vice presidency, money from this Chinese Communist Party linked entity began to make its way to the bank accounts of several Biden family members. Based on one Biden associate's interview with the FBI, these payments were sent to the Bidens as a quote, thank you. Ask any Justice Department public corruption investigator about the importance of payments received after one leaves public office. It's a hallmark of corruption. We are now at a pivotal moment in our investigation. We will soon depose and interview several members of the Biden family and their associates about these influence peddling schemes. But we are facing obstruction from the White House. The White House is seeking to block key testimony from current and former White House staff. It's also withholding thousands of records from Joe Biden's time as Vice President. Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption and obstruction. I urge my colleagues to support this important and necessary resolution. I yield back, Senator.

[Ben Ferguson]

I think you and I both can say, listening to him lay that out, thank goodness we've got people in the Republican movement, the conservative movement, like James Comer, who've been willing to do this hard work and methodically do it the right way.

[Ted Cruz]

Yes, and that's more substance than MSNBC has aired in a year like those three minutes. They can claim no evidence because they won't air that. They don't actually want you to hear what the evidence is. They only want their talking heads that are chilling for a corrupt White House. And it's. Look, that's why verdict. So many listeners keep coming to verdict because you find out information here that the corporate media will not tell you. And this, this podcast is designed to give you that information and equip you to go talk with your friends and family and loved ones and coworkers and go engage the lies and counter them with truth.

[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.