← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
FIGHT NIGHT: Why Trump Will Kick Biden's Ass Tonight!
00:40:30
Loading summary
Transcript35 lines
- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And I gotta say, if you're a person that loves the world of politics, even when it can be annoying sometimes, center there is nothing more fun than getting ready for a debate day. And we're finally here. Donald Trump on stage with Joe Biden.
- [00:23]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. Today is debate day and we wanted to do a special podcast today. We didn't do Wednesday's POD because we wanted this to come out on the day of the debate. And this is, as Muhammad Ali put it, the rumble in the jungle. This is the debate tonight between Trump and Biden. We're going to break it down. We're going to talk about what to expect, we're going to talk about what each side wants to do, needs to do, and where the media is going to fall out in all of this. We're also going to talk about breaking news that the Department of Homeland Security has announced They've identified over 400 illegal immigrants brought to the United States by an ISIS affiliated human smuggling network. And about 50 of them remain unknown. They don't know where they are. It is frightening and it underscores the risk of terrorism that every day keeps getting higher and higher and higher under Joe Biden and the Democrats. Open borders.
- [01:16]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's a shocking story and there are a lot of people that got in through this ISIS network that we're still searching for right now. We're going to break all that down for you. About a year ago, I decided I wanted to get back to my college weight. I had put on weight. I didn't feel like I was still active like I wanted to be. And I was like, all right, I gotta. I hit that 40 plus age group and I was like, all right, I want to get my strength and vitality back. I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Well, that is when I found out about chalk. And I can tell you it has been a game changer. I am now down £63 from last August. Now, the problem has been testosterone levels are off a cliff, historically. Historically at an all time low. And that is where chalk comes in. The patriots at Chalk Choq are helping real American men take back your right to proudly maximize your masculinity by boosting your Testosterone levels up 20% over 90 days. In fact, I just started lifting weights again. And I can tell you, the male vitality stack, it works. Manufactured right here in the US Of A, Chuck's natural herbal supplements are clinically proven to have game changing effects. On your energy, your focus, your mood. So if you're sick and tired of being sick and tired of sitting on that couch or wishing you could go back and work out like you used to, check out chalk. Maximize your masculinity today at chalk. Choq.com use the promo code Ben. You're going to get a massive discount on any chalk subscriptions for life. CHOQ.com promo code BEN for lifetime savings on any subscription limit time offer. Subscriptions are cancelable at any time, so don't wait. Get your testosterone levels back up to where they need to be. Choq.com promo code BEN for massive savings Senator, I, I got a lot of questions that I want to ask you about debates. You've done a lot of them. You, you've been on stage in a debate with, with Donald Trump. How did you get ready for a debate? And it's, you know, Donald Trump says, hey, I don't do it the traditional way. I'm certainly not going to lock myself away for a week at Camp David and take a lot of naps. He says he's not really a traditional debate prepper. That can be good or bad. It's cost him, I actually think some debates in the past. So what is your strategy when you get ready?
- [03:48]
Ted Cruz
Well, my strategy is, I think, different from a number of people. What I do is I sit down with a team. It's typically a team of somewhere between five and 10 people. And I'll spend at least a full day talking through the debate. I don't do a lot of play acting. I don't generally have people that are, that are mock acting as, as whoever else it is I'm debating. But rather I have really smart people. Often they're Supreme Court lawyers who are sitting down, thinking through, all right, what are the likely questions? What are we going to talk about? What are the topics that are going to come up? Part of it is we start with a meta strategy. What is my objective in this debate? You know, in a presidential debate, particularly in the primaries where you're having a bunch of debates, there are different times when you have different strategies. There's different times when you want to draw a greater contrast with one candidate versus another. And so for debate prep, I'll often start with, all right, what's my objective? A question that I will ask my team over and over again is what's a win? What do we want the headline to be at the end of the debate? And let's think backwards how we produce that. What is the outcome we want to Be, and then we'll talk through who are the moderators, what are the questions that are going to come. And then for me, rather than practicing an answer, I don't want answers to sound rehearsed. I don't want to just stand up and give a set piece. We'll talk instead about, all right, what are the likely questions and what is the strategy or approach for answers? And we'll go through that at considerable length and talk back and forth about, okay, how is the, how is my opponent gonna come back after that and what's the strategy, what do I want my opponent to say and what's my response to where they're going? And so it will be. It's actually been for me, debate prep is very much the same way. I would prepare for Supreme Court arguments. I would do moots at times, but particularly as I had done more and more Supreme Court arguments, I ended up arguing nine times in front of the US Supreme Court, particularly for the later ones. Rather than actually play acting out the argument, I would do the same thing. I would talk through with smart strategist where we wanted to go and what we wanted to get done.
- [06:03]
Ben Ferguson
I, I love getting ready for debate prep and, and have gotten to be a part of it several different times at different levels. And, and I've also seen the, the candidate that over prepares. How do you make sure you don't do that? Because when you get too many thoughts and too much information and too as you describe them, can sound pre rehearsed that I've seen be a disaster for candidates. We've seen this on the national stage in presidential debates before as well.
- [06:32]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, that's exactly right. You don't want to be wooden, you don't want to be over rehearsed. You don't want to come off as over rehearsed. I think the most notable example of that was in 2016 in the primaries, the New Hampshire debate, where Chris Christie went after Marco Rubio. And I was standing there, I was right next to Chris. And I mean, what Chris did to Marco was as brutal as we've ever seen in any debate because he was going after Marco and accusing him being a robot. And Marco kept saying the same thing over and over again. And Chris just pounded him for it. And it ended up, I mean, I have to say for the rest of us, we were kind of like, all right, enough Chris. You know, you're like, you're killing the guy. But, but it was. Marco ran into trouble because he had a set piece that I guess he'd practice that he repeated, I think, three separate times in a row. And Christie really took advantage of it. That's not something you want to have happen. Now. The good news is, I think the chances of Trump doing that are zero. That's, that's not how he prepares for a debate. And I don't think there's any risk of him doing that.
- [07:44]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, there's been a lot of this. And let's move to Trump about, hey, is he, is he getting ready the way that he should be getting ready? He had a weak debate against Joe Biden in the last presidential cycle that some believe may have cost him the White House. He also said in an interesting article in the Washington examiner, quote, so I've been in 16, 17 debates. Trump answered in response to a question. He said, quote, I think I've won almost all of them. I did well against Ted Cruz. That would be you, who is a good debater. All these guys. I became president. Some people say I became president because of these debates. You can't tell until you get up on the stage, because it depends on how he comes out. And I think, you know, he's referring obviously to Joe Biden.
- [08:35]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, now, look, that's right. And Trump is very loose in debates. He can be all over the place. But, but, but he tends to punch back. That's his instincts, you know, in terms of how he prepares for debates, particularly now, I think what he does is he does rallies. He goes to rallies and he rifts and he finds themes that he thinks might work and he sees how people react. I think a great example of that is the Las Vegas rally he did not too long ago, where he rolled out the idea of no taxes on tips. And actually, you know, when I had lunch with Trump week before last, he talked to me and all the other Republican senators about where that came from. And he said he was sitting in the hotel room right before the rally and he was having some food, and the waitress came up and he said, the waitress, he said she was beautiful. She was beautiful. We all believed him. And he said that she was complaining about the burden of all the record keeping for her tips and that it was really pain and that she didn't like it. And Trump said, he just pulled out a pen and wrote down no taxes on tips. And he told us, he said, look, this didn't come from a white paper. This didn't come from a bunch of tax experts. This just came from the conversation I had with the waitress. Then he said, at the rally, I decided to say it, and I said, no taxes on tips. And he said, and they went crazy. They went wild. And I gotta say, by the way, I think as a policy proposal, that one is political genius. And in fact, so much so that the week after he did it, I drafted legislation and filed legislation to make tips tax free, because I actually agree with the idea strongly. And I think Republicans should be the party of waiters and waitresses and bartenders and barbers and hairstylists and taxi cab drivers and Uber drivers. And we're a blue collar party. And I think no taxes on tips is right at the heart of it. A tax relief proposal that goes exactly to the people we're fighting for. But that's.
- [10:42]
Ben Ferguson
Isn't it amazing, by the way, that Trump now two of his biggest things have connected, whether it's 2020 or 2016, were kind of off the cuff. The Build the Wall part, which became the center point, the cornerstone of his campaign. Sixteen was the same thing. It was a riff.
- [10:58]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, and he talks about that how at a rally he'll essentially field test things. He'll put something out and see how people react and listen. The man has a really strong instinctual sense of people. Look, I think the proposal of no taxes on tips, without exaggeration, I think that policy alone could win in the state of Nevada. There's an enormous number of casino workers who get a significant part of their compensation from tips. There's a reason that crowd went wild, because it spoke directly to people who are struggling, who are working towards the American dream. And I think you're right, he did that with Build the Wall, that he tries different riffs and themes. And so I would expect that same dynamic. You know, it's interesting, that interview you were reading with Byron York with Trump on debates, there was a portion of it that I thought was very interesting, which is he talked about the rules of this debate. And here's what Trump said. He said, quote. What they did, I'm pretty sure, is that they approached me with a debate that I couldn't take. Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, whom Trump referred to as Fake Tapper in the interview. No audience sitting down, originally sitting down. A dead debate. Turn off the mics when you're not speaking so I can't interrupt him. They knew I wouldn't accept that because it was cnn, it was Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, and I like an audience and probably he doesn't. Who knows? So they thought they would present it. I would say no, and then they would say, we can't debate because Trump said no. So I said yes before they even gave me the terms. So he got roped into it. All right, I agree with every word of what Trump just said there. And it's interesting. Listen, I think this debate, every one of these rules is stacked to be against Trump. The fact that it is in a studio with no audience. Trump feeds off an audience. He plays to an audience. Biden's terrified by an audience. There's a reason he turns out six people to his events, so that favors him. Cnn, Tapper, and Bash are gonna come after Trump relentlessly. It's not gonna be Trump versus Biden. It is gonna be Trump versus Biden and cnn. And then the turning off the mics bit really is garbage. It's because Biden can't actually handle real conflict in the debate. And so he's asked CNN, please stop mean Mr. Trump from. From saying anything when I'm talking. And listen, all of that skews towards Biden. But I also agree with. With Trump's instinct, which is if he had pushed back, the Biden team desperately wanted to get out of this debate. They wanted to cancel it. And so they wanted to propose rules that, that. That were so skewed, Trump would push back. And they could say, oh, it was Trump who canceled the debate. Yes, we can't have it. And so I completely agree with the decision. Fine, you get all the rules. It's skewed for you. We're going to have a debate. And listen, I'm going to make a prediction right now. My prediction is tonight, Donald Trump is going to kick Joe Biden's ass in.
- [14:07]
Ben Ferguson
This debate is, how's he going to do that? And I want to go back to 16, for example. You know, he was on defense a lot. He enjoyed that aspect of the debates. I think at some point when he felt like, okay, I'm the front runner and everybody's coming at me on the left and the right of stage. Then in the last presidential debates that he was involved with, he was on defense because of COVID and the economy and inflation and things that were happening. And this time, he's not on defense. He can absolutely go on offense, but does he have to be careful about his demeanor? Does he need to philosophically get the audience from point A to point B and kind of tone it down a little bit and make it clear, hey, look, I'm. I'm running because people are hurting, and people that were not hurting when I left office are now hurting. Is that a strategy that he should implement? What. What should his demeanor be?
- [15:02]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, Look, I, I think it is very important that, that he be toned down, that he not come in with a chainsaw. And if you look at the first debate in 2020, the first debate in 2020, he came out swinging. He was attacking, he was relentless. And I think the consequence of it is he bailed Joe Biden out. Joe Biden was not doing well, but Trump interrupted so much that it actually gave Biden an excuse just to shut up and let Trump be super aggressive. And particularly when Biden's answers are not very good, you gotta give him a chance to give him, and give him the rope to hang himself. And it's interesting, in this same interview Trump did with Byron York, he had, he addresses this. So Byron York asks him, says, quote, a lot of people thought in the first debate with Biden that you were somewhat over amped, that you just went after him too much. Trump responds that I interrupted him. Yeah, I think. And Byron York says, do you agree with that? And here's what Trump said. Mm. Huh. Then after a short pause, he defended the interruptions before conceding that, yes, there were too many. Quote, he lies so much. Trump said he's going on, everything he says is a lie. So I would call him, call him, because calling him out two minutes later is very tough because, you know, it's a lie, it's a lie, Everything's a lie. I've never seen anything like it. So when I would interrupt, it looked like, I agree, though the second debate, I handled it much differently and got very good marks. And so, look, I understand he was in the attack mode and that's fine, but it ended up bailing, bailing Biden out. I also agree with his comment there that Trump was much more effective in the second debate against Biden than in the first. And what I hope we see tonight is that Trump very calmly lays out the facts that Biden has screwed everything up. That Biden inherited peace and prosperity, and that right now inflation is hammering working people, that right now the economy, people are hurting, that right now crime is rising far too high, that right now the border is an absolute chaos and people are dying. And it's the worst in history. That on foreign policy, when Biden came into office, Donald Trump had just finished signing the Abraham Accords. We had peace in the Middle east, we now have two simultaneous wars. And what I hope that Trump does is simply lay out the facts that on almost any every measure, the American people were better off when Trump was president than when Biden is president. And I think those facts are strong enough that he doesn't need to beat Biden over the head with tone or rhetoric. I'd let the facts do the work and force Biden to defend himself. I would also try very much to surprise Biden, to cause him to ask him questions, to challenge him, not in a yelling manner and because his microphone will be turned off if he's, he doesn't have the podium, that will be limited. But to challenge him very directly to ask him questions that he can't give a set memorized answer to. Because I think Biden's prep team is giving him lots and lots of set memorized answers. They're trying to feed him substance that he can just regurgitate.
- [18:31]
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this. What do you think is the top maybe 1, 2, 3 subjects that Donald Trump has to make sure that he spends quality time on? And I may shock you on this one, you may disagree. I think there's certain issues that you don't spend a lot of time on. For example, I don't think you spend that much time on the Biden crime family because I think you can get into the weeds and waste valuable time talking, talking to the average American that might not care that much about that compared to the economy or an open border or fentanyl coming across the southern border. The list goes on and on.
- [19:11]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, I agree with that. There's lots of concerning evidence about Biden corruption. But I think a lot of voters are not following that very closely. Those that are know about it. The rest I don't think are going to be persuaded by it. I would have just about every comment Trump makes be about how your life is different. Look, the classic question in any election is are you better off today than you were four years ago? And on almost every metric the answer is clear. For the vast majority of Americans, things were better when Trump was president than now. And so I would have it, I would have immigration front and center. I think it is quite likely that Trump is going to talk about Jocelyn Nungaree, the 12 year old beautiful girl who was assaulted and murdered in Houston just a few days ago by two illegal immigrants Joe Biden released. I think he's going to talk about Rachel Marin, the beautiful mother of five who was raped and murdered in suburban Maryland by illegal immigrants that Joe Biden released. I think he's going to talk about the 13 year old girl just a few days ago who was raped in a public park in New York by an illegal immigrant that Joe Biden released. And I think he's gonna talk or he should talk about the eight suspected terrorists, ISIS K. Terrorists from Tajikistan who were just arrested on suspicion of a terrorist attack, a plot. And again, who Joe Biden released. And I hope he walks systematically through one after the other after the other. You know, you look at how on defense, how unprepared Biden was for Lake and Riley during the State of the Union, where his defense during the State of the Union was, well, an illegal killed her. Well, legals kill people too. You know, if that's Biden's defense, that's not gonna go well. And given how horrific the facts are here, I think Trump, you know, there's an old line in a court of law, which is, if you have the facts, you bang the facts. If you have the law, you bang the law. If you have neither, you bang the table. There's some truth to that. The facts of just how bad Biden's record is are so compelling that Trump doesn't need to be overstated. And in fact, in the same interview, he went on a little bit more, and he said, I was very aggressive in the first one talking about the 2020 debate with Biden. The second one, I was different, and I got great marks. On the second one, it was a little unfair because in the second one, a lot of votes had already been cast. So I'm probably gonna look at the scene at the time. It's like a fight. It depends on what the situation is. And so I think, I hope he's gonna try more to emulate how he conducted the second debate. I think he was much stronger in the second debate. And I think you asked what topics that Trump is going to be sure to raise. And that's actually when you asked me before, Ben, about preparing for debates. When I thought about a Supreme Court argument, I would always come up with a list of what I call must raise points, and they're typically three to five points. And my test for it was, if, when the argument was done and I sat down, if this point had not come out of my mouth, would I be pissed? Would I be kicking myself saying, how did I get through this oral argument and not make this point? Because it is critical. It is why we should prevail in this Supreme Court argument. I would think about debates the same way. And when I prepare for them, I do. I think about, all right, what are the substantive points? That more than anything else, I want people at the end of the debate to remember and to say, this is what the election is all about. So I think immigration is gonna be a Huge part about it. I think it's the biggest issue in this election. I think inflation in the economy is right behind it. And I think people are really unhappy with inflation in the economy. And I think, I hope Trump does a good job of laying out, for example, the connection of energy and the Biden administration's war on American energy and why that's driving inflation. I think that's a very powerful point. And then I also think on foreign policy, look, Trump is gonna point out what is it with Democrats and forever wars, that when Trump was president, he got us out of a war, he defeated ISIS and ended the war. And Joe Biden gets into office and he goes from peace and prosperity to the biggest war in Europe since World War II and the worst war in the Middle east in 50 years. And objectively, the whole world is on fire. And I think Biden, Biden has a lot of hubris, a lot of arrogance. He thinks he's a foreign policy expert. And I think Trump making the point that, Joe, you've screwed the entire world up, that there has not been a president who's messed foreign policy up this badly since Jimmy Carter. I think that will drive Biden crazy and is a point I really hope Trump makes.
- [24:30]
Ben Ferguson
There's another debate that's going to take place outside of the Trump v. Biden debate. And that is the debate that could happen with CNN and the commentators. The two people that have been chosen are huge hacks that cannot stand Donald Trump. The evidence here it is the dehumanizing.
- [24:51]
Unnamed CNN Commentator
Rhetoric of Adolf Hitler is once again alive and well on a national political stage. This time, of course, in the United States. This time given life by former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. If you were to open up a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non Germans with Germans as poisoning. There's really no other way to say it. Donald Trump's language mirrors this directly long.
- [25:21]
Standing anti Semitic trope that the true allegiance for Jews is to their religion rather than their country. It was used in Nazi Germany to justify the arrests, persecutions and mass killings that attempted extermination of the Jewish people. And Trump has been pushing this trope for years.
- [25:39]
Ben Ferguson
Those are your two moderators of the debate, Senator. And look, I worked with Dana. I've done presidential debates with Dana. I've done post pre and post election coverage, convention coverage, debate coverage with her and with Jake Tapper. I witnessed it for seven years behind the scenes. They both hate Trump, they both hate conservatives. This is normal. There's no way this is going to be a fair fight. How would you deal with it?
- [26:11]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, they're going to come after him relentlessly. You're right. I've done lots and lots of interviews with both Jake and Dana. I've done presidential debates with Jake and Dana. They're going to come in with an agenda. You know, it's ironic the portion you raised, you look at right now where all of the vicious anti Semitism is coming from. And it's the left, it's the radical left that are protesting on campus, it's the squad, it's the Democrat party. And yet in CNN world it's Trump that is anti Semitic. And it's just, it is. They're coming in with a clear agenda. I don't expect them to ask difficult questions. Biden, I expect them to go after relentlessly. I think they're obsessed with January 6th. I think you're gonna get multiple questions about January 6th. They're gonna try to prosecute them January 6th. I also, we've seen CNN is obsessed with the trials. I think you're gonna get questions about Gene Carroll. I think you're gonna get questions about Stormy Daniels, by the way, none of which matters to an American family who's worried about putting food on the table, who's worried about keeping their kids safe. But, but CNN is not trying to ask questions that are helpful for a voter to decide whom to vote for instead. And when I said Trump should be overstated, I meant really with respect to Biden. If CNN acts like you and I both think they're gonna act, which is his wild eyed partisans, I think Trump should, should be perfectly fine just calling them out on it. And they're so thin skinned, they're so sensitive. You know, it was really striking this week when, when, when you had a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign on CNN and she was laying out both, both Jake and Dana's long history of, of antagonism to Trump. And CNN ended the interview, they're like, no, no, I'm not gonna let you talk badly about my colleagues. We're done. You can't say that. And I gotta say, Ben, when a so called journalistic outlet censors what you say and says, you can't criticize us. We are beyond criticism. That's not journalism. And I think they are really thin skinned and I think we're going to see that tonight.
- [28:29]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, no doubt about it. Want to talk to you real quick about your cell phone and if you've got A cell phone that is with big mobile. You may not realize that when you pay your bill every month, you're supporting democratic causes and candidates that are running at the local, state and national level with major donations. You may not realize your money is going to extremist groups just like Planned Parenthood. That is why I made the switch to Patriot Mobile. I use it, I travel all the time, I get phenomenal service. And look, in 2024 the, the Internet has changed, cell phone service has changed and you don't have to worry anymore about getting bad coverage. You're gonna use the same exact towers that you're using right now. But when you switch the page, you're at mobile, something amazing happens. They take about 5% of your bill every month and no extra additional at no extra charge to you. And they give it back directly to causes, candidates and organizations to support our first and our second amendment rights. They support the rights of unborn children and they also support our military, our veterans, our wounded warriors. This is why I love Patriot Mobile. They make sure that when you make a call, you send a text and when you pay your bill, you're making a difference and standing up for what you believe in. Check them out and I'm going to give you a free activation. Go to patriotmobile.com verdict that's patriotmobile.com verdict switching is so easy now with technology you can do it over the phone. You can keep your same cell phone number you have now, keep your same cell phone you've got in your hand or you can upgrade to a new one if you choose to call them and see how easy it is to switch in 2024. 972 Patriot. That's 972 Patriot 972 Patriot or patriot mobile.com verdict that's patriotmobile.com verdict center. I want to move to another shocking story. Uh, and it is one that I wish I, I could say I, I didn't think we would see. Unfortunately you predicted it, we've talked about it, that this was gonna keep happening. This one though is extremely concerning. The Department of Homeland Security has identified now quote, Over 400 migrants brought to the US by an ISIS affiliated human smuggling network. And now they are desperately trying to find people they had caught and released. Now over one hundred and fifty of them have been arrested, but the whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown. Your reaction?
- [31:15]
Ted Cruz
Look, this is a shocking story that in some ways is not shocking because we know that this administration, that Joe Biden and the Democrats have effectively rolled out the red carpet and with open borders have given an invitation to terrorists to come into the country. But. But even so, the degree of naivete and reckless disregard for the safety of Americans is remarkable. So here's the story, according to NBC, and I'm just gonna quote NBC, quote. The Department of Homeland Security has identified over 400 immigrants from Central Asia and elsewhere who crossed into the US in the past three years as subjects of concern because they were brought by an ISIS affiliated human smuggling network, three U.S. officials tell NBC News. While over 150 of them have been arrested, the whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown, the officials said, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to arrest them on immigration charges when they are located. One of the US officials and people said people affiliated with ISIS are operating as human smugglers in Central Asia and helping people there leave their countries and travel to the west where they are smuggled into the U.S. it is not known whether the human smuggling activity directly funds ISIS activities or whether ISIS members are making personal money through human smuggling on the side, the US official said. The official added that the US has no indication that the more than 400 migrants brought to the US by the network had plans to carry out terrorism in the US but immigration agents are looking to arrest them out of an abundance of caution. And here's a quote from. From the Biden administration, quote, in this case, it was the information that suggested a potential tie to ISIS because some of the individuals involved in smuggling migrants to the borders that led us to want to take extra care and out of an abundance of caution, make sure that we exercised our authority in the most expansive and appropriate way to mitigate risk because of this potential connection being made. Now that's the quote. And what utter and complete garbage. Out of an abundance of caution. Yeah, we let 400 people go that ISIS had smuggled into the country because we're so cautious. And then we realized, wait a second, there's an election. There's an election coming up in five months and all these people that ISIS smuggled in, if they carry out a terrorist attack and people realize we let them go, that's going to be a real problem. Oh, crap. Does anyone know where they are? Like, like, what an insane statement.
- [33:53]
Ben Ferguson
Well, and not just insane, but it's also interesting to see now how the media is covering this. NBC Nightly News actually ran this on the Nightly News and called it an NBC investigation. Listen.
- [34:07]
Unnamed NBC News Anchor
Tonight, NBC News has Learned more than 50 migrants with potential ties to an ISIS affiliated smuggling network are at large in America. Many illegally crossed the border and were released into the US by Border Patrol. Because there was no information suggesting terror ties at the time. Now their whereabouts are unknown as immigration agents look to arrest them, US Officials tell us, saying they're among a group of over 400 migrants DHS identified in the US from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Russia as subjects of concern because they were brought to the US by an ISIS affiliated smuggling network, something the FBI director warned about earlier this year.
- [34:49]
Ted Cruz
Some of the overseas facilitators of the.
- [34:51]
Ben Ferguson
Smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about.
- [34:56]
Unnamed NBC News Anchor
ICE has located and arrested over 150 of the 400 migrants so far, with some already deported from the U.S. officials say, adding authorities are not panicking because their ties to ISIS are not certain, but they're prioritizing their arrest out of an abundance of caution.
- [35:12]
Unnamed NBC News Analyst
The problem is the volume of people coming across the southern border. Individuals from ISIS and other affiliated groups have recognized it as a weak point in our defense and they're using this opportunity to try to sneak in.
- [35:27]
Unnamed NBC News Anchor
NBC News was first to report on a similar arrest of a newsbeck man in Baltimore whose country alerted the U.S. he was affiliated with ISIS. That man, like the others apprehended so far, was arrested on immigration charges, not terrorism related charges. ISIS K has claimed responsibility for deadly terror attacks in Russia and Iran in the past year. And recently, the DHS Inspector general sharply criticizing vetting at the US Southern border, saying DHS is at risk of admitting dangerous persons into the country or enabling asylum seekers who may pose significant threats to public safety and national security to continue to reside in the United States. Two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News they are not tracking a terror plot from this group of migrants, but their arrest on immigration charges come out of an abundance of caution. Lester?
- [36:17]
Ben Ferguson
They sure do like that word, Senator. Abundance of caution. I also love in there that that one line that really just made me laugh is, quote, authorities are, quote, not panicking. Really? That's supposed to make me feel better?
- [36:31]
Ted Cruz
Well, remarkably though, what they're not panicking about is not the actual public safety threat. It's not keeping Americans safe. It's the political exposure. They're freaked out because there's an election in a few months and they realize, oh no, this could look really bad for us. It has been the consistent pattern of this White House that they do not prioritize national security. Everything, everything, everything is partisan politics. And okay, what I'm about to say, it's not hyperbole. It is accurate. Day after day, week after week, month after month, for three and a half years, Joe Biden, the Democrats have released illegal immigrants who are murderers, who are rapists, who are child molesters, who are gang members, and who are being smuggled in by ISIS K, a known terrorist organization. And they're letting them go. They're letting them go. The 400 notice notice in that NBC report, they said they were released by the Biden administration. So we apprehended them, said, oh, look, ISIS K bringing someone in, all right, let's let him go. Like that is. It defies words. And if there were not an election in five months, I don't think the Biden administration would be doing anything at all about it. This is all about COVID it up until after election Day, and then we can let him go again. And I don't get. Actually, I do not understand the thought process. If you're Alejandro Mayorkas, help me on this, Ben, Seriously. If you're Alejandro Mayorkas, you're like, Hey, 400 people ISIS K smuggled in. Should we let him go? Like, what is. How do the brain synapses fire for your answer to be, yep, let him go.
- [38:26]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. And the scary part is, I think they just say this is just part of the. You got to take the bad with the. With. With the good. And their definition of good is letting millions in. So, hey, we know there's going to be bad actors in those millions. We can't check them all out fast enough as we're allowing them to flood into this country. So that's just our policy. There may be terrorists that get in here. Oh, wait, there are terrorists to get in here. We know there's people on the terrorist watch list, and we're just going to do it anyway. But right before the election, we're going to clean it up a little bit and look like we're being proactive.
- [38:57]
Ted Cruz
I've said this multiple times, but I very much believe it. We are today at a greater risk of a major terrorist attack than we have been any time since September 11th. And the director of the FBI has been saying that over and over and over again in congressional testimony. What the FBI is looking at, I'm confident, is even worse than what we're talking about. And that is the direct consequence of utterly reckless policies of open borders. And to tie this to what we started at the beginning, I think this should be front and center. What Trump is talking about tonight at the debate.
- [39:37]
Ben Ferguson
I was going to ask you. That was going to be my final question for you, is if CNN doesn't bring it up, do you force the issue if. Because I have a feeling they're going to be playing defense for Joe Biden. So does the president go all in on these type of issues, even if they don't bring them up?
- [39:53]
Ted Cruz
Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yes.
- [39:56]
Ben Ferguson
Bring it up no matter what. I love it. We're going to be, obviously, giving you guys a lot of reaction to the debate. Don't worry, we'll be doing that. As you know, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and we do a Week in Review Saturday for what you may have missed during the week. Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button. Share this podcast, please, wherever you are, on social media and on those in between days, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, wherever you get your podcast and their center. And I will see you after, obviously, the debate. Enjoy watching it.