← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Follow DEI not Science, What the Law Says about Immigrant Asylum in America & Israel Erases Sinwar Week In Review
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- [00:01]
Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, the Week in Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And we had some major stories that if you missed them this week, you want to make sure you know about them now. First up, Biden Harris diverted billions from actual science research to DEI activities. Where did it go and how did they get away with it? We break that down for you. Also, what does the actual law say about asylum seekers coming into this country? Now they know how to play the system. Awesome. But are we supposed to let everyone stay who crosses the southern border? The answer is no. But what does the law say? And well, are the people in the White House breaking the law? We'll explain that for you as well. And finally, a major victory as Israel killed Hamas Mastermind behind the October 7th attack. How did they pull it off? We explain it all. It's the Weekend Review and it starts right now. I want to move to another subject real quick. And, and this is the reason why we do this podcast is we get to bring you information that is not being covered. And this is important. Uh, there was a investigation that you guys put together in Washington that revealed and, and you were the leader on this. How the Biden Harris administration diverted billions of dollars from scientific research to DEI activists. And for people that are listening, let's start with this. Remind them what DEI stands for and then this story that is broken.
- [01:35]
Ben Ferguson
Well, DEI is diversity, equity and inclusion. And it is the catchphrase of the woke left. And let me just give you, give you the headline. Before Biden took office in 2020, less than 1% of the grants from the National Science foundation were related to dei dei. Today that number is greater than 10%. So there has been a massive, massive shift. Now what does that mean? Well, this past week I put out a report, so. So as you know, I'm the ranking member on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation. That means I'm the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee. The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about 40% of the U.S. economy, including science and including the National Science Foundation. So my team engaged in a systematic study and we put out a report examining how the National Science foundation has increasingly politicized the use of taxpayer dollars meant for scientific research. And the report shows that in, in its first week, the Biden Harris administration mandated that all taxpayer funded scientific research and development must incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion DEI values. In response to this directive, the National Science foundation allocated over $2.05 billion, over $2 billion to thousands of research projects that promoted neo Marxist perspectives, or DEI tenants. And taxpayer dollars supported these very questionable scientific studies used by researchers to drive extreme ideologies in the classrooms and on their campuses. And here are the top line numbers. Our analysis identified 3483 grants over 10% of all national Science foundation grants during the Biden Harris administration that went to questionable projects promoting DEI or pushing neo Marxist perspectives about enduring class struggle. And our investigation group these grants into five categories. Status, social justice, gender, race and environmental justice. So let me, let me give you some of the examples. So Shirin Vasugi, who is an associate professor of Learning sciences at Northwestern University and a co principal Investigator for a $1,034,751 NSF grant award in 2023 for a project titled quote, reimagining Educator Learning Pathways through Story Work for Racial equity in stem. And Vosugi credits Marxist traditions for her decision to teach quilt children, quote, the meaning of genocide and apartheid after Hamas's attack against Israel. I give you another example. In 2023, NSF awarded Georgia Institute of Technologies Kelly Cross $99,791 to quote, Disrupt racialized privilege in the STEM classroom by acknowledging, quote, whiteness and white supremacy are deeply ingrained in the past, present and future of US higher education. Cross sought to, quote, subvert these toxic systems to create a more equitable education system and to, quote, initiate a national conversation about addressing racial inequity and white supremacy in the STEM profession and classroom. This is what your taxpayers tax dollars are going towards.
- [05:28]
Ted Cruz
When how does this happen? Where they can divert this type of funding at this level is the question I think most taxpayers would want to ask immediately. Like I can understand skimming some money here or there, but diverting billions from scientific research to DI.
- [05:43]
Ben Ferguson
$2 billion.
- [05:44]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, $2 billion to DI activists. That's not where your tax dollars are supposed to go. And by the way, I think you and I agree on this. I wouldn't want these funds diverted to a conservative activist group either.
- [05:58]
Ben Ferguson
No, this is meant to be science. This is meant to be saving people's lives. Let me give you another example. In 2022, NSF awarded San Jose State University $401,744 for an ongoing project to quote, transform science teaching and learning through empowering teachers and students as climate justice action researchers and change agents. The project is meant to foster, quote, the development of a hub for justice centered science education and will produce school based materials and professional development activities that examine the interwoven nature of climate justice and racial justice. Now who was in charge of this. Well, the principal investigator was Tammy Vicentainer, who sees her classroom as a venue for social activism. In April 2024, Vincentainer wrote that her course, quote for aspiring middle, middle and high school teachers centers racial justice in science education. And at the end of her course, she showed her students photos of Israel dropping pamphlets inside the Gaza Strip to warn residents to move out of the way of incoming rocket fire. Visitainer, who claimed that Hamas's October terror attack needed to be contextualized, explained that the photos, quote, create spaces that engage complexity in promotion of shared dignity and humanity to build bridges across differences. But she didn't explain what the hell they had to do with science, which is what a National Science foundation grant is supposed to be about.
- [07:41]
Ted Cruz
Senator, final question on this story that you obviously have broken, and it's a big one. When these types of stories break, usually in the past, you'd have a lot of media that would cover it. You'd have other colleagues that would come in and say they want to make sure this is stopped or have rules and regulations that would help stop it right away. When you came out with this report, did any of the major media outlets call and say, hey, we want this info that you're exposing, or did they just look the other way?
- [08:13]
Ben Ferguson
Well, there were a handful of stories, but they were principally in conservative outlets because the actual corporate media doesn't cover news. This news is inconvenient. The fact that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are funneling billions that's meant to go to science, that's meant to save lives, that's meant to promote, like basic research, they're funneling it instead to aggressively ideological left wing activist zealots. They're using it to corrupt students, to corrupt universities, to Corrupt K through 12 education. That is a message that the media does not want to cover. They will actively do everything they can to suppress. Because look, you know, what's the big deal to stealing billions of dollars of taxpayer money to fund Marxists poisoning the minds of our kids. The next thing you know, you're going to say it's a big deal that a handful of apartment complexes are taken over by Venezuelan gangs.
- [09:08]
Ted Cruz
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. This is something that I think many Americans don't understand about those seeking asylum and explain that more the law, what it says, because this is part of the abuse by the left, is they make you think that if anyone in the world is, in essence, not happy with the conditions of where they are in their life or what they're living, where they're living, or who's in charge of a country. That. That therefore means they should immediately go to the front of the line and come straight into America and we should take care of them. And you just said something that's really important. You don't just allow people to come into this country because they don't like their, quote, economic conditions.
- [09:57]
Ben Ferguson
That's exactly right. What U.S. law is, is we have asylum. We offer people asylum. But to qualify for asylum, you have to demonstrate a, quote, credible fear of political persecution. If you're in, say, a communist country and you can demonstrate the government, if they capture you, they're gonna torture you, they're gonna kill you. That's typically the kind of showing you've got to demonstrate to qualify for asylum. It's explicitly political persecution. And one of the reason is, look, there are 7 to 8 billion people on planet Earth. There are billions of people l. In poverty. Our Nation has about 330 million Americans. We don't have the capacity, we don't have the ability to provide for billions of people flooding in who are simply in poverty and would like to live better. Particularly when you combine it with the Democrats welfare state. Because, understand, Kamala Harris doesn't just provide open borders. She says, you get here and we'll give you welfare. We'll give you free healthcare. We'll. We will give you money. And. And so, frankly, look, I understand why the people come to this country. If you're living in poverty and you get to come to America and these idiots in the government are gonna give you free everything, why wouldn't you come? But that is not U.S. law. Economic need, poverty does not qualify for asylum. And the Democrats don't care. They're not even pretending this meets US Law. So what they do. Here's the game. You show up. And by the way, just about every one of these, these illegal immigrants is trained by the traffickers to say, I'm claiming asylum. Now, the Biden administration knows that when their claim is adjudicated that fewer than 10% will meet the standards for asylum, that almost none of them have any credible fear. They're simply poor, and they want a better life and they want handouts. But what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing is they say, okay, we'll take you for asylum. We'll set you a court date 3, 4, 5, 10 years in the future. And in the meantime, we'll let you go, welcome to America. And by the way, a bunch of them are never seen again. That policy is called catch and release. That when people are apprehended, they let him go. By the way, how did the murderer who killed Lake and Riley get to Georgia because of Catch and Release? Because Joe Biden, Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go. How did the murderer who killed Rachel Moran get to suburban Maryland because of Catch and Release, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go. How did the two murderers and rapists who raped and murdered Jocelyn Nungary get to Houston, Texas? Because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did catch and release. They caught him. They caught both of them. They had them in custody and they released them. There is no credible argument with these criminals if the standards of asylum. But Kamala Harris doesn't care.
- [12:48]
Ted Cruz
You know, I think there's even something else that's just a personal example that we've talked about in the past on the show. It is the beginning of your last book. Your dad was a poster child for someone that would deserve and need asylum in the US because of political persecution, the genuine fear of death when he fled Cuba. Let's just take a moment and let people understand how far that pendulum has swung since your dad was a political refugee, basically in the US I think I'm describing that correctly.
- [13:26]
Ben Ferguson
My father was a political refugee. Actually, he came initially on a student visa. So he was admitted to the University of Texas. He came in 1957. And so he studied at UT. He got a degree in UT, graduated in 61 with a degree in math. And at that point, Castro had taken over and had begun persecuting dissidents. My aunt, my theasonia. I was with both my father and my theasonia this evening. My theasona fought in the counter revolution against Castro. My theasonia was in prison. She was tortured by Castro. And so my family, my father was granted asylum status because why, if he came back to Cuba, they'd murder him. My the Esonia got out of Cuba and she was granted asylum status because again, the government, they had a credible fear. They met the legal standard we see from communist countries that persecute dictators. That's what the asylum laws were made for, is if you can demonstrate. If I go back to my country, the government will imprison me, torture me, kill me. That's why we have asylum laws. The claim was not just, I'm in poverty and I would like to live in America. And the reason Our laws don't grant a special status to that. Is there literally billions of people that fall into that category? And we do not have the capacity. And I want to make a point here, Ben, because, you know, sometimes people on the left say, oh, gosh, we're just so compassionate when it comes to immigration. Understand, there is no country on planet Earth that is more compassionate, that is more generous when it comes to immigration than the United States of America. Every year, we let in more than 1 million legal immigrants. There's no other country that's doing that. You can't do that in France, you can't do that in Britain, you can't do that in Australia, you can't do that in Japan. Name your country. None of them do what America does. So we are, we welcome immigrants. But there's a right way to come. You come legally, you follow the rules, you wait in line. That's the way the system is meant to go. And it goes back to our first story, Bill Clinton, if they'd been properly vetted, you know what, if you're trying to come in legally, if you're a member of a Venezuelan gang, if you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, you're not going to get in legally when you're vetted. Which is why these open borders are causing such devastations and they are making American families much, much less safe.
- [15:51]
Ted Cruz
Final question on this, and it's an important one. I think the American people are really understanding the game here and they're understanding that these migrant caravans are coming and they're running here in case Trump gets elected. They even understand this election is either about a wide open border that continues and mass amnesty, or law and order in a secure border with Donald Trump. If the illegal immigrants that are rushing to get in here before Donald Trump would take office, that's, that's clearly, they're saying this, right? They're the ones that are telling us this. Then, then, then shouldn't every American take a look at that and realize just the difference of the perspective from an illegal immigrant Senator, if this is what they're doing right now, ahead of time, to understand, like there's two policies here, they're two very different. And no matter what Harris says, no matter what Wall says, the illegal immigrants know that they are good for business, that's good for human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking. The list goes on and on. And Donald Trump is gonna shut it down. The party's over. I think that's an Incredibly important point that needs to be made. These illegal immigrants get it.
- [17:13]
Ben Ferguson
They do. And you know, another number that everyone should know is 2,600%. Do you know what 2,600% is?
- [17:24]
Ted Cruz
I'm going to guess the amount of illegal immigration that's gone up since they got into office.
- [17:29]
Ben Ferguson
No, no, it's actually a different stat than that. So in 2018, the Mexican drug cartels were earning roughly $500 million in revenue from human trafficking. Now, look, $500 million is a lot of money. Do you know how much they made last year?
- [17:46]
Ted Cruz
A hell of a lot more than that.
- [17:48]
Ben Ferguson
$13 billion. And those stats are from the New York Times. That is a 2,600% increase. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been incredibly good. In fact, I've joked, you know, the standard test for any presidential election is are you better off now than you were four years ago? And I've joked, unless you're a Mexican drug lord. And by the way, if you are a Mexican drug lord, you should definitely vote for Kamala Harris because she's made you billions and billions of dollars. You would be an idiot if you're a Mexican drug lord not to vote for Kamala Harris. But if you're not for just about everyone else, life has gotten a lot worse. That number is staggering. And one of the consequences of it is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have devastated the nation of Mexico. Mexico is, is a wonderful nation. In Texas. It is our immediate southern neighbor. Texas and Mexican culture, there's enormous overlap. I'll tell you, 20, 30 years ago, you go to South Texas, people would cross the border back and forth. If you were in Laredo, you'd go down in Nueva Laredo, you'd have dinner at a Mexican restaurant. You come back and forth. I mean, there was this, this, this cross border culture that was wonderful. Nobody does that anymore. Like, because the violence, the cartels. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have made the drug cartels the most powerful economic force in Mexico. And they are vicious, utterly amoral criminals. There are. I met with, with, with the mayor of a border town in Mexico who told me in his town alone there had been more than 3,000 disappearances. Just people who disappear, who the cartels kidnap, they murder, and they're found just in pits of dead bodies. That's what Biden and Harris have done to Mexico, is they have undermined public safety to a level. They have turned these cartels into superpowers. And it is tragic what's happening to Mexico, but it's Also tragic what's happening to America.
- [19:54]
Ted Cruz
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. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. I want to move to this other issue because I think it's really important and it is the breaking news out of Israel that Israel has killed the October 7 mastermind. It is interesting. It took them about a year to do that. It's something that we in this country have still not accomplished since 9 11. The mastermind of 9 11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has still not been executed even though we have him in our custody. Many Democrats have tried to give him a plea deal to save his life, which was a major point that we talked about and were able to at least stop that deal from taking place because of so many listeners that were outraged by the decision by the Biden Harris administration to give him a deal as the mastermind. 911 Israel said, yeah, we're not going to do that. We're not going to do that at all. In fact, what we're going to do is we're going to kill the leader of Hamas that planned this attack. And they did it today and told the world, yeah, we're not messing around. We're taking out everybody that was involved in this attack on innocent civilians and those that took hostages.
- [21:19]
Ben Ferguson
Look, that. That is exactly right. And I will say this is a very, very good day for Israel. It's a very good day for America. The Hamas leader Sinwar hated America, was responsible for American deaths. And it's a good day for justice. And here I want you to listen to the coverage when the Israeli foreign minister confirms that the Hamas leader is dead. Give a listen.
- [21:45]
Ted Cruz
This is a Fox News alert. Reuters is now reporting that Israel's foreign minister has just confirmed the death of.
- [21:53]
Ben Ferguson
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Yahya Sinwar was responsible and the mastermind between the vicious October 7th attack that was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
- [22:06]
Ted Cruz
And Reuters is reporting that Israeli officials.
- [22:09]
Ben Ferguson
Who were analyzing his dental records that he is in fact, dead. We go to Trey Yings and Haifa, Israel, with more on this developing story.
- [22:17]
Ted Cruz
Trey?
- [22:19]
Trey Yings
Yeah, guys. Good afternoon. According to reports, the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is dead. We cannot independently confirm this, and I'm going to tell you why. There are two things ongoing at the moment. Israeli officials are using dental records and they are using DNA to try to match Yahya Sinwar's. DNA to DNA the Israelis have in their file. The dental records match, but we are waiting to report until the DNA test comes back, just given how high profile this figure is. But again, according to reports attributed to Israel's foreign Minister, Israel Katz, Yahya Sinwar is dead. This follows an Israeli operation in southern Gaza today, reportedly in the city of Rafah, Gaza's third largest city that sits next to the Egyptian border. This was not a planned intelligence operation, according to officials, but rather a ground patrol that intercepted movement in southern Gaza. Ultimately, Israeli forces reportedly fired on that movement. And among the cell of Hamas militants was the leader, Yahya Sinwar. Now, Sinwar is a man who has been at the top of the Israeli target list since October 7th. He is one of three masterminds behind the massacre, along with Mohammed Death, a man who was killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year, and Ismail Haniyeh, a man who was killed in an explosion in the Iranian capital of Tehran over the summer. Summer. So now that this is confirmed, the three masterminds behind the massacre are dead. Now, Sinwar spent 22 years in an Israeli prison. He was released back in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap deal for one single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Shalit was exchanged for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners. Now, when Sinwar went back to Gaza, he was appointed to a defense minister level position among Hamas, Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and then ultimately later took over as the leader of Hamas inside Gaza. The last time that I saw sinwar was in 2021. The month was May and he was giving a rally where an infamous photo of him was taken holding a Palestinian child who was dressed as a member of the Al Qassam Brigades. Sinwar is someone who has devoted his life to killing Israelis, despite the fact that the Israelis actually saved his life during brain surgery on him in the early 2000s while he was still in prison and following the October 7th massacre. He had been hiding in the tunnel network beneath Gaza. Some of the Israeli hostages who were released as part of the November cease fire deal back in 2023 reported meeting him in the tunnels beneath Gaza City. And so this is significant news and an indication that the Israelis will continue to pick off the remaining Hamas leaders that exist still inside Gaza. They have destroyed the battalions within the Gaza Strip. But the question remains, what does this mean for the remaining Israeli hostages inside Gaza? 101 of them are there. Around half of them are estimated to be alive. And Israeli sources are texting now they are talking about this news that is taking place. We do expect to hear from Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu later tonight. Israel Time and the Israelis, according to this source, are in communication with their American counterparts to discuss the operation that took place today. Again, according to our reporting, this was not a planned operation, but rather one that took place after movement was identified inside the Gaza Strip. Again, the latest information that we have attributable to reports we are waiting for DNA evidence, is that Yakya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is dead.
- [25:44]
Ted Cruz
Guys, I mean, this is incredible news, and I loved how steadfast Netanyahu has been.
- [25:52]
Ben Ferguson
Yes. So, two observations. Number one, on yet another issue, Kamala Harris was wrong. Remember, Kamala Harris has been opposing Israel continuing to fight to eliminate Hamas. Harris was explicit urging Israel opposing Israel going on the offensive in Rafah. And she claimed to be an expert. She claimed to know that nothing could be accomplished. And what happened today proved that wrong. I want you to listen to a flashback of Kamala in March of 2024 when she's claiming to know that going into Rafah is going to be a mistake.
- [26:37]
Ted Cruz
We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.
- [26:50]
Ben Ferguson
Let me tell you something.
- [26:51]
Ted Cruz
I have studied the maps. There's nowhere for those folks to go.
- [26:56]
Ben Ferguson
And we're looking at about a million.
- [26:58]
Ted Cruz
And a half people in Rafah who.
- [26:59]
Ben Ferguson
Are there because they were told to.
- [27:01]
Ted Cruz
Go there, most of them. And so we've been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafah with any type of military operation.
- [27:11]
Ben Ferguson
A mistake. But would there be consequences if he does move forward?
- [27:15]
Ted Cruz
Well, we're going to take it one step at a time, but we've been very clear in terms of our perspective on whether or not that should happen.
- [27:20]
Trey Yings
Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?
- [27:24]
Ted Cruz
I am ruling out nothing. Wow.
- [27:28]
Ben Ferguson
Well, once again, Kamala Harris was wrong. She was wrong. She was threatening Israel with consequences. And to be clear, she and Joe Biden cut off critical weapons to Israel and have been pressuring and undermining Israel at every stage since October 7th. And long before that, she was categorically wrong. And I'll tell you the real consequences. The consequences were for Sinwar. And this is the final point that I want to wrap up the podcast with. You know, it was 12 years ago that I was elected to the Senate. And when I came into the Senate, at the time, I resolve to be the leading defender of Israel in the Senate. And I got to tell you, a lot of times people ask me, how on earth did it come to pass that a Cuban, Texan, Southern Baptist would end up the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate? And there are a lot of reasons, but one of the fundamental reasons, and I've described this before, is I was a little kid when the Entebbe raid happened. I was, I think, five years old. And, and listen, I didn't understand in detail what happened in the Entebbe raid, but it made an impression on me as a child. And my understanding of the Entebbe raid at the time was the people of Israel were saying, if you take our citizens hostage, our citizens might die, but you are going to die. And I gotta say, Ben, as a five year old, that struck me as a very Texan foreign policy. There was a clarity to that. And I gotta say, the three masterminds of October 7, including Sinwar, the head of Hamas, well, they've gone to meet their 72 virgins and I think they're disappointed with what they found. And there is an absolute seriousness with which Benjamin Netanyahu and the nation of Israel takes protecting their themselves, protecting their citizens, protecting their safety, defeating Hamas, defeating Hezbollah. And that is good for America, good for Israel, good for the world, and cause for celebration.
- [29:36]
Ted Cruz
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.