Hegseth Shines at Hearing, a Shocking Child Rape Scandal in the UK & Biden Excuses Cuban Sponsored Terrorism

Summary

Summary of "Hegseth Shines at Hearing, a Shocking Child Rape Scandal in the UK & Biden Excuses Cuban Sponsored Terrorism"

Released on January 15, 2025, on "The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson," hosted by Ben Ferguson under Premiere Networks, this episode delves into pivotal political events and shocking revelations shaping the current American and international landscape. The discussion spans the confirmation of Pete Hegseth, upcoming Trump Cabinet nomination hearings, a harrowing child rape scandal in the United Kingdom, and President Joe Biden's controversial decision regarding Cuba's status as a state sponsor of terrorism.

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1. Confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense

The episode opens with a strong focus on Pete Hegseth's successful confirmation hearing for the position of Secretary of Defense. Despite Democratic attempts to undermine his nomination through personal and political smears, Hegseth emerged unscathed, securing his position with significant support.

• Ben Ferguson emphasizes the futility of Democratic tactics:
  "Democrats were putting on a show today at the hearing for Pete Hegseth... None of [their attacks] stuck." (00:17)

• Senator Ted Cruz highlights Hegseth's commitment to accountability:
  "There's been no accountability for the disaster of the withdrawal in Afghanistan... it's the time to restore that to our most senior ranks." (15:36)

Hegseth’s background as a decorated combat veteran, his education from Princeton and Harvard, and his leadership in veterans' organizations were lauded as foundational strengths that Democrats failed to tarnish effectively.

Notable Quotes:

• Pete Hegseth on supporting Israel:
  "I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas." (12:00)

• Senator Ted Cruz on the hearing outcome:
  "Every one of the Democrats on the committee is going to vote against him... I think he's going to be confirmed to go to the Department of Defense and to bring DoD back to its core mission." (05:24)

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2. Upcoming Trump Cabinet Confirmation Hearings

Ben Ferguson outlines the agenda for the following day's confirmation hearings, where he will actively participate in three key nominations:

• Pam Bondi as Attorney General
• Marco Rubio as Secretary of State
• Sean Duffy as Secretary of Transportation

Expectations and Predictions:

• Pam Bondi's Hearing: Expected to be a "circus" with potential attacks aimed at Trump rather than Bondi herself. Ferguson anticipates successful defense and confirmation due to Bondi's qualifications and experience.
  "I don't think they're really gonna go after her... what they're going to do is go after Trump." (17:22)

• Marco Rubio's Hearing: Predicted to be smooth with bipartisan support, potentially earning up to 95 votes.
  "Marco is going to be confirmed easily... I think most, if not all the Democrats are going to vote for him." (17:22)

• Sean Duffy's Hearing: Expected to proceed similarly, with confidence in his confirmation.
  "I think Sean Duffy will be confirmed easily and I think with bipartisan votes." (17:22)

Notable Insights:

• Ben Ferguson predicts:
  "Every one of the Trump cabinet members will be confirmed." (23:36)

• Senator Ted Cruz reflects on historical confirmation patterns:
  "It used to not be this way back in the day... this is gonna be maybe one of the abnormal ones that Trump puts up, right?" (18:45)

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3. Shocking Child Rape Gang Scandal in the United Kingdom

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to unveiling a systemic child rape scandal in the UK, highlighting the failure of British authorities to address widespread abuse adequately.

Key Points Discussed:

• Scale and Nature of the Crimes:
  Over 300,000 children were systematically raped by predominantly Pakistani Muslim men across various British towns since the 1970s. The scandal is considered the "biggest peacetime crime and cover-up in British history."

• Government and Institutional Failures:
  Both Conservative and Labor governments ignored allegations to maintain "community relations," leading to the protection of perpetrators within local governments and law enforcement.

• Media Complicity:
  The British media largely ignored or downplayed the crimes to avoid accusations of racism or Islamophobia, prioritizing political correctness over uncovering the truth.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson reads from an article in the Free Press:
  "The grooming and serial rape of thousands of English girls by men of mostly Pakistani Muslim background over several decades is the biggest peacetime crime in the history of modern Europe." (28:58)

• Nigel Farage responds to Prime Minister Keir Starmer:
  "There needs to be a full public inquiry. Let us find out the truth of the scale of this... We must have an inquiry." (37:16)

• Ben Ferguson connects the UK scandal to U.S. issues:
  "In the United states, the over 300,000 children that the Biden administration lost. We need full transparency. We need to find those kids who are being abused." (38:19)

Implications:

Ferguson draws parallels between the UK's failure to protect vulnerable children and similar issues in the U.S., emphasizing the need for thorough inquiries and accountability to prevent further abuse and ensure justice for victims.

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4. Joe Biden's Decision to Remove Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism

The episode concludes with a critical analysis of President Biden's recent policy change concerning Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Key Points:

• Policy Change:
  Cuba was delisted from the state sponsors of terrorism list, a move Ferguson deems politically motivated rather than based on current threat assessments.

• Criticism of the Decision:
  The Biden administration is accused of undermining national security by overlooking Cuba's ongoing support for terrorist activities, including harboring militants and supporting hostile regimes.

• Future Outlook:
  Ferguson anticipates a reversal of this decision under the incoming Trump administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio potentially reinstating Cuba's designation.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson on the Biden administration's motives:
  "Today's decision was just politics. It was left-wing politics of the very worst sort." (39:37)

• Senator Ted Cruz underscores the significance:
  "Every one of the Trump cabinet members will be confirmed." (23:36) (Note: While this quote pertains to cabinet confirmations, the context in this section ties Biden's actions to the upcoming Trump administration's expected policy reversals.)

Ferguson criticizes the administration's apparent favoritism towards communist allies and frames the move as an affront to democracy and national security, reinforcing his broader narrative of Democratic incompetence and malfeasance.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz provide a fervent critique of Democratic strategies and policies, celebrating Republican successes in Senate confirmations while exposing grave systemic failures both domestically and internationally. From hard-hitting revelations about UK’s child rape scandal to contentious foreign policy decisions, the discussion underscores a call for accountability, transparency, and a return to core national interests.

Key Takeaways:

• Pete Hegseth's Confirmation: Symbolizes a pushback against Democratic obstructionism, promising a Department of Defense refocused on military efficacy over political correctness.

• Upcoming Nomination Hearings: Expected to reinforce Republican dominance in the administration, with strong bipartisan support for nominees like Marco Rubio.

• UK's Child Rape Scandal: Highlights the dangers of institutional complacency and the critical need for transparency and justice systems that prioritize victim protection over political convenience.

• Cuba's Delisting: Represents what is portrayed as administratively driven weakened national security measures, with anticipated reversals poised to strengthen anti-terrorism efforts under Republican leadership.

Listeners are encouraged to stay informed and engaged as these developments unfold, ensuring they are aware of the significant shifts in both U.S. and global political arenas.

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For more detailed insights and ongoing updates, subscribe to "The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson" on the iHeartRadio app or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, fireworks on Capitol Hill. We're going to start with that because it was a very big day for Pete Hedge. Seth Democrats tried to derail him. It did not work.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, the circus is in town. Democrats were putting on a show today at the the hearing for Pete Hegseth. The good news is he will be confirmed. We're going to break it down exactly what happened at his confirmation hearing yesterday. And this is the beginning of the confirmation hearings for the Trump Cabinet. Tomorrow we'll have confirmation hearings. I'll participate in three. I'll participate in the confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi as Attorney General, the confirmation hearing for Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. And I'll be chairing the confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy as Secretary of Transportation. We'll tell you what to expect on that. And then we're going to talk about one of the most shocking scandals that you've never heard of, and it is the child rape gang scandal in the United Kingdom. Thousands upon thousands of children were raped over decades, systematically, repeatedly. And the British government, British prosecutors turned the other way because of political correctness and multiculturalism. The shocks, the, the facts are shocking and the 6 o'clock news won't cover it. That's why you listen to Verdict, to discover the real facts that you will not hear in the corporate media. And finally, Joe Biden on his way out decided to give a gift to the Communist in Cuba. He took them off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It turns out if you're a leftist, you can try to kill anyone you want and the Democrats will love you. All of that on today's Verdict.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, it's, the story on that one is truly shocking. We'll explain why it is, yes, a big deal. But you know what? Donald Trump's coming. On January 27th, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be here. And we will remember the great evil of the Holocaust when millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazis reign of terror. Today, unfortunately, the rise in global anti Semitism and the constant attacks on Israel show us that it's more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and to ensure that it never happens again. That is why I'm proud to partner with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Because of what they do, they provide food, shelter and safety to Jews in Israel and around the world, including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine and other basic necessities to the Jewish communities in need. And through your gift, not only will you be helping? But you are going to be standing with the Jewish people and against the growing anti Semitism and hatred that we're witnessing around the world. So if you want to stand with the people in Israel, give a gift to show your Support by visiting supportifcj.org that's one word, support. IFCJ.org you can also call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCj 888-488-4325 or supportifcj.org all right, so let's start with Democrats game plan center. It was to do everything they could to smear Pete. It was to try to say he's unfit for office. It was to try to say, well, he's not what we traditionally have in this role in the past and we must keep the status quo. And then it went to personal attacks on him as well. None of it stuck.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. Let's start with the punchline. Pete Hegseth will be confirmed. He is going to be confirmed as the secretary of defense. I believe he will have at least 50 votes in the U.S. senate. And today's hearing is a big part of the reason why Democrats tried to come after him. And frankly, in the course of the hearing, I don't think they laid a glove on him very effectively. Now listen, you and I had talked about this before. We had predicted it was going to be a political circus. And there were clowns, there were dancing bears, there were ballerinas and trapeze artists. They went after him, but it actually speaks volume. What did they choose to go after him on? They chose to go after him on political smears or personal smears to drag him through the gutter. And based on a whole series of allegations that the press has covered breathlessly over and over and over again, almost all of which are anonymous allegations. So you don't have anyone coming forward, being willing to say, I was there. This is what happened. They're all anonymous, given to left wing papers, and there's no evidence to back any of them up. And yet the Democrats, in a massive display of hypocrisy, just went after and they were mean, they were nasty, they were personal. You know, look, you look at Pete Hegseth's background, first of all, he went to Princeton and Harvard, which I confess I'm kind of partial to that particular combination.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I wonder why.

[Ben Ferguson]

By the way, I learned this today reading through his bio. Do you know what he did at Princeton?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I do not.

[Ben Ferguson]

He played on the basketball Team.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, then the next question is, why have you guys not played?

[Ben Ferguson]

I found that out today.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I'm going to invite, but that's like 12 hours ago, usually as fast as you are to get a game together.

[Ben Ferguson]

In D.C. so I played hoops this afternoon. We play old guys against young guys. Pete is 44. He's not, not my age, but he still qualifies as an old guy. So I was already laughing, going, all right, I'm recruiting me a ringer. He not only played on the Princeton basketball team, he played in March Madness. He played, played in the tournament.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I had no idea. That is a very cool piece of info there.

[Ben Ferguson]

I learned it from Wikipedia today. So I have not talked to about it today because I learned it like three hours ago. And I was like, wow, that's really cool. But Princeton and Harvard, and then he served active duty military, deployed, deployed in combat, commanded troops in combat, was awarded the Bronze Star, is a decorated combat veteran. And then when he left active duty, he led two veterans organizations advocating on behalf of veterans, advocating on behalf of active duty troops. Pete's someone I've known a long time. He is a strong leader. He is a principled leader. And what was really striking about the hearing, all of the Democrats, they hate him like they hate Donald Trump. And every one of the Democrats on the committee is going to vote against him. But you could see the vitriol and hatred, the fact that they had to go to personal smears. What I think spoke volumes is they didn't talk at all about the job that he is going to do at the Department of Defense. And we, and you and I talked about this on the podcast the day after Trump announced Pete Hegseth and we predicted on this pod, said they're going to have, they're going to come after him. They're going to go crazy. It's going to be a political circus. But, but my take on him the day it was announced is the same as my take on him now, which is Pete Hagseth will be a change agent that he was nominated and he's going to be confirmed to go to the Department of Defense and to bring DoD back to its core mission, to bring it back to supporting the war fighter, to bring it back to being ready and prepared to defeat our enemies and to kill our enemies. And we have seen the Department of Defense under Barack Obama initially and even more so under Joe Biden get mired into the games of political correctness and woke ideology. And, and, and they're more interested in, in transgender soldiers than they are actually in defeating our enemies. And, and, and, and by the way, one of the consequences of it, the military is suffering a, a, a recruitment crisis, uh, because it turns out young men and women are not eager to be part of some left wing political crusade. They are eager to be heroes defending America. And a prediction that I've made, I believe we will see recruiting and enlistment numbers rise significantly when Pete Hegseth is confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Because young men and women, many of them in the south, you get. A lot of people who enlist in the military from the south are gonna say, that's what I want to be a part of. I want to focus on defending our nation. I thought Pete Hexis did a terrific job today.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

One of the things that he said that I thought was also really interesting is he talked about how we hold the men and women that are in combat to insanely high standards. But he said we have too many people that are in the bloated upper echelons of the bureaucracy of the Pentagon that get, as he described it, these bigger roles, even after big failures. And he said, if you lose a war, you shouldn't be able to get a better job after you lose a war. And we have. He said we have way too many people that are on the payroll and general rolls, for example, when we don't need as many. And when we won World War II, he compared it to how many we have today. It is significant to see the ideas you said about being a change unit, where he's like, look, we need to put the fighters first, the soldiers first, and not leadership first all the time.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, and he also talked a great deal about modernizing the military, developing weapons systems to fight tomorrow's war, not yesterday's war. And in particular, that's gonna involve all sorts of technology like drones and artificial intelligence and hypersonics and modernizing the military. Look, the job he's been nominated to is an insanely difficult job. It is. There are 3 million people in DOD. It's $900 billion. Turning that battleship is not easy. And I think Pete is up to the task. It's not gonna be an easy thing. You know, I wanna focus on. To give you an example of the sorts of things the Democrats did not ask about and were not concerned about. I wanna start by his answer concerning Israel and Hamas. And this is when Tom Cotton was questioning him. And at the beginning of Pete Hexis testimony, you had a couple of protesters that stood up and screamed and disrupted. And so Cotton gave him a chance to Respond to the protesters. Give a listen to Cotton's question and Hegseth's answer.

[Tom Cotton]

Big audience here. Many of them seem to be patriotic supporters of you, Mr. Hegseth. Some of them seem to be liberal critics of you. I would note that it's only the liberal critics that have disrupted this hearing. As was my custom during the Biden administration. I want to give you a chance to respond to what they said about you. I think the first one accused you of being a Christian Zionist. I'm not really sure why that is a bad thing. I'm a Christian. I'm a Zionist. Zionism is that the Jewish people deserve a homeland in the ancient holy land where they've lived since the dawn of history. Do you consider yourself a Christian Zionist, Senator?

[Pete Hegseth]

I support. I am a Christian, and I robustly support the state of Israel and its existential defense. And the way America comes alongside them is a great.

[Tom Cotton]

Thank you. Because another one, another protester, and I think this one was a member of codeping, which, by the way, is a Chinese communist front group these days, said that you support Israel's war in Gaza. I support Israel's existential war in Gaza. I assume, like me and President Trump, you support that war as well, don't you, Senator?

[Pete Hegseth]

I do. I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And I love that aspect of his answer.

[Ben Ferguson]

Look, there is a clarity to it. I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas. That is exactly right. And yet you cannot imagine Joe Biden or anyone in the Biden administration uttering those words. Why? Because they don't support that. And in fact, at every stage on and after October 7, the Biden administration has been urging Israel stop killing the terrorists. Stop killing the terrorists. And. And there's a reason the Democrats didn't want to talk about the job he was nominated to and instead wanted to go to personal spheres. And it. It is that clarity. I. I also want to play another clip where. Where he was talking about. He was talking about the service members who were kicked out because of the COVID vaccine.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah. This was a big flash point and a big question you and I have talked about for a long time, which is, should the people that were kicked out get their jobs back? Should they get back pay?

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, he answered that. And give a listen to his answer.

[Pete Hegseth]

We haven't even talked about COVID And the tens of thousands of service members who were kicked out because of an experimental vaccine in President Trump's Defense Department. They will be apologized to. They will be reinstated, reinstituted, with pay and rank.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Senator, this goes back to what you said a minute ago about you think that recruitment's going to go up. Yep. Part of that recruitment is going to be, I think a lot of men and women that were kicked out that are going to want to come back and serve under this type of leadership as well.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, look, that is absolutely right. And look at a time that we've got huge recruitment challenges. What did Joe Biden, the Democrats, do? They threw out tens of thousands of servicemen and women because they declined to get the COVID vaccine. It was asinine, it was irrational. It was arbitrary. And I believe the reason they did so is precisely because they recognized that many of them were conservatives, and it was an excuse to purge conservatives. By the way, they did the same thing at the Department of Justice, at the FBI, at the Border Patrol. And this is an issue, as you know, that I've been leading the fight on in the Senate for the past several years. I led the fight successfully to end the vaccine mandate in the military. So it's no longer a current mandate, but I've introduced legislation, the Americans act, that would mandate that those who were thrown out of the military be allowed back in, reinstated with back pay and rank. And the Democrats have systematically blocked it. Pete Hegseth just promised to do that. That is the right thing to do. I'll tell you. I knew he was gonna say that, because when I sat down and met with him, I asked him that very directly. And he made that commitment to me in our meeting. And I'm glad he now made it publicly at his confirmation hearing. And that's the sort of clarity that, frankly, the Democrats don't want at the Department of Defense. But that's also why he's going to be confirmed. And that's a very good thing.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Let's finally talk about accountability. One other thing he said that I think should make headlines. I don't think the media is going to cover it, but it should. Was his thoughts on the withdrawal in Afghanistan. Here's what he said.

[Pete Hegseth]

There's been no accountability for the disaster of the withdrawal in Afghanistan. And that's precisely why we're here today, is that leadership has been unwilling to take accountability. It's the time to restore that to our most senior ranks.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I love how they were trying to cut him off when he was saying that Democrats did not want that out there.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, that was Jack Reed, who's the ranking member of the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. He's interrupting. Excuse me. No, no, don't. Don't get into that. And it is shocking. The disaster of Afghanistan was the first major foreign policy screw up of the Biden administration. And it foreshadowed all the other disasters because it told our enemies this commander in chief was weak and ineffective and it was embarrassing. And I'll tell you, the servicemen and women I've talked to who fought in Afghanistan, they're angry. They're angry at the disgrace and debacle of that withdrawal. And nobody lost their job. Not, not a Secretary of defense didn't lose his job. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs didn't lose his job. To the best of my knowledge, no general lost his job. No civilian lost his job. Nobody did. Because in the Biden administration, no one gets fired ever. And there are no consequences. And, and, and that needs to be assessed. What were the mistakes that led to one of the most humiliating and disastrous military retreats in US Military history that, at least to date, there's been zero accountability for?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So let's move to what people are going to see Wednesday, and that's going to be these three confirmation hearings that you're involved in. Bondi, Duffy, and Rubio. Let's start with, with Pam Bondi first. What can people expect and what should they be looking for?

[Ben Ferguson]

So it'll be a circus, too. Bondi will be one of the hotter ones. It won't be quite the circus that Hegseth was, but it's gonna be a show. We're gonna have two days of hearings for Pam Bondi. Look, I don't think they're really gonna go after her. They don't have a lot of shots at her personally. She's clearly qualified. She's a veteran prosecutor. She was the elected Attorney General of Fortune Florida. She's got a lot of experience. So I don't think they're really gonna go after her, but what they are gonna do is go after Trump. They hate Trump. And so their attack for the next two days is going to be, you're Trump slacky. And their attack is also going to be, you're going to weaponize the Department of Justice. Now, I'm confident that she's gonna respond and say, no, we're not. We're gonna follow the law and restore integrity to doj. But I expect the attacks to be very much not attacking her directly, but, but using her to attack Trump. And I think she'll, she'll respond very effectively. The other two, the Rubio hearing is going to be a love fest. Marco is going to be confirmed easily. It would not surprise me If Marco gets 95 votes or more, I think all the Republicans are going to vote for him, and I think most, if not all the Democrats are going to vote for him. And so I think it will be.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, it's really abnormal in the political times we're in now. It used to not be this way back in the day. You could actually get a lot of people through with a significant number of votes. So this is gonna be maybe one of the abnormal ones that Trump puts up, right?

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. Look, Secretaries of State, that sometimes happens. One of the very first votes I ever cast was I was elected in 2012. 2013 was the beginning of the second Obama term, and he nominated John Kerry to be Secretary of State. John was obviously a former senator and was known by everyone there. And Kerry was confirmed 97 to 3. And I was one of the three. And I got to tell you, when I cast my vote, I was a brand new baby freshman still down in the little basement office that they stick brand new senators in. And when I cast the vote, there was an audible gasp in the well of the Senate, because freshmen weren't supposed to do such a thing. And it was actually, at the time, people, it was regarded as, like, courageous, which I thought was bizarre. I'm like, john Kerry has been wrong on every foreign policy issue every day of his life, systematically. What a train wreck of a nomination. Now he proved to be a train wreck of a Secretary of state, and yet 97 of my colleagues happily voted for him.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, let's go backwards just for a second. What do these confirmation hearings look like beforehand? How does the decision be made if it's one day or two day? Because you mentioned Bonnie's over two days. And then let's go and explain to people how prep works for the candidate, the nominee for this. Because I've actually gotten to be a part of that before in the prep. And it's very interesting to see how you get ready for what you're about to face.

[Ben Ferguson]

So it varies committee by committee, and that they typically follow precedent. So, for example, at the beginning of the Hegseth hearing, there was a back and forth skirmish where the Democrats wanted multiple rounds of questioning. And Roger Wicker, who's the Republican chairman, said, no, we're gonna follow the same precedent we followed for Lloyd Austin, Biden's Secretary of Defense, which is one round of questioning, seven minute questions for each person. And that's what the Senate Armed Services Committee had done. It's also what they did for Jim Mattis, who was Trump's first secretary of Defense. And so, so that's how that committee decided it, the Attorney General and Judiciary. It's not unusual for that to be a two day hearing. I don't know. Some of it is. Lawyers are long winded, I guess. But that also has been the tradition of the committee that it takes considerable time. Each chairman decides when to notice various hearings. So Sean Duffy, the third one that I'm gonna participate in tomorrow, is nominated to be the Secretary of Transportation. He'll be confirmed, I think he'll be confirmed easily and I think with bipartisan votes. I also think that will be something of a love fest because you've got a bunch of senators on the Commerce Committee, which I chair, who are all wanting the Secretary of Transportation to spend highway funds and transportation funds in their states. And so they're particularly incentivized to be nice to him. And so I think that will be a pretty easy hearing tomorrow. And, and look, one of the dynamics of being a senator, these are all going on simultaneously. So I will start the day at 9:30, which is when the Pam Bondi hearing gavels in, and I'll be in my chair at 9:30. And the reason is in Judiciary, if you're in your chair at Gavel, then you reserve your questioning order in order of seniority. And I'm pretty high up the list of seniority in Judiciary. So that means if I'm in the chair at Gavel, I get to be one of the first Republicans to question her. If you're not in your chair at Gavel, if you're anywhere else, and sometimes you can't be, then you basically speak last. And so I'll be in the chair at Gavel. But then right after we gavel in, I'll leave because at 10 I have to gavel in the confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy and I'm chairing that one. So I'll spend most of the day, most of the morning at least, chairing the Duffy confirmation hearing. And at some point I'll leave that hearing, I'll go back to Judiciary and question Pam Bondi. At another point I will leave the hearing and go to Senate Foreign Relations Committee where I'll question Marco Rubio. I will not be at the chair at Gavel for that because it gavel's in at 10 also, and I've got to be chairing Transportation then. So I'll, I'll drop in the Rubio hearing at some point closer to the end when I can get up. And that's part of being a senator. Sometimes you have Multiple hearings and you have to run from one committee room to the other. But, but, but all of those will happen tomorrow. And again, all of those I believe will get confirmed. And my prediction is every one of the Trump cabinet members will be confirmed.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Wait, wait, wait, say that again. That's the most important thing I believe.

[Ben Ferguson]

Every one of the Trump cabinet members will be confirmed.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

All of them. That is good news. That is very, very good news. I want to move to another story you mentioned earlier, a story that on face value it's, it's something that's in the UK and there's some people that say, well, like this is the uk, why does this matter to me? And I want to connect it to what has happened in this country because of our open borders and the number of minors that we have released in this country to non family members through the Biden Harris program. And when we go back to check on them, they are nowhere to be found. There are tens of thousands of children.

[Ben Ferguson]

Over 300,000, not tens of thousands, over 300,000. That's in the United States that the Biden administration has lost, that they do not know where they are, that they came as unaccompanied minors and they were handed over to adults and they have no idea where they are. And many of them are no doubt being abused. And the corrupt corporate media could not care less. The Democrats could not care less. I don't know a Democrat senator who's ever asked about the 300,000 children that this administration lost. They don't care about it. But look, I wanna say what's happened in the UK and is happening right now is horrifying and it's a real warning sign here. I wanna start by reading from an article in the Free Press because it sums it up really effectively. It's entitled the Biggest Peacetime Crime and cover up in British History. The grooming and serial rape of thousands of English girls by men of mostly Pakistani Muslim background over several decades is the biggest peacetime crime in the history of modern Europe. It went on for many years, it is still going on and there has been no justice for the vast majority of the victims. British governments, both Conservative and Labor, hoped that they had buried the story after a few symbolic prosecutions in the 2010s and it looked like they had succeeded until Elon Musk read some of the court papers and tweeted his disgust and bafflement on X over the new year. Britain now stands shamed before the world. The public's suppressed wrath is bubbling to the surface and petitions Calls for a public inquiry and demands for accountability. The scandal is already reshaping British politics. It's not just about the heinous nature of the crimes. It's that every level of the British system is implicated in the COVID up. Social workers were intimidated into silence. Local police ignored, excused and even abetted pedophile rapists. Across dozens of cities. Senior police and Home Office officials deliberately avoided action in the name of maintaining what they called, quote, community relations. Local counselors and members of Parliament rejected pleas for help from the parents of raped children. Charities NGOs and Labor MPS accused those who discussed the scandal of racism and Islamophobia. The media mostly ignored or downplayed the biggest story of their lifetimes. Zealous in their incuriosity, much of Britain's media elite remained barnacled to the bubble of Westminster politics and its self serving priorities. They did this to defend the failed model of multiculturalism and to avoid asking hard questions about failures of immigration policy and assimilation. They did this because they were afraid of being called racist or Islamophobic. They did this because Britain's traditional class snobbery had fused with the new snobbery of political correctness. All of which is why no one knows precisely how many thousands of young girls were raped in how many towns across Britain since the 1970s. What we do know is that the epicenter was in the post industrial mill towns of England's north and Midlands, where immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh settled in the 1960s. White locals say the grooming and rapes began soon after in Rotherdam, the rundown Yorkshire city where the scandal first broke. Local police and counselors were notified about systematic grooming and sex abuse by 2001. The first convictions did not occur until 2010 when five men of Pakistani background were jailed for multiple offenses against girls as young as 12 years old. The breadth of what occurred is staggering and the systematic willingness to look aside is truly horrific.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And let's be clear, the reason why they look the other way you mentioned it is really from a PR standpoint. They wanted to have, quote, good relations and not have a stigma related to people that were coming from the Middle east that were there. So they said, all right, we'll just look the other way and that'll make it easier.

[Ben Ferguson]

It's actually less Middle east than primarily Pakistan. Pakistan and it's Pakistani Muslims. And what we've seen, so we have seen since the 1970s, the grooming and serial rape of thousands of children. And the issue is in particular relevant because Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister was England's Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. And so he was actively involved in looking the other way. And so let's break down a little bit of the facts of what happened because the story sounds so extreme as to not be credible. But the child sex rapes weren't just individual instances done by rogue individuals. Rather, in nearly all the cases there were groups of mostly Pakistani men that cooperated and conspired to groom and sexually abuse girls over decades. And they targeted mostly vulnerable girls, poor orphans, children in care homes. They raped the girls, they passed them around networks, so raping them one after the other after the other. Some of these child rapists had roles in local governments. The leader of one of the rape gangs in Oldham, individual named Shabir Ahmed worked for the local council as a, quote, welfare rights officer and ran his gang from the council's welfare office. And let me give you some of the facts because they're just, just horrifying. One of the victims, a girl named Victoria Agaglia. Victoria was a 15 year old teenager and, and she was subject to the government's round the clock caretaking, but she went missing 19 times in three months for up to two weeks at a time. Instead of trying to find her, the welfare workers simply messaged her saying, when are you coming back?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Wow.

[Ben Ferguson]

It turns out she was forced into a Pakistani sex ring by older women who raped her in exchange for cash, alcohol and hard drugs. She was sometimes abused by up to 25 men in a single night. Victoria wrote, wrote a heartbreaking letter to the police documenting her abuse, but it was ignored and eventually ignored. Ignored and she was found dead from a fatal dose of heroin given by an abuser and she was repeatedly drugged and raped the night she was killed. I'll give you another example. Charlene Downs. In Blackpool in 2003, 14 year old Charlene Downs disappeared. Police had a lead that Charlene's body had been dismembered and disposed of. At a kebab shop in Blackpool, police uncovered evidence that Charlene had been the victim of child sexual exploitation after being groomed by a gang. The criminals have not been found and her body is missing. 20 years later. Lucy Lowe in Telford, an individual named Azhar Ali Mahmoud groomed Lucy Lowe from the age of 12 and impregnated her. At 14, he burned her alive in her own home with her mother, her disabled sister and her unborn second child, also fathered by Mahmoud. Mahmoud was jailed for life in 2001 for murder, not for the sex Crimes for murder. Reports indicated that South Asian men were targeting teenagers in Telford since the 1980s. I'll give you one other example. Sophie. In Oldham. In 2006, a 12 year old girl named Sophie entered a police station and reported that she had just been molested in a graveyard by a man named Ali. A desk officer told her to come back with an adult when she was sober. Mind you, she was 12. Two men accosted her in the police station, joined by a third. They raped her in their car. When they dumped her on the street, she asked a man named Sarwar Ali for directions. He took her to his home, raped her and gave her money for bus fare home. Sarwar Ali was arrested and remanded to prison over his attack on Sophie. However, he was then released following a bail application to a judge. Despite being an illegal immigrant in the United Kingdom, he subsequently failed to attend his appointment with the Immigration Service and is still at large. Then a man named Shaquille Chowdhury pulled up at his car and offered to take Sophie home. He abducted her, took her to a house, fed her alcohol. Soon after, he and four other men repeatedly raped her. Only Shaquille was convicted, six years in prison. During his trial, Chowdery named two of the other men involved in the rapes of Sophie as part of his mitigation, but these were not followed up by police at the time. One of the men named by Chowdhury was subsequently convicted in 2009 of the attempted murder of his wife. This pattern happened over and over and over again and the numbers are staggering. We are talking about thousands of girls systematically repeatedly raped and the entire British government looked the other way for decades.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So, Senator, the question that I'm sure everyone listening is thinking to themselves like a, has anything changed now? And B, what should happen? The fact that now this is all out in the open?

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, what has changed is Elon Musk has started tweeting about it and Elon has over 200 million followers and it has drawn attention to it in a way that is really important. And it has become, thankfully, a political crisis in the United Kingdom. But I want you to listen to Keir Starmer. This is just about a week ago, addressing this crisis. And listen to what he had to say. This is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. And when politicians, and I mean politicians who sat in government for many years are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon at the far right, then that affects politics because a Robust debate can only be based on the true facts. So there you have it. The sitting Prime Minister is saying that if you're concerned about the ongoing rape of thousands of girls in the United Kingdom and the complicity of government, he says you're jumping on the bandwagon of the far right. That continues to be the multiculturalism, political correctness that he does not want to acknowledge. And by the way, he was the chief prosecutor for many of these years. He was the one who was directly involved in looking the other way. So naturally he doesn't want an inquiry. Now, I'll give you the response of Nigel Farage, one of the leaders. And actually Nigel Farage we've had had on, on the, on this podcast. He's been a guest on this podcast before. Nigel Farage obviously led the, the fight for Brexit in the United Kingdom. And, and, and, and listen to Nigel Farage's response to what Keir Starmer said.

[Nigel Farage]

Well, so much talk over the last few days about grooming gangs, or should I say rape gangs. And Keir Starmer today saying that anyone who's calling for a full public inquiry is jumping on the bandwagon of the far right. Wrong, Prime Minister. The vast majority of people in this country are absolutely mortified by what has gone on. But even worse, the COVID up we've had from the police, social services and both Conservative and Labour governments, the inquiries that have happened so far have been nothing more than a whitewash. There needs to be a full public inquiry. Let us find out the truth of the scale of this. I'm told that in up to 50 British towns, these gang rapes were going on. I believe the public need the truth. We must have an inquiry.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Senator, you hear the frustration there from Nigel, but I'd also, and this is where I say let's bring it back to the U.S. i worry that we're gonna have the same type of conversation in the not too near distant future about all the children that we've lost in this country.

[Ben Ferguson]

So the answer to both needs to be the same, which is there needs to be an inquiry. There needs to be transparency in the United Kingdom. You know, Nigel Farage mentioned that there are allegations of up to 50 towns where these rape gangs were ongoing for years and years. That's a staggering scale. So there needs to be full transparency. The opposite of a whitewash or a cover up, but real transparency. In the United states, the over 300,000 children that the Biden administration lost. We need full transparency. We need to find those kids, those kids who are being abused. Right. Right now, we need to get them out of harm's way. And sunlight and transparency is powerful, but there also needs to be accountability for those who are culpable.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Amen to that. Finally, I want to just get your reaction to a shocking headline that may not be as big of a deal in just a few days as it could be, and that is Joe Biden waiting to the very last moment to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terror. Why? Because he says, well, they haven't been involved in sponsoring terrorism in the last six months. So now they're all good. Don't worry about them. Your reaction to that?

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, until today, Cuba was one of four designated state sponsors of terrorism. The four were North Korea, Iran and Syria. And they're designated pursuant to determination from the Secretary of State that those countries have, quote, repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. Cuba was designated in 2021 by the Trump administration. The designation noted that, quote, for decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed and provided medical care for murderers, bomb makers and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine. And the Biden administration today delisted them, even though Cuba is today a sponsor of terrorism right now. So Cuba is right now refusing requests by Columbia to extradite 10 members of the National Liberation army after the group claimed responsibility for a 2019 bombing of a Bogota police academy, killing 22 people. Cuba also harbors several American fugitives wanted on or convicted of charges of political violence or murdering police officers. Cuba also supports FARC terrorists and props up the Maduro regime in Venezuela. And all of those facts are clear. They're indisputable. The Biden administration doesn't dispute them. Today's decision was just politics. It was left wing politics of the very worst sort.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And thank goodness Donald Trump will be here in just a few more days. Don't forget me.

[Ben Ferguson]

And I believe this determination will be reversed next week. I fully expect next week. And in fact, I think one of Marco Rubio's very first acts, when he is confirmed as Secretary of State. And my prediction is, I think Marco will be confirmed on January 20, the same day that President Trump is sworn into office. It would not surprise me If Marco on January 20th lists Cuba again. So understand what this is. This is not gonna be a fundamental shift in US Policy. This is just Biden saying screw you on the way out and the Biden White House saying, number one, we stand with communists. We like the Cuban communist. You know, when we were in college, we had posters of Che Guevara on the wall and we find communists. We just think they're really cute and lovely and it's consistent with their pattern of kissing up to communists across, across the world. But number two, this is yet another manifestation of Biden and Harris's and Democrats contempt for democracy in the closing hours. They're trying to do everything they can to make it difficult for the Trump administration and to just say screw you to the voters in November who gave a clear and unequivocal mandate. There's an arrogance and contempt for the voters that this is just one of the most, one of the latest and one of the most shocking manifestations of, yeah, incredible.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're gonna keep you up to date on all the confirmation hearings. And as we get closer to Inauguration Day, there will be more big news. So make sure you don't miss an episode. Hit that subscribe auto download button. I will also keep you up to date each and every day on my podcast. When we don't do Verdict Ben Ferguson podcast, wherever you get your podcast as well, it is going to be a very exciting month and a very exciting next four years. We'll see you back here on Friday morning.