Ben Ferguson (3:14)

But first, I want to take a moment before we get into all that, and I want to tell you about the international fellowship of Christians and Jews and how your help is needed right now, especially for those that are under attack in Israel as we speak. I want to take a moment and talk to you about a man named Phineas who as a child survived the Holocaust. Phineas survived because Christians hid him from the Nazis, risking everything to save his life. Today he is in his 80s. He can no longer stand on his own or leave his home to receive medical care. And when the siren sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or the strength to reach safety. But once again, Christians are helping save his life through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. A mobile clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime. Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said in and now again, they're helping me. So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words, but with action. Give $45 right now and you can rush life saving essentials to the vulnerable in Israel under fire. 888488 IFCJ. That's 888488 IFCJ. Or go online to IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org center. Let's start with Iran. And it is clear that CINCOM chief put it today, Iran has suffered a generational military defeat they described as a 40 year military buildup that has been crushed in under 40 days. Yet on TV, Democrats are using the word a lot in the last 24 hours. And that word that they're obsessed with now is a quagmire. Forget the definition of a quagmire. And actually if you relate it to military intervention or a war, usually that word is used after years of what has become stagnant. But they're like, oh, no. Donald Trump's Got us at a quagmire. Your reaction to all of that?

Senator Ted Cruz (5:31)

Well, I will say we had 39 days of active military conflict. And if you look at what occurred, we took out the entirety of Iran's air defenses. We took out the entirety of their ballistic missiles, their ballistic missile launchers, their ballistic missile manufacturing capability. We took out the entirety of their drone arsenal, the entirety of their drone launchers. We took out their drone manufacturing capacity. We also took out their air force, which is virtually non existent at this point. We took out their navy, sinking more than 140 naval ships. It's the single largest naval defeat since World War II. And all of that is on top of the fact that we took out the Ayatollah and virtually the entirety of the military leadership. Here's what US Central Commander Admiral Bradley Cooper had to say. He said, quote, we set out to dismantle Iran's military capability and we clearly accomplished this task. He said Iran's conventional military, quote, built over 40 years at the cost of billions of dollars, has been eliminated. He further elaborated, quote, our core strategic military objectives have been achieved after destroying Iran's missile, drone and naval capabilities and their defensive industrial base. Outlining what he characterized as a comprehensive dismantling of of Iran's war machine, the CENTCOM commander emphasized the scale of the operation. We conducted more than 13,000. Let me repeat that, 13,000 strikes on Iranian military targets. We flew thousands upon thousands of combat missions over Iran. And as Admiral Cooper put it, quote, in less than 40 days, you destroyed the military that Iran had built for over 40 years. He also said more than 50,000American service members took part in the operation. And he called it a mission of profound consequences which exceeded each and every expectation for what the forces achieved. And he went on to say, quote, we remain present, we remain vigilant, and we remain ready if called. And he added that the United States forces would continue to stand, quote, shoulder to shoulder with regional partners to maintain, quote, the most sophisticated and largest active air defense umbrella in the world. That is a big deal. The success that was carried out was extraordinary. Now the question is, after that, and by the way, the instant the attack started, Democrats began attacking. Not Iran, not attacking the people who chant death to America, not attacking the regime that has been the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. Not attacking the Iranian regime that provides over 90% of the funding to Hamas, over 90% of the funding to Hezbollah, over 90% of the funding to Houthis. No, the Democrats didn't attack any of that. What did they Attack our commander in chief, Donald J. Trump. You know, it used to be that politics end at the nation's border, at our water's edge. And yet today, the instant this military conflict began, the Democrats hate Trump so much. Rather than stand with our troops, rather than stand for defeating our enemies, they immediately began cheering effectively for the United States to lose.

Ben Ferguson (9:11)

Let's talk about what success actually looks like. We know that Democrats, as you mentioned before the break, they're criticizing Trump because he, he didn't bomb the power plant and the roads, but if he would have done it, they said that he would be then committing war crimes and he should be arrested. So which one is it?

Senator Ted Cruz (9:30)

Well, look, they're wrong on both fronts. Let's talk about what President Trump is demanding of Iran for this ceasefire to continue. And mind you, this is a two week ceasefire. There's no guarantee if Iran fails, the ceasefire will end. But President Trump is making three demands, and I agree with all of them. Number one, he is insisting that Iran engage in no enrichment, zero enrichment of uranium. Now, Iran has been pressing back repeatedly saying they have a right to enrich uranium. Of course, Barack Obama, in his disastrous Iran nuclear deal, effectively protected their right to enrich uranium, which would have led inexorably to Iran having a nuclear weapon. And listen, when you have an ayatollah who's a religious zealot, who chants death to America, who has killed nearly a thousand Americans, the idea of any universe in which he has a nuclear weapon where he could kill, in the blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of Americans, that's utterly unacceptable. So President Trump is right to insist, zero enrichment, number one. Number two, Iran has a substantial stockpile of enriched uranium. President Trump is insisting, hand over your enriched uranium. You cannot keep it. You cannot hold onto it. You must hand it over. He is absolutely right to insist on that as well. And then, number three, President Trump is insisting, open the Strait of Hormuz and keep it open. You cannot use this as a choke point. That is exactly right. Now, I will say you have some Democrats, some of the media that are saying, oh, they're actually saying Iran won this war because they threatened the Strait of Hormuz. Look, Iran has engaged in terrorism for 47 years. They are continuing to engage in terrorism. None of us can promise today that Iran will stop engaging in terrorism. But what President Trump has done is, number one, dramatically limited their ability to engage in warfare, to kill Americans or to kill Iran's neighbors. The missiles are gone, the drones are gone, the Air Force jets are gone. The air defenses are gone, the naval ships are gone. All of that, not to mention the military leadership, has been killed. All of that has dramatically weakened Iran's ability to kill others. As for the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump made a clear and direct threat. If you do not open the strait, we will bomb your power plants and we will bomb your bridges. Now, Democrats had a conniption fit. They said it is a war crime to bomb power plants. Now, in our last podcast that we did on Wednesday, we went through the Pentagon manual on warfare that makes very explicit that power plants, civilian power plants, are legitimate military targets because they're integral for the military defense of a nation. They power communication. They power the military system. And so they have long been treated as legitimate military targets under the rules of war. Of course, that doesn't stop the corporate media. That doesn't stop the Democrats from screaming war crime. But, Ben, it's worth underscoring. Why did President Trump threaten the power plants and the bridges? The obvious thing to threaten, the thing that would be the most devastating to Iran is to threaten the oil infrastructure, to threaten the refineries, to threaten Carg island, which is the main point, the main terminal through which oil is exported. If the United States bombed the oil infrastructure in Iran, it would utterly cripple their economy. That is, the vast majority of the revenue that the Iranian government receives that the Iranian people receive is revenue from selling oil. And if we bomb those facilities, it would be devastating to the Iranian economy. Why does Trump not want to do it? Well, quite sensibly, because when this military conflict is over, Iran presumably is going to need to rebuild. It's not going to be American taxpayers who rebuild. We're not going to rebuild at all. We're not going to spend our money to do that. But if we have a government in Iran that is not run by Islamists, that is not actively trying to murder Americans, then presumably that government is going to need to rebuild from the consequences of this war. And the only way that they're going to be able to rebuild with any speed, any alacrity, is if they are able to sell the oil they have and have that revenue. And so President Trump, I think, quite sensibly, is focusing on other choke points that are not the beating heart of the Iranian economy going forward. That's why threatened power plants and bridges. And let me be clear, I think there is still a very real possibility President Trump follows through on that threat and takes out the power plants in Iran, which would plunge that nation into darkness, would literally turn out the lights. I think President Trump will do that if, number one, Iran continues to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. I think that if they think Donald Trump is bluffing, they are making a bad calculus. And the previous Ayatollah made that calculus, and he did not live 24 hours into this military conflict. The current leaders have to make their own judgment, but in my view, Trump is not bluffing.

Ben Ferguson (15:04)

When you talk about Trump not bluffing on this one, there's people that say, well, he's just reaching for straws here. He's just trying to salvage this thing. I disagree with that. I think what we've done with our military in the last 40 days is truly just remarkable. It's historic. Taking out a 40 year military in 40 days. That's a year. A day. If you want to break it down into, in a different perspective for every year it took them to build their military, it took us one day to take out a year's worth of work. And 40 years and 40 days is pretty impressive. But there's also a real political concern here about the midterms coming up. That's something that I hear a lot of people that, by the way, support the president, like, look, we got to get this thing over with. This is going to ruin us, the midterms. How concerned are you about the, quote, politics playing back at home with us?

Senator Ted Cruz (15:51)

Look, we need to do the right thing and we need to keep America safe. President Trump is a strong commander in chief and he launched this military attack because Iran has been waging war against the United States. They have been funding terrorism, they've been murdering Americans, and they've stated they intended to continue funding terrorism and murdering Americans. So he was acting to keep Americans safe. Unlike Barack Obama, unlike past presidents, he's not engaged in nation building. He's not invading foreign nations and putting our sons and daughters in harm's way to achieve amorphous goals like spreading democracy. Spreading democracy may be a wonderful thing, but we're not going to sacrifice our fighting men and women to do it. What he is doing is taking out a real threat that was threatening the lives of Americans. The politics will come. He needs to focus on doing the right thing. That's exactly what President Trump is doing.

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Ben Ferguson (18:12)

All right, Senator, I want to get to something else. There's been so much about Iran in the news for good reason. But there's also some other really big news items that are happening. And one of them is, are astronauts. And you got to talk to them after this launch on their way back to Earth.

Senator Ted Cruz (18:30)

Well, I did in terms of when I came home this evening and my family asked, what'd you do today? I was able to answer, well, I talked to four astronauts today coming back from the moon and it's not often you get to say something like that.

Ben Ferguson (18:43)

Yeah, no kidding.

Senator Ted Cruz (18:44)

You look at the Artemis 2 mission. The Artemis 2 mission launched eight days ago. It's a nine day long mission. It is the first time we have put sent men back to the moon since the Apollo program. It's been nearly 50 years now. Of course, they did not land on the moon, but we launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. They launched, left the Earth's atmosphere, went to the moon, they orbited around the moon and now they're returning back. And so they actually went further from Earth than any human being says have ever been. And they're on their journey back. When I spoke to them, it was just under 24 hours before splashdown. They're scheduled to splash down 60 miles off the coast of San Diego at just after 7pm on Friday. And so I spoke to the four astronauts. You have Reed And Victor, you have Christina and Jeremy. And they're all in the Orion capsule. I know all four of them. I was there when their astronaut class was selected to be on Artemis 2. Artemis 4, by the way, is going to be the mission that actually goes and lands on the moon and puts another astronaut on the moon. One of the reasons why. Do you know why this particular set of missions is called Artemis?

Ben Ferguson (20:06)

I was going to ask you that. Why? Because I know you've been briefed on it.

Senator Ted Cruz (20:10)

Well, in Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. And so they were twins. And in Apollo, that was the last time we land landed astronauts on the moon. And we landed only men on the moon. This mission, NASA said from day one, we're going to land the first woman on the moon. And that's why they named it Artemis, because we're going to have a female astronaut in addition to male astronauts. We're going to have both. And I got to say, look, I'm, as you know, I'm the father of daughters. I have two teenage girls. And I really like the fact that the plan is by 2028, we're going to land on the moon. And I like the fact that we're going to put the first woman on the moon. That's something my daughters can be proud of. They can look forward to. They can say, look, I can do anything if I want. I can be an astronaut. I can land on the moon. And you look back. You and I were not alive in 1969 when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the surface of the moon, but it inspired an entire generation of Americans, an entire generation across the world. And I'll tell you, you and I both live in Houston, our hometown, or my hometown of Houston. And your current town of Houston has an incredible history with space. One of the very first words ever uttered on the surface of the moon was Houston. Yeah, Houston. The Eagle has landed. And our city. There's a reason why the sports teams are the Astros and the Rockets. And we now have a WNBA team coming back. That's the Comets. I mean, our city sports. The Astrodome is where the Astro played forever. Astroworld used to be our theme park. Sadly, it closed. We're a city. You look at commercial space, the four Artemis astronauts trained right here in Houston at Johnson Space Center. That's where every astronaut trains. It's where Mission Control is. So I went today down to Mission Control. I met with the engineers who are controlling everything that is happening up there. And got to, you know, sort of like ET Got to phone home and talked to. We did a call that had about a dozen members of Congress and we talked to the astronauts. Jared Isaacman, who's the administrator of NASA, he spoke first. And I got to say it was really cool. He spoke to them and he greeted them and thanked them for what they were doing. And he said, I'm speaking to you on behalf of the people of Earth. And I got to say that was really cool to hear. And I commented right after that, I said that is the first time in my life I've stood next to someone or stood with someone who greeted someone on behalf of the people of Earth. And that was not hyperbole. You look at. They traveled over 250,000 miles. The Orion capsule itself is really small. The capsule is 330 cubic feet of volume. It is 16 and a half feet wide and it is 11ft tall. And it's round and sort of shaped like a cone. And four people have been living, the size has been compared to about the size of two minivans. So four people have been living in too many vans. For nine days. I have been in a mock up of the capsule. It's really small. I mean there's not much room at all. And by the way, it's four people sharing, among other things, one one toilet. And in fact they had a problem where the toilet jammed and that they had to play space plumbers. And it has been fascinating. There have been millions of people watching them just day to day doing their mission in space and, and watching them. It's been live stream and they've been doing a lot of media interviews which I think is really powerful. One of the most important purposes of the space mission is to inspire the next generation. And I think in the midst of all the other challenges we have going on, seeing that four human beings are capable of going back to the moon and knowing the promise that we're soon going to be walking on the moon. And by the way, not just walking on the moon, it is the objective of NASA and I have written this into law, that we will have sustained human habitation on the surface of the moon. And President Trump is committed to building a lunar base. And one of the cool things, Ben, you know, representing Texas for 14 years, just about every single major piece of space legislation that has passed in the last 14 years, I've either written or co written. And so I've had space legislation signed by Barack Obama, I've had space legislation signed by Donald Trump. I've had space legislation signed by Joe Biden. And one of the things I've worked hard on to do is keep space out of partisan politics. There's so much partisan politics on everything else. But if America's gonna lead in space, listen, China has stated their goal. They want to go to the moon by 2030. They want to beat us to the moon. And there's a land rush. The most the optimum land to occupy is at the south pole. It's at the south pole where there is water. Water is available for human habitation, for energy. But it's also the crater is high enough that you can see the sun and have solar power. And so the south pole, the scientists believe, is the optimum location. We're in a race to get there, and the United States intends to win. We're going to beat China. And a big part of the way we're beating China is not letting this be subject to the back and forth partisan political bickering. So much else is. And I'm proud of the fact that for 14 years we have kept American leadership in space outside of partisan politics.

Ben Ferguson (26:20)

Senator, let's talk about also just something that's gonna be really exciting and that is the prospect that I, and also my kids are gonna be able to see us land on the moon again. When is that expected to happen? And I know you've learned a lot in this plans and this is obviously this trip is one very big step getting us much closer to that 2028

Senator Ted Cruz (26:42)

is the target date to land back on the moon and to take astronauts safely to the surface of the moon and then back again to planet Earth. And the plan is for it to be in the last year of President Trump's presidency. And by the way, I will say omb, the Office of Management and Budget. Last year there were some folks at OMB that wanted to drastically slash the budget to go to the moon. They had decided Mars was more important and the moon was going to be substantially deprioritized. And what happened last year when we were passing the big reconciliation bill, the working families tax cut, I decided that was a terrible thing for the United States. I was not going to sit by and watch America lose to China and cede the moon to China. And so when we were writing the reconciliation bill, I wrote in $10 billion to fund going back to the moon, to fund Artemis, to fund what is happening right now. And OMB was really unhappy with me. It was a battle, but I had the support. I had locked down the votes in the Senate and so we passed it in law. And it was an example of Article 1 of the Constitution, the Congress exercising its authority. And I'll tell you what I told the President. I said, look, if we were to look up in 2028 or 2030 and see the Chinese on the moon, understand that they had gotten there and beaten us there and seized the high ground and preferred location, I think it would be more damaging to this country than Sputnik was when the Soviets launched a satellite into space. We are not going to lose the race with China and Artemis 2. It's an inspirational example of America leading and America winning.

Ben Ferguson (28:22)

We want to talk about another issue that it needs to be back on the radar screen for a lot of Americans, and that is the continual crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants that are in this country. The media continues to overlook this. They don't want you to know that it's happening. But it's another example of why the President needs to be fighting so hard against these sanctuary cities that are, that are harboring many of these criminals that are, as he would describe them, really bad hombres.

Senator Ted Cruz (28:51)

Well, you may recall back in 2024 at the Republican National Convention, when I spoke and addressed the convention, my remarks were focused on this topic. And the theme of it was, every damn day, every day, another American is raped, another American is assaulted, another American is murdered by a violent criminal illegal alien that Joe Biden and the Democrats have released. And I walk through the tragic cases of Jocelyn Nungaree, the beautiful 12 year old girl raped and murdered here in Houston. I walk through Lake and Riley, the horrific murder of the young nursing student in Georgia. I walked through Rachel Marin, the mom of five, raped and murdered outside of Washington D.C. it was happening over and over and over again. That was one of the big reasons that the voters came out in overwhelming numbers. Reelected President Trump, elected a Republican House, elected a Republican Senate. And we've seen immediate results. We've seen illegal border crossings drop more than 99%. The problem is we have four years of open borders that we have to unwind. We have over 12 million illegal aliens that were allowed to flood into this country. And so just this week, the story broke that a gas station clerk, a mom in Fort Myers, Florida was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. I mean, what a horrible way to go. Beaten to death with a hammer. And who is it that committed this crime? A Haitian illegal alien who was caught and then released at the border by the Biden administration. In 2022. An immigration judge ordered him deported. Robert Joashim is his name. But the Biden administration shielded him from deportation by granting him temporary protected status. So in other words, what this person did, he took a hammer in the parking lot of a gas station. He walks at her with full strength, he beats her on the head with a hammer, she falls down unconscious, and then he crushes her head with the hammer while she's unconscious six more times. Here's the statement the Department of Homeland Security put out. Quote, this illegal alien barbarically hit this woman in the head multiple times with a hammer. This heinous murderer was released into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the Biden administration release him into the country, but they gave him temporary protected status. Their reckless immigration policies cost this woman her life. This keeps happening over and over and over again. And what is amazing, Ben, in spite of that, every Democrat in the Senate, when we have a vote, the Department of Homeland Security still shut down because they have decided they hate ICE so much. They hate border enforcement so much that it is the position of the Democrat Party. They are opposed. They want to defund ice, which is the organizations that is charged with finding this vicious criminal, arresting him and deporting him. They don't want him deported. They want this Haitian murderer in your community. They don't care if you happen to be the poor woman who's bludgeoned to death. Look, you know, Chris Murphy, the very liberal Democrat from Connecticut was on TV and you know, there's an old line that a gaffe is when a politician actually accidentally tells the truth. He described, he said the people we care about the most, meaning we, meaning Democrats, are illegal immigrants. That is what their party is. And it's infuriating. It keeps happening over and over and over again.

Ben Ferguson (32:52)

When you talk about it still being shut down. And this is, I think, why the midterms are going to be a really important. Obviously this should be one of the important issues of the midterms that Republicans need to remind. If Democrats get back in charge, they made it clear they will immediately open the borders wide up and they don't care who comes in that like it's going to happen. Get ready for it. That is their for that is their policy. And they will absolutely abolish ICE if they can do it as well.

Senator Ted Cruz (33:20)

And by the way, understand the risk is not just the murderers. It's not just the child molesters and the rapists and the gang bangers. It is also a very real risk of terrorism. We have seen in the last month four acts of terrorism by radical Islamic terrorists. And here's a story that broke this week. I'm just going to read a tweet from Bill Bellusian, the fantastic reporter at Fox. Here's what he said. New Border Patrol caught and arrested four British nationals entering the US Illegally in a remote part of Maine after crossing from Canada. Their names, These are for British nationals. Ali Muhammad Ali Abdullah. That's number one. Hamid Muhammad Nagi. That's number two. Ibrahim Ayub Khan. That's number three. And Muhammad Sultan Saleh. And these are illegal immigrants that were sneaking into a remote wooded part of Maine. This is dangerous. Now, you know what happened. Because President Trump is in office and border patrols allowed to do their job. They were apprehended. They weren't just let in. And they're apprehended. You know what? I guarantee you they will not be released. They won't be released into this country. If Joe Biden were president, those four people whose names I just released, they'd be released. And we might be reading about them in another week or two. That pattern has played out over and over and over again. And by the way, it's not just illegal immigrants. It is criminals across the board. It is criminals across the board, such as, for example, De Carlos Brown, who was this psychotic lunatic who murdered the beautiful Ukrainian woman in North Carolina. He was just ruled not competent to stand trial. And I don't doubt that the guy is crazy as a loon. But let's be clear. Democrats, and Roy Cooper in particular, the Democrat governor, released this psychopath murderer 14 separate times. 14, if you keep releasing violent criminals and actually help me on this, Ben, play devil's advocate for a minute. Try to get inside the mind of a Democrat. Why would they want to release violent criminals over and over again?

Ben Ferguson (36:04)

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And yet they continue to do it because for them, I really do think it's an issue of politics. Right. They want to bring in new voters. That's the simplest way I can put it.

Senator Ted Cruz (36:15)

Well, it's not just new voters. Yes, for the illegals. But you look at this. To Carlos Brown, he was not an illegal immigrant. He was just a psychopathic lunatic American. But you know what Democrats also think, not only should he be released from jail, they think he ought to be a voter. He's perfectly fine to vote in U.S. elections. And I guarantee you violent criminals vote overwhelmingly Democrat. And I guess that explains why the Democrats, their priority is violent criminals and not American citizens.

Ben Ferguson (36:43)

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also watch us on Facebook and on YouTube as well. So check us out there and the center. I will see you back here on the podcast later this week.