← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Hunter Biden has Demands for Congress, Woke Ideology Impacts Disney, plus Ted Cruz makes His Silver Screen Debut the Week In Review
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- [00:00]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. Number one, Hunter Biden agrees to appear, but only if they in Congress agree to his demands. So will it actually happen? We'll explain the politics behind this. Plus Disney now having to face the consequences for their liberal ideology. And it may surprise you what Disney's plan is moving forward. And finally, Senator Ted Cruz makes his silver screen debut. It's a funny new movie out called Lady Ballers. And the media, they're not happy about it at all. It's the Weekend Review and it starts right now. Hunter Biden agrees to appear before the House Oversight Committee. But I have to get your initial reaction to his demands after being subpoenaed that he will do it, but only in public. That is what his lawyer has now said that yes, he's willing to testify before the House Oversight Committee only in public, according to the letter from his attorney that he wrote to the Republican lawmakers. I get trying to punch back and look like you're on offense, but to be clear, it is not crazy to have a subpoena behind closed doors. We saw this happen when they were trying to impeach not once but twice, Donald J. Trump. They had people come in behind closed doors and they do these, these, these sit and answer questions under oath. They give their, their testimony, in essence. And then we saw the media go berserk over who is walking in to give their testimony. Why does Hunter Biden want it differently? And what's the political play here that we may not understand?
- [01:46]
Ted Cruz
Well, you're right that it's quite common for people to be subpoenaed to testify behind closed doors in a closed deposition. That, that happens regularly. Congressional committees that are investigating something, they like to do that you can often spend more time asking questions. You can, you can essentially prepare and build the foundations for an open and public hearing. It's the due diligence you do before a hearing. And not everyone that you bring in for a closed deposition merits a hearing. So I understand why the committee initially subpoenaed him to come in for a deposition. I also understand why Hunter Biden came back and said he would do it, but only if it's a public hearing. His lawyer is a guy named Abby Lowell. I don't know Abby personally, but he has a reputation as one of the most experienced and most talented lawyers in Washington for fighting congressional investigations. And so he does when, when, when an individual is in a whole lot of Trouble with a criminal investigation or congressional investigation. This, this lawyer is one of the top Washington power brokers for fighting back. And the stated reason that Hunter Biden and his lawyer gave is they said, well, the Republicans in the House, when they've done closed door depositions, they, quote, selectively leak portions of the depositions in ways that make the witnesses look bad. So, so we don't want that to happen. We want the public to see exactly what Hunter says. Now, look, that's a gamble, you know, if you're the lawyer. There is a real advantage for Hunter in keeping it closed door and not having a video, not having it on the news. Will portions of it get leaked? Of course. That's what people in politics do on both sides all the time. The January 6th committee did it day after day after day after day. Both sides do that. But I will say by demanding that it be public, there's some degree of protection for Hunter Biden and having it be public and that it can't be selectively leaked. You get to hear everything he said. But it's also a risky play, having it be public. Even as corrupt as the corporate media is, when Hunter Biden testifies before the House, the corporate media cannot avoid covering it. So it will drive a crap ton of news. And I say crap ton is a technical legal term. But, but it will. It, it, it will be. And you know, look, I, I don't know Hunter Biden. I've never met Hunter Biden. I don't know how he is at answering questions, but I have no reason to expect that he's a particularly nimble or effective witness. And so you're gonna have some very vigorous questioning. And I will say, listen, James Comer, we've had James Comer on this podcast for a two part interview. If you didn't listen to that, by the way, you ought to go back and listen to our two part interview with James Comer. You ought to go back and listen to our two part interview with Jim Jordan. Both of them, we did a deep dive in terms of those House investigations and what they've revealed to date. My counsel to House Republicans when Hunter Biden testifies in an open hearing is, remember, the reason this is an issue of public concern is not about Hunter. It is not because he's some poor sad sack with a substance abuse problem. The reason this is a matter of public concern is Joe Biden. The reason this is a matter of public concern is the evidence indicates that Hunter Biden's business was selling favors from daddy, from Joe Biden. To corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine and Russia and Communist China. And so the focus needs to be on Joe Biden, on the corruption of the President of the United States, on the evidence that the President of the United States sold favors, on the evidence that the President of the United States solicited and received bribes. And, and so I hope that, that, that that House Republicans can, can keep that front and center. Uh, but, but there's no doubt when Hunter testifies, it is going to drive a whole lot of news.
- [05:55]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, is there any hope that we will ever get to see real justice coming out of the House that could possibly move somewhere when it comes to the Biden crime family? Do you feel like we are getting closer, by the way, that. That Comer and Jordan are doing this methodically? There have been a lot of, I say, Monday morning quarterbacking and armchair quarterbacking from a lot of people on social media are saying, we've screwed this up, we've gotten nowhere. They promised to do something, they haven't done it yet. Is, is that a fair assessment? Because I think what they've been doing is really making sure they do this right. So it sticks.
- [06:35]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. Listen, I think both Jim Jordan and James Comer are doing an excellent job. I think they're approaching their job very seriously. I think they're laying out the evidence in a systematic matter. I think that's important. I think laying out the evidence for the public matters enormously. I believe the House should already have impeached Alejandro Mayorkas. I believe the House should already have impeached Merrick Garland. And you know, when it comes to impeachment of Biden, I think they're getting very, very close to having the evidence to impeach Joe Biden as well. The question on all three of those is will they have the votes in the House? So the House Republicans have an exceptionally narrow majority. They have a four vote majority. It's not clear that they have the votes to impeach any of them. And so that's a fundamental challenge that they face. The new Speaker, Mike Johnson, I know Mike very well. He's a conservative. I'm confident that Mike would be perfectly willing to impeach these officials if he had the votes. But if there are five Republicans who say no, there's no magic wand that can change that. And so I think given that very real dynamic, that it is a tiny majority with a number of wobbly votes, the best course of action the House can do is keep developing the evidence and making the case stronger and stronger and stronger. And developing it in front of the American people who ultimately are going to be the arbiter. Because look, even if they impeached all three of them, none would be removed by the senate. It takes 2/3 of the Senate to remove an individual in impeachment. And, and the chances that Senate Democrats would vote to do so are 0.000%.
- [08:25]
Ben Ferguson
Now if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now on to story number two. Senator, you were talking obviously about what's happening with these two different organizations within our government. But there's also something that happened at Disney.
- [08:44]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. And this is the third of our woke triumvirate in terms of facing the consequences for their ideology, which is that Disney recently filed its, its annual SEC report, a report that, that every public company is required to file. And, and here's what they they were forced to publicly disclose. Quote, we face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products. And it goes on to note the success of our businesses depends on our ability to consistently create compelling content. Generally, our revenues and profitability are adversely impacted when our entertainment offerings and products, as well as our methods to make our offerings and products available to consumers do not achieve sufficient consumer acceptance. Further, consumers perceptions of our positions on matters of public interest, including our efforts to achieve certain of our environmental and social goals, often differ widely and present risks to our reputation brands. Now that is one of the most stunning corporate disclosures I've ever read. Because what that means is, number one, Disney has lost billions of dollars. The phrase go woke, go broke. Disney has sadly embodied that phrase. I am sure Walt Disney is spinning in his grave at horrors at what has happened to his namesake. But the fact that they put this in their SEC disclosures means number one, the money they're losing is so significant. Number two, their projections for future money that they're going to lose are so significant that their lawyers said, dammit, you have to acknowledge this in the disclosure or else you will be sued for misleading investors. In other words, we must write these words so that when investors sue us and say your executives are putting your woke politics ahead of profitability, ahead of producing entertainment that consumers want, ahead of actually producing family friendly entertainment that kids are interested in. And parents want their kids to see that your politics matters more to you than making the business successful. They want to be able to point to this disclosure and say no, no, sorry, you invested and we told you up front we don't care about making a buck. Our politics is all we care about. And even if it, if it flushes the corporate profits down the commode.
- [11:28]
Ben Ferguson
You know, we've had this debate at my house, three boys, and we've talked about Disney and I said to my wife, we had a grand debate over it. I'm not giving my money to Disney. I'm not going to Disney, I'm not going to take them to Disney because I believe them when they tell me what their agenda is. And now it's in their financial disclosures. This is their agenda. And I say this over and over again when having this debate over things like Disney and WOKE companies, believe them when they put it in writing. Believe them when they publish it. Believe them when they produce it, Believe them when they promote it. This is Disney saying all along. Yes, this is exactly what we're trying to do with your kids minds. Yes, we are trying to, to use what used to be just innocent entertainment that you could trust your kid in front of Disney Channel or Disney movies. You no longer should have that trust with them. And they put it in writing.
- [12:29]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. But look, there's reason to draw optimism from this third example, which is that for many WOKE corporations, I think they are feeling the heat and they're trying to change direction. You look at the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, they brought him back because Disney was in such a world of hurt. They had screwed it up so badly that Bob Iger came back and he is seeking in his own words, to quote, quiet things down after putting politics front and center. Now Iger presumably signed off on this corporate disclosure and that may be a consequence of trying to pivot Disney back. Now they're not doing a great job of it because the problem is that they have built a culture where their executives are invested in, in, in this WOKE ideology. And this is something I discuss at, at great length in the book on woke. I talk about Disney at great length. I talk about Bud Light, I talk about Target, but I talk about how all three of them, Disney, Bud Light and Target lost billions and billions of dollars. And number one, it's had an impact on all three. But number two, and this is where you should be encouraged, it is, I hope and believe, a powerful deterrent for other CEO and other corporations that are sitting there saying I don't want to be Bud Light, I don't want to be Target, I don't want to be Disney. And now Disney, according to its own corporate disclosure Disney is saying, I don't want to be Disney. That may be promising and optimistic for the future.
- [14:01]
Ben Ferguson
Finally, Senator, I wanted to. There was a story this week, and it, and it kind of made me laugh. And it sums up, I think, the Bidenomics economy that we're in right now. There is a $16 fast food meal. Now, that may not shock some people because you think, all right, at the higher end, maybe that's something that is palatable. But it's a $16 McDonald's meal. That may explain voter anger more than any other poll at Joe Biden. Like, if this isn't just a full circle of where we are now, this, that McDonald's has a six. A meal that costs $16.10, to be precise. It's gone viral. As a man posted the receipt on social media and I, and I laughed when I saw this because it's like, yeah, welcome to Bidenomics.
- [14:55]
Ted Cruz
Well, it's interesting. The language you used was word for word, the headline from, of all places, the Washington Post. So the Washington Post headline was, quote, the viral $16 McDonald's meal. That may explain voter anger at Biden. So this is the Washington Post saying, you want to know why voters are at Joe Biden? Here's why. And it goes on to describe that on December 20, 2022, a fellow by the name of Topher olive went to McDonald's in the town of Post Falls, Idaho, and he ordered a limited edition smoky double quarter pounder BLT with fries and a Sprite. And the cost of the meal was $16.10. And he posted that the receipt on TikTok. And the receipt ended up getting millions of views, initially a couple hundred thousand, but then when it was reposted, it ended up getting over 2 million views and goes right to the heart. I mean, look, I've been going to McDonald's for as long as I can remember. And you used to be able to get a burger and fries and a Coke for five, six bucks. You know, when prices got more expensive, Maybe it was seven or eight dollars, but $16, there's a reason voters are pissed. And this goes right to the heart of it. Then when you have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi spending trillions and trillions of dollars that we don't have, borrowing trillions and trillions of dollars and running the printing presses days and nights, we see inflation taking off. And the result is it's 16 bucks to go to McDonald's.
- [16:44]
Ben Ferguson
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 got to tell you about our friends at Blackout Coffee. Early mornings I DO radio at 7am and I there's one thing I forward to in the morning and that's a good cup of coffee. Not just a cup of coffee. I want a good cup of coffee. Well, if you like a quality cup of coffee, then you're gonna love blackout coffee. Why? Because. Well number one, they're an American first coffee company. Yes, this coffee is 100America and and 0% woke blackout coffee is 100 committed to conservative value. So you're getting rid of that prospect of giving your money to another woke coffee bean company. You know the ones I'm talking about from sourcing the the roasting process, customer support and shipping. Blackout coffee embodies true American values and they accept no compromise on taste or quality. That's what I'm talking about is that premium coffee. Now here's the cool thing. You can try out blackout coffee right now by going to blackout coffee.com verdict and you're going to save 20 off your first order by using the coupon code verdict. So go to blackout coffee.com verdict use promo code verdict 20% off your first order. You can check out all of their incredible gift ideas for Christmas. So if you have a coffee drinker that works with you, you need to give them a gift or family member or stocking stuffer. Go check out blackout coffee and save big blackoutcoffee.com verdict Be awake, not woke. That's blackoutcoffee.com verdict Use promo code verdict. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. Finally, let's, let's talk about something that was really fun, I think. And I, I, I, I, I googled this but I, I, I, I got inconclusive data here. Senator, I think that you had your silver screen debut with a new movie that has come out, Lady Ballers. It is a daily wire movie, Lady Ballers and it's making everybody freak out, which makes even more fun in the media. And now starring in a transgender film, which really made me laugh when I saw that headline. So, so talk about this debut of yours. Congratulations movie star. I guess we can put that in on the resume, right? This was pretty cool.
- [19:13]
Ted Cruz
Well, it was very cool. So last night I went to the world premiere of the movie and it was in Nashville. The name of the movie is Lady Ballers and it was put out by the Daily Wire. And it's a comedy. It's a really fun, funny comedy. It reads, it's an awful lot like dodgeball. It's kind of the same sort of slapstick. But the script is really well written. It's got a, it's got a terrific cast. And, and the, the premise is that you have five guys who, who won the, the Tennessee state high school basketball championship. And, and 20 years later, they're all kind of down on their luck and they decide they're gonna compete as women's basketball players and dominate women's basketball. And, and because of today's WOKE ideology, if they say they're women, they get praised as, as, as beautiful and brave. And, and, and it, I, I gotta tell you, the script is, it's just really damn funny. So I went. I was in a big theater in Nashville. The theater was packed. Everyone was cracking up laughing. There are a whole bunch of cameos in the movie. Now I have a tiny cameo. So, so I'm in the movie. I have two lines. But, but it was fun. I flew to Nashville while they were filming.
- [20:32]
Ben Ferguson
Hold on, hold on. How many takes did it take you to get it right? That's, that's the real question if you've gone pro here in the movie world.
- [20:38]
Ted Cruz
Well, they probably had me do about 20 takes of it now. I don't know. I don't know that I screwed it up 19 times, but, but they kept telling me, okay, do it again, do it again, do it again. So I did, did, did, did a whole bunch of takes of it, and it was a ton of fun. I flew in for one afternoon and shot the scene and left. But it, but it was a blast and it was really cool. And I will say, the movie, look, this is something we've talked about. There's something. I talk about it at a lot of length. And in my new book on woke, the chapter on entertainment, entertainment is enormously consequential. And I talk about in the book on woke how the radical left has killed comedy. Late night TV shows are unwatchable and in fact, ironically so. Jimmy Kimmel, I blast in the book and I talk about how instead of like actually having real humor, we now just have angry leftists standing there screaming, I hate Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the devil. Yeah, ironically, Jimmy Kimmel took that excerpt from my book and he read it as monologue and it was, it was, it was actually even funnier. Kimmel then followed it up by having a drag queen read excerpts of my book to little kids. Which was as much as I said it was unfunny. That was actually kind of funny that he did that. I got a laugh at that. But, look, entertainment is powerful, culture is powerful, and comedy is powerful. And what I was happy about this movie is that it's really funny. I mean, it is. I mean, as you know, I'm a huge movie buff. I love movies. I love comedies. I love laughing and cutting up and having fun. And this the movie. I would recommend it to everyone. It's. And I'm glad to see, look, the Daily Wire is investing a lot of money and trying to compete against Hollywood producing good content. And that's one of the critical tools we have to do if we're going to take the institutions back.
- [22:53]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's so important. And you look at just. It's not just that when these come out, that we support them. And I think that's the point you're making, is, look, go watch this movie and support it. Because if we do, then we get to make more of them and others will be inspired. When you see people that are trying to fight back in spaces that are really hard, like Hollywood, and they put something out that's on Netflix, that's something that's. That is made for our audience and conservatives, make sure you support it, because if you don't, the left will continue to beat the living crap out of us in the entertainment industry. And they do change hearts and minds. I mean, there was a there. I mean, when you ran for president, I'm sure you saw the data likability. And if Hollywood's behind you and if you have famous stars behind you, I mean, the Democratic National Convention is not about the politicians. It's about the movie stars and the music groups that show up to entertain the people watching on tv. And they beat us at that game. And that's why it's so important to get behind movies like this.
- [23:56]
Ted Cruz
Look, I think that's exactly right. The movie also has a bunch of different cameos in it. So Ben Shapiro is in it. Jeremy Boreing is actually one of the stars of it. Matt Walsh is in it. Clay Travis is in it. Riley Gaines is in it. Jordan Peterson is in it. So there are lots of cameos that are really fun and well done. And like, Matt Walsh plays basically this, like, hippie dippy character who's really funny. And Shapiro has just a quick little snippet, but it's hysterical what Ben does in it, and that it was one of the fun things. And actually, for verdict listeners, you're in My dear friend Michael Knowles, my original co host on Verdict. Michael actually has a pretty sizable role in the movie. He plays a TV actor and he's got, you know, in the movie he's got like a little mustache that he wears. And so I saw Michael, I saw everyone at the premiere last night and I was giving Michael enormous grief saying, you know, you really need to keep that stash, Michael. I mean, it really does kind of, it has sort of a B level porn star actor look. Like, you know, I said, michael, you're rocking the Ron Jeremy look. And I think it really, it's worth continuing. Thankfully, he had the good judgment not to follow my advice on that front.
- [25:30]
Ben Ferguson
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast. And you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.