← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
ICC wants the Cuffs Thrown on Bibi, Rocket Ships w Elon & Bragg Ignores the Law Week In Review
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- [00:00]
Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And we had a very busy week with some top stories that maybe you missed. Well, let's start first with the shocking news that the ICC wants to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. We'll give you the latest on this radical move by the ICC and what it means moving forward and how the Trump administration will respond. Also, Senator Cruz and Elon Musk, they were together with President Trump watching this SpaceX launch. Senator Cruz actually flew with President Trump on Trump Force One and learned a lot about his cabinet and his administration. He'll give you all those behind the scene details. It's really interesting. And finally, Alvin Bragg going rogue yet again, trying to manipulate the courts into hitting pause on the Trump prosecution for four years until after he leaves the presidency. We'll give the details behind that. It is the Weekend Review and it starts right now.
- [01:03]
Ben Ferguson
Center. I want to pull an audible real quick because I, I, I should have mentioned this earlier, but as we were just talking about Israel, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Galant. And they also, they're like, oh, yeah, we threw in a Hamas guy too. So it looks like we're being equal here. This is a shocking attack by the ICC on Netanyahu and also one that makes it very tough for him to travel more than likely the way he needs to because of the threat of being arrested, for example, if he is traveling to many parts of Europe.
- [01:41]
Unnamed Political Commentator
Well, it is an absolute outrage. And the ICC already had very, very questionable legitimacy. But with this decision, the International Criminal Court has just become a kangaroo court. And frankly, that's not fair to kangaroos. I mean, it is an absolute, this is a political act of anti Israel hatred and antisemitism that sadly infests so many of our international institutions that just hate Israel profoundly. And I believe the United States, we should impose sanctions on every individual involved in issuing this arrest warrant, from the prosecutor to the judges to everyone involved. They should be sanctioned by the United States government. We should also make clear that we will sanction anyone who attempts to enforce this arrest war. And if you're a French prosecutor, be prepared to have American sanctions put on you if you try to enforce this utterly lawless arrest warrant. And understand the reason that the ICC did this is because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's incredible weakness. Listen, the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel. Israel is not a party to the icc. It also has no jurisdiction over the United States of America. And understand this is a threat, not Just against Israel, although it is very much that. But this is a threat against America. This is a threat against the people who hate America. Imagine these same bigots who hate Israel, how much they would love to issue an arrest warrant for Donald Trump or for the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense of the United States. And it is only because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are so weak that the ICC felt empowered to issue this. It's not an accident that this came out after the presidential election, but before Trump was sworn in. That is when the enemies of Israel and the enemies of America historically have done some of the worst actions against the United States and against Israel. It is when, if you remember, at the end of Obama, the last time we were in this comparable moment, which is a Democratic administration, was ending and Donald Trump was getting ready to be sworn in as president. That would have been November and December of 2016. Right after the election, Obama was leaving. And remember what the Obama administration did? They orchestrated UN Resolution 2334, which is one of the most shameful resolutions ever to be voted on in the United Nations. And the Obama administration, this resolution denounced much of modern Israel as illegitimate and illegally occupied. It denounced the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem as illegitimate and illegally occupied. It denounced the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem as illegally occupied and illegitimate. And. And what happened is the Obama State Department orchestrated it. They got others to push it, and. And they just stood back and abstained. And I will tell you, this week, I had a classified briefing with Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State, and I asked him very directly in that briefing, is the Biden administration gonna do the same thing? Because last time y'all did that, it profoundly hurt Israel. It was used by the enemies of Israel to justify all sorts of targeting against the people of Israel. And I'm very concerned the Biden administration is going to try to orchestrate something similar at the United Nations. We had a vote this week that actually the Biden administration blocked, to their credit, where the UN was trying to call for an immediate ceasefire of the war against Hamas. But they did not include within it a demand that the hostages be released. And the Biden administration vetoed it without the hostages being released as part of the language. But I'm worried in the next two months that they will try to do something very similar to what happened in December of 2016 with 2334. And I think that this ICC arrest warrant is shameful. I also think the incoming Trump administration is going to stand very strongly against this absolutely disgraceful decision.
- [06:08]
Ben Ferguson
Thune came out and threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it doesn't drop the Netanyahu warrant for arrest. But he also called on Schumer to not wait for the Republicans to get in charge, to do the right thing and to do something now. On this, he said if Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republicans majority will stand with our key ally, Israel, and make this and other supportive legislation a top priority in the next Congress. Is there a chance that Schumer could actually lead on this, as Thum called on him to do and said, don't make us wait till January do the right thing now for Israel?
- [06:47]
Unnamed Political Commentator
I think the chances are virtually zero. So the House has passed legislation to do exactly that, and Schumer has refused to take it up. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, we have had legislation before us from Jim Risch, who's getting ready to be the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to do exactly that, to sanction the ICC for doing this. And the Democrats have refused to take it up. It's basically shut down the Foreign Relations Committee for the last six months because the Democrats have blocked legislation standing up to the icc. And look, this is the unfortunate reality that in today's Democrat Party, there is a pro Hamas faction of the Democrat Party. And I don't think that is hyperbole. It is tragically the case. They are the ones cheering. We just had votes this week that Bernie Sanders pushed on the floor to cut off weapons to Israel, to cut off 32,000 tank rounds to Israel, to cut off over 50,000 mortar cartridges to Israel, to cut off the kits that are used to make precision bombs. Now, understand, the argument of the leftist is that when Israel is bombing Hamas or Hezbollah, they they accidentally have incidental civilian casualties. So what is their response? Take away the ability to have targeted smart bombs so they can only drop dumb bombs that they can't steer the difference. A precision bomb, you can direct it so you hit your target and it's much less likely to have collateral damage. These leftists hate Israel so much they want to say, no, let's take away your ability to target your weapons. So we increase the number of civilians killed. And 19 Senate Democrats voted to cut off Israel's funds. That pro Hamas faction of the Democrat Party. Not every Democrat in the House and Senate is a member of it, but just about every single Democrat is terrified of that faction. And it's why Schumer look, the internal notes from Columbia University when Columbia was having the anti Semitic protest and the leaders of Columbia were talking to Schumer Schumer told them, don't worry about it. The Democrats, we don't care. It's only the Republicans who care about this. Understand what that admission was, and that was out of Schumer's own mouth, that, that we, the Democrats, don't care about violent anti Semite Semites terrorizing students in Columbia University and other universities, threatening Jewish students. It's not a priority for them. Why? Because they're terrified by the pro Hamas faction of the party who supports the radicals and the anti Semites. That is tragically where we are. And so I'm going to predict we will take up the legislation to sanction the ICC and we will do it early next year when we have a Republican Congress and a Republican president. I don't even know that we'll need that legislation, though, because I expect the Trump administration to act unilaterally. I think there's ample authority under the law for them to act. Even if the Democrats filibuster legislation to sanction the icc, I think the president will have ample authority to act come January 20th.
- [09:59]
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. As we were watching, or I was watching on TV and many others were, I do have to say, one of the most fun parts for me of watching, you know, Trump and you and everybody there is just the boy boyhood excitement is. And I say that in the, in the, in the most sincere and authentic way ever on the faces of everyone that was able to watch this. I don't care who you are, just getting to watch it and to see Elon's face and your face and President Trump's face and others that were around you guys. I saw Hagerty there, for example. It was just the moment of like, this is unbelievable.
- [10:45]
Unnamed Guest
Well, and it was traveling. So the starship itself traveled halfway around the world. The booster separated. We saw the booster separate. And initially the plan was that it was going to go down and be caught by the robot arms where it had been launched. And in fact, it separates. The booster was attached to the starship for a minute and a half and then it separated. And we initially got the call catch as a go, which we were excited about because they only try to catch it if all the conditions are right. And so they were, they were going to catch the booster and then they ended up altering the plan and not doing the catch, but having it instead land in the Gulf of Mexico. And so the Conditions were slightly off. And so they had it land in the Gulf. But Elon was really happy because it landed in the Gulf, but it. But it did not explode. And last time when it landed in the Gulf, it did explode. And so, look, they're testing different things to see what happens. And it was interesting. It floats in the water. I was asking him on why does it float? He says, well, look, once the liquid methane and liquid oxygen is out, he said, it has the density essentially, of an empty beer can. And so just like you throw an empty beer can on the water and it floats, that's the same thing as the booster. And so they're going and salvaging the booster and discovering, okay, what happened? What's going on there? So that landed pretty quickly. The starship traveled for about an hour, and it landed, I think, about six hours.
- [12:13]
Ben Ferguson
And then did you guys go inside or after how long were you outside? And then where did you get to watch the second part?
- [12:20]
Unnamed Guest
So we were outside. We arrived probably an hour before the launch. And so we were talking with Elon, and we were in the control room and just having conversations. And we watched and we watched the booster separate. And then we watched the booster come down. Although we couldn't see, the booster landed far enough out in the Gulf that we couldn't see with our naked eye the booster landing in the water. But we had the video on a big screen. So we were watching it there. And then what we did, because you had about an hour while the starship was traveling in space, and it was going about 26,000 kilometers an hour, it was about 160 kilometers above planet Earth. One of the things Elon said is that the starship was traveling about 10 times the speed of a bullet out of an assault rifle, which. There's an analogy you can understand, Ben. And as Junior was laughing, going, all right, that makes sense to me, too. But that's fast.
- [13:18]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's fast on a whole nother level. And so you got to watch all of this take place. How important is this, just this technology and the fact that it's being done in Texas? Because that is the reason why you were on that plane. That's why they asked you to go down there. Because this is in Texas. I don't think people realize what this is doing for the Texas economy as well.
- [13:42]
Unnamed Guest
So it is incredible. And while the starship was flying halfway around the world, we left the launch observation site. We went to the factory, which is right at the launch site now, the factory. So five years ago, this was Essentially an empty beach, like just sand, and nothing was on it. And in five years, Elon has built this incredible. And I've been to it before, I've toured it before, but. But it is. It takes your breath away. They are manufacturing about one rocket ship a month. And then these things are massive. So you go into the factory and. And there, I think it was 22 stories high is how tall the booster is. I mean, it just goes up and up and up and up, and it's huge. And, you know, we went in and saw, and they are manufacturing them to a level of precision, down to the tenth of a millimeter. I mean, you think about this, it's not like. It's not like SpaceX is making just widgets. I mean, if a screw is wrong, the damn thing can blow up. Like, there's so many ways for something to go wrong. And they have a level of precision that is just astonishing. And so we went in and saw and toured. And one of the things Elon said is, look, they're doing launch after launch after launch. And every one, they're improving the technology and they're trying different things. So one of the things they did on this one is they're testing different angles of reentry to see, okay, if you angle the starship at a slightly different angle, is there more heat? Is there less heat? What happens? What's the optimum angle? So they're trying all sorts of different things. So we toured those facilities, by the way. They, like, basically built a whole town. They built housing for the employees. One of the things Elon said that, you know is a challenge when you're recruiting the best engineers and rocket scientists, and they're literally rocket scientists, is, he said, you've got to find a place that their significant others want to live. And so they basically built a whole community with, like, houses all around there. And like, I didn't go this time, but I've been previously. They have like a little tiki bar that's sort of a club that the employees can go and hang out. And, you know, he said, look, you got to. You have to create an environment that both your incredibly skilled employees and their significant others want to be in. And one thing, you know, but not every verdict listener may know, Look, Brownsville has historically been faced very significant economic challenges. And so to have this incredible high tech, billions and billions of dollars invested in Brownsville in deep South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, was really significant. By the way, when we took the motorcade from where Trump Force One landed to the launch site, the entire roadside of driving along, there were thousands of people waving signs, waving American flags, cheering. And one of the most significant aspects of this election in Texas is that both Donald Trump and I, both of us won Hispanics in the state of Texas. I won Hispanics by six points statewide. That's unprecedented. And the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas has been bright blue for 100 years. It has been just an absolute bastion.
- [17:17]
Unnamed Political Commentator
Of the Democrat Party.
- [17:18]
Unnamed Guest
And this election South Texas flipped red. I mean Starr county had a 50 point move. It's the most Hispanic county in America. And it had, it had a massive move. Trump won it. The move in South Texas I think is generational and transformational and you could just see it as people were cheering and thrilled the President was there. That, that was a very cool aspect of it as well.
- [17:45]
Ben Ferguson
All right, final question on this trip. So you get done with all this excitement and then this is still kind of awesome. You get back on Trump Force One and you fly back to Florida. What was the conversation like on the way home?
- [18:00]
Unnamed Guest
Again? It was relaxed. We're having fun. We're talking, you know, we had had Fox on and so we're watching Jesse Waters, Laura Ingraham and Hannity and we're talking about all that and just sort of riffing back and forth. You know, as we were landing, Trump began playing music. And so when he's down at Mar a Lago, Trump likes to basically be the DJ and he has an iPad there that he controls the music in Mar a Lago and he'll sit there at the table and just play the songs he wants to listen to. And so as, as we were landing in, in Palm beach, he put on Guns N Roses, a music video that he loves from Guns N Roses. And then he put on another music video from Pavarotti, which you want to talk about some breadth in music taste. That's what we were listening to as we went wheels down back in Florida.
- [18:49]
Ben Ferguson
Now did you eat any McDonald's? Because there's a lot of pictures that get taken on Trump force one eating McDonald's.
- [18:55]
Unnamed Guest
We did not. Our dinner instead was Whataburger because were in Texas.
- [18:59]
Ben Ferguson
Damn it, I love it. See, I set you up perfect for that answer. So you didn't even know the answer.
- [19:04]
Unnamed Guest
To that, did you?
- [19:05]
Ben Ferguson
I, I know, but I set you up there perfectly. So what did he say about Whataburger compared to McDonald's? Was it a no brainer for him?
- [19:11]
Unnamed Guest
He was like, this is a really good hamburger. Wow, this is really great. I mean he he was, I, I would say he was a fan, as before.
- [19:19]
Ben Ferguson
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. All right, I want to ask you lastly about big news that happened and, and this is much more of a serious topic. Trump team is declaring victory after the Manhattan prosecutors push for a four year freeze on sentencing Donald Trump in his business records case. I've never heard of this before in my life. Maybe this is something that's normal. And Alvin Bragg is upset. He's like, no, no, I still want to go after Donald Trump. You got to delay it. We'll delay it. But I want him, I still want him. I still believe I'm right. I still want to put him in jail.
- [20:07]
Unnamed Guest
Well, President Trump has filed a motion to dismiss his criminal conviction. And the Manhattan prosecutor, instead of agreeing to that, has suggested to the judge, no, no, don't dismiss it. Just put it on hold for four years. Just freeze it, don't sentence him. Just leave the conviction hanging out there. And I gotta say, look, unprecedented doesn't begin to describe it. It is an absolute abuse of power. And look, you gotta understand, Alvin Bragg is an elected Democrat in Manhattan. In Manhattan, you've still got an overwhelming majority of Democrats, many of whom hate Donald Trump's guts. And so for Alvin Bragg, even though politically, nationally, the persecution and lawfare of Donald Trump, I think, actually played a significant factor in his winning. And that was a point I made to him on the flight, is that I said, we talked quite a bit about all the cases and everything he's endured. And I said, look, ironically, the more they went after you, the more I think it helped you. And if it had been just one indictment, it might have been more harmful. But there were so many that it became obvious to anyone that this was just a persecution. This was a, a political witch hunt. This was a partisan effort to go after someone because they were terrified that what would happen is what in fact did happen, that the American people would vote to reelect him. And I think, as I said, it ended up boosting him significantly in the polls. Well, even though it, I think, was harmful to Democrats nationally in Manhattan, I suspect it's quite helpful to Alvin Bragg because there are a lot of partisans who hate Trump. And I gotta say, I am very hopeful, you know, that this will be thrown out. The judge, Juan Merchan, has demonstrated, I think, a Lot of bias. He is a partisan Democrat as well. It'll be interesting to see what he does because I think if he agrees with the prosecutor, if he says, okay, we're going to just put this on ice for four years, I think that will prompt an appeal. It will probably prompt what's called a writ of mandamus to, to an appellate court to order either the case dismissed or to order him to rule. Because what Alvin Bragg wants to do is he wants to run for reelection saying, I prosecuted Donald Trump, I got a conviction of Donald Trump, and to use it, number one, for his political advantage. Number two, he wants to avoid an appellate reversal. So he wants four years of the appellate courts not examining the many and the rampant legal errors in his rulings. But number three, he wants to use this to threaten the President to have it hang over. And this guy's enough of a zealot that, I mean, he's literally talking about, okay, four plus years from now, when he's done with being president, he's 82 years old, Alvin Bragg wants to put him in jail like it, just to be there to threaten the President every day. And by the way, number four, he wants CNN and MSNBC and all of the corporate media to refer to him as a convicted felon over and over and over again. And if the case is thrown out, that becomes a lot more problematic. I do not believe Alvin Bragg will succeed in this either. The trial judge will say, look, this is not tenable. You can't, you can't have a jury verdict and then just free sentencing for four years. Or if not, I think we will see an appellate court step in and say that this is inconsistent with New York law and it is inconsistent with the Constitution. I'm very hopeful that's what will happen.
- [23:52]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, finally, I want to hit something else that is. I have to admit, I am enjoying this, watching the liberal media meltdown. The View had an all time meltdown about Donald Trump's win. Joy Behar on the View said this to the audience. Take a listen.
- [24:10]
Joy Behar
You know what's in the air? Whoopi? Trumpism. We lost the election. Wait a minute. We lost the election. We're miserable. Half of this country is miserable. And let's just tell the truth. We hate that he won. We hate it.
- [24:28]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, I know we're all like Nazis and I know that we're all deplorables and I know that we're all floating garbage, but you would think they would have learned from losing an election and clearly they're not Look, I gotta.
- [24:42]
Unnamed Political Commentator
Say, if Joy Behar is crying on TV and is miserable and is unhappy, that's a good day for America because her radical and extreme ideas, that they're hurting the country. And you know, that may be the most honest thing she's ever said on the View because she is a hard leftist. And notice she's learned nothing. She's listened to nothing. There's no part, nobody on that show has stopped to say, wait, why did the American people overwhelmingly reject our disastrous policy agenda? They're not asking that. They're just mad at what they view as the idiot voters. And listen, that's an arrogance that we see in elected Democrats. It's an arrogance we see throughout the corporate media. And I think it's going to fuel their doubling down and getting, if anything, even more extreme.
- [25:38]
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.